EMG456

[quote name='TheGreek' timestamp='1393953547' post='2386228'] Works for me.. [/quote] What a cracking looking bass! Gold hardware is much maligned on here but then often anything that's not a Fender Precision is ill appreciated also! I have four basses fitted with gold plated hardware and two of those I had made like that! Variety is the spice of life! Cheers Ed

Sara - there is a current fashion for bass players to use flatwound strings on all basses and a few on this thread have advised you to go that way. Both of the players you have quoted as the sort of sound you are after used roundwound strings on their basses so bear that in mind. I've played fretless regularly for longer than I care to remember now and apart from the set of black nylon tapewound strings which actually came fitted to my first fretless bass ("Oh look," said the drummer, "Ed's got a new bass and he hasn't taken the strings out of their packets yet!") a flatwound string has never been near any of my fretlesses and unless I have an unlikely change of heart, never will. Only trouble is roundwounds will wear the fingerboard more quickly - you need to slightly treat it as a consumable and just have some work done to it every so often. If you only play it for a couple of songs a night, it'll be years before it needs it. Also, the action on a fretless is crucial to generating the type of sound you want - lower action, more mwah, more sustain, higher action, less mwah, less sustain but a bit cleaner sounding. All need tied in to your own style of playing, how hard you hit the strings, where you like to pick etc - lots of variables and fantastic fun when you get it right. Main thing is rejoice in the fretlessness of it and the punters seem to love it! Cheers Ed

[quote name='TheGreek' timestamp='1393876773' post='2385428'] How can having options be a crisis?? I, like many others, just use them in rotation - it's nice to be surprised by your "old friends" who you haven't used in a while.. [/quote] ^^This exactly. Plus (assuming like me you enjoy the zing of a roundwound string) you never have to suffer that last minute "Oh no, I forgot the strings are dead on this" moment - you just go and dig out another bass and use that one instead. Which is fine... until you get to the last one. Then it all gets a bit expensive... Cheers Ed

[quote name='bluejay' timestamp='1393681979' post='2383303'] You sure they would have been able to use a synth bass and get that sound in 1975?? In any case, there is no mention of that on the sleeve. [/quote] Abolutely- by that time you no longer had to be a boffin to use a synth although you still needed fairly deep pockets. Two major synths commonly used for bass parts, the Minimoog and the ARP Oddysey were released in 1970 and 1972 respectively so the tech was definitely there and in use within those circles. To be honest, if my involvement with a track like that had just been making the tea, I'd still be pretty chuffed so whatever Maurice did, we thank him! Ed

[quote name='bluejay' timestamp='1393631020' post='2382928'] We-e-ell, dunno about Candi's version, but the original is by the Bee Gees and I don't mind [i]that[/i] bassline at all (Maurice Gibb). [/quote] Is it, though? Probably in the slow section which was cut out of the single version and never featured in Candi Staton's version at all but in the main intro/ verse/ chorus riff I hear no bass- only synth which would have been played on a keyboard, presumably by Blue Weaver? This takes me back... When the Bee Gees came out with their new sound (Jive Talkin, Nights on Broadway etc) all the talk was that Maurice had taken to playing a Rickenbacker "Stereo" as we all called the 4001 in those days. Remember there was no internet so it was not at all easy to get any information on this stuff. All I knew was that my Rick didn't sound anything like that even played through my Electro Harmonix Micro Synth! Agreed the Candi Staton version is uber funky but a quick glance on the net doesn't bring up any info on who the personnel were. Cheers Ed

Yep- that's fine- I could collect at the weekend, preferably Sat morning bu I can always arrange that with the seller direct to save the email shuffle! Cheers Ed

Ash- I could collect this for you. I don't particularly want to get involved looking for packaging and organising a courier etc. but I will be down in Leeds sometime about mid March and could bring it down with me then if you could make it over to collect? Would be good to see it resurrected. Cheers Ed

Said it before and will say it again- they were built on the Stingray production line by the people who built Stingrays, using essentially Stingray parts but with a cheaper finish on the bodies and necks. They *are* Stingrays in everything except name. Love mine and will probably buy a fretless one as well if one comes up at the right time. Cheers Ed

