discreet

[quote name='Hector' timestamp='1440666936' post='2852764'] You could ask him about his work with Dr. John maybe? Think DA produced his latest album [/quote] 2012's [i]Locked Down[/i] is still one of my faves... great album in every way.

Tempted too, but can't be doing with a 10lb+ bass. And it's not white, so that helps.

Can't do weddings any more. Weddings make everyone mentally ill. Creepy!! The whole function band thing is weird if you ask me. I liked the money (a lot), but all the false bonhomie and audience participation crap really got to me in the end and I had to abandon ship. It's actually a feasible way to become a pro bass player if that's your thing... I just couldn't hack it in the end. *Draws self up to full height* I have to be true to my art, darling! And starve in my garrett! *Orders curry for delivery*

[quote name='Sibob' timestamp='1440608266' post='2852395'] ...from an 'originality' point of view, there are some extra screw holes in the body and scratch plate... do you care? ...probably not. [/quote] Wouldn't bother me in the slightest if it's otherwise a good 'un. The OP's M may V, of course.

[quote name='Sibob' timestamp='1440606304' post='2852371'] ...if there are screw holes on the bass side, then someone has added the treble side thumb rest and the scratch plate might be unoriginal. [/quote] Looking again it seems there are screw holes in the guard for a bass-side rest - one of the holes is now being used as a guard retaining screw hole. If the rest was fitted both those holes would be in use. Check out the rest position on my 76:

Fender also started using Schaller tuners in the mid to late 70s and the shape of the backplates is correct for Schaller. Everything else (apart from the body colour, which you know about) looks fine to me. Someone could easily have fitted a headstock button later. The electrics look right, the logo is right... and the neck/body joins were notoriously crap at that time - my 76 is all over the place, but it sounds great, so... I don't care. Edit: I think that tug-bar should be a thumbrest and be fitted on the bass side, too. Not sure if that moved during 73 or 74, but being Fender no changes have strict time associations, pretty much everything was transitional.

[quote name='Lozz196' timestamp='1440587529' post='2852133'] Agree Mark, in all honesty it`s so close that if I hadn`t had the 3-PRO there I would have thought "bygove, I`ve got it". It really does have the warm rounded quality to the notes but the sheer "whoomph" from the 3-PRO isn`t there on the VT. But then the sheer "whoomph" from an SVT won`t be there on the 3-PRO so it`s all on a grading really. [/quote] Sounds like it could be a good real-world compromise, then. When I did have a big valve amp I'd quite often leave it at home purely because of the weight, so better to be 85% (or whatever) there sound-wise and buy something you're actually going to use. I am actually enjoying my newly-acquired ABM which has good heft - it's 14kg which is do-able. But let's not confuse the issue!

[quote name='Lozz196' timestamp='1440574260' post='2851974'] Ok, tried mine at rehearsal and it is a very good amp. However, as I`ve also just got an Ampeg SVT3-PRO I was trying both out at the same and for me the Ampeg won. The VT 500 is a cracker though, and to anyone wanting to get as near to the Ampeg sound as possible in a small lightweight amp you can`t really go wrong with this. Connected to my Barefaced Super12T there was no problems with volume - as there shouldn`t be with a 500 watt amp of course. Nice "spongey" decay on the sustain and a good solid presence in the mix. If the SVT3-PRO hadn`t come along at a very good price I would have been perfectly happy with the VT 500 but the 3-PRO is more solid in the sound to my ears, with more heft. But then, it`s got 5 pre-amp valves in it, and isn`t a lightweight amp so not really comparing like for like. In terms of the lightweight amps I`d recommend the VT 500, can go from warm rounded Motown to gnarly driven punk-tones in an instant. [/quote] Thanks very much for that, Lozz, seems like it's close to how I imagined it to be. Which is a good thing. But you have also confirmed that which I knew all along, i.e. at some point I will need to buy a heavy box with valves in it if I really want that tone I have in my head.

I was lusting after this earlier today. If it had been a lighter colour I would now be selling kids, kidneys, knackers, and anything else I can get my hands on that begins with 'K'.

