thodrik

Being in the EU it is fairly easy to source (ie buy) most kind of amps. Being in Scotland though, I don't see many of the boutique brands like Bergantino, Genz Benz or even much EBS stuff. Lots of Ashdown, Ampeg, Hartke, second hand Trace Elliot. Fair amount of Aguilar too.

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1377085262' post='2183097'] IMO the usual arguments for a bolt-on neck come over as a solution is search of a problem. I've never seen a bass or guitar with a neck damaged so badly that repair by a good luthier wasn't an option, that didn't also have extensive and often worse damage to the body. [/quote] I have seen some messed up necks with neck warp. It isn't exactly a mythical situation. You might also have the situation where the body is wrecked but the neck is fine (ie a guitar who throws a guitar in the air and it lands body first). Or you want to try something like a Fenderbird or switching the neck for something else (Precision neck of Jazz body etc). With a set neck as well, changing the neck angle is a complicated process, while the certain models of Gibsons with set necks have been known to be fragile (not factual, but it is a perception). All that leads me to personally consider bolt-ons to offer the least amount of hassle, although I don't really think there should be inherent advantages on one design or the other on a well-constructed bass.

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1377084199' post='2183087'] What's wrong with a set neck? [/quote] Nothing really. If I am paying for a £4000 boutique EB3 though I think I would want a neck-through design just for the sake of it. Generally I prefer bolt-on construction though as if something goes wrong with the neck, you can just replace it.

[quote name='GrammeFriday' timestamp='1377082153' post='2183036'] But on reflection, there's probably no need for Lull to do a Stingray anyway - what Lull is trying to do (as he says in the quote above) is improve on the J and P designs in subtle but clever ways, and thus offer the buyer a 'great pre-CBS' sound without having to pay £10,000 for a good (i.e. playable) example of the real thing. This is also the reason why he is now doing Thunderbirds, as mentioned by thodrik above. Hey presto, no more T-bird neck dive! But with Stingrays, in contrast, there is nothing really much to improve on. Never mind what people say about Pre-Ernie Ball MM, the quality of EBMMs is amazingly good and amazingly consistent for the price, IMO, so there is no need for a Lull-type builder to step in here. ... Unless he could figure out a way to deliver the Stingray sound whilst keeping the bass at Mike Lull weights (i.e. well below 4kg). If he could do that, I might even consider trading in my beloved Stingray, which has Death Star levels of sonic power, but which weighs a friggin ton! (Not a trivial issue for me as a chronic back pain sufferer!) [/quote] I really think there is a lot more scope in terms of improving the designs of Gibson basses compared to Fenders. With Fenders all you need to do is improve the bridge and achieve consistency in production. With my Gibson EB3 for example you have neck drive, excessive weight, poorly thought out bridge system, set neck construction, tone pots which act as on/off switches rather than a gradual shift, unbalanced pick ups where the mudbucker generally dominates, pick up selections which make no difference regardless of the setting. If you are reading this Mr Lull please get started!

[quote name='GrammeFriday' timestamp='1377076741' post='2182921'] Interesting quote from Mike Lull, who many folks say makes the best 'Fender 2.0' basses, on what he is trying to achieve as a boutique bass builder: "Bottom line, I’m a Fender guy. I have owned hundreds of basses. In the mid-seventies I collected everything. The prices back then made these things affordable. As a pro player, for me there is nothing better than a great pre-CBS Precision or Jazz Bass. There is no better bass to record or play live with. If you could compile a list of all the recordings made with these basses, it would be staggering. I wanted to take all the goodness, along with all the idiosyncrasies, and build a better bass. Leo was a genius, but the basses were built to a price point. I want my basses to sound as good but play better and be more consistent." A Lull PJ5 for me, please! [/quote] I prefer the look of his boutique Gibson Thunderbirds myself. Nobody else is really doing them.

Its not a bass but I have an American Deluxe Fender Toronado. I've not seen too many of them about to be honest (a couple of the Mexican ones with racing stripes though). Should be a few out there I would guess.. I don't see many of those Fender 'Boner' Jazzes about, although there is perhaps a reason for that.

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1377015396' post='2182255'] I always make a point of bringing something weird to the first rehearsal. If the other musicians don't like it then it's obviously not the band for me. I find it a good way to weed out dull bands who won't have any idea of visual presentation and stagecraft. [/quote] Interesting idea. I quite like that despite it being the complete opposite of my own approach. Although my own decision to take a Precision is usually out of waryness of other peoples ideas on visual presentation and stagecraft (ie, everything must look retro). Essentially I just use the Precision as a blank canvas and take it from there. I suppose in a way if I went to rehearsal and was told that a Precision is 'too boring' I'd know that it wasn't the right band for me, even though I know I could bring a modern five string if I wanted to.

