thodrik

Pawn shop in Glasgow has what looks to be a heavily modified EBO or EB3 that has had a precision pick up inserted between the front and back pickup. It looks really really cool!

Sounds like you are approaching the instrument in a very technical way, almost to the point that you are not having fun anymore. If you have learned a lot of scales and theory, then getting lessons for that and working on playing fast is almost needless if you are struggling with basic time signatures and struggling to come up parts you like. Have you tried playing along to bands you like? I learned a lot just by listening to songs and trying to play along to the band and try to copy the basslines? Start with fairly easy songs that aren't technically difficult, but just try to keep time and lock in with the drummer. Over time you will just naturally pick up on the role the bass can play in a band and pick up ideas on what to play in certain chord progressions. Techniques such as tapping, slapping and 'playing really fast' can be learned afterwards. It might be helpful get a couple of theory lessons, just to get a feel of melody and harmony and how songs and basslines can be written and adapted depending on what the other members of the band are doing. Playing in a three piece band is actually a good thing, as it really allows you to play off the drummer and guitarist and try out interesting ideas. Many bassists in pop, rock and blues bands will never slap, tap or use double thumb technique in a band context, even if they have the techincal ability to do so.

Personally I have never needed anything more than 300 solid state/hybrid watts (Trace Elliot 300 watts mind), especially if it is going through an 8x10/4x12 cab. This applies even when I was playing with two full Marshall guitar stacks. On point of the topic, a Mesa 4x12 should have no problem coping with the power of a 300 watt valve amp. I don't have much proof in technical sense (I am an idiot in these things) but I have seen lots of bands playing with these set ups over the years: 300 watt valve amp 8x10/4x12 cabinet. However if you want a really loud clean sound at huge volume levels, I'm not sure whether there is much advantage in having an all tube amp. It might be the Matamp fan in me, but the benefit in having a valve amp is pushing it to get some nice overdrive. Have you considered a hybrid solid state/valve amp like the Mesa bass amps? The M9 does 900 watts, which sound ridiculous but is probably needed if the guitarist is playing a Dual Rec or something.

I really like the outro. Its not as bad a song as I thought it was when I first heard it. Must say I won't miss the Frusciante overly layered falsetto vocals on every bloody song, but they will miss his talents as a songwriter and guitarist. I can't really make any judgements on the new guitarist as the guitar doesn't really feature much in the song. All I can really take from this video is that Flea is using his own bass and is not using Gallien Krueger anymore, though I'm guessing that most of the recording was probably done to a DI and louds of plug ins rather than using the amp. The bass sounded like a bass played by Flea, which it was. Also Flea and Kiedis seem to be in great shape for 48 year old men. (Though they are 48 year old multi-millionaires living in California, which could perhaps help.)

EB strings are great strings for the money. Usually go for the hybrids myself if I go down that route.

[quote name='clauster' post='1339988' date='Aug 14 2011, 08:16 PM']£800, used, home use? I'd say you can pick any two out of the above three criteria. £800 and used will buy you a lot of gig-able combo: Mark Bass, TC Electronic, Eden, Maybe a Mesa Walkabout, but IMO you won't get the best out of any of these at low volume. Used and home use: Line 6 110, Roland Cube, smaller Ashdown combos, little Eden Combos, Ampeg Combos. Lots of change from £800. £800 and home use: Ashdown Little Bastard and one of the matching cabs? Still bloody loud though[/quote] Just from experience, the Mesa Walkabout is pretty rubbish for home practice (unless you live in a detached house in the middle of nowhere (me in Orkney). The point where it opens up properly is also the point where the neighbours from upstairs and downstairs start banging on the roof/floor (me in Glasgow)! The advice above is pretty good. Anything beyond 100 watt is going to be overkill for home recording.

[quote name='Chris2112' post='1339759' date='Aug 14 2011, 04:51 PM']I wish they would make the Slapper bass again! [/quote] Is that a graphite/carbon-based neck? That is pretty cool. If so its funny that they would shift from those designs to the more standard wooden neck designs they have now. Mind you I really like the look of the XP basses, which kinda look a bit like Wals on a budget. Anybody have any knowledge of the history of the company? I'm guessing that there was a takeover of some kind, or there has been a change in designers.

