Muzz

A man with exemplary taste... 😃 About a billion years ago...well, before Covid, anyway; it's a long story, but I'm in no massive rush, and Jon and I have spoken about it frequently. I'll be picking it up sometime soon(ish), tho... 🙂

I've got a JJB Sig Precision in the works with Jon Shuker...I do love JJB (and credit him with making me want to play the bass in the first place - see another thread for details) and Precisions (well, split coil pickups in the P position), especially in black/black/maple, and of course I'm a Shuker fanboi, soooooo...it was kind of inevitable...mine, however, has a verrrry slim Jazz neck (I don't really do big necks) without dots, so it might not count... 🙂 Like BlueMoon above, I nearly bought a new 4001CS a while back (and my boss at the time was a friend of CS, so a proper signature was on the cards, too), but it all fell through. That one, though, would have remained in its case, unplayed and accumulating value... I've also had a Jack Casady, purely because I fancied trying a semi-hollow, rather than any affinity with Mr Casady himself...and I had a Mike Dirnt, because I like the old Precision shape, rather than Mr D...

I'm enjoying the Carlton Palmer reference - the man about whom his manager once said 'He covers every blade of grass out there, but that's only because his first touch is so crap...' 😃

One of my Shukers I bought secondhand on the looks alone (OK, the price made it a pretty much compulsory purchase, too), and although it's got the best neck of anything I've ever played (with the possible exception of an early Warwick Fortress), a neck which I've had Jon subsequently use as a template for three others, it never quite found its place gigging - I'd play it a lot at home unplugged, but then reach for others to put in the gig bag. I've changed the pickup (twice) and the EQ, and been through several sets of different strings, but amplified, it wasn't quite me. There's good reason for this, as it has a single MM pickup (now a Nordy Bigman), and I've had three or four Stingrays, and sold them all on; that pickup/placement just didn't work for me. Recently, tho, because the music I'm playing in a particular band has changed, it's come into its own, and I use it a lot. I think I've grown into the bass, rather than the other way round... 🙂

I can see that this might be something to worry about in a tribute band, but I've always seen 'drift' as 'interpretation', and nuances can be added (and groove and edge, too), and it could be argued that the more a song is practiced by the same bunch of musicians, the staler it gets. I've listened to lots of songs we cover, and thought 'Well, I don't play it quite like that any more', but if I'm happy with the result, then that's all good. Very often, my band will play a song by a band that has more musicians, or the original has overdubs of more guitars, or keys, or biiiig backing vocals, or even brass sections; how do you keep nuances like that in the first place, without having all the musicians? (See 'tribute band' above, for the exception). Lots of negativity in your post (drift..nuances get lost...degrade...generic...essence been lost...travesty'), I don't think that's anything to do with rehearsals, more to do with the musicians. If the musicians aren't bringing anything to the song, it's more to do with them than any amount of rehearsing... You might be overthinking this...

I've found in situations like that it's always a good idea (as long as you have an idea of how good each other are) to set a realistic but not-too-far-away gig date (book one if you can), so there's a target to work to, and some pressure to get it right in a reasonable time, otherwise the people who would be happy rehearsing till the end of time will always find an excuse for more rehearsals...plus, in my experience, they're the ones more likely not to have learned their parts properly, either, and view rehearsals as their own personal learning space... I should add that's from the perspective of a band that wants gig (usually covers) - all bets are off with originals bands, as the writing process can completely different (from people turning up with pretty much finished songs to songs which emerge from jams), and the motivations of people in that scenario can range from the 'want-to-gig' to the 'happy to socialise* and never make much progress'... * The appearance of booze/drugs at the rehearsal is the red flag for this one...

+1 for the Beyer DT770Pros...with the addition of the velour earpiece covers, natch... 🙂

A very lovely thing (tho as I mentioned somewhere else, it'd suit me like a fish suits a bicycle), but that photography always makes me clench - I know it's resting on something very soft and forgiving we can't see, but that concrete car park surface gives me the heebie-jeebies... 😕

Can you get a custom Sei (or GB) to that spec for £2000-2500? I could be wrong, but I thought they'd be more...

