Boodang

My Jedson Tele bass does look similar... apart from the emg mod! Honestly can hardly be called a bass at a 24" scale. The cheapskates just put 4 strings on their guitar version and called it a bass guitar. With nylon strings and the emg it sounds quite big but plays like sh*t. Have to say tho, that as cr*p as it is, it makes you play differently with the consequence that I write a lot of interesting bass lines with it... I wouldn't part with mine!

Yep, got mine for a bit of a laugh as it's so bonkers. Worth it, as now I have a laugh everytime someone asks to borrow a bass of mine. There's the look of relief when I say of course, then a look of incredulity as I hand them the Jedson instead of the custom bass I was playing!

Yeah, Basschat the board game! With questions like 'what's the best bass guitar' and 'who's the best bass player of all time'!!

I was in a band for a while that was like a train wreck in slow motion. A reggae outfit complete with backing singers and brass. Rehearsing in London week after week, we all had high hopes as the people involved were 'connected'! Eventually though, rehearsals took on a pattern that never varied... waiting for everyone to arrive the brass section would neck red stripe, then the rest of the band would start on the weed, this would continue for hours while the singer and band leader would nicpic over arrangements and playing nuances. When it came time for the singer to do his thing he was always too far gone. In 6 months I never heard him sing a note! I still can't believe I lasted that long before moving on. For all I know they're still rehearsing.

My current method of dealing with this issue... I possess the worlds worst bass, a Jedson tele bass with a 24" scale (!), the only way it can be tuned is A,D,G,C, and intonation is impossible above the 10th fret. I hand them this bass.

Inspired by a comment in another thread where someone posted 'who would possibly turn up with a bass that bad to a session', to which I replied you would be surprised, I thought it might be fun to share some of those moments which turn into train wrecks, be it incompetent musicians, engineers, promoters, or self destructing equipment/ musicians, engineers, promoters, plus mishaps and misunderstandings. Unreliable musicians have always been a source of frustration and at times (in hindsight!) amusement. I was in a trio and we had managed to get the headline slot at a small local festival, about a thousand people and we were chuffed to be given to top slot. The pianist was a fantastic player but a bit flakey, so I made sure to pick him up early so he didn't get lost. He'd just bought a new keyboard and as we were getting ready a horrible thought struck me, had he bought a stand for the new keys (until that moment it hadn't occurred to me it was a possibility).... but apparently this had slipped his mind. With moments to go we hastily found two small boxes and he played the gig crossed legged on the stage floor. The audience thought we were a great duo but couldn't understand where the piano sounds were coming from!

TC Electronic Spectracomp.... one knob but has the benefit of toneprints, so behind the simplicity is a 3 band comp with lots of expertly tweaked presets to choose from. Oh, and it's cheap and has a small footprint.

It's always the playing that counts but we have a choice of what to play it on and thus interesting side debates like this.

Certainly true... but as well as tone it has to be playable.

Pino is going to deliver what the client wants/needs and, as good value for money as it might be, a Harley Benton is not going to be the right choice. It's a bass that's cut to the bone with too many compromises for that.

Ah, but are these tedious threads about 'I like my cheap bass, so blah blah blah', more, or less, tedious than comments about how tedious they are?!

I agree about not being able to hear a difference at a certain price point but interestingly it was more about playability for me. I was in a shop and played a Pedulla buzz, wasn't expecting much but for some reason it really gelled for me.... but the price! I had reached a point where I could afford the bass but was unwilling to do so. Now Pedulla have ceased making basses I'm regretting that decision!

You would be surprised! I've always made an effort with gear so as not to let myself or the band/session down, but occasionally you see someone turn up with a total train wreck in gear terms like it doesn't matter and somehow their talent will overcome this... not a bad idea for a 'train wreck' stories thread elsewhere.

Although not as mathematically neat, the logic is probably reversed and the £250 bass is a 100x better than the £25, and the £2500 is only 1.4x!

Possible the only parameters are how much are you willing and able to spend!

I absolutely agree but at the end of the day you're going to go out and buy a bass and there's a lot of choice and a lot of ways to spend your hard earned cash. And no matter how well you play you still want the best sound (subjective I know!) and the best playability. If you turned up to the studio for a session with a bass you loved to play but the sound sucked (I know, subjective!), the strings buzzed and the pickups were noisy... well it's not going to be very popular! But these days thankfully quality basses seem to be a lot cheaper.

Definitely the quality of finish is going to be related to cost (at least you hope so!) and usually that makes for a bass that plays better as well. But as for neck material not being relevant... well there's a lot of luthiers out there that think a big contribution to the overall sound is the neck, both in terms of construction and materials used. Given the dead spot on the 7th fret G string area of my maple jazz neck and the lack of one on my wenge/ebony 9 piece laminate Sei neck, I'm beginning to think they are not wrong!

Absolutely... if a Squier jazz is, for example, your ideal bass to play then you are going to save a lot of money. But as for quality, not value, well, there's only so much that can be achieved at the Squier level of production, even with cnc machining. The level of detail on the Sei is so much better and that makes it play and sound better. One example is the neck, and this might be the woods used as much as the construction, but the Squier has that dead spot in the 7th fret area of the G string, the Sei has no dead spots and the clarity and focus of the notes is superior. It's not that the Squier is bad, in fact it's a great jazz bass, but the Sei is definitely superior in sound and playability but it's the law of diminishing returns and it's a lot more money for a slightly better sound... but it is better.

Well, I've got a Squier Jazz, not expensive, plays very well especially since a pro setup and new pickups. I've also got a not cheap Sei custom. No amount of tinkering with the Squier is going to get it close to the Sei which has a custom asymmetric neck and fingerboard profile. Apart from the exquisite finish on the Sei which the Squier could never match at it's price point, the custom element of the neck profile and body make it fit like a glove and that's something a generic bass like the Squier is not going to achieve.

I was going to do a review on this but in reality there's not a lot to say except that it's a quality cable. Got it from Design-a-cable, it's the silver coated ofc low capacity series. Can't say I noticed any difference to my normal, non sliver coated, cables with live playing but then I'm going through a pedal board. And it's not really a stage cable, too thick and inflexible for that. Will be interesting to use in the studio though.

Good old HH! I inherited a 8 x 10 HH cab from a previous bass player when I joined a band. Thought it strange I got it for free but then after a few gigs I realised what a pain it was to move. I used to slide it into my hatch back car, after a while it deformed the back so much the door wouldn't shut. I gave it away to a bass player at a gig just so i didn't have to take it home at the end of the night. Knowing HH reputation for being indestructible it's probably still doing the rounds and ruining people's cars today.

Jedson tele bass.. probably the worse bass in the world, bar none... I should know, I have 2 of them! A 24 inch scale is not a bass, it's just a guitar with thick strings!

Westone Thunder 1a fretless. My best mate at school was a great guitarist, so I thought rather than compete with him I'd play bass instead. At the time, thinking it was a step down from guitar (I was young!) I thought, how can I make playing bass sexier?! Walked into my local shop and there was an unlined Westone fretless and I thought, that'll do the job. That was early 80s, didn't own a fretted bass until a few years ago, and definitely don't think it's a step down from guitar now. Sold the original bass but a few years ago a friend bought the exact model I first had. When he found out it was the same, he gave it to me. Plays really well, love the neck which has a flattened U shape to it. Weighs a ton tho! Like the neck so much I might transplant it onto a lighter body.

When the pedal has 'bass' in it's name it means it's the superior version.... or it could be you've walked into the wrong shop and it's fishing supplies.

Yeah, maybe I should lighten up! Slap bass noodling in music shops is a bit of a cliche. Still, not the choicest use of words.