Chris2112

Jesus wept, that was dire.

The broadneck option was pretty wild. Not just for the 20mm string spacing - not such a big deal - but on the thicker necks the width combined with the huge depth of the neck made for a titantic piece of wood. I assume the early 90's BN models weren't quite like this due to the necks being slimmer front to back and with smaller shoulders back then.

Dear me. I thought the classic car bubble had brought some right tat to the surface but this takes the cake. That said, in amongst the usual great selection of basses at The Gallery they have loads of naff old Fenders at wild prices too.

I love Thumbs. I generally find they have a better tone than a Stingray and also balance well so long as you wear them high. They are heavy though.

I saw this a while back and it blew me away!

Was that blue Jazz a Warmoth build part of a pair formerly belonging to a BassyBill of these parts?

This sort of cringe-inducing business speak is everywhere now but this advert is a particularly egregious example of this waffle. The whole thing bumbled on for so long with this tortured nonsense whilst having very little to say about the role really entailed, which leaves me to think at this point, that may still be ill-defined. I note the advert states in a roundabout way that no employee can argue that a task is outside of their remit, so they're probably still drawing up a list of boring business tasks to blast over to the successful applicant. SBL has indeed enjoyed a meteoric rise in popularity the past few years, so it is probably more and more in need of business staff. Whether or not they can attract the best with an advert that bad remains to be seen.

I've got a couple of packs of these at home and I am really looking forward to getting them finished and away! I presume you've tried them before to know if you like them? I really hate the rough feel of them (and I say this as someone who exclusively plays rounds and has no time for flats or other rubbish, elastic band type strings). I've got a set on my Bogart Blackstone at the moment and I can barely be enthused to change them out for the next set of Warwick Red Labels. They seem to go dead so quickly too, which is unusual for me as I don't really get sweaty hands and so my strings tend to do alright. There is certainly a place in the market for cheap, effective bass strings but these aren't it for me. I remember trying some 'Elites' out a few years ago that were about half the price of everything else on the shelf (weren't they a Bass Centre own brand at one point?). I'll stick to Spector and DR in future, I think...

It all started for me when I was 13 (I had just turned 13 in October). It was Christmas 2001 and my dad had been at work during the day, so he didn't come home until after six in the evening. By then, I thought I had all my presents. I had received a 'Hot Licks' VHS instruction tape earlier in the day with Stuart Hamm on it, as I had been talking about wanting to learn to play bass for a while. Later that evening, when my dad got home, I was summoned through to the dining room where I found my dad waiting with a Hartke B-15 amp and bass starter pack. I didn't really know what to do with it, but it was my first step to getting started and it was really the beginning of my second great love. With my dad's encouragement, and later some of my own pocket money and some cash from my grandmother, I bought my first serious instrument, an Ibanez BTB405QM, when I was 14. That was the instrument that took me from barely being able to get a few notes out to being able to play to a reasonable standard. That saw me through two good years of playing and the next bass I moved to was a 1989 Kubicki Ex Factor that I got when I was 16 for £650 through this very forum. I really should thank my dad more for the gift he gave me. My two greatest passions, computer gaming and listening to and making music, all came through him and his influence.

Sounds like an utterly cack lineup of awful acts for the feckless masses. Typical Glasto then.

They can indeed, but I get the impression that Pedulla Guitars was a very personal thing to Michael. I don't think he has ever commented on the possibility of handing it over. I don't blame him for saying 'that's it's. Effectively, he has closed his shop having had the final say on every instrument to bear his name.

There was a period between the late 80's and early 2000's when he was running a team. Notably, he took a contract with guitar centre during this time which is how his basses made it to all corners of America. I believe the team was between 10-15 strong with individual luthiers working on separate processes. Michael continued to work in the shop but apparently felt that the management side of things had taken him away from the start-to-finish build process, so he cut production back to working on his own again. As far as I know, in the later years he worked entirely alone and his wife did all the admin work. He did very, very well to maintain such a close relationship with his instruments over the years and to have personally overseen each build. His works over the last few years have really seen him demonstrating the most absolute attention to detail and reaching for the most stunning pieces of wood in his store. No-one in the business can do a finish like Pedulla. His dedication to solid wings of figured maple is also commendable, there are so many Buzz and MVP's out there with stunning figured wings.

