EssentialTension

[size=4]That looks just like a normal Gretsch [font=Arial,sans-serif]Jet Baritone G5265, which although it is called a baritone is commonly tuned E-E and comes that way from the factory.[/font][/size] It's the Gretsch version of a Bass VI. No reference either to whatever JD has supposedly done to it.

'Rolled fingerboard' usually means that the square edges of the finger/fretboard have been rolled so that they have the curvature of an old and used instrument rather than a new freshly cut one which would be squarer - it's a kind of good relicing. But maybe what was meant in this case was the slab versus veneer above.

[quote name='Cosmo Valdemar' timestamp='1397476541' post='2424216'] I'm endlessly fascinated by these basses. Something I'm not sure of re: the neck - what is a rolled fingerboard, and how does it differ to slab-cut? [/quote] Slab board on the left, veneer on the right. I've no idea if slab '66s were slab boards:

I don't understand why all those who are so unhappy with the Basschat position on this matter don't set up their own website for the sale of supposed Rickenbackers. They could run it as they see fit with no reference to Ped, Kiwi, the ISP etc., and then deal with John Hall themselves. Sorted, and with everybody happy.

[quote name='JellyKnees' timestamp='1397476581' post='2424218'] I'm glad to hear you have nothing against creativity though [/quote] To be honest, sometimes I do.

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1397475845' post='2424196'] I think it depends very much on the band.... [/quote] This. Not all so-called 'originals' bands are the same - some of them are not very original for a start - and there is more than one way of playing so-called 'covers'.

[quote name='flyfisher' timestamp='1397475104' post='2424181'] If you play in an originals band and are told exactly what bassline to play then I'd agree, because there would be no thinking involved in either case. But to my mind, the difference is usually that you get to invent the bassline, it's YOUR creation, not someone else's. It's the difference between reading a book or writing a book. It's creative rather than just reproduction. [/quote] I apologize for being an argumentative git but ... Rather than 'no thinking involved', when I was in a so-called 'originals' band where I was told exactly what to play (because all the parts were written) I had to think a great deal in order to play things I would not have naturally played. I learned more playing in that band than I had from any band I had played in previously. As for creativity, while I have nothing against it as such, I'd say that it is often extremely overrated. Better to read a good book than write a rubbish one.

[quote name='EssentialTension' timestamp='1397469172' post='2424109'] I've never understood this claimed distinction between playing covers and playing originals. I just like music. [/quote] [quote name='JellyKnees' timestamp='1397471678' post='2424137'] You see no absolutely difference between playing a line someone else wrote 40 years ago and a line that you came up with yourself? Really? I'm not claiming one thing is inherently 'better' than the other by the way. [/quote]I That's not what I said, read it again. But if only life were as simple as your response. I don't understand the claimed distinction, in this way: Let's imagine my band is playing a song written by Jimmy Cox in 1923. It's called [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobody_Knows_You_When_You%27re_Down_and_Out"]Nobody Knows You[/url]. This song has been recorded I don't know how may times and has been played in live situations even more times with a mighty variety of arrangements and instrumentations. Our live version is vocal, backing vocal, acoustic guitar, electric piano, upright bass, drums. Our recorded version also features electric lap steel guitar. We play it our way with our arrangement but the melody and lyrics are Jimmy Cox and even those have been tempered by the decades. Now, were we influenced by other versions? I expect so because I, for one, have been listening to that song in one arrangement or another for close on fifty years. Now let's imagine my band's singer writes a song, i.e. a set of words with a melody. I'll put a bass line to his melody just as I did to the Jimmy Cox song. As regards either song there may be some discussion as to whether what I am doing works effectively - similarly for the other players - but either way I am playing someone else's song and yet in both cases I have my own bassline (subject to the views of the rest of the band). As for playing a line 'someone else wrote 40 years ago', I would agree that those can sometimes be distinguished from 'a line that you came up with yourself' in that if it's a better line - especially in the sense of the bass line having become a clear characteristic of the song (alongside its lyrics and melody) - then I would definitely play it and be very pleased to do so. However, even in such a case, if the band were wholly rearranging the song then while some change to the bassline could well be warranted, it might still not be essential: [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EPwRdVg5Ug[/media] But either way, very good luck and lots of fun to the OP whatever you are playing.

I've never understood this claimed distinction between playing covers and playing originals. I just like music.

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1397123978' post='2420832'] If it was just all about the music CDs and records would come in plain white sleeves with the artist name and song titles in some anonymous font. Live performances would be conducted with an opaque curtain separating the performers from the audience. [/quote] ... and all the bands would have to be called Band 1, Band 2, Band 3, etc

[quote name='hubrad' timestamp='1397200854' post='2421650'] As Steve Bailey said, you don't have to wobble and slide on EVERY note!.... [/quote] Correct, in fact you don't have to wobble and slide on any notes until you can commonly hit the intonation or at least be very close. Then put the occasional wobble or slide in place.

Also, my son has La Bella flats on a US standard P bass. No problem.

I need to get one of these.

[quote name='Billy Apple' timestamp='1397206694' post='2421710'] Easy, these ones (from Allparts).... [IMG]http://i.imgur.com/yafHbrG.jpg[/IMG] [/quote] You took a chance with those.

I've used GHS and other flats on P basses for years and never had any problem. GHS flats are not really high tension anyway so if a MIM couldn't handle them I would say there was something wrong with the bass. Precisionswere factory fitted with high tension Fender flats til the mid 70s.

I'm in two bands. In one I never play fretless, while in the other I almost always play upright or fretless. You'll have to decide what suits you.

[quote name='steviebee74' timestamp='1397169907' post='2421548'] However, I've been wondering if I can change between flats and rounds of the same gauges without needing any adjustment. [/quote] 'Same gauge' means nothing if the strings are of a different make with a different construction.

[quote name='PeteFromCorby' timestamp='1397139993' post='2421083'] ...The notes going across strings are not so easy because the have an apparent hap-hazard order... [/quote] It's only 'apparently hap-hazard' if you haven't learned the notes and their relationships.

I'd imagined it as: G |------------------------------------------------------ D |--------------------10-------------------------------- A |--2-7--10-7-10------2-7--10-7-10--------------- E |-----------------------------------------8-------------

Perhaps the bass needs to go up rather than elbow go down. Perhaps the tilt of the bass needs to change - less horizontal, lift the headstock.

[quote name='JapanAxe' timestamp='1396640293' post='2416043'] Possibly a bit more to it than that. Tension is mainly carried by the core, so a narrower core with chunkier windings can have the same mass as, but less tension than, a string of the same external gauge. [/quote] If the mass is the same then the construction of the string makes no difference at all to tension which is fixed by length. pitch and string mass per unit length. Different constructions do make a difference to tension if the mass is different. However, even when the mass is the same there can be differences in compliance (sometimes called elasticity) : [url="http://liutaiomottola.com/myth/perception.htm"]http://liutaiomottola.com/myth/perception.htm[/url]

Thomastik-Infeld Jazz Flats or Jazz Rounds are both low tension.

Definitely like the fretless neck on that body.

[quote name='ead' timestamp='1396296109' post='2412066'] For plebs like me that don't have a smartphone, let alone an iphone could these files be converted to something like a jpeg please? [/quote] You need to save them and rename them from .ipb to .pdf then they will open.