Hey Karl, IIRC (I've been using Elixirs happily for a few years now, so I'm out of the loop of strings a bit) D'Addarios are one of the higher tension strings out there (which was their main attraction for me), so I'd brush up on your Rickenbacker truss rod adjustment skillz if you're going to drop the tension significantly... 😕🙂

...and I've been invited to join a new Rawk Covers band, with people I haven't played with much...we'll be rehearsing...at least to start with... 🙂

I think I should add that the non-rehearsing trio band has been the three of us for at least a decade...we finish each other's sentences these days... 😁

This ^^^ PS 'Jesus Christ that's a lot' - please let the OP tell us that's the reply he sent... 😁

Actually, given that Jon Shuker makes a Jean Jacques Burnel Sig bass, can I have a Shuker instead? If that's the case, I've already got mine... 😁

This, but black with the maple board (some figuring would be nice) and no inlays... 🙂

Lots of options covering all of those things here: https://shukerguitars.co.uk/basses/shuker-j-bass/ Again, I'm sure Alan can do all that, but I'm guessing it'll be around one of his Retro-B designs, which may or may not be 'J enough' for you... As far as workmanship and the subsequent quality of bass is concerned, tho, as I said in my first sentence on this thread, you can't go wrong with either...

It kinda depends what level everyone's at and what sort of music it is; my originals bands rehearse when we can (but there's no real impetus behind these; they're more a 'nice to be in it' band), but the pub/function trio band hasn't rehearsed since 2018; we just get a text and a YouTube link for new songs from the BL, learn them and then play them (the drummer reads anyway, so it's only me who can pink torpedo things up). We tend to only rehearse when we change tech (new PA/digital mixer, moving to in-ears, etc, etc). I should add we're not playing particularly testing music; just the standard pub/function fare, really...

Yeah, that's some garage... 😕🙂

I can do nearly all UK: Banbury, Brighton and Castleton for in-ears, cabs and basses, and somewhere Dahn Saath for my cables, but my big amp and FX are California...

Yeah, spec and personal taste are everything - I've got to the point now where I can look at a bass, note the pickups and position, and say 'It looks absolutely lovely, but it'd suit me like a fish suits a bicycle'... Actually, although this complicates things by 50%, another Overwater could be an idea...

Did you spec the Shuker, or buy it secondhand? I only ask because I had the opposite experience, but I spec my Shukers, and the ACG I had was secondhand, and clearly not my sorta bass...to be clear, I had exactly that from an Overwater, too*, but other people love them... * I even emailed Chris and had a chat with him about making it less..polite, but it was a case of 'that's the way the bass is'...a great bass, clearly just a mismatch for me...

Can I just say that's the best casual gig name-drop I've come across in years? I was expecting the Lochboisdale Hotel... 🙂

I'm a total Shuker fanboi, I've got two and a half (long story, but a new neck/rebuild kinda thing is the half) and have had three more, plus I've another on the way, and I've also met Alan and played some ACGs at an event a while ago, and I've owned one. The really good news is you can't go wrong with either, really; it just depends, as other people have said, what you want, and a lot of it (for me, anyway, but then I'm as shallow as a puddle) is down to looks. I don't really get on with the ACG designs, whereas Jon will make anything you want, or work around anything you want, in every detail. Plus I love the Horn (steady) design, too... There's a Shuker Jazz on here at the mo for a song (not my ad, I hasten to add), but Jon will work around any spec you might have for him, and it'll be a great bass. The more 'Jazz' you want it to look, I think the more you're moving away form what Alan does... On that (and there's been plenty of discussion of this elsewhere on here), the best way to avoid CLBBR*, is to be absolutely sure what you want, and why you want it. It's happened before that people have specc'd their dream bass (and been delivered it) only to find that what they thought they wanted didn't actually suit them. Lots of communication before the build starts is the best plan... * Custom Luthier Build Buyer's Remorse...it'll never catch on like GAS, I know...

I played a Fender Roadworn P a while back and really liked it on the playing front (other than the biiiig chunky neck, but that's just me; anything over a toothpick and I'm out), tho I'm not a fan of relicing at all. They seem to hold their value really well, tho, so you'll pay pretty much what they cost when new for one. I suppose dings don't affect their resale value... 🙂

Case in point; I use the Stomp so 'my sound(s)*' comes from that box, and then I pick the amp to suit the gig, from none with inears, to a 112 combo, to a 212&115 Mesa stack. The amps just make 'my sounds' louder in different ways. I always DI, too. I played a festival a week or so ago where the supplied rig was a Markbass LMIII/2 x 410. It wasn't ideal (these sorts of gigs rarely are), but 'my sounds' were there; not as much onstage, but definitely out front. I'd move to an FRFR/PA cab if there was one which could cover all my gigs, but I'd need a pair to cope with the bigger gigs, and that's a big outlay. * Both my core sound, and any more, erm, esoteric ones I use in a covers/wedding band with a wide range of styles to, erm, cover...from Rock Clank to Muse to C&W thump to Marcus Miller zing...I know I could get close with just the bass for some of it, but we got out (mostly) as a trio, so the bass is more evident without keys/2nd guitar in the mix...even the punters might notice... 😕🙂