[quote name='Dread Bass' timestamp='1392395772' post='2368225'] It does share a similarity to a Wal preamp. I've never tried a Wal but I dig the flexibility of filters once you get your head round it. [/quote] It's like a Wal circuit but with much more flexibility. For each low pass filter, you can control both the cutoff frequency and the amount of boost around the Q point - on the Wal, the push-pull pot gives you a fixed, pre-set boost. Again on the high pass filter - it's fully variable for frequency and boost - the Wal just has a preset "Pick Attack" on the push-pull master volume, although you can vary the boost amount by tweaking a little pot inside the control cavity. I'd have to say that for live work, the Wal circuit is easier to control ( for me anyway) with less capability for digging yourself into an EQ hole! The added complexities of the ACG circuit makes it something of a gift for recording if you spend the time learning how it works and have access to full frequency range monitoring. It's the most flexible and powerful on board eq circuit I've come across yet. Ed

Stunningly brilliant! thanks for posting. Ed

Just accept that you're doomed and there's going to be an interesting stream of new bass like instruments appearing in your future! Resistance is futile. Or just never, ever go there... ever. Ed

I'm a glass half full kind of guy so I don't niggle... I noodle. If noodling is interpreted as niggling by the rest of the guys, it's just their insecurities showing through... anyway, it's not *real* noodling/ niggling till it's above the 14th fret! Niggle away - I've made it my bass playing mission for about 40 years now!! Cheers Ed

On the face of it they are expensive but up till now they are all handbuilt to an extremely exacting specification. The Stick needs a very low action over a long and wide fingerboard and although the design may look a bit primitive, it's that way for a reason - functionality. I view myself as a reasonably competent bass player - self taught as was the style in the 70's and I've been bassing now for about 40 years (ouch!) and I have not found the transition to Stick to be an easy one. The treble side which is played with the right hand is tuned in the very familiar 4ths tuning like a bass but of course, you're trying to execute those notes with a hand which is not used to fretting so it's a bit tricky. The bass side is tuned in reverse 5ths which from a bass player's perspective seems completely foreign but makes sense after a while due to the kind of built in symmetry which then exists over the entire neck. I'm sure some talented people can pick it all up very quickly but it's been hard work for me over about 6 years now and it's only in the last year or so that I've felt even vaguely confident enough to use it at gigs. Having said all that, it's been a hugely enjoyable journey and every time I play it, it teaches me new things about music that I probably should have known a long time ago! By the way, the tunings are not set in stone - some players use a mirrored 4ths tuning which makes it easier to play fluid basslines at the expense of losing the open chordal voicings on the bass side and there are various options for the treble side which basically move that whole side up or down one or more tones giving different voicings to the instrument. As well as 10 and 12 strings you can get the SB8 which is a bass-centric 8 string stick generally tuned in familiar 4ths all the way across the neck and shorter scale 10 and 12 stringers - the alto Stick and SG-12. The newest Stick is the Railboard - a radical departure in manufacture with a one piece aluminium neck/ body/ fretboard which has been designed to lower the unit cost of manufacture and so should bring costs down - it's never going to be a cheap instrument though. Check out youtube to see some of the things which can be achieved - my favourite players are guys like Rob Martino, Bob Culbertson Kevin Keith and Guillermo Cides. Hope some of this helps. Cheers Ed

[quote name='lowregisterhead' timestamp='1391977036' post='2363233'] I've never counted, but nothing like that figure! At the moment I have one amp, and one 410. Amps are never the problem, in my experience... [/quote] Correct! Amps just make you louder so that you can hear the difference between all the basses... Cheers Ed

[quote name='BassTractor' timestamp='1391710122' post='2360522'] Hey Rob, From your post it sounds as if you could well live with the VM Precision, so why concentrate on the slight betterness of the others you tried if a Fender type thing is what you're after? After all we're human. [/quote] I would turn that around and ask why you would buy an instrument that didn't feel as nice to you just because it looked Fender- ish? Having said that, we all tend to gravitate to the things that we like the look of and at this point in time we see more Fender type basses than anything else. This is purely to do with fashion and will change in time so I would say don't limit your choices unnecessarily. The more comfy you are, the better you will play and the more you will enjoy. Good luck. Ed

[quote name='iconic' timestamp='1391586015' post='2358756'] Try firefox to clear typing fault. [/quote] Or if you want to keep using IE, click the editor back to plain text (top left button). Typing issues are gone and if you want to put in smileys etc. briefly toggle it back on. Works for IE 11 on Win 8.1