I think that a lot of it is down to practice. A lot of funk bassists play light/medium gauge stainless steel strings (40-95 or 45-100/105). If you are playing 80s metal in standard tuning, the same set should be fine. Steve Harris generally uses a 50-110 set of flatwounds though, which provide a different sound altogether. Lighter gauge strings have less tension than larger strings tuned to the same pitch.

[quote name='chris_b' timestamp='1377013827' post='2182232'] This isn't confined to Fenders. Producers really can listen with their eyes! I was on a recording session and used my Lakland on day 1, then as the day was scrapped due to a technical problem, I brought the Wal to day 2 and even though they EQ'ed both basses to pretty much the same sound, everyone agreed the Wal sounded better! IMO, a little less EQ and it really would have sounded better. [/quote] Yeah, it does happen sometimes. I have seen sound engineers get into giddy levels of excitement when a fellow bassist took out a Warwick Thumb at a gig.

Lots of people, including many guitarists, sound engineers, music producers, listen with their eyes. They see a Fender design and immediately think 'I know how to make that sound good' compared to the 'what will that sound like?' uncertainly of a non-Fender design (in my case a Vigier). Some are even of the opinion that anything that doesn't look like a Fender isn't really a proper bass. The existence of such a stigma is cited by Roger Sadowsky as one the main reasons he stuck to Fender designs. In the current Black Keys, Graveyard retro scene, you are pretty limited in terms of what you can use before you are considered to be using the 'wrong' bass (essentially anything that isn't a Fender, Rickenbacker or Gibson). It is complete rubbish but I have faced it enough myself to the point that I will always bring a Precision to my first rehearsal with a band and just take it from there.

This is so much fun. I tried to the make the ugliest bass possible, but ended up getting one that I actually liked. [attachment=141814:Disco bass.jpg]

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1376746286' post='2178618'] I agree but a lot of crap is spoken about him not using them as much as other basses but even when recording with other basses he always made them sound like stingrays anyway, his most iconic era was filmed with him playing them and that's what counts to most fans of anything. I have seen people suggest that he never played rays until the blood sugar sex magik era, I normally point them to the album cover of the first album from 1984! Which to bring us back to the topic of graphite is actually a cutlass with a modulus neck so he had the modulus connection from day one I like flea and am presumed a fanboy because of my rays but I got into them because of John Deacon actually. Ironically I hear flea records mostly with an SR5 on the last few albums but I have never seen him with one live? [/quote] Pretty much my experience. For the record I love Flea. He has always been chopping and changing basses for records, but he was using the Stingray live quite a lot, and I think in a few videos too, right up until he got the Modulus Flea bass, which aesthetically looks a bit like a Ray anyway. Since Flea used to customise his basses with stickers and custom paint jobs, to the uninitiated it would look like a Stingray anyway. I didn't buy the old album, but I am pretty sure that Stadium Arcadium was all done on 60s Jazz bass. That is the one album where to me the bass doesn't sound like it could be a Stingray. One Hot Minute (Alembic), Blood Sugar (mostly a Wal), Freaky Styley and Mothers Milk (Spectors I think) all sound like they could have been played on a Stingray!

Lots of bubble wrap, a sturdy box, hope for the best. I was sent a Trace Elliot V6 from the Netherlands. Worked perfectly right out of the box. Wrapping the valves individually can help too.

[quote name='mart3442' timestamp='1376703653' post='2178327'] It wasn't a new Bass, it was a 12 month old demo model. [/quote] I know.I meant 'new' as compared to an old Fender. [quote name='Dingus' timestamp='1376675444' post='2177945'] You would have thought that the Flea association would have kept them going , but as I alluded to earlier in this thread , people aspiring to your basses doesn't earn you a penny as a builder . It's only the people who become customers and actually hand over their cash that make any real difference . Legions of teenage slap bass - playing Flea -wannabes who aspire to a Modulus as the ultimate obviously didn't translate into overwhelming sales figures for the brand as a whole . [/quote] My view is that Flea fanboys were never aware that he played a Modulus, as there is has always been an assumption that Flea plays a Stingray. Stingrays are more prevalent in the market, so Flea fans bought Stingrays (I've seen plenty over the years!)

