Cliff Edge

I bought a new Fender P bass around 1972 which had the same alignment problem. It went back for a replacement. The shop confirmed it wasn’t the only one they’d had. Pleased to say my 72 Jazz bought some 10 years later is still in fine shape. Except for all the bits that I’ve had to replace over the years when they failed due to being used.

Jools Holland and band last night in Hastings. God knows what the booking fee is for that lot. 18 plus people on stage at one point, plus the crew and transport. Worth the reasonable price of admission, great show but I would have turned the vocal mikes up a bit. That band is loud.

Jools Holland and band in Hastings on Friday.

Not so much the vinyl more the turntable speed. 33 and a third rpm isn’t the best for high definition reproduction.

I’ll watch the show on iPlayer as I was out last night in the company of Sandi Toksvig. No, she doesn’t know me, I was just an audience member.

I once turned up to a gig 24 hours early due to a calendar malfunction.

ZS 10’s get thumbs up from me as well. Astonishing sound for the money.

My 72 Natural finish Jazz has these marks. It also has a large red stamp NATURAL in the neck pocket. Natural custom colour code was 151 according to Fender price lists in 1973 and added $18 to the price.

Thanks, I’ll look for them.

Very interesting. 🙂

I keep meaning to revisit his books.

Absolutely none. ( Er, well, see below) When I started out the only bass player I was aware of was Jet Harris. He played a precision but I couldn’t afford one and I had no idea how good or bad they were anyway. My first was a Framus Star Bass my father bought me. It was much later that I realised some bloke in the Rolling Stones was also using one. Since then I’ve mostly used Fenders with the odd flirtation with other brands solely out of curiosity, not aware if anyone remotely famous used any of them. Confession. A couple of years ago I became aware that Carol Kaye is now using an Ibanez instead of the Precision, so I went investigating them. I bought an SR900, ok it’s not the same model but that’s not the point. It’s very nice, so thank you Carol. But I’m not selling my old Jazz.

A shout out to WD Music. A set of Gotoh replacements ordered yesterday afternoon delivered by the postman this morning. Excellent service and free delivery too.

Yes, not sure what Squire were up to with yours. Whatever it is it ain’t a good copy of the original. You should definitely not have to do what you have to make it playable. If it were mine I would have taken it back to wherever it came from.

This is the same measurement at the 19th fret on my 1973 Jazz. Any other measurements I could give are irrelevant considering the obvious difference.

Call them tuners if you like. Does anyone have a source for these, I have one with a damaged thread as shown in the image. 1 or a set would be welcome. Thanks.

Play stuff from the 60’s to now and you’ll get work. Loads of youngsters take up the bass wanting to play some form of heavy metal, doom whatever and similar because a bass player they saw on YouTube looked so “sick”. God knows where they think the gigs will be.

She’s Not There. The Zombies. Very distinctive repetitive bass line is the song’s signature.

The Guvnor, Nick Lowe in Brighton this coming Friday.

The Pirates, Johnny Kidds band, went on to a long career after Kidd died. John Gustafson played bass for part of that time. The Outlaws were created by Joe Meek to back Mike Berry, but he also used them to back other artists in his stable. Including Gene Vincent. Chas Hodges and Ritchie Blackmore just two of the notable members of the band which recorded several minor hit instrumentals.

Lord Rockingham’s XI. House band on the British TV show Oh Boy in the late 50’s. As such they backed most of the artists on the show. The band was notably made up of the cream of UK session musicians and a few jazz men including Benny Green. Many of them probably played on more than a few British pop records in the 50’s and 60’s. A one hit wonder with Hoots Mon and a few bubbling unders they lasted the 2 year run of Oh Boy.

Linda Ronstadt

I watched the Hollies documentary on Sky Arts last night. Interesting to watch Eric Haydock playing a 6 string Fender bass on most of the early records before moving to Precision shortly before quitting the band. Long Cool Woman in a Black dress is pure CCR.

Melody Maker ( I didn’t bother with the other comics) Radio Luxembourg and pirate radio. I would note the British pop stuff I liked, much of which was covers of US blues and early pop. Then I’d go down to South Harrow market where there was an excellent second hand record stall and buy the originals. I had a load of imported 45’s with big holes in the middle.

I’ve had TI Jazz Flats on my SR900. They played really nice, and I got the neck pretty much flat. But they didn’t sound as good as LaBella DTB flats which I’ve been using forever on other basses. YMMV of course.