EssentialTension

Thank you.

He uses a six-pole pickup but why not as there are many basses with six-pole pickups - Fender Musicmaster, Fender Rascal, er ... can't think of any more.

The beard is definitely out of one of his spray cans.

Therefore, I recommend an interesting bit of card which can be guaranteed to amuse oneself or a luthier or another owner when the time comes to re-shim.

Maybe some limited rock guitarists have that attitude but in jazz, soul, and other genres, flat keys including Eb are definitely much more common and any guitarist worth his or her salt would be expected to play them without question. It's only a matter of learning your chords and scales properly.

Not if buyers could be convnced that certain species of wood have magical tonal properties ... even if the emperor actually has no clothes.

I used to work in the school where To Sir With Love was filmed. Never saw Lulu though.

... and next gig on 13th January will be my first as a 66 year old.

I've played the MAC arena at Cannon Hill Park. I think it was 1976. But I've never played the macarena. I have lived briefly in the Macarena barrio of Sevilla. It's confusing.

Yes, and then they get EQ'd.

Well, let's assume a shim might make some difference to resonance (or to tone more generally). But then ask another question. What other factors will make a much greater difference than a shim, even if it made some difference? So many other factors are more relevant that a shim pales into relative insignificance. And I'd be very surprised if anyone in a blind test could accurately tell non-shimmed Fenders from shimmed Fenders or any other bolt-ons. However, as BigRedX said above, one point of the shim is to get the neck angle correct for a good string break angle at the bridge. A good break angle at the bridge might well improve resonance but it's not because there is a shim as such; it's because the neck angle and break angle are improved and so the connection between strings and body is improved. In that case we might try to claim that correct shimming on some Fender style instruments will indirectly improve resonance.

The purpose of shimming a bolt-on neck is to get an appropriate neck angle as cheaply, easily and quickly as possible. It's an early Fender production technique. Recutting pockets was not a financially sensible production technique for Fender's way of doing things. The micro-tilt neck of the 1970s was an attempt to re-engineer the idea of a shim. In my experience, there is no dramatic change to the resonance of the whole bass, nor even an undramatic change.

Stupid.

With some bands it is exactly a cacophony. But of course it needs arranging. That's the point. Not the guitar or whatever instrument noodling all over it while the rest carry on and are expected to fill the gap he left.

In my exerience, with some guitarists in some bands, it can help to encourage the guitarist, or other musicians, to stop calling it a 'solo' and to stop thinking of it as a 'solo'. The 'instrumental interlude' should involve all members of the band - it's not all about one instrument with everyone else doing as they are told.

Yes, I want to play good songs whoever wrote them. Besides which the dividing line between so-called covers and so-called originals is vague to say the least.

The Delights of Parsing the Beatles' Most Nonsensical Song

I'm not at all jealous because I have no idea who he is.

You can get used to the switch by buying a capo and putting it at fret 2 on a 34" scale bass tuned down to D-G-C-F. With the capo you now have a roughly 30" scale bass tuned E-A-D-G. After you get used to that, buy a Fender Mustang bass or similar. Story has it that the bass on Hendrix' All Along the Watchtower is Hendrix playing a Fender Mustang.

Except LIberace could actually play the piano.

Chord tones are primary

Playing in relation to scales one is perhaps more likely to think in terms of 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8. Playing in relation to chord tones one is perhaps more likely to think in terms of 1-3-5-7-9-11-13 (while of course taking account of any diminished or augmented tones in the relevant chord) and the bassist may want to outline the chord tones more than the scale tones

Not even Liberace?

Plug in and play, I don't have this thing called 'your sound'.

Always four, and a Squier Bass VI.