£500 for the head and cab is a good deal. You can always add extra warmth and grit through a pedal or two. I would make an effort to try an Ashdown to see if you prefer it. Personally I prefer Trace Elliot amps but that is just after years of using them. I do like the Ashdowns as well. To be honest you can't go wrong either way.

Great heads. However I think that the Ashdown would give a warmer, deeper sound with potential for a bit of dirt. Trace Elliot, with the pre-set on anyway, is a naturally cleaner sounding amp.

My found that when using a active bass , the bass fuzz I obtained was by using a valve preamp pedal (English Muff'n/EBS Valvedrive/Blackstar Distx) or driving the hell out of a valve amp. That or buy a 'grit' rather than fuzz pedal (Catalinbread SFT, Aguilar Agro) if you don't want to go down the impedance buffer issue. That or just using a passive bass!

When using the 'drop D varient' of any tuning, I just turn my tuner on and tune down. The whole process takes about 10 seconds and is cheaper than an extender, which admittedly I would actually quite like to have!

Play them all. Buy the one you like best. If on the other hand you won't get the opportunity to play them all, here is my take. I bought a Sadowsky Metro and have never regretted it. Some people though don't like them too much. In my experience they tend to have a very clean sound that some people find a bit 'generic' or characterless compared to a bass which may have more character/dead spots/fret buzz. The necks on the Metro models are very plain looking as well (especially the maple fingerboards) and lack the figured detail of some basses at a similar price point. Fit and finish is generally outstanding though and if you like the sound and playability though, any 'issues' disappear. I really like Sandbergs as well. I think that they still have Glockenklang preamps which I find a bit more subtle aand uncoloured than the Sadowsky preamp. I'm not convinced of the 'relic' look of some of the basses, though that is personal taste. I'd love to try a Mayones as the 24 fret models look really nice. I have never personally been convinced by active Fender preamps compared to Sandberg, Sadowsky etc. I still love Fenders though and the new American Vintage series are really lovely looking.

I think that they are just the standard Rotosound roundwound strings like the bottom four strings of a five string set. It would probably need some work on the nut just so the strings could fit. You could also try the DR DDTs, which are 65 85 102 125, though I found them to be just a bit expensive.

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1376412610' post='2173623'] I love my Rays but I also know what a cock SB can be in these situations, I just dont feel the need to defend him like I would if I knew him personally I suppose but then again this is not a tiny scuff or a slightly larger than hoped for neck pocket, it is a pile of donkey poop [/quote] Its funny that my first thought when reading the JC reply was Sterling Ball must have phoned to give JC some friendly advice on how to deal with 'forum stuff'. We can't expect everybody to act live a saint at all times. However online rants, even if they are prompted by overwork, stress or unwarranted attacks, generally won't help a businessman/woman with their business.

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1376411786' post='2173605'] Unfortunatley the Fanbois of products like this get wrapped up on a personal level because understandably they are often run by one guy or a small family business, if those same people had an amp delivered for £3000 and it was faulty they would be on here in a flash if they were refused a refund from a big corporate company. [/quote] I wonder how quickly it would have taken Larry Hartke to solve such a problem...

[quote name='Dingus' timestamp='1376408925' post='2173533'] Well , as the saying goes , you pay your money and you takes your choice . If it had been me who had bought the bass , I wouldn't have taken to a public forum to air my grievances , so I'm not so sure the buyer "had " to do any such thing . He did , he got what he wanted , and JC got a good kicking , but I'm not sure that justice has really been served , and that is what I find distasteful . [/quote] I understand your point to a certain extent. Some people are happy to business under those conditions. I certainly wouldn't. However the buyer had apparently attempted to contact JC to get a resolution to the issue but to no avail. Only then did he post anything on a public forum, which he did without making any scandalous accusations towards AC or JC personally. What other recourse did he reasonably have, other than contact him again and again? Although some Talkbass posters went way too far in their criticisms, JC still had an opportunity to resolve the situation. Instead he delivered a poorly worded, accusatory response. Any 'kicking' that JC then received was pretty much of his own doing.

[quote name='Dingus' timestamp='1376407419' post='2173509'] If I fancied an AC bass , this saga wouldn't deter me from ordering one in the slightest . [/quote] It would deter me. There are plenty of other boutique Fender bass makers. None of them are particularly unique in terms of design, so if I am going to spend loads of money on an instrument that I haven't seen or played, then brilliant customer service and the option of returning the bass if it was a dud would be pretty significant factors in determining my choice. Having to resort to an ugly public forum mudslinging match in order to reach a resolution to any problem hardly inspires much confidence, no matter how brilliant the majority of the basses are.