I think so. I know a few other builders around the same age have established continuity plans to keep the legacy going (Ken Smith handing over to Brubaker, Spector handing over to Korg etc). I don't think there is anything like that in place with Pedulla and I assume it's a case of Mike finishing out his booked in work and sailing off into the sunset. We will need to turn to our trusted local techs for work in future.

To those who may be interested to know, Michael Pedulla has announced his retirement after 45 years in the business of building bass guitars. An announcement was made today via the www.pedulla.com website. I speak for the bass community as a whole in saying that to have been regarded as Mike has, being one of the best luthiers in the world for such a period of time and with so many changes to the industry, is commendable. Personally, I hope he enjoys his well-earned retirement. I would like to extend my thanks personally to Mike and Christine Pedulla for all the hard work they've put in over the years and for bringing us such tremendous instruments. I first played a Pedulla bass at the age of 17 or 18, whilst working at the Marriott hotel in Gosforth. I've told this story many times but the upshot was that I decided there and then that I had to own a Pentabuzz at some point and I finally got there in 2017, a decade later. I have never played another fretless as good as this. Truly, bass nirvana for me.

I always thought he did a top job on the Van Halen records. Really rock solid playing.

I was never really a fan of the Buzzard shape but I will admit that it is a stunning piece of construction in full-graphite Status form with Roman numeral inlays and gold strings. The story of it's extinction is one I have taken a great deal of interest in as a former Status Graphite owner and longtime enthusiast. I understand that, following legal threats from Warwick, Rob Green was forced to destroy the moulds and the tooling cost alone would mean they will never be made again (never mind the legal trouble that could cause). I have sought information over the years that would lend more clarity to this account, but it seems relatively thin on the ground. I understand the subject is no longer up for discussion from Rob Green (and I do not blame him at all for laying this matter to rest). What I still want to know is: Is it correct that the Buzzard shape and name is now property of Warwick and if so, how did that come to be? When did Warwick first challenge Status over the production of the Buzzard? What was the nature of their complaint and the threat over non-compliance? What plans have Warwick, if any, for future production of Warwick Buzzards? Will Alembic still make a Buzzard shape if asked? How many Status Buzzards were made and where did they all end up? I would love answers to these questions. If anyone has any knowledge on this and would prefer not to post publicly then please PM me.

I suppose that I could sit all day and list great rhythm sections but I always thought that Jeff Berlin and Steve Smith were an absolutely killer combo. I know most listeners would think of Bill Bruford as being the obvious choice and it's fair to say that he and Jeff certainly kicked donkey together (just listen to the live concerts of Jeff, Bruford and Kazumi Watanabe). But I always felt that Steve Smith gave loads of of punch and power when he was locked in with Jeff. There was just something about the way that they could catch each other's accents and really nail the parts. I would also nominate Bunny Brunel and Dennis Chambers as another amazing rhythm section. Their work on the first two CAB records in the Chambers/MacAlpine/Brunel group was amazing. Dennis is rightly respected as the drummer's drummer. I believe there may be no finer drummer around today. Even Jeff Berlin spoke of the learning experience in playing with Dennis and what a challenge it can be to find the one with such a sensational drummer who can displace beats all day. On the CAB records, Bunny plays super silky lines that leave loads of space for Dennis to really let fly on his kit. The effect is sensational. I think CAB are surely one of the most underrated fusion groups around and are well worth a listen.

Probably George Michael. You just expect these larger-than-life talents to live forever.

What a terrible shame. He will be remembered by the tremendous music that he was such a big part of. My thoughts are with his friends and family.

An interesting bass indeed. I'll admit that I have never been keen on either Buzzard shape but I always found this slightly blobby-looking thing a bit unusual, because the body and the headstock are so entirely different. With regard to the string angles leaving the nut, I agree that straight would naturally seem to be the best but I've played and owned plenty of basses over the years that have had the strings diverge from nut to tuner without any issues in setup or tuning.

The wood selection definitely says 'Empathy' to me, they're usually adorned with really great topwood.