Whoopsie-daisies... New Bass Day

[Flash Harry]

You have to get rounds on, harden your fingers up, make that baby growl, she's built for tone, not for comfort!

[AndyR]

But... but...

We'll see. I wanna see how it goes with drums and stuff in the Broom-cupboard first... Loving how it sounds at the moment. But from trying various in the shop, I do know it is currently lacking some of the growl potential it has...

Bear in mind that I'm the sort of guitarist who prefers deadened strings to sparkly new ones. And I was on the lookout for a woody SIXTIES Jazz when this jumped into my hands!

It has already been doing that snappy boinga-boinga-boinga-bong 70's octave bass line thing, though... I tried to keep a straight face while doing it, but sadly this was not possible.

I do also feel like I should be playing porno-film music with it... but I'm gradually getting over this...

[Flash Harry]

My fingers are still throbbing from last nights gig. At least they have stopped bleeding...

Warm up with a bit of disco, you know it makes sense!

But seriously, the Jazz is such a flexible bass, it has the mellow deep tones and the sparkly snappy tones all in one instrument, Jaco and Geddy and Marcus have shown us the way. As has Sid. I prefer it to the Precision. My American Deluxe is my absolute favourite.

[AndyR]

Aha! I discovered, while tidying up last night, and putting my basses to bed in the Broom-cupboard, that the strings on the new Jazz are somewhat different than the strings on the fretless Jazz...

They're not flats, or not flats like I've known so far...

What first drew my attention is that they're shinier. They also have some profile/definition. They are less smooth than the flats, but FEEL smoother, does that make sense?

It doesn't look like they've been ground down or anything... I was assuming, er, "half-rounds"... but now I'm confused...

Trying to find out what on earth they are. Cos I want them on my other basses now!

[Greeny]

Ooh - that's a beauty. Be still my quivering GAS... !

[AndyR]

... this one's discontinued apparently... so you're OK

But there is a very similar American Vintage 74 Re-issue now (a colleague at work has been GASing for one). Sounds like big holes in pockets time, to me...

The 74 has a four-bolt neck (75 is 3 with micro-tilt), and you can have the pearl block markers on the maple fingerboard... (actually, I prefer the black).