LawrenceH

[quote name='paul_5' post='1070512' date='Dec 27 2010, 08:55 PM']Arguably if everyone who stole music from the internet started to pay for it then the record companies would have more cash to support not just new, but semi-established artists who need nurturing artistically to produce their best material (good for artists, good for punters).[/quote] I really think this is the wrong way round wrt cause and effect - the majors started focusing their attention on short-term chart music gain long before downloading became any kind of issue. David Bowie among others has talked about the need for artists to focus more on live performance as a revenue source, I don't think this is such a bad thing.

As long as you liked the sound then the Markbass is as good as any out there - they use decent drivers and plywood for their cabs, and their failure rate is supposedly pretty low. Other people will surely be along with alternative suggestions but once you're at that quality level it's just a matter of personal taste IMO.

Interesting debate, lots of good points being made. My take - music files are a form of information. Copying them and passing them on is in that sense rather similar to patent infringement. Coming from left-field, thinking about the great economic debates of recent years we see a clash of competing ideologies, namely expansion-based capitalism and sustainability. To marry these two, the concept of information as currency becomes increasingly important. So we really should respect intellectual copyright if we have an environmental conscience, since a means of making money that doesn't involve transfer of material goods is a necessity! But. I doubt most of us are real economic idealists, we're primarily in it for the music. For me, I love live music and I think the recorded output of artists who disconnect from live performance usually suffers (not always). So firstly I don't think the move towards a model where a greater proportion of revenue comes from performance is a bad thing. Second, the major players in the music industry claim to be suffering as a result of illegal downloading, but could this be something they've brought on themselves by optimising their musical output from the point of view of disposability? Plus, just because one business model is no longer as viable does that translate to a problem for music as a whole? I seriously doubt it, the evidence is in the decreasing relevance of the singles charts and the burgeoning market for niche music of all kinds. What we're seeing is a fragmentation of the music market rather than a shrinking of that market per se. Of course, some people who base their living on the old system will lose out, but new opportunities arise, and that is ultimately the nature of capitalist markets. I like the way things are changing.

[quote name='redstriper' post='1067310' date='Dec 22 2010, 10:51 PM']Thanks, I was hoping you'd say that cos I'm a cheapskate ! There is one for sale on here now, but when I asked for the weight, the seller said 15 Lbs which is 4.5 Lbs more than my old bass. I'm sure they vary in weight and hopefully I'll find one more like 9 Lbs.[/quote] If that 15lb is accurate I'd be very surprised, basswood is not generally a heavy wood. Unless that high mass bridge is in fact depleted uranium.

[quote name='GarethFlatlands' post='1067034' date='Dec 22 2010, 06:06 PM']I'd agree to a point, but I'd rather have one of these than pay for that mojo. These seem custom made to spec and the attention to detail is stunning. That said, it's a lot of cash. I'd probably go for a Shuker if I had a grand or so to spare, played Finbars p-bass copy and it's incredible.[/quote] If it weighs 6.5lb, balances perfectly and still has the lovely resonance of a vintage jazz then it's got to be worth it for someone with back issues. All the best sounding jazzes I've tried have been heavy b*****s

[quote name='fatback' post='1067115' date='Dec 22 2010, 07:21 PM']Thinking about changing pups on a Squier VMJ fretless. Looking for something not too aggressive, more old school. Sort of musical. Mellow? Rich? That kind of sound. In fact, the stock pups are not bad at all, but the bass has such a nice neck it's probably worth upgrading a tad. I have no experience of anything but standard pups, so any ideas would be very helpful.[/quote] I'm not the pickup junky some people are but I was very pleasantly surprised by the Fender Vintage AlNicos that come loaded into the Highway Ones and Classic series jazzes - it's definitely a very musical, old-school vibe, and they're not expensive at all. I think Dave-bass5 on here has a Highway One (which would come with these) and also has some Wizard pickups, so it might be worth sending him a PM and asking how they compare. Wizard get recommended a lot on here for an old-school vibe and again they're comparatively cheap, definitely worth considering. By way of comparison, trying a VMJ I felt that the stock pickups were very punchy but a little harsh and definitely lacking in bandwidth (no true top end), they didn't sound at all open compared to a typical vintage jazz.

[quote name='lemmywinks' post='1066676' date='Dec 22 2010, 12:28 PM']A Schroeder 1212l will do the job, there's not many small, light one cab solutions if you play in a loud band with a heavy-handed drummer but my 1212r has always been more than enough.[/quote] The 1212l really intrigues me... it's quite an odd design with the dual woofer folded baffle, it's like a really stubby 'half-tapped' horn with a great big compression chamber. I'd be very interested in a frequency plot from the cab, see how flat they play. And what woofers are loaded into the modern ones? Anyway, to the OP, for a more conventional small/lightweight cab design it's very hard to look beyond the Midget, if the tone suits you. It will have quite an aggressive mid-range which will help cut in the mix but is probably what people would describe as a 'modern' sound. With the internal bracing and large slot ports they are probably one of the best-engineered cabs available, and for a 1x12 it's about as loud as you're going to get. Plus it weighs half what the Schroeder weighs. I wouldn't be concerned about it being 8 ohm as opposed to 4, because it's such a sensitive driver.