Get a second hand Ashdown, Trace Elliot or Ampeg combo or stack for a couple of hundred and save the rest until you know if the bass is going to be a long term thing and you have thought more clearly about what you want out of a bass amp. No point spending the whole lot on an ultra lightweight modern set up if its going to be sitting in a room and you discover that six months later you would rather own a 200 watt valve amp and matching 8x10. Although the amp companies I have mentioned are perhaps not the most trendy of names in the lightweight gear environment, they can deliver in any kind of 'rock' setting and can generally be found for fairly cheap second hand (£300-500 could get you something really good). In the end it doesn't really matter that much, just buy what takes your fancy, though anything less than about 250 watts (solid state) is usually going to struggle to compete with a 50 watt valve guitar head if it is going through a 2x10 or 1x15 (which many combos use).

Unless the damage is having an adverse impact on the sound, how the bass plays, or its overall stability, it is better to leave it alone. The damage doesn't look to be severe and I would doubt it would put off a potential buyer providing you were up front with the damage. Unless you are looking for a collectors item, most people looking at buying a 1970s Precision bass would expect a bit of cosmetic damage. Apart from the one bit of damage, your bass looks in cleaner shape than a 'roadworn' bass, where the added cosmetic damage adds to the value of the bass. The 4th email is pretty much spot on as far as repair impacting the value of an instrument. If you are selling it, I'm not sure whether undertaking the repair is worth it. Damn nice looking bass too!

I haven't played one myself but a guy I know changed from playing a five string Musicman Stingray to a five string Clover Avenger. He said that the Clover quality is pretty top notch for build quality and compares wellwith pretty much any US brand. I would suggest trying one to see if you like it. Once you get over a certain price point when buying new, pretty much all basses are going to well made with decent parts and electronics. After that what sounds 'good' is a matter of personal preference which can vary wildly. Try doing a search for 'Sadowsky Metro' on this site to see examples of this! My personal feeling is that the active tone circuits and pickups made by Fender are not of the quality as other 'souped up' Jazz bass designs like Sandberg and Clover etc. Sorry for any thread derail but is there/was there any connection between Sandberg and Clover? I only ask because the Fender-based designs look really similar, right down to the Delano pickups.

[quote name='bobpalt' post='1337225' date='Aug 12 2011, 06:29 AM']Its quite puzzling really why some "boutique" basses really drop in value so quickly. As well as Roscoes, Pedullas dont do well on the second hand market (when comparing their value against new cost), neither do Stingrays, Skjolds, Dingwalls, Mayones, even ACGs. Why is this? They are worth every penny of the new cost, so why the huge drop in value the minute you carry them out of the shop? Only Wals, Foderas and Fenders seem to actually hold their values in general (although I'm sure there are more). Very odd. Bob[/quote] I'm pretty glad of this, otherwise there would have been no hope of me owning a Vigier Arpege! I'm not sure I would ever buy a bass as an investment, save buying a pre-CBS Fender if I somehow get really wealthy, so the idea of a bass declining or rising in value is a bit pointless for me. Its not like I'm going to sell anything anyway unless I'm really struggling.

I had never really looked at the Roscoe stuff seriously as in my mind I always thought 'prices probably comparable to Fodera' when I saw pictures. But I just looked at the Bass Direct site and WOW! The Century Standard series is both stunning looking and looks bloody good value for money for a top quality made in the USA bass! I would certainly love to try one, though owning one is probably realistically out of the question bar selling/trading my other gear.

I would suggest it would cause a lot less bother to either play all the 'standardish' songs at either concert pitch or using 'E flat' standard tuning. If nothing else it allow the gig to have more of a flow and would mean that there would not be constant changes of instruments/tunings for each song, which I find to be a pain when watching gigs/ At least then you could get down to 2 four string basses, one in standard/E flat and one in D, where you could probably use for drop C tuning when needed. Failing that if the style of music is such that you don't need a 'tight' low D or C, you could just downtune the E on the standard four string. I used to do this before I changed to fives, but I was using using fairly hefty strings for standard tuning anyway (50-110 roundwounds, I just liked the tone). The benefits are that you can get the low note that 9 times out of ten 'will do' for the purposes of a particular song and you only have to tune one string rather than four. The annoying bit is that basically you have to transpose the song and get to grips with sometimes strange fingering, meaning that you have think through your parts a bit. Also compared to a good B of a five string, the sound is not going to be as tight.

