Chris2112

For me, John is one the greats of fretless bass playing, alongside Jaco and Bakithi Kumalo. He just has such a wonderful vocal thing going on. Never before have I heard someone so able to make the bass sound like a human voice and he really can get right inside the instrument and make it touch your heart, which is incredible. His playing on Kate Bush's "Wuthering Heights" is my favourite of his. I only wish I liked the rest of Kate's stuff so I could hear more of him! He is cruelly underrated! The phrase in this at 02:24 is so powerful and perfect it is heartbreaking. Absolutely incredible.

Aye, I had heard he had done his back and hands in due to his atrocious technique on the drums! Doesn't look comfortable at all!

[quote name='Paul S' post='917695' date='Aug 7 2010, 08:49 AM']Here it is (well, half of it) in action last month, together with a bit of a bass face: [attachment=55938:Stanford...030710rc.jpg][/quote] Thats one flat EQ!

My Kubicki Ex Factor is 32" scale. You don't really notice the difference apart from on the body, where the gap between the bridge and neck is noticeably smaller. In terms of tension, the 2" difference seems minimal and it doesn't feel loose or flappy whatsoever. So for me, it's something that works very well.

I've been playing through a Trace Elliot rig for years now. I had Ashdown Electric Blue stuff before that and while it was ok at the time, it was blown away by this Trace Elliot rig. The head, a GP7SM 300, cost me £100 and the cab cost me £250. I fancy getting a Hartke head just for a change of tone but this stuff works really well - sounds incredible and never fails! It weighs a ton but it always delivers, and thats whats important to me.

I've not had any trouble with mine, perhaps the wires in yours were loose? There is a little bit of "normal" singlecoil hum but it's certainly quieter than my Vintage Modified Fretless and Classic Vibe jazz were!

[quote name='GremlinAndy' post='813409' date='Apr 21 2010, 09:22 AM']They've had £2000 of mine for 7 months or thereabouts and I don't even get mails to say that nothing is happening yet with my bass... just cold silence. Rubbish.[/quote] You're getting a Hyper bass for £2000?

I got this Hohner jazz bass for £90 a couple of years ago! I think says "HZ" on the headstock. Bought it on a whim as it was so cheap, never regretted it. At the time I had a Squier Vintage Modified jazz bass which was good, but this was much better. It's heavier, for a start and has a much thicker, middier tone, whereas the VM could be a bit thin and clangy. The Hohner felt much closer to a Fender in terms of weight and tone. It had an ebonol fretboard too much like the Squier. I eventually took the scratchplate off and I prefered the look then. I had a good bit play with it before my fretless Sabre and fretless Alembic came along and relegated it!

Yes, I too had heard of the build quality issues. Stuff like necks delaminating and frets popping out. Poor fretwork I hear was a big issue, which for a run of 42 basses, must mean there are a few bad eggs! Mark was using them live for the Night at the Proms shows in the late 90's along with his GB basses. His tone was truely dreadful with both of those basses! Thats reason enough to avoid them! Mark must have been going through a funny patch!

I was just discussing Hartke amps with Stuart Hamm the other day, as he's been a user of them for a long time. He likes them, I like his sound (we're both Kubicki players!) so I'm thinking of getting a 3500 as an alternative to my Trace Elliot head.

[quote name='wombatboter' post='903008' date='Jul 23 2010, 11:35 AM']I recorded a short medley of two "Shadows"-themes with my Wal bass... the soundquality is not superb and the playing could be better but it was just for fun :-) Don't know how to embed so here's the link.. [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYppWzAVsWY&translated=1"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYppWzAVsWY&translated=1[/url][/quote] "Apache" was the first song I ever played live! Although without the solo bass arrangement, of course!

My thoughts are always with putting a new board on rather than defretting. A decent job on a defret (frets skilfully removed and replaced with "lines" made of maple, say) is a big job that only very talented luthiers can pull off. As Howard has said, the inlays may also frustrate the process.

Looks funky, but I always think EB made Musicman basses even better, and certainly more consistent in terms of quality! But if it plays and sounds as good as it looks, hubba hubba...get some fusion cranked out of that!

I always thought the "stack knob" configuration on those jazz basses was a good idea, surprised it didn't catch on!

[quote name='Wil' post='912903' date='Aug 2 2010, 03:39 PM']If there is an uglier bass than the non reverse thunderbird, I've yet to see it.[/quote] I know, the Thunderbird is bad enough, but reversed...yuck.

Wow, do you remember when Feeder knew how to rock?

For me, I'd have to go with the Rumour by default, as I can never get over how naff Mark King's Spitfire sounded on the "Ohne Filter" dvd.

Yes, it sounds like you were jamming with tools, I'd start jamming with friends who won't judge you first of all.

Didn't Guy used to play Status basses? I'll be honest, I hope it was the room sounding dire in the video, because the video itself does the bass no favours at all!

The OP's post is so poorly typed it is excruciating to read. Lol.

The bass solo at 02:40 in this blows me away...absolutely incredible. And the bass solo in this is jaw-droppingly cool. Incredible fusion...03:40 for this one.

No problems with this one!

[quote name='Big_Stu' post='907147' date='Jul 27 2010, 02:41 PM']Interesting enough piece, thanks for the link. Strange no mention of the Jaydees that he used for so long, or do you think there was a bit of brand promo going on there?[/quote] I think in the grand scheme of things, Mark didn't really use Jaydee that long - they practically vanished after 1988 when he got his hands on his Alembics, supplementing the Status basses he had. I think it's just because Mark used them a lot back when the band were getting bigger and bigger and so many people remember that. If you look, the basses Mark has used longest continually would appear to be his Status basses post millenium, I think he's played them exclusively for ten years now after coming from those slightly iffy Jazz basses and GB basses (which just never sounded too good IMO). Nice to see "Return of the handsome rugged man" mentioned, I love that track. Really good interview too, Mark is as humble as always! If anything though, it just makes me think - will there ever be another bassist who has as much cool as Mark King? I don't know. When I think of bass playing glory, it's always with a high tech Mark King-esque bass slung high on a short strap, rattling out machine gun slap lines over a fusion drummer and a supportivev synth player.

Aye, his name's Steve and he's from Manchester. From the conversations I've had with him, I recall he said he was in a band but now prefers to do his own thing, which is exactly what he does! And he's very good at it too! Most of our conversations end up with us talking about my Alembic, but I always stop and say hello to him.