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1391524471' post='2358107'] Then this would probably fit the bill but, er... it's not cheap. [url="http://www.pmtonline.co.uk/takamine-tb10-bass-fretless-cutaway-electro-acoustic-bass-red-stain.html"]http://www.pmtonline.co.uk/takamine-tb10-bass-fretless-cutaway-electro-acoustic-bass-red-stain.html[/url] [/quote] That would indeed be ideal- I've been gassing for a B10 or TB 10 for years now... Very rarely come up secondhand. Alternatively, as well as their extensive range of EUBs, NS Design also offer the Omnibass in four or 5 string versions. It's a 34 inch scale bass which can be played upright or horizontal and can be bowed. Might be the ideal transition? Cheers Ed

I like that a lot... hate Marmite though. Cheers. Ed

[quote name='Fat Rich' timestamp='1389382958' post='2333759'] Swapping them around, whichever bass had the single piece sounded ballsier, whichever bass had the monorails sounded a bit too polite. [/quote] That is very interesting. I have a Status 6 with the individual bridge/ tuners and have struggled to get the sounds from it that I feel it should be capable of. The word I use to describe its tone is... polite! I've changed the preamp and the next thing to try was going to be the pickups but I now wonder if this may be down to the individual bridge pieces. It's not a bad sound- I often get favourable comments on my sound and the Status is no exception here but unlike most of my other basses, it seems to be incapable of being rude and it turns out that I like a bit of rudeness in my basses! Cheers Ed

It's been a long time but back in the late 70's/ early 80's I took a jigsaw to a track two bass and the equivalent 6 string guitar to form a demountable twin neck ala mike Rutherford's demountable Sheregold. I seem to remember that the body core was indeed mahogany but there was a thin layer of ply on the front and back. This was similar construction to an Antoria precision that I still have. DiMarzio pickups for sure and they were decent, workhorse type instruments. Cheers Ed

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1389104261' post='2329968'] I used to share a house with someone who had a Grant copy of the Höfner Violin Bass. I was unlucky enough to have to use it at a gig once... [/quote] Have to step in and stick up for the Grants here, if only because I worked with Jimmy Grant for a spell both in Edinburgh where the business was based and in Glasgow which had the nicer shop! the deals for the year were usually done in February at the Frankfurt Music Messe - a huge international music business trade fair held every year. All the actual Japanese and then Korean etc. manufacturers would have stands there and be showing off their wares for the coming year. As can be seen, catalogues and the like tended to show the unbranded versions so that they could be used by anyone. Haggling over quantities and prices would take place until a mutually agreeable deal was done. The instruments would usually start arriving around the middle of the year. I'm not sure which factories all the Grant guitars were sourced from but I do recall a review of the Grant Telecaster copy in International Musician magazine in which the luthier Stephan Delft basically said that it was identical in every respect (including build quality) to the then current Fender offering. So they weren't all bad. Them were the days! Ed

Ordered a Jazz Bass stack pot control plate and shielding kit from John. He's so quick it was almost sent before I ordered it! Workmanship is exemplary. Outstanding. Ed

[quote name='Philwbass' timestamp='1388951707' post='2328091'] I've had some interesting discussions since writing the article. Interestingly I discovered that it seems ABBA's key studio musicians were not given written music and mostly created their own parts. I've rewritten key sections and added another photo. Ed I have made sure I added the musicals to Rutgers bio too. [url="http://philwbass.com/2014/01/02/the-bassists-of-abba/"]http://philwbass.com/2014/01/02/the-bassists-of-abba/[/url] [/quote] Excellent piece Phil - I'm liking the look of that Hagstrom bass too! I always imagined from Rutger's work that he was one of these players who just sits down and plays. Maybe a chord chart and a few runs through trying different ideas out and then go! He had the ability, musicality and also good taste that let his employers more or less just trust him to get it right. Something like another long standing bass hero of mine - the late great Dee Murray whose work with Elton seems to suggest a similar approach. Cheers Ed

Found this thread too late the first time round... My favourite band of the 70s - saw them a couple of times and they were brilliant. I believe that Annie Haslam and acoustic guitarist/ writer/ composer Michael Dunford were trying to get backing to convert their "Songs of Sheherezade and Other Stories" into a stage musical show. Sadly, Dunford died just over a year ago. Also sad is the fact that whatever bad blood has lingered between Jon Camp and the rest of the band has been strong enough to rule out any kind of reunion for all these years. Think I'll go and dig out the Rick, look for a plectrum and "jam along a Jon" for a few songs this evening! Cheers Ed