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[quote name='BigRedX' post='1196522' date='Apr 12 2011, 08:55 AM']Does it have to be a Fender? You could probably get something British or German for less stupid money.[/quote] Oooh interesting ...I am clearly much mistaken in thinking it was pretty much Fender/Gibson/Rickenbacker in 1960. Can you give me a few pointers please?

[quote name='lapolpora' post='1196420' date='Apr 12 2011, 12:45 AM']They've got a '58 Precision in slightly less mint condition for $16500, and a mint '63 Jazz for $25000![/quote] There go any plans to acquire a bass from the year of my birth (per another thread) ...unless Sue Ryder released any earlier models...

[quote name='bh2' post='1191993' date='Apr 7 2011, 05:11 PM']Kind of Blue... bang![/quote] Definitely

Voted; good luck, or should theat be "break a leg"?

[quote name='Machines' post='1194786' date='Apr 10 2011, 05:16 PM']...All of their instruments have codenumbers instead of names, this for me can make them a little sterile in character. Of course there's plenty of other manufacturers doing the same thing, but I think Yamaha could do with giving their instruments some more inspiring names to help with the image. It's the same with a lot of Japanese sports bikes/cars... GT-R, 370Z, MX-5, YZF, CBR, GSR etc... all soulless.[/quote] But some of the Japanes cars that have been "named" have very weird ones that I'm not always sure are to the benefit of the the product They give the bikes quite cool names though. I own a modest RBX270 fretless that I think is great, although I have swapped the pups and rewired the standard VBT to VVT. Oh, and I swapped the bridge as I'm not a fan of BBOT things that Fender use (and others feel they have to copy for some bizarre reason).

Just finished it - great book. On to the next recipient.... Anybidy else want to sign on the list for it?

I think the widely accepted formula for kit is: y = n + 1 where y = the ideal amount of stuff and n = the amount of stuff you currently own.

I see the Aspiration stockist/dealer list is now on the OW site. [url="http://www.overwaterbasses.com/ow_tanglewood/owtan-dealers.html"]http://www.overwaterbasses.com/ow_tanglewo...an-dealers.html[/url]

Thanks Tom Tom, I'll investigate that too!

Cheers Muzz, sounds great, I'll look into it. Just out of interest what are they charging rates wise?

The band are wanting to get a few songs professionally recorded and so we are on the hunt for a studio in the northwest (preferably Lancashire). Does anybody have any experiences good or bad to share please?

One of the band has a Tascam DR (i think) 5 that produces excellent results. Since it's now superceded they should be within your proce bracket.

Can I still be called "an alternative to a bass guitarist" even if I play a 4-string tuned to EADG

I manage to get up to the 16th fret on the G string after which I get nose bleeds.

Yeah +1 to most of the above. I thought it was a waste of ink and paper, and how do you differentiate the bass at 48 from that at 47 (I have no idea what those two instruments are people I'm selecting numbers randomly by way of an illustration, so please don't shout at me ). Even as a list of 65 basses you should try before you die I think it has serious short comings. Not particularly objective it seems to me, I wonder how the editorial team determined the criteria and how they scored it - assuming they went that far.

[quote name='MB1' post='1180329' date='Mar 29 2011, 12:57 AM']MB1. .............Fnarr Fnarr! "In this house we do not use the F word!......This is a Toad!" Specs from the leaflet for the 3 Band EQ Contemporary J.... Machine Head : Deluxe J style. Neck : 4 or 5 string one piece maple/Natural Gloss. Fretboard : Maple/22 Fret/19mm string spacing/38mm nut/Pearl blocks. Body :Lightweight Poplar/Flame Maple Top/Gloss Trans. Backplate :Black Bridge :Overwater Electronics :Active 3 Band/Overwater Soapbars. Controls : Vol (Pull Bright)/Pan/3 Band Eq Strings :Overwater light Gauge Nickel.[/quote] Only slight issue is the Contemporary J actually has a two band EQ (see above a page or two). The knobs go something like Volume (+ pull), pickup blend, bass and treble (or it may be treble and bass - I'm at th'office and hve the long term memory of a goldfish). I have just acquired a black one and am loving it

[quote name='simon1964' post='1177161' date='Mar 26 2011, 01:56 PM']Updated with reasons! 1 Rickenbacker 4003 - because they're cool! 2 An old Precision - because they started it all 3 A good Stingray - because they're the most comfortable bass I've played 4 Steinberger cricket bat - because they're completely different to anything else 5 Something with a graphite neck - because I've never actually tried one but would like to![/quote] I like the look of this list, not to specific and covers a lot of ground. Might I propose that either 2 or 3 be exchanged for "the best boutique bass you can get your friends to let you try" just to see what that segment of the bass building community has to offer?