[quote name='Musicman20' post='1331434' date='Aug 7 2011, 09:53 PM']Haha, not this year! I think it was Summer 2009...when I visited a friend. I must admit the quality of each Sadowsky I tested was very good. I think Fender lose a lot of sales due to the fact that we have to 'try' before we buy, everytime, whereas with Sadowsky I bet 99% of them are spot on.[/quote] I agree on that. I have only played one Sadowsky that I thought was a bit iffy and that was about 4-5 years ago. The only problem I had in finding one was getting the finish and model I wanted. In terms of Fender I think you think that you could line up 5 basses of the same model and finish, they would feel like entirely different basses! That is the magic of Fender though and makes it all the better when you find one that feels right. I still think that when you actually find a really good Fender there is not much that can beat it, including the Sadowsky. Its just that after looking for about 5 years of searching I thought the Fenders I tried where nowhere close to the Metros and Sandbergs I tried, including a few late 60s and 70s Fender models. Hell the Metro prices didn't loook that bad compared to the costs of 70s Fenders now! My 1978 P cost me £390 in 1999! Even though that was a good, I find it hard to justify paying £1500 to £2000 for a late 1970s Jazz, knowing the flexibility of the modern interpretations of the Jazz.

I think a lot of people that go to gigs etc tend to see with their eyes. If I saw a band at the pub that were playing mustang sally etc and the guy was playing a top of the line Warwick, obviously I would assume that the player has invested a lot of money into furthering his interest in playing bass, even if he knows he isn't going to make a living playing bass. This for me is a good thing. Sometimes bands are very conscious of how they appear on stage and everybody has to have a certain 'look' to them. In that case maybe bringing the Anthony Jackson Fodera and wearing a full suit and tie combo isn't the best idea when playing in a vintage rock band where the rest of your band are playing vintage gear and wearing jeans and t shirts. Whether you are opposed to the notion of people hearing with their eyes or not, this does happen. However, if you are playing covers in your local pub, or play in a band that doesn't feel that its instruments have to look a certain way, then play what you want. For me the issue of whether the bassist in question is 'worthy' enough to play an instrument is neither here nor there. A bassist that can't keep time or hit the right notes is going to struggle just as much on a Westfield P copy as he/she will on a boutique bass.

[quote name='Musicman20' post='1330961' date='Aug 7 2011, 02:33 PM']To be fair, as much as gg have great stock, one of their stores had the Sad's right in the window with bright summer sun shining directly on them, and it was like this for months. Their sales chap also said 2-3 had chips from players testing them out. I think I'd feel safer getting one direct, but I'm struggling to justify it at the moment when I know IF I found a decent AS Fender I'd be happier with the tone. I'm quite a build quality fanatic.[/quote] Seems that way way! I suppose that if I find a bass that plays well, I'm always willing to ignore cosmetic damage, as it is going to happen sooner or later regardless of well I try to look after it. Also, I always fear that when ordering something in, there is the fear that the bass could be not as good as the one I liked in the shop that was a bit damaged. This probably happens more with Fender than Sadowsky, but from years of playing Fenders that worry is usually going to make me a 'try before buy' guy. If I found a few chips etc on a bass though, I would use that for the purposes of looking for a discount or getting a few extra things with the purchase (strings, straps, leads etc). I got a few extras thrown in when I bought mine just for the fact the bass arrived three days later than originally planned. I can't speak for the other GG stores, but I've never had a problem with the Glasgow branch. If you would be happier with a Fender though, I would just keep looking for one. No point trying to justify buying a bass that doesn't really do it for you tonally, especially when it comes with the price tag a Sadowsky does. What is all this about summer sun though? Can't say I've seen much of it myself lately!

I think that you can order direct from Sadowsky to reserve an incoming Sadowsky model. Probably the Gallery in London too. I would think Guitar Guitar could do it as well (ie reserve one of the next incoming models from their next shipment of Sadowsky Metros), though obviously you would have to be fairly adamant that you were looking to buy it rather than just try it out. Guitar Guitar were really helpful with me in securing the model I wanted, so I wouldn't see it being a problem. However is a 'brand new' brand new bass going to be that much better than the ones in the shop? I know we can get into large conversations about temperature and humidity, scratches etc, but if you have a tried a bunch of Metros and not found one that you have really liked, I'm not sure that ordering a slightly newer model of a bass will get you a bass that you like. Also, given that the price of Metros goes up with each new shipment, is it really a wise move to wait a few moths if the model you are interested in is already in stock?