[quote name='Bassassin' timestamp='1440458278' post='2851016'] ...you broadly have two choices: anaemic atonal blooping, or frenetic clattering and pinging. [/quote]

Perhaps it was merely a marketing blunder calling it 'speaker sim'... whenever I was using a VT Bass pedal, the speaker sim sounded to me like just another element of the tone of the pedal - I had no problem using a VT Bass with speaker sim through a rig - the sound you get from the pedal is very much addressed by the EQ of whatever amp you're using anyway, in effect you're using two preamps, one before the other. I never thought for a second when using the pedal DI or in the studio it ever sounded like it was actually replicating the 'sound' of a bass being played through a cab. I think people imagine that using the speaker sim with an [i]actual [/i]speaker is 'wrong' in some way, but I really don't think this is the case. If it sounds good, it IS good, and the VT Bass has always sounded good to my ears. Edit: IMHO, of course. YMMV, etc...

[quote name='visog' timestamp='1440444231' post='2850822'] There's a hot chick dressed as a waitress at about 1:20... [/quote] That's our friend the Korean transvestite!

Well I like the guy in the wig... but I'm not that impressed with solo/virtuoso party-piece type bass playing. Yes, it's probably just jealousy as I'm not a virtuoso bass player myself, before anyone else says it...

[quote name='xgsjx' timestamp='1440440157' post='2850762'] Sorry about that. [/quote] Not at all, you are of course entitled to say whatever you want! God knows all comments are welcomed, it's a bit 'tumbleweed' in this forum at the best of times, I've found. And at least everyone knows what they're [i]not [/i]going to do...

[quote name='Lozz196' timestamp='1440439791' post='2850757'] Always difficult to tell at home practice settings/volume, but I reckon I`m going to very pleased with this. [/quote] Very interested to know what you think about this when you've used it in a band setting, Lozz. Thanks for the comments.

[quote name='Annoying Twit' timestamp='1440431933' post='2850670'] It took me a while before I could get past the discussion on eye of the tiger... [/quote] It didn't help! Luckily I'd already pretty much decided on an idea before I read that!

[quote name='ubit' timestamp='1440421548' post='2850520'] The E and the A can get a good angle straight away, it's the D and G that need the tree. So basically, they only needed to put a small tree on. Hasn't caused me any problems since I realised what was happening. [/quote] The D and G are usually OK because of the tree. It's the E and A that are the problem, especially the A, which always has a shallower angle over the nut than the E because it's further away. That's the string that most needs to exit the tuner from as close to the base as possible. I've seen Fender basses with two trees fitted, the second close to the first but fitted between the A and the D strings. Here's another A-string solution...

[quote name='ubit' timestamp='1440269898' post='2849543'] Just in case anyone finds this and you're idea doesn't work [/quote] I'm not guaranteeing success - see my OP. It's also true that it may not be the reason at all and I inadvertently changed some other parameter while blundering about with the bridge screws. There seem to be so many real and imagined reasons for problems on a bass. It's easy to get obsessed with it if one has too much time on one's hands... which I don't of course, I hardly ever get time to be on here much these days.

[quote name='tauzero' timestamp='1440420244' post='2850493'] It does seem strange to me that Fender never changed from the two-string string tree to a bar type design that would give all the strings a similar break angle over the nut. [/quote] They do have a bar-type on some of their basses. And a double-tree affair on one of their five-string models, but the standard one-tree arrangement is pretty crap and you have to go out of your way to ensure a decent break angle over the nut. On the other hand it hasn't been a problem for me for the last forty years or so... I blame BassChat. I probably wouldn't even have realised I had a problem if I hadn't joined...

[quote name='Annoying Twit' timestamp='1440415107' post='2850397'] ...can whoever wins this time please choose a really unchallenging picture for the September contest [/quote] I thought that's what I'd done! I quite often don't enter because I don't like the picture choice!

[quote name='ahpook' timestamp='1440418288' post='2850457'] If they're not the same size as standard jazz pickups then you may need to rout new cavities. [/quote] Quite, the OP may be better off getting some twin-coil J pickups which fit into the same cavities.

[quote name='Lozz196' timestamp='1438173277' post='2832235'] The only amps I`ve disliked has been due to not being powerful enough. I've never used an amp that I couldn't get a sound I was reasonably happy with, but then using a Precision you can get a workable sound from most amps. [/quote] Quite. It's not these amps that are at fault, people - you're playing the wrong basses!! *Hides in wardrobe with wife's panties on head*