gjones

If it's a eejit drunken punter I just say NO! If they're persistant I say to them, in a not so light hearted manner, ' If I can have a shot of your wife/girlfriend - you can have a shot of my bass'. They usually get the point. Nobody has yet shouted ' Hey Doris get yer arse over here! This guys gonna let me try his bass guitar!'

Hmmmmm I played one the other day and the inlays were pearloid (well mother of toilet seat perhaps). The neck is pretty chunky much more so than my Geddy Lee Jazz which is based on a 70's bass. It didn't sound anything like my geddy frankly, even with the rear pickup moved nearer the bridge......but it's still a nice bass though, especially in sunburst.

Cover of John Paul Jones Solo in the Lemon Song by Led Zep [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9-DNTY8ONw"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9-DNTY8ONw[/url]

From my experience of talking to professional sound engineers, they love bands that don't have a loud backline. It causes feedback by being picked up by onstage mics - which means the vocals and acoustic instruments can't be turned up and end up lost in the mix. I play in two bands, the first is an electric blues band. The 2nd is an alt country band that uses primarily acoustic instruments and for both bands, at bigger gigs, I tend to use my amp just as a monitor and DI straight into the PA which results in a better overall sound. Frankly I'd love to turn up to 11 but I know I need to keep it relatively low on stage for the band to sound good out front. Some musicians I've met (and played with) have the opposite view which is ' As long as I sound good I don't give a sh*t what the band as a whole sound like' . But they tend to spend a lot of time playing along to records alone in their bedrooms, because nobody wants them in their band.

I've got a friend who has had quite a few stingrays in his time who recently bought a & 75 reissue MIA Jazz. I met him in the street recently and he told me that, although the Jazz is a great bass, he missed the Stingray sound so much when gigging that he put a MM humbucker in the middle between the two pickups. I haven't heard it played yet but I'll update basschat when I have. He obviously wanted his cake and he wanted to eat it as well.

[quote name='silddx' post='735984' date='Feb 5 2010, 11:44 AM']No, not yours mate BUT, [i]"If a custom shop bass has alot of wear and tear (and no deep cracks etc) I would generally think its because it was such a good bass, the owner couldnt put it down, imo that is a sign of a very good instrument."[/i] I'm sorry but I think that's absolute nadgers. The odd ding and scratch I can understand, but I can't see why any instrument should end up looking like it's spent six months in the Gorbals because someone "loved" it.[/quote] I resent that.... I live in the Gorbals! But on the other hand my bass does look like sh*t.

[quote name='ped' post='735666' date='Feb 4 2010, 11:42 PM']I doubt many of us really mind what the audience think, though. We are nerds and as such like to get our sound the way we like it, regardless of how the ignorant public feel. I don't do it for anyone other than myself. It's the same with anything, really. I almost like the fact that its something only I appreciate![/quote] Yes......we are nerds (I am reading this topic at 2am......therefore I am a nerd).

[quote name='TimR' post='735461' date='Feb 4 2010, 08:01 PM']Ultimately there are only two catagories of people who listen to the bass tone at a gig. 1) The Bass player. 2) A Bass player in the audience. To most people we're the big guitar at the back. Other players have complemented me on my tone. I assume my playing sucks, but the piece of wood and other expensive hardware I bought to smash those notes out sounds good.[/quote] Sad but true.

If he's asking you to charge the cc £11,000 and send him £5,000 back it's obviously not his cc. He's got someone elses card details and is scamming them as well as you. And guess whose door the cops will turn up at - it won't be his. Scumbags like these do rely on people being both greedy AND stupid. It's great that you're stringing him out and having a laugh at his expense. This could be the guy [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92qs6lRx014"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92qs6lRx014[/url]

Hmmmmm Bassman 12" £549 I wonder how long that'll last. Seriously retro....... I'm tempted [url="http://www.imusician.co.uk/acatalog/Other_Bass_Amps_Brands.html#a00067390"]http://www.imusician.co.uk/acatalog/Other_....html#a00067390[/url]

I had on back in the 90's. It was a Charvel By Jackson (think the pickups were Jackson). I heard the guy who owned it playing it at a gig and it had such a fantastic sound I bought it then and there. Never got on with the pointy headstock though.

I have one and they're great playing and sounding basses. They look fantastic with the blocks on the neck and now you can get them in sunburst as well. But the very thin necks are very sensitive to temperature changes, which you'll notice more if you like a low action.

[quote name='Bassman 100' post='718164' date='Jan 19 2010, 06:01 PM']HI new member here. Has anyone compared Phil Jones Flight Case (150watt, €800, 10kg) [b]V[/b] New Fender Bassman TV10 (150watt, €735.00, 20kg ?) Interested in side by side comparisons[/quote] [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yk5iqx79jUE"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yk5iqx79jUE[/url] [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A93b2V7ymf8"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A93b2V7ymf8[/url] Good old Ed has done both.

Fantanstico!! I saw it at the cinema when it first came out (I'd actually gone to see something else but it had sold out). I left smiling from ear to ear. That was the first time I'd heard of James Jamerson and realised what an influence he's had on the Motown sound.

