Geddy's Lee's Big Beautiful Book of Bass

[arthurhenry]

5 minutes ago, Wilco said:

I’ve only had a cursory glance at it so far, but one page I wanted to get to was about his ‘72 Jazz.

Interesting comment about Badass bridges on that one, basically saying they make bugger all difference on Fenders over the stock BBOT.

Many of us will have formed an opinion over the years on the value of a high mass bridge on a Fender, but from a player of that amount of experience with loads of Jazz’s to compare against, is that the definitive answer?

In this 2007 video, he clearly states that he notices a difference in sustain. He seems to have changed his mind since having so many others with which to compare.

 

Edited December 27, 2018 by arthurhenry

[Wilco]

16 minutes ago, arthurhenry said:

In this 2007 video, he clearly states that he notices a difference in sustain. He seems to have changed his mind since having so many others with which to compare.

 

In the book he says he used them on his Rickenbackers & he did notice a sustain difference on those. That probably drove his opinion then, but as you say, having so many Jazz’s to compare to now must have changed his mind.

[arthurhenry]

One notable omission from his collection is the second (humbucker equipped) version of the Tele bass. He does say he likes the sound of the Gibson humbucker, so a mark II Tele should be purchased, I think! Also, I take issue with the claim that Pink Floyd's Money was the first and only hit single in 7/4. Surely the first was All You Need is Love?

Edited December 27, 2018 by arthurhenry

[afterimage]

http://loudwire.com/rush-geddy-lee-not-done-playing-live/

[PatrickJ]

Currently £16 on Amazon, all be it with a 4-6 week estimated delivery time.  I just ordered :).

Edited December 30, 2018 by PJ-Bassist

[visog]

10 minutes ago, PJ-Bassist said:

Currently £16 on Amazon, all be it with a 4-6 week estimated delivery time.  I just ordered :).

£16! Balls! I spunked £18.51... £2.51 I'll never see again. Curse you to hell Amazon. 

PS. What's going on with Amazon's pricing algorithm?

[NoirBass]

Cheers for the heads up, now ordered. 

[jacko]

£16.64 on amazon this morning. Happily coincided with my Christmas amazon voucher which also covered the cost of Kathryn Tickell's Water of Tyne.  Result !

[LeftyJ]

On 25/12/2018 at 11:27, LeftyJ said:

Just ordered it through Amazon UK too. Considerably cheaper than here in the Netherlands. 

Not here yet 🙄

Anyone else still waiting? 

[cetera]

32 minutes ago, LeftyJ said:

Not here yet 🙄

Anyone else still waiting? 

Yep....! Mine says "Expected by 26 Jan"

Edited January 21, 2019 by cetera

[Monkey Steve]

7 minutes ago, LeftyJ said:

Not here yet 🙄

Anyone else still waiting? 

I note that Amazon now show it as available within 1-2 months, so basically it's not in stock and they're not sure when they're getting any more.

You might be OK, but Amazon do have a habit of doing this and then sending you a slow and steady stream if e-mails saying that they aren't sure when they'll have it and you might want to cancel your order and find it elsewhere.  I had an order for a load of lightscribe CDRs that was open for about two years before they eventually admitted that they weren't going to be getting any more.

[Steve Browning]

On 27/12/2018 at 12:38, arthurhenry said:

One notable omission from his collection is the second (humbucker equipped) version of the Tele bass. He does say he likes the sound of the Gibson humbucker, so a mark II Tele should be purchased, I think! Also, I take issue with the claim that Pink Floyd's Money was the first and only hit single in 7/4. Surely the first was All You Need is Love?

Also the middle of Music by John Miles.

[PatrickJ]

Order status for mine says it will be delivered at somepoint between the 21st Jan to 18th Feb.  We shall see.

[dmccombe7]

4th - 26th January was the given delivery for mine.

Dave

[jonsmith]

Geddy Lee said in a recent interview that it was on its second printing, so hopefully it will soon be in stock for those of you who are waiting.  It's an excellent book & well worth these prices.

 

I'm amazed that Geddy felt the need for a Badass to give him better sustain on a Rickenbacker.  I know the Rick bridge is pretty cumbersome, but despite its flaws I've never had a sustain issue on a Rick (in fact I can't recall sustain issues on any bass I've owned).  I wonder if the real driver at the time was his desire for a bit more bottom end - something he has complained about despite subsequently using a much thinner tone just after he went off the Rickenbackers.  He probably didn't know about the bridge pickup capacitor bypass trick at the time, though I'm sure he or his bass tech must be aware of it now.

 

 

[Monkey Steve]

11 minutes ago, jonsmith said:

Geddy Lee said in a recent interview that it was on its second printing, so hopefully it will soon be in stock for those of you who are waiting.  It's an excellent book & well worth these prices.

 

I'm amazed that Geddy felt the need for a Badass to give him better sustain on a Rickenbacker.  I know the Rick bridge is pretty cumbersome, but despite its flaws I've never had a sustain issue on a Rick (in fact I can't recall sustain issues on any bass I've owned).  I wonder if the real driver at the time was his desire for a bit more bottom end - something he has complained about despite subsequently using a much thinner tone just after he went off the Rickenbackers.  He probably didn't know about the bridge pickup capacitor bypass trick at the time, though I'm sure he or his bass tech must be aware of it now.

 

 

I've only skimmed through my copy, but I'm pretty sure he says that having been convinced at the time that the Badass improved the sustain, he now thinks he was probably wrong about it

[Daz39]

22 minutes ago, Monkey Steve said:

I've only skimmed through my copy, but I'm pretty sure he says that having been convinced at the time that the Badass improved the sustain, he now thinks he was probably wrong about it

Nobody tell him about tone woods then!! Srsly though, if he thought it worked for him then it did - most of the hardware stuff has more than a pinch of psychosomatic benefit about it.

Still awaiting mine - currently says I'll get it by the 30th.

[Monkey Steve]

3 minutes ago, Daz39 said:

Nobody tell him about tone woods then!! Srsly though, if he thought it worked for him then it did - most of the hardware stuff has more than a pinch of psychosomatic benefit about it.

Still awaiting mine - currently says I'll get it by the 30th.

Having heard an interview with him about the book, he does seem to have spent the last few years obsessively playing his basses to compare and contrast the tone (and the book has a comparison of basses for every year of Fender Jazz production over the time period to see whether he can hear the differences) so I wonder if he either had one where it did improve the tone back in the day so he defaulted to changing the bridge/tailpiece without ever checking the individual instruments, or if the snake oil of magic extra sustain has worn off.  Or, you know, drugs.  Perhaps I should read what he's saying properly then...

[Geek99]

But different instruments from the same year of exactly the same model made in the same factory on the same line by the same crew of people under the same environmental conditions sound different anyway. Even these days with CNC you need to try a few to find the best one 

 

Does he not have enough to fill his days ? 

 

 

[ubit]

I'll have to wait until next payday as I'm all skint after Crimbo! ☹️

[arthurhenry]

3 hours ago, Geek99 said:

Does he not have enough to fill his days ? 

He has mentioned that he found working on the book  cathartic and a good way of keeping busy after Rush ended.

[Dad3353]

My order says 30th January. 

[ForestPoetry]

Don't have mine yet either. Forgotten I'd even ordered it tbh. Waiting a month now.

[Aidan63]

Mine says expected 15th February

[spongebob]

Back up to £21.50 now.

Couple of weeks back, it went down further to just over £16. I cancelled my £18 order, and re-pre-ordered at the even lower price!

Agreed, I'm a right old tight wad to save a couple of quid! 🤑