[quote name='waynepunkdude' post='1066223' date='Dec 21 2010, 10:17 PM']I'm after anything but red due to the guitarist in a band I play in has the red guitar version.[/quote] Sod him! The red one is a hottie

[quote name='4 Strings' post='1066017' date='Dec 21 2010, 06:46 PM']This seems to be a rather recent phenomena that for almost any bass for sale, especially old Precisions, the first question regards its weight. Why is this?[/quote] Because all the kids playing their hip young person's music got old.

[quote name='gary mac' post='1065752' date='Dec 21 2010, 03:11 PM']I've got a VMJ and it's a very very good bass. I would advise you to try before buying though as the first three I tried were decidely ropey one way or another. Also some of them are very heavy, for example my daughters one is over 11lb.[/quote] +1 - All the ones I've seen in shops have been a bit dicey QC-wise, but from pics up on here I can see people have some very nice examples so they must be out there. The (fretted) ones I tried sounded really nice though.

[quote name='StevieD_FenderP2009' post='1065604' date='Dec 21 2010, 01:02 PM']Also, LawrenceH, I did fit a Badass II straight into the holes as that is what I replaced the bridge I sold to Paul with. it just dropped straight on again without any modifications to the bridge or body[/quote] Weird, as I said above I've got a Gotoh 201 and the screw spacing's definitely about 70mm (confirmed [url="http://www.wdmusic.co.uk/product/Bass_Bridge_Chrome_GEB201C"]here[/url] I was sure the badass II was interchangeable with that bass - sure they weren't widened screwholes from being redrilled on the P? It would only have to be bigger by 2.5mm on each of the outer screwholes. It's definitely not a Jap v MIM/MIA issue as all my basses, plus the Gotoh, measure the same. P basses are the same as Js at the bridge, right?

[quote name='Grand Wazoo' post='1065300' date='Dec 20 2010, 11:57 PM'][size=2][b]Yes sorry guys, the postage cost is not down to me, mainland uk its £30 and to any other European destinations turns into £90, I can't do bu**er all about that. Of course if the winner is close by and willing to collect it from London, Greenwich area, I will refund the UK postage cost of £30, and bob's your uncle [/b][/size][/quote] Which courier is that?! Btw I can't believe this didn't sell on here - I'd have been all over it like a rash if I didn't already have 3 jazzers! Good luck

[quote name='Paul S' post='1064933' date='Dec 20 2010, 07:07 PM']Could someone with a MIA Precision and/or Jazz please step up here? I am trying to sell this bridge on and could really do with the information. Thanks![/quote] An MIA J or P will be totally different thanks to the through-body stringing, unless it's a reissue or quite an old one. The USA 75RI has the same bridge spacing as the others, ~70mm. I'm pretty certain P basses without through-stringing option are the same as Js. Maybe ask Stevie if he can give you a photo of the bass it came off without bridge attached? I'm can't believe he could have fitted a Badass II in the same screw holes.

[quote name='Chris2112' post='1064244' date='Dec 20 2010, 07:05 AM']If this were the optimum arrangement for the system they'd probably be making them like that.[/quote] Look at it from a biomechanical perspective and that doesn't really make sense - the length and proportions of the arm of the player will vary the angle of pivoting as well as the scale distance that can be covered comfortably. Tonally as well, optimum scale length depends what you're after. I'm sure 34 to 37 is a good choice for a lot of people, but that Super J looks more my thing. Purely based on the degree of curvature my wrist position naturally wants to place on my hand at different points up the neck I'd probably be happy with a very subtle fanning.

I like the concept of fanned frets, but would be more interested in a less extreme version of it - say a scale length that varied by an inch or so.

The TV sound thing is particularly challenging as you have very strict requirements for dynamic range and frequency balance. Plenty of bands sound pretty ropey on TV even nowadays (just listen to Glasto highlights!), I wouldn't judge a band's sound based on it.

[quote name='Paul S' post='1063614' date='Dec 19 2010, 03:29 PM']Lawrence - thank you. Just measured the new bridge and the centre-to-centre distance between outermost screw holes looks to be around 75mm, whereas the two MIJs here are the same as yours, around 71mm. The plot thickens![/quote] I just remembered that my old SGC Nanyo has a Gotoh bridge that looks the same as the one you've got, like yours it doesn't have the name stamped on it anywhere. Anyway, I measured that as well and it also comes in at 71mm. Looks like yours is a bit of an oddity.