Thanks for that info. will check it out

Our band started about 5 years ago. The front man left after 2 years. Finding a singer was impossible, although we kept on going as a 3-piece band for a year or so. In a seriously poor piece of timing the singer returned to the fold, and the drummer left on the same day (excellent drummer too). We did find a new drummer (also on this site as he plays bass too) fairly quickly. The original drummer then asked if we would forgive him as it was the worst call he had ever made. A couple of very awkward phone calls later (drummer 2 is a top banana) we are back in the Mark 1 line up. We are all on "are you feeling lucky, punk" type "contracts" now!

[quote name='EddyGlee' post='1169664' date='Mar 20 2011, 04:33 PM']I used there Standard Gauge Nickel Swing Bass Sets years ago and thought they sounded great, and better still they were easy to get hold of, but had to stop using them because of there inconsistency from pack to pack.. had quite a few sets with a dead E string from new, tried using them again years later and found same problem occasionally, so decided it was too much of a risk buying them. don't know much about there other sets but has anyone else found this with there Standard Nickel Swing Bass sets ?[/quote] I'm a reasonably recent convert to Swing Bass Nickel user and so far have not experienced this. I've probably had 3 or 4 sets now; I'll keep an ear open for this happening...

It's got us wondering about doing something similar... Great to hear you had such a positive experience.

I play "clean" 95% of the time, and certainly for all our original material. Occasional use of a distortion pedal if we're doing Time is Running Out by Muse as the intro justs sounds weird without it Other than that I own a Chorus pedal that is in it's box, and I do have a Hartke Bass Attack for its DI ability.

[quote name='Lfalex v1.1' post='1169701' date='Mar 20 2011, 05:07 PM']What I find interesting about Fenders is that (for a long-running, mass-produced item) virtually no two are the same! In terms of features, fit, finish, timber/parts, they all seem to exhibit some differences, and that's ignoring the place of manufacture, strings and any other aftermarket bits and bobs that have found their way onto them (Scratchplates, Bridges, EQs, etc.)[/quote] Hence my observation on quality not necessarily being top of the list. This could cause one to raise an eyebrow as most customer surveys show people rate quality and service abrove price. [quote name='Lfalex v1.1' post='1169701' date='Mar 20 2011, 05:07 PM']It easily justifies its place in the collection, even though it's outnumbered by "better" basses. In the end, you just have to seek out the right one for you. Fortunately, there's so many and so much variety that there's bound to be one that's ideal. Unfortunately, there's so many and so much variety that it may take some time....[/quote] Absolutely, each to their own I think.

Probably worth considering the hard nosed economics of all of this. Pricing is affected by a number of different things, for example: Demand vs Supply curves, input costs, taxes, perceived values, competitors etc. I sounds like the demand/supply is fairly well balanced in that you don't have to wait months for an instrument to be made before you can purchase it. There's also this thing called price elasticity that seeks to describe/model the effect of a price change on demand, so if a small change in price causes a disproportional change in demand, then there is a degree of price in-elasticity, and vice-versa. I think I've got that the right way around as I'm not an economist! I suspect Fender, along with most other commercial organisations, are trying to find the price point just before any further price increases starts to affect demand in a non-linear way. Fender can obviously trade on their history and brand name to keep their prices high (anybody seen a P&L for the Fender subsidiary - that would be quite revealing). Although when you look at some of the BBOT bridges they used (c.f. Rickenbacker awful bridges) then you could suspect that quality has not been the main driver for them in the past. I don't know what the newer high mass bridges are like though. I think it would make for an excellent econimics project for an undergraduate!

[quote name='flip' post='1167399' date='Mar 18 2011, 04:53 PM']Blimey, these look lovely! I see they have lightweight bodies in the specs, what sort of weights are they clocking in at?[/quote] My Contemp Jazz 4 weighs in at 10lbs on my scales.