One bass, two bass ...

[EddiePlaysBass]

Last Tuesday I bit the bullet and went out to get a Squier Classic Vibe 50's Precision bass. I wanted a Precision, I wanted a 4 string and I wanted a passive budget bass to use as a backup for gigs with the blues band. This baby delivers the goods

 

Setup was horrible, and I mean absolutely horrible. The neck had an incredible bow which I have since straightened a good bit (thank you Gary Willis). Now I still need to get the intonation fixed but I think the neck requires a wee bit of additional tweaking first.

 

Feel-wise it felt like going home. I have not played a 4-string in 7 or so years, save the occasional tinkering about with someone else's bass. It actually took me five minutes to get used to the lack of a low B but about an hour's worth of practice cured that The bass felt incredibly comfortable to these hands of mine, which was my main concern.

 

Tone-wise it is full, deep and boomy as you would expect a P to sound. The pickup does not seem to do much: if you close the tone volume completely the bass sounds dark and boomy. If you open it all the way, it sounds bright and boomy Perhaps I need to work with the volume control in order to get different sounds? Mind you, this bass is far from a one-trick pony: moving your plucking hand changes the tone considerably, as we all know. Played with a pick, you get an agressive, in-your-face bass tone that will sit well in any kind of mix. And it lends itself to slapping oh so well too.

 

Perhaps it is to be attributed to my playing style more than to the bass itself, but this is a real workhorse kind of bass. It makes you want to dig in deep and play it hard. Makes my Jazz feel ever so upper class twit in comparison :grin: Bottom line? I got exactly what I was looking for in this bass. Will change the strings for flatwounds soon, and I may end up putting a different pick up in it and bridge on it, but that will remain to be seen. She looks cool, sounds awesome and plays and feels like it's no one's business. Highly recommended

 

PS: I know the rules, pics will follow shortly.

[EddiePlaysBass]

Pictures!

 

Me pretending to play - pic courtesy of my mom

 

Part of the family - featured basses are the new Squier, my trusty Ibanez BTB405QM and the NS Design WAV4.

 

Missing from the family photo is the Fender MM Jazz 5 and the übercheap Palmer fretless, which now resides in a case due to lack of wall space :grin:

[fingertalkin]

You suck Dave!!!! I so want a P-bass and you are killing me with this review.

[b5pilot]

Pictures!

 

Me pretending to play - pic courtesy of my mom

 

Part of the family - featured basses are the new Squier, my trusty Ibanez BTB405QM and the NS Design WAV4.

 

Missing from the family photo is the Fender MM Jazz 5 and the übercheap Palmer fretless, which now resides in a case due to lack of wall space :grin:

 

Congrats on the new bass! Yeah throw some flats on that and you'll have a full on blues machine!

[Danzilla]

...and it's in Jeremy Cohen blue. Good choice, Dave. Enjoy it.

[EddiePlaysBass]

You suck Dave!!!! I so want a P-bass and you are killing me with this review.

 

Thanks, I think

 

:grin:

 

Congrats on the new bass! Yeah throw some flats on that and you'll have a full on blues machine!

 

That's the plan! The Jazz will remain my n° 1 bass, unless the band goes all wild about the sound of this here Squier. Which they just might. Even then, I do not plan on retiring the Fender just yet. Like I said, some mods may be in order later down the road but for now I am happy with it, the way it is.

 

...and it's in Jeremy Cohen blue. Good choice, Dave. Enjoy it.

 

It also comes in a natural finish but that was never an option for me (and not just because you cannot find it in said natural finish over here :grin: )

[fingertalkin]

You think right...but you still suck for having what I want.

[5 string Mike]

It's cool that it has some beefy bottom. I figured it would have more of a nasaly sound with one single coil pickup like that.

 

How is the noise? Does it act like a single coil with some buzz or quieter like a stacked humbucker?

 

That tele style body has some cool mojo to it. I haven't had a chance to play one yet.

 

Congrats, glad you like it

[jeremy c]

Looks good, Dave.

 

I'm surprised that you bought a bass that had a bowed neck. That would be a deal-breaker for me, even though I know how to adjust a truss rod. Hope it works out for you.

[Ross Brown]

I put tape wound strings on my P bass. I like it.

[EddiePlaysBass]

I'm surprised that you bought a bass that had a bowed neck. That would be a deal-breaker for me, even though I know how to adjust a truss rod. Hope it works out for you.

 

Thanks J. I could put up a story here about how every bass player should learn how to set up their own instrument and :blah: but the truth is ... I didn't notice it when I bought it

 

I absolutely hate buying music instruments in store. Seriously. Put me in front of a hundred people in a funny Halloween costume and I will perform. Put me in front of 10 people in a cosy, smoky bar and I will perform. But put a bass in my hands in a music store and I could not feel less at ease. So for me it was more the case of: "This is what I had in mind, and she looks better in real life than her picture suggested. Neck feels comfortable and sound-wise I expected this tone. I'm taking her home!"

 

Having said that, one forumite gave me great advice in that regard:

 

Just play root-five and check the neck for dead spots.

 

Will do that from now on. And pay -closer- attention to the neck and general set-up of the bass. But I already learned a good bit about working the truss rod and will do more tweaking to get the intonation right.

 

On a side note, I wonder why these music store clerks feel the need to start slapping on any given bass you show interest in ...