[quote name='Paul S' post='1063524' date='Dec 19 2010, 02:08 PM']I also lined it up against my MIJ Jaguar and it wouldn't fit on that, either. Anyone have any ideas? Do MIJ Fenders have different screw hole spacing to other Fenders?[/quote] Can't offer any useful suggestions, but I've just put the bridge from a 97 CIJ 75RI up against an MIM jazz bridge and the spacing's identical. The centre-to-centre distance between outermost screws on the MIM bridge looks to be somewhere between 70 and 71 mm, so that should let you work out which one of yours is 'standard'. Hope that helps

[quote name='Bill Fitzmaurice' post='1063016' date='Dec 18 2010, 10:07 PM']There's two lines of thought there. One is the way the producer wants it to sound, the other is true to the band's live sound. Ent made it no secret about how he felt about the butchering of his tone, which was accomplished by low passing so severe that his RotoSounds ended up sounding like tape-wound LaBellas. It had nothing to do with modes of playback, everything to do with conformity, and most odd that Ent put up with it.[/quote] I can see where you're coming from but a 45-year-old recording from the dawn of the roundwound, multitracking and close-mic-ing era is hardly representative of 'most' record producers I think they got with the program pretty quickly, and they were pretty good at getting acoustic jazz recordings down by the late 50s. This true live sound, would be the same one that was on the typical low-xmax, undersized box pre TS speakers used by most artists of the day? With the need to be loud enough that's gotta be at least as limiting as the recording aspects.

[quote name='Bill Fitzmaurice' post='1062924' date='Dec 18 2010, 08:44 PM']When it comes to getting the bass right in the PA I'd say 90% of soundmen are clueless. Record producers aren't much better; I only heard the Ox's true tone on one track, 'My Generation'.[/quote] Getting a meaty bassline to jump out of a tranny radio without absolutely shagging the speakers places quite tight constraints on how you commit it to record! But most record producers are clueless? I wonder how most pop records were 'meant' to sound?!

In discussions like this I think it's worth bearing in mind that while many people wouldn't be able to tell specifically what was wrong with a mix on a recording, they can often tell that a mix is bad. Same applies live, I've done sounds for bands where people have said the band played a lot better than at a previous gig whereas I know the main difference is that they had a better mix and the audience could hear the track as a whole better. Good bass tone allows the musicality of the band to shine through - there's so many different ways this can be achieved with different styles, basses and players, but that doesn't mean everything's entirely relative.

I wonder about the 'valve sound' people refer to, and whether we all mean the same thing. I tried an Orange Terror in a shop and it was an incredibly coloured sound to my ears, seemed to swamp the actual tone of the bass. OK if you like that kind of thing but not to my taste. I think probably my idea of the 'classic' valve tone is the one you get plugging into a decent vintage mixing desk valve preamp, perhaps driving it pretty hard but still a much subtler (and IMO very musical) warming effect. I liked the preamp on the old SWR Redhead combos a LOT for getting this kind of tone. Is the LM tube like this?

Some tasty playing there! Funk envy...

[quote name='thinman' post='1062433' date='Dec 18 2010, 01:17 PM']Yes - but some of that power can be in the PA. I'm not saying people shouldn't have a powerful amp because they can always turn it down - my point is that once your bass backline starts to drown out the drum kit and the venue dictates that the band needs to be louder, you're into drum micing territory and probably feeding a bit of bass into the PA too. Having plenty of headroom in an amp is fine but I still don't get the need to match that with a lot of big cabs (and by that I'm taliking about multiple 4 x10"etc ) and above. I'm NOT saying no-one shoukd have such a rig - each to their own and all that - I just don't really get the point![/quote] To elaborate on what's been said above, there's a real difference in terms of power requirement between bass that's loud enough to be heard with a traditional sound, and bass that's got serious LF content at a similar volume. For a more modern, deep sound there's still no substitute for power and size. And many compact subs at the lower end of the PA market are IMO rather compromised in their musicality for the sake of LF extension and sound sluggish as a result. Add to that the advantage of keeping vocals in a modest PA separate from power-demanding instruments like bass and there is definitely an argument to be made for running an old-school, separates-style system. It's very reliant on stage acoustics and the musicality of the players though. By the way I'm not disagreeing with you per se, since I've gigged quite happily with a 130w 1x12" combo for years! But I'm after a funky, up-front sound that's quite mid-heavy and just doesn't need that kind of LF.

We tried the PL, it's good for gap filling if the cutting's off, but it's inherently far messier than standard glue and a bit of a PITA to neaten up afterwards. So we decided that for future builds we'd stick with normal wood glue unless we'd been particularly hamfisted on the cutting.