Cosmo Valdemar

I used to own the red version, briefly. Easily the best Jazz I've ever played. Sadly mine had a terrible gap around the neck pocket so I returned it with heavy heart. I would love another one!

[quote name='scalpy' timestamp='1481118495' post='3189839'] (As an aside though my attitude to Panto is a pound earned doing that gig is the same as a pound earned playing jazz or a session or whatever and deserves as much attention. Buys my Christmas presents for another year.) [/quote] Quite right. I'd love to have a gig like that! Some quite unpleasant snobbery rearing it's head on here, completely unnecessary.

"So in conclusion, lad, your claim of enjoying the Beatles cannot be taken seriously as you are clearly too young to have 'been there' first time round."

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1481101032' post='3189633'] It's panto, not high art. Take your money and quit whining. [/quote] Wow.

[quote name='Freddy Le Cragg' timestamp='1480960043' post='3188450'] VERY METAL>>>VERY MENTALLLLLLLLL etc [/quote] That's a 4x12 isn't it?

[quote name='Rich' timestamp='1480895962' post='3187974'] This isn't mine, but mine was identical. My first decent amp, a Laney ProBass 150w 4x10 combo that my wonderful amazing parents got me for my 21st birthday. It was a marvellous amp, and served me well for many years. [/quote] My old band used to play a venue in Soho called Gossips. I used to love playing there as they had one of these as backline. Awesome amp!

Since finding my Rolls Tiny Crossover box - which I had completely forgotten about - I've been thinking about doing a bit of frequency-splitting experimentation. I've always been intrigued by the bi-amping associated with Entwistle and Squire and the mix of tones you could achieve. I'm currently running a Tech 21 Leeds into the effects return of my Ashdown Mag amp, effectively using the Ashdown purely for the power. My plan is to run the bass in to the Rolls, split the signal into two separate Leeds, then run both signals into a Boss LS-2 and then into the Ashdown as before. Logically giving an approximation of bi-amping but with only one amp. What I'm worried about - will this overload the amp in any way, or is it safe to do? For those unfamiliar with the Rolls: http://www.rolls.com/product.php?pid=SX21

[quote name='overdriver' timestamp='1480635733' post='3186095'] Just thought I'd share a pic of my rare birds Top is a VERY early L2 - used at Live Aid Next down is a Transtrem - equipped XL2TA Last is my XL2 in an unusual colour, painted pink at the factory I keep trying different basses but always go back to Steinbergers [/quote] Live Aid?! Do tell!

My local has several copies of the late Scott Weiland's autobiography, the ironically titled "Not Dead and Not For Sale".

[quote name='Bassassin' timestamp='1480595915' post='3185687'] 1991 catalogue: I think it's passive. Controls are described as vol, tone, balance, pickups are not described as active, whereas they are in the specs of the others. I had the identical SR800 to the one pictured above the SR600, it was definitely active! [/quote] Well, I've learnt something today.

I don't know the exact model but I've never been aware of any passive Soundgears.

[quote name='Meddle' timestamp='1480368258' post='3183845'] I agree with a lot of this. I spoke to John Kallas on Talkbass about Slabs once. He claimed that the wiring was a normal P-bass wiring scheme and that the pickups were stock as well. To quote John Entwistle: "There is something different about the sound of these Precisions…I’ve tracked it down to the pickups and tone circuit — the sound is much raunchier and gutsy and has a hint of distortion when the volume is flat out.” I admire John as a bassist and musician, but I don't think he was right in this instance. There is no source of distortion within a Precision circuit as nothing is clipping. [/quote] In my youthful naivety I always took JE's comments about the Slab as gospel but it does seem highly unlikely that that pickup and circuit is reponsible for the unique tone. Which brings us back to the neck. I'll have to try and cobble together some recordings of my Yamaha to see what everyone thinks. It's definitely got something extra going on.

[quote name='The-Ox' timestamp='1480353682' post='3183636'] yeah, its an interesting one indeed! Then again, going back to IoW, take the My Generation performance, if someone told you that was a slab, you'd believe it. The solo sounds near identical to Leeds (My Generation starts at 1:28:48): [url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVf5wW5J_uA"]https://www.youtube....h?v=aVf5wW5J_uA[/url] And this was a stock Precision with rosewood neck. The constants here are John himself and the Hiwatts. Perhaps the slab sound is there within the bass, but most of it is John? [/quote] Now, that sounds very different to me from the Leeds recording, both in terms of the bass itself and the sound of the amps. IOW sounds like a Precision to me, with a lot of emphasis on the bass side of the rig, resulting in an almost farting tone. Leeds sounds razor sharp and precise with a much cleaner low end, and with the distinctive extra 'something' of the Slab (albeit Frankenstein). Of course there are so many other variables in play, all we can do is trust our ears in situations like this. That said, in the footage of Monterey JE is playing a Slab through rented Vox amps, giving a very odd sound most unlike the normal Who roar (Townshend sounds particularly weedy) - however the tone of the Slab is still very apparent.