[Tenstrum]

On a side note, I wonder why these music store clerks feel the need to start slapping on any given bass you show interest in ...

 

Because they want to show off and show you how much better they are than you. Seriously. I think they learn one "showy" slap line and just play that any time someone tries out a bass. I would bet that they couldn't play anything else.

 

There was a guy at one of my local stores that did that to me all the time when I first started playing. Then I actually got pretty good at playing some RHCP and showed him up one day. He never did it to me again. He was a huge @$$ hat!

 

 

[Imogene]

Pictures!

 

Me pretending to play - pic courtesy of my mom

Blues scale in A?

 

Nice bass Ed!

[Seamy ALB]

Nice bass Ed, health to play!!!

[plangentmusic]

Looks good, Dave.

 

I'm surprised that you bought a bass that had a bowed neck. That would be a deal-breaker for me, even though I know how to adjust a truss rod. Hope it works out for you.

 

I agree. Why accept a warped neck? And if it's just a bow, I don;t understand what's so intimidating. If you know how to turn a screwdrive, you can adjust a neck. At any rate,glad it all worked out. Enjoy the new toy!

[EddiePlaysBass]

Took the Squier to rehearsal yesterday. The band loved the look and the sound of it. No one commented on it not being a Fender Love those guys. I had some minor issues adapting to 4 strings again (tip for newer players: know which NOTES you are playing and not which patterns, and make sure you know where those notes are on the neck) but overall it was an interesting experience. I will switch between the Fender and Squier more often from now on.

 

For those who are interested, I put up some recordings from yesterday's rehearsals. Please note: I am still trying to figure out where best to place the Zoom, plus I always put the microphone on L, and I am thinking I am going to risk putting it on M setting to get more dynamics. It sounds as if the band is far away and I know I can get better results than I am getting.

 

When The Right Woman Does You Wrong is a slow blues originally done by Anthony Gomez. I love this tune and usually play it quite high up the neck on the 5-string. Without access to that extra string though, I now play it really low up the neck :grin:

 

When I Leave Here is a Robben Ford tune with a jazzy feel. This was the first rehearsal where we tried this tune and we need to work on the ending (it's a fade-out on the recording) but I really like this tune and I think it will work well once we get it together.

 

Hope you will get an idea of how this bass sounds from these records. Like I mentioned in a different thread: whatever bass I play, I seem to end up sounding like "me". If I take the Fender next time, I am pretty sure the recordings will sound quite similar.

 

[b5pilot]

Nice. Now this is a band I would go see if I lived there. Pretty tight for the most part especially with so little rehearsal time. It's going to sound really good once you've all played together for a while and tightened it up. Have you put the flats on the Squier yet? The mix was a little quiet in my speakers but the bass sounded pretty good.

[The Bear Jew]

One of the coolest things about working with a talented vocalist is that it just feels good to play behind them. They seem to sort of lead the music in the right direction, which makes the whole band's job a lot easier.

 

Everything sounds solid... you know, for a newer band. Obviously, there are some things to work out in terms of cohesiveness and other stuff, but this sounds pretty good. I imagine you'll get some gigs with these dudes. Nice work.

[EddiePlaysBass]

Thanks, guys! In all fairness, we have had better rehearsals than the one from which I posted these sound clips. But this thread was about the bass :grin: I agree with you on the talented vocalist remark, Erik. The band as a whole sounds good and it is in no small part thanks to him. Let's be honest, you could have a bunch of mediocre musicians backing a great singer, and people would love it. The other way around? Does not work so much. And I've been there (no, not referring to the rockabilly band).

 

I think we will get tighter once we actually start gigging. Right now we are working towards a 2 hour set (well, one 45-50 minute set and one 60 - 75 minute one). I am torn between thinking we are moving too fast (learnt a new tune last rehearsal - the Robben Ford tune I posted - which is not yet ready, and we have 2 new ones scheduled for this Saturday's rehearsal) and thinking we're wasting time rehashing stuff we should know by now.

 

I don't know, perhaps this band will end up being one of those "learn it at home, try it during a gig" type of bands that I keep hearing about. Whatever the outcome, I love playing with these guys and will try to squeeze every drop of experience I can get out of it.

 

B5, I am going to have to order a set of flats from the innernet. Over here, as a bassist your choices are limited to D'Addario, Elixir or Rotosound. All roundwounds, of course. When I last asked for a set of nickelwounds, they told me: "But you want bass strings?" I figured I'd get the regular set and go the Paypal routine later. But I will probably go with a set of TI flats, having heard so many good things about them.

 

Played the Fender again today, after having spent a good deal of time last week with the Squier. Both in tone and feel it is a much more sophisticated bass, but that makes me crazy about both basses even more Not sure yet which one I will take to the next rehearsal, but I will definitely be switching basses more often from now on.

[Imogene]

One of the coolest things about working with a talented vocalist is that it just feels good to play behind them. They seem to sort of lead the music in the right direction,...

 

Yes, and talented vocalist doesn't necessarily mean vocally talented, if you catch my drift.

 

 

Let's be honest, you could have a bunch of mediocre musicians backing a great singer, and people would love it. The other way around? Does not work so much.

 

This is SO true.

 

But yeah, back to the original topic, love the look and tone of the first generation P bass