Ancient Mariner

I remember asking this question in reverse on here (why doesn't the Jazz have a pickup switch) and being told that bass players find one tone and use it all night. It's not just for clean & dirty, but for tonal variety between different songs and within the same song. I like the neck pickup for big fat clean lead tones and sometimes for picked arpeggios, and the bridge works well for either strumming or more complex chords. The in between setting can be good for some twang/quack sounds (not very quacky by strat standards, but even so) or for a more hollow tone with sparkle and depth. Conversely I owned a Godin Radiator for a while, and that has the same control arrangement as a 3 knob jazz: frankly it was frustrating, because often a different song would need a different tone and it would require fiddling during the first verse or so to get the right settings. Much easier to think "bright tone for this, so use bridge PU, dark tone for this, so neck PU" etc.

[quote name='Count Bassy' timestamp='1328572304' post='1529509'] So how is the sound engineer going to do his job when he hasn't got basic volume control on all the instruments? PA is not amping up low volume elements, it's about control and balance. [/quote] If one defines the sound engineer's job as bringing up the volume of the vocals and possibly keyboards & drums to balance with the bass & guitar then he's doing his job. Some sound engineers *know* that they must have total control and are the only people capable of deciding exactly what the mix should be, while others will work with a band to help them get the best performance in the way that they want. It can be hard to trust a sound engineer to not sod sound up or bury your instrument. PA could well be about amping up low volume elements in order to get balance, if that's how the band wants it to be, but the band should always have control of their sound even if they delegate it to the engineer. It is also necessary sometimes to have substantial volume on stage in order for various speakers to be working properly. There's a story related by Alvin Lee from 10 Years After where, when they were recording their first album they were required to turn down by the sound engineer (wasn't having any of that nonsense like they had with Clapton). As a result he said his guitar was so clean it sounded more like a banjo on the record.

Playability & tone. But it is nice to have a light weight instrument.

I bought Brian's 5 string fretless and forgot to leave him feedback (oops). Really good to deal with and great to meet face to face - thanks Brian, I'm really enjoying it.

Just bought a neck from Will - really good to deal with. Cheers feller.

I wonder how much better that would sound with jazz? Very impressively tight playing. I dunno though - just don't really like that humbucker precision tone - much prefer the single coil sound. It's just too woolly, wubby, hazy for me. Good clip though - thanks for posting.

I had an SPB-2 in a Ryder for a bit, and although it had more character than the original (and a bit of a growl if I picked near the bridge) it sounded a bit woolly and indistinct in a band setting, and didn't carry well - lots of volume close to the cab, but quiet further away. My Jazz carries much better, even when set soft and deep, rather than sharp-edged. Might have been the bass, the amp or the player though.

Yusm massa. I'd like it please.

Very witty BJ. Rennie - there's a minor typo that I didn't spot first time round, suggesting you were offering something different to intended, and I made it worse by asking for Bs.

I could really do with a flatwound B, if you had one in reasonable nick, to go on a Yamaha fretless. Cheers.

I half like it. IIRC they had to stop making the sharkfin headstock because someone else trademarked that shape (possibly showster) which is highly disappointing.

When I was still posting regularly on HC 18 months ago John and Bruce were talking about $1600 for a JBD100 from what I remember, but they were also talking about more affordable line coming out. As for the second last, I think you're correct (the bridge being one of the giveaways). It *looks* like one, but isn't - came up in an image search - and John has so many designs I just assumed it was one I'd not seen before.

That kind of crack is common where the neck screws have been overtightened - the wood deforms slightly and the lacquer cracks. At least one of my strats has a very similar crack.

Since there are some here who appreciate unconventional guitars, I'd like to mention one of my favourite designers - John Backlund. [url="http://www.jbacklund.com/models.html"]http://www.jbacklund.com/models.html[/url] They're not even ridiculously expensive, though I'd need to sell a bit of kit to afford one.

That really should be inflatable. This looks better to my eyes, if a little tacky with the gold:

It won't harm the amp, but there's a very good chance it's be harsh and toppy sounding. An electro-acoustic is OK through a bass amp and my guitar synth sounds OK. However I am a tone snob, and trying one of my electrics through either the Hartke, Laney (or a mate's Peavey TNT) sounds as nasty as running it direct to PA (which is a very nasty thing to do indeed). You'll get away with it generally using a valve amp because of the way it handles frequencies differently from SS, and also because valves provide that bit more compression, generally..

If you need to borrow an amp for a bit I don't mind loaning my Hartke 3500 for a couple of weeks - we're not too far apart.

I really like the look & sound of the excelsior in that demo. A little flabby wound up, but that could probably be tweaked out. Wonder if it's PP or single ended?

Dang! I just realised I haven't looked. Will try to do so tonight. OK, I looked. Sorry feller - I found none and counted 'em twice to make sure. I don't remember selling them, but they weren't in my pickup stash.

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1327432327' post='1511177'] More BRX style guitars... This is my Fretking Esprit V Custom: This was the first custom instrument I ever had especially made for me. I'd just started playing guitar in a band and had been lusting after a Firebird. I had found a reasonably good copy, but I wanted something a bit better and with a usable vibrato system. A guitarist friend suggested that I should check out the new Fretking Esprit. I spotted that they were going to have a stand at the 1998 Mad About Guitars show in Birmingham, so off I went to check them out. The guitars were really nice and played and sounded fantastic, but they were are hard-tail and I really needed a good vibrato system that would stay in tune. No problem I was told, and so we put together a spec for my guitar. It's based on the 2-pickup Esprit V model but with the following upgrades - flame sycamore top with black-bust finish, Floyd-Rose locking vibrato, SD mini-humbiuckers. There's not another one like it in existence. Also it's one of the very early models from when Fretking were still associated with Patrick Eggle and being made in the factory behind Musical Exchanges in Birmingham. It's a great guitar and was my main instrument for a year. However I had caught the custom guitar bug and at the following year's show I was putting down a deposit on my first Gus... [/quote] Now this I LIKE. I've hummed and hahhed over an esprit but one never came together at the right price at the right time. That would be my choice from the Fret King series.

I sold a Carlsbro 50 Top a couple of years back - LOUD and extremely clean.