[quote name='The-Ox' timestamp='1480351338' post='3183608'] With my above comment, I was trying to explain John's slab sound in particular. I get what you mean that the overdrive of the amp has little to do with the instrument, but then again when we listen to the slabs, they're through these amps, so it does affect the tone we're hearing? Its been a while since I played it, but I got just as much of the slab bark from the original as I did from the reissue I played from what I remember, I'll try and play it again soon and report back. I still believe it really depends how you play, that is the overriding factor in my opinion. Live at Leeds is cited a lot on this thread for the slab tone as its made out of slab parts, but the body itself was an Alder P. Listen to this (I'm sure you guys have) live at the Marquee is 1967, this is an actual slab played through a Marshall [url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdRs1gKpeGg"]https://www.youtube....h?v=YdRs1gKpeGg[/url] This is his Frankenstein played through Hiwatts: [url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgfiW5XcOUw"]https://www.youtube....h?v=DgfiW5XcOUw[/url] Its mainly the player. Which then had me thinking - we're attributing John's playing to the slab sound here, but could others at the time get that sound? If not (which I would not be surprised if they couldn't) then again its the player. I'll try out the original again, but putting this player rhetoric that I'm banging on about aside, I think the electronics must be different. Either in the bass, or its just his amps. Otherwise any old maple capped neck Precision would do the job [/quote] I think one of the problems we have when discussing the Slab tone is that there is very little recorded evidence to hand - most of it comes courtesy of JE and then it is quite overdriven. We have to separate how much of the tone is coming from the bass from what the amp is responsible for. From the two clips you posted, they both sound like Slabs but through different amps. Admittedly one is Frankenstein, which to me discounts the importance of the slab-style body. I think we can discount JE's playing style as being responsible for the tone as there's recorded evidence of him playing a standard Precision and it sounds different. As we know, Frankenstein was cobbled together from various parts and stil retained that tone, and the only Slab parts used were the neck and the electronics, so...

[quote name='The-Ox' timestamp='1480344191' post='3183532'] having played John's 66 Slab and remakes, I'm not so sure that the tone can be put down to just the neck. I think at the end of the day it comes down to the player. You have to remember John was playing at a volume we'll never play and was really pushing the Hiwatts to the limit - the distortion he got with the slab he could get with any Precision given his equipment and general skill level. [/quote] Maybe there's more to it than just the neck, but I don't think volume or choice of amp has any bearing on the real discussion here. The overdrive from the Hiwatt (or Marshall, or Vox) has little to do with the inherent tone of the instrument - when you played the original Slab and noticed the difference in tone, was that at Entwistle volume?

[quote name='Meddle' timestamp='1480199179' post='3182527'] I think the Isle of Wight gig was maybe recorded oddly. There are times when Roger Daltrey is standing closer to Entwistle's amps and you can hear his treble signal bleeding into the vocal mics. It is possible that only the bass amp in his bi-amp rig was committed to tape for whatever reason. The second thought I've had is that Entwistle might have taken that black Precision bass along at the last minute, as we don't see it again onstage. It might not have been setup to his exacting low-action specifications. I do sometimes wonder if the 'Slab tone' is actually a conglomeration of newly introduced roundwound strings on a P bass, with the foam mute removed and the action lowered. This is combined with newly invented 100 watt amplifiers setup in a newly invented bi-amp setup. If, prior to that, the only P bass tone committed to tape was that created with stiff flatwound strings, foam mutes, high action and an Ampeg B15 rumbling away. I think that maybe a few different things happened to converge in one place, right at the time that the first Slabs hit the UK market. I think the following Move clip has a Slab-like grind to the bass tone, but it looks like a normal P bass. [media]http://youtu.be/ELRHD4UCo74[/media] [/quote] Although the balance is a bit different to Live at Leeds - IOW seems to have the bassier side more prominent, whereas Leeds is all about the treble - I don't think the IOW recording is defective in any way. The treble is side is still clearly there, as heard on the My Generation solo and the into to 1921 for example. It's just not as prominent as it is at Leeds. Also, the IOW recording as a whole sounds less polished and more raw. another argument is that JE would never have allowed the IOW set to be released had his bass not been recorded properly! As mentioned before, the black P bass was used because it matched the skeleton suit - nothing more. As for the Move clip, the main similarity I can hear is that the bass is being played through - presumably - a guitar amp. However it sounds to me like flatwounds, and very much a 'standard' Precision. I don't think I've mentioned it before on here but a few months ago I got hold of an old Yamaha Attitude bass - the humble mono version from the 90s. To my absolute delight it seems to have that distinctive extra growl to the tone usually attributed to the Slabs. Now, appearances aside, my Attitude is very much a Precision, but with one difference - a maple-capped neck. As we know this is one of the fabled Slab 'oddities' that could have contributed to the tone. On my experience with the Attitude, I honestly think this could be the key to the tone. I'm now itching to get my hands on a Roger Waters sig as this also has a maple-capped neck. If my logic is correct this [i]should[/i] be able to pull of a similar trick - once the pickup had been changed of course. [quote name='EliasMooseblaster' timestamp='1480331473' post='3183340'] This has been mentioned a couple of times now, and has got me wondering...was he actually bi-amping this early? I am fully prepared to stand corrected, but I thought he only started splitting the signal when he moved over to Sunn amps and more exotic basses. [/quote] Although JE's rig became more complicated in later years with the stereo Alembics and frequency splitting etc, his setup at the time of Leeds/IOW was to run two stacks, one clean(ish) and bassy, the other driven and trebly, with the bass running to both.

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1480066993' post='3181366'] If you are on a desert island by yourself it doesn't matter what tone you have. They all work. [/quote] That's the spirit!

Cool pic. You wouldn't catch me up there though!

The shape of the headstock is completely wrong to boot. Is this on Ebay, or a local sale? I'd hate to think of someone else getting ripped off.

Top chap, Lee. Very down to earth. We had a nice chat in the gents at the LBGS a few years back. He was disappointed at having to miss Roger Glover. [quote name='TrevorR' timestamp='1479072598' post='3173755'] Factoid... for the new ELO line up Jeff Lynne basically took all of Take That's touring band and added strings. [/quote] That's a factlet 😉

[quote name='Delberthot' timestamp='1478819723' post='3171979'] I'm always looking for Cheap Trick to come back [/quote] I'd love to see Cheap Trick.