70's Punk - whats the ideal bass ?

[PaulWarning]

31 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

Every clip i've watched live he's used a P or in one clip it was a P shape but pickguard was an odd shape and i couldn't see the pick up config. Looked like a Gibson Victory bass i think it was called.

Was looking at 70's and 80's clips. Here's the 80's one. The 70's one was a white P bass. Also seen him with a white Guild and a violin bass on the clips i've watched.

After a wee google search these might not be Paul Gray ????

 

 

they're not Paul Gray, on the OGWT Annie Nightingale says there's a new bass play Alister Ward

[Marky L]

38 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

Every clip i've watched live he's used a P or in one clip it was a P shape but pickguard was an odd shape and i couldn't see the pick up config. Looked like a Gibson Victory bass i think it was called.

Was looking at 70's and 80's clips. Here's the 80's one. The 70's one was a white P bass. Also seen him with a white Guild and a violin bass on the clips i've watched.

After a wee google search these might not be Paul Gray ????

 

 

The first clip is Bryn Merrick (sadly no longer with us). The second clip (which is for me the very distillation of The Damned live chaos in those earlier days) is Algy Ward. My fave band ❤️

Edited October 6, 2021 by Marky L

[StickyDBRmf]

Um. Reworked Fender fretless. Like, the body was original. Mighty Mite Ebony fretless fingerboard, DiMarzio pu's, brass bridge, nut, pickgaurd, D'Addario roundwounds nickle 100-45, Roland pre-amp into Peavey 400 Poweramp into 2 Cerwin Vega 2-12's. beach rig did everything from PiL to Human Sexual Response to Brand X to Material. Also a Ibanez 8-string (made fretless w/ a claw hammer). Original music, the Sound of the World Ending. Punk?

[Marky L]

52 minutes ago, i.clarke said:

 

Always played a ric during his time with the damned .. apart from the early 90’s when he rejoined when he used his thunderbird .. there’s the odd YouTube of him playing someone else’s gear but that when he did the odd song here and there as a guest 

And also always with Eddie & The Hot Rods except for in the very early days when he had a Jazz of some sorts. There is a clip of them on YTube with him using the Jazz.
Sorry, bit of a fan boy here!

Edited October 6, 2021 by Marky L

[Lozz196]

Thing to think about with punk, back then not too much choice plus for many of the bands, being young & being handed quite large sums of money to get “proper” instruments Fender, Gibson & Rickenbacker were always likely targets. I remember hearing an interview with Mick Jones of The Clash saying the one thing many of them didn’t want was a Marshall as that to them signified the “old rock” that they were trying to get away from. Probably accounts for why punk back then was quite “tinny” in its sound (on the guitars).

[SteveXFR]

I know some punk bassists don't actually pick hard at all. They use a thin, flexible pick and pick through the strings for a consistent tone while playing fast. 

I'm not sure if they all play like that but some certainly do. I do because it's easy on the hand and sounds good.

[4000]

The above is Paul Gray. Plays Rics and TBirds. Nice bloke, chatted to him once. As per other posts, The Damned have had a few bassists, including Captain Sensible. 
 

The guy with the P was indeed Algy Ward, who went on to form Tank, who I saw supporting Motorhead a couple of times. 

[Marky L]

Well here we are. A punk Ric with credentials. Anyone got a few quid spare??

 

https://www.christies.com/lot/lot-6338692?ldp_breadcrumb=back&intObjectID=6338692&from=salessummary&lid=1&fbclid=IwAR0PlMbF2RiwCnKAL_P1HuzVxiWNBRe-ppEoIU9X_fldriHvqGNo1_MfPgQ

[Stub Mandrel]

3 hours ago, Supernaut said:

7 hours ago, NancyJohnson said:

 

Leamington Spa's most famous band. 

 

Disagree.

 

 

Not very punk, but we were from Royal Leamington Spa!

[dmccombe7]

2 hours ago, StickyDBRmf said:

Um. Reworked Fender fretless. Like, the body was original. Mighty Mite Ebony fretless fingerboard, DiMarzio pu's, brass bridge, nut, pickgaurd, D'Addario roundwounds nickle 100-45, Roland pre-amp into Peavey 400 Poweramp into 2 Cerwin Vega 2-12's. beach rig did everything from PiL to Human Sexual Response to Brand X to Material. Also a Ibanez 8-string (made fretless w/ a claw hammer). Original music, the Sound of the World Ending. Punk?

Is that what you are using @StickyDBRmf

In the 80's i had a Fender Jazz into a Roland Pre-amp and then bi-amped into 2off Matamp all tube power amps and into 2 off custom flightcased cabs. A 210 and a 15 reflex. Was an almighty tone but one of the Matamps caught fire one night while i was playing and the roadie went to switch it off and got a belt from it. He was ok and yanked the mains cable out. Luckily i was DI'd from the Roland to FOH. Not sure whether the Roland saved my bacon that night or not. 

Dave 

[dmccombe7]

3 hours ago, Musicman666 said:

Safe bet is to get a pbass with the jazz bass pickup so it looks the part and covers a lot of ground sonically, hopefully quite cheap so you can knock it about a bit.

I have one but i find the PJ basses just dont cut it to be honest. With full P position they just never sound like a proper P bass. 

I had a fretless P bass back in early 80's and really liked it.