Hmmmm....... I had a premonition they might be rubbish. Pity because they look like the bass capt Kirk would play in the year 23rd century. Thanks.

The 'Spear RFB Flextool Custom Bass Guitar' looks wild!!! But I wonder what it sounds like? [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Spear-RFB-Flextool-Custom-Bass-Guitar-Jamaica-Green_W0QQitemZ290391218275QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV?hash=item439caa5863"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Spear-RFB-Flextool-C...=item439caa5863[/url] Anyone have any experience playing such an awsome looking instrument?

What naughty boys you are.... adding Fender Decals to your Squiers!

I have a old P/J bass which I believe somebody put together from mighty mite parts in the 70's or early 80's. It's incredibly solid and heavy and with both pickups combined sounds great. Unfortunately the pickups played individually don't sound so good. The split pickup sounds clanky and the jazz pickup sounds a bit too middy (it's very close to the bridge). Maybe one day I'll upgrade the pickups and fit two volumes so I can blend the pickups like a jazz bass which would make it a much more versatile instrument.

A quick hows yer father with a Black & Decker if you ask me.

I also owned the active version of that Yamaha you have in your picture - which was a nice, easy to play, versatile bass and really well made. It's difficult making a decision about a guitar after just playing it in a music shop. To help you make your decision I'd recommend checking out local bands and listening to the bass guitar. One of the best sounding basses I ever owned I first saw a friend of a friend playing at a gig. It was a Charvel by Jackson (which was never a make I would have thought about buying) but it sounded so good I bought then and there. But I would recommed that when you decide which bass to buy you get it secondhand as you get much, much more bang for your buck.

Somebody paid £35 for it!!!!!

[quote name='The Burpster' post='694122' date='Dec 27 2009, 09:23 AM']Hmmmmmmm, justification is relative isn't it. This device is completely tunable, to allow varying degrees of mute. That is across all strings or on each individual string. Whilst I agree with a lot of to55ing about you could do that with little bits of FREE foam..... Could you however, i) flick into and out of the damped string mode between tracks or indeed between notes while you are playing? I think not. ii) you replicate EXACTLY the same amount of damping that you set up with your bit of foam over and over again? I think not. iii) you select how much damping you use mid track? I think not. I am endebted to Ellio and his team for developing a quality peice of kit, and believe me it is. Whilst this doesnt fit into a 'minimum budget at all costs' approach to basses, you may have noticed that these are both fitted to my PRSs so that isn't on my agenda. This is a superb piece of kit. It works. It may cost as much as some basses do, but then it only costs the same as a quality effects pedal with which I would have to s0d about with to try to get the effect that this produces and it is not in the signal chain. The exchange is crap at currently so they do not seem like a 'bargain', but then would you spend £100 on a pedal...? My guess is that you probably wouldn't, I mean why would you spend 'actual money' on an overdrive when you can just turn the gain up: Right?[/quote] Well I don't know about anybody else but you've definitely convinced me. No more fiddly bit's of rubber for me. I'm buying one tomorrow. Then I can mute and unmute between notes. Which of course would have been impossible for me to do with fiddly bit's of old sock.

[quote name='maxrossell' post='693698' date='Dec 26 2009, 01:18 PM']I'd be interested to hear what people have to say about Squier vs. Fender guitars. Of late people have been raving about the quality of Squier basses, but I can't see guitarists being so easily convinced.[/quote] That may have been correct in the past but I'm not so sure now. 2 years ago I went into my local guitar shop looking for a cheapish squier strat for doing home demos with. I picked up a VM strat which felt lightweight, sounded tinny and wouldn't play in tune. The sales guy then recommended I try the new MIM classic 60's player stratocaster which was designed by greg fessler from fender's custom shop.......and what a difference. It felt heavier, had a real stratty tone, played in tune (which always comes in handy) and looked georgeous in sonic blue. Even though the MIM strat was £200 more expensive, guess which one I bought? But......That was 2 years ago and things may have changed. The guitarist in my band, who up until recently had his own music shop, has as his 2nd guitar a VM squier tele custom, which he plays slide on. It sounds excellent and although his other guitar is a Gibson 355 by actually just listening to them both, you couldn't tell one cost £1.800 new and the other £250. I think things may be changing in squierland and as someone else said in another post on this subject fender will be getting worried as they won't be able to charge a premium for MIM guitars if the squiers are starting to get as good.....or better.

About a year ago some friends of mine, in a covers band, had to do a gig that night but their bassist had let them down. They asked me to fill in and I spent the afternoon in their reheasal room learning over 30 songs (not very well frankly but good enough to fake it). As we went through the songs I diligently wrote down the chord charts and stops and starts and any other relevant info because I realised there was no way I could learn so many songs by memory in such a short amount of time.We got to the gig and set all the gear up, then I opened my bass case to have a last look at my notes..........and guess what ......they weren't there.! I'd left the effin things in the reheasal room 50 miles away. I felt like such a complete numpty. Amazingly, I managed to get through the gig without too many cockups. With the guitarist and singer giving me the key changes and a few winks and nods along the way it didn't end up the disaster I expected. By the way, We didn't do mustang sally (pity, cos I know that one). And as for drunks in bands............don't get me started!!!