Dave

[Stub Mandrel]

52 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

I have one but i find the PJ basses just dont cut it to be honest. With full P position they just never sound like a proper P bass. 

I had a fretless P bass back in early 80's and really liked it.

Dave

 

I rebodied a P bass, with a PJ body yesterday, and it sounded totally gutless. Today I realised that the two 100k volume pots were 10K, so effectively 5K across the P pickup.

 

I've ordered a pair of 250K pots which should sort it. You could argue the ideal would be fitting two 500K pots, then the arrangement would be electrically identical to a P with the J pup wound right back.

 

I don't buy that the J-pup 'damps' the strings to any audible degree.

Edited October 6, 2021 by Stub Mandrel

[dmccombe7]

Mine is a Deluxe P bass MIM active version. Always wondered how the passive ones would sound.

Dave

[Stub Mandrel]

5 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

Mine is a Deluxe P bass MIM active version. Always wondered how the passive ones would sound.

Dave

 

I don't get on with active basses, on the whole. The longer I've been playing, the flatter I set my EQ and my feeling is active basses just do badly what the amp's equalisation does well. YMMV.

[i.clarke]

3 hours ago, Marky L said:

And also always with Eddie & The Hot Rods except for in the very early days when he had a Jazz of some sorts. There is a clip of them on YTube with him using the Jazz.
Sorry, bit of a fan boy here!

He swapped the jazz as I recall .. for the mapleglo ric owned by the bassist from sparks.. which ended up yellow 

 

[i.clarke]

3 hours ago, SteveXFR said:

I know some punk bassists don't actually pick hard at all. They use a thin, flexible pick and pick through the strings for a consistent tone while playing fast. 

I'm not sure if they all play like that but some certainly do. I do because it's easy on the hand and sounds good.

I’ve always used a .46 even my guitarist friends don’t use anything nearly as thin but you get so much more control I find. I use the same for guitar also 

Edited October 6, 2021 by i.clarke

[dmccombe7]

Ran thru the songs earlier today and used a pick on a lot of them so i'm gonna keep at it. The trick of locking my arm and just move from the wrist works really well and i was able to improve on the speed quite a bit.

Some songs i'm just far happier using fingerstyle so i'll just swap styles when one gets a bit achy.

Dave

[i.clarke]

2 hours ago, 4000 said:

The above is Paul Gray. Plays Rics and TBirds. Nice bloke, chatted to him once. As per other posts, The Damned have had a few bassists, including Captain Sensible. 
 

The guy with the P was indeed Algy Ward, who went on to form Tank, who I saw supporting Motorhead a couple of times. 

and the guy on the other P was the late Bryn Merrick ... who also played a guild when he first joined

[i.clarke]

4 hours ago, PaulWarning said:

they're not Paul Gray, on the OGWT Annie Nightingale says there's a new bass play Alister Ward

Bryn Merrick on the 1st vid and Algy ward on OGWT

[3below]

Being a chappie who was around and youthfully playing in bands in that era I am surprised that Dimarzios, Mighty Mites,  brass nuts and bridges have not been mentioned yet. I did both the P bass and Ric thing in the late 70s /early 80s.  Both worked well (no surprises there) with Marshalls and Hiwatts. For a good all round bass to cover it these days, G&L SB1, the mfd pickup will do aggression/rude very well, P on steroids  You can even get 'authentic vintage' 1980s examples at sensible money.

Edited October 6, 2021 by 3below

[i.clarke]

4 minutes ago, 3below said:

Being a chappie who was around and youthfully playing in bands in that era I am surprised that Dimarzios, brass nuts and bridges have not been mentioned yet. I did both the P bass and Rick thing in the late 70s /early 80s.  Both worked well (no surprises there) with Marshalls and Hiwatts. For a good all round bass G&L SB1, the mfd pickup can do aggression/rude very well, P on steroids

I had an L2000E that could do a very mean Precision ... I did this with it for a friend https://thedyinglights1.bandcamp.com/track/masquerade-2  This is the neck pickup only ... which was only half working too

Edited October 6, 2021 by i.clarke

[SteveXFR]

23 minutes ago, i.clarke said:

I’ve always used a .46 even my guitarist friends don’t use anything nearly as thin but you get so much more control I find. I use the same for guitar also 

 

I find it odd that the only bass specific picks I've seen are really thick and rigid but that's the opposite to what seems to work best

[i.clarke]

4 minutes ago, SteveXFR said:

 

I find it odd that the only bass specific picks I've seen are really thick and rigid but that's the opposite to what seems to work best

You're quite right .. I use 45-90 strings also which helps somewhat. Although , on the odd occasion i'm using a bass with heavier strings you can tell a little more 'stiff' is probably required in the plectrum department I'd never use anything more than .60 ... That's how I roll but thankfully we're all different

 

Edited October 6, 2021 by i.clarke

[dmccombe7]

1 minute ago, SteveXFR said:

 

I find it odd that the only bass specific picks I've seen are really thick and rigid but that's the opposite to what seems to work best

I bought a pack from Amazon few weeks back that are not too thick. Have a bit of flex in them but also rubber grips on each side so they dont slip when holding.

I have a range of different picks from when i first started back in 70's including my very firsy that came with my  columbas Jazz and its a very heavy solid tortosie shell one.

 

[dmccombe7]

I'm using 40-100 nickel rounds