I've been playing the same bass for 31 years. Been in my current band incarnation for 3 year. Played with the guitarist for 10 years. Same bass whole time. Nice, beautiful, natural wood finish.

When I found out how much my '73 Jazz is worth, I figured I needed to have a backup. (Also, I've never had a backup at gigs, and I know I've been lucky not needing one.) Of course, hanging at TalkBass never gave me any GAS, so that didn't factor in at all. :eyebrow:

So my son has a '99 MIM Jazz that he tried to mod and was all torn up. I fixed it up, and brought it to band practice last night. First time I've ever played a different bass with these guys.

No one said anything.

Its Purple.

Was there a different sound to notice? Or, was it just a color change? Any history of color blindness in the band? :)

aha! That's rich! =)

well, maybe it just wasn't a big change
that's like getting new shoes and being mad because no one says anything

The bass is purple ..you would think someone would notice it and give you a hard time for playing a purple bass.

No one said anything.

They probably noticed. If they're married guys, what you got was just a version of the wife's-bad-new-hairdo response.

"Geez, Dave seems to have traded his '73 for this new purple jazz. Ooookay, then. Not gonna say anything unless asked."

Was there a different sound to notice?Oh, heck yeah! This bass had roundwound string on it! I'm flats guy! Hmmmm, 'course, they're both Jazz basses...maybe the difference between flats and rounds is not as noticeable to a non-bassist. The bass is purple ..you would think someone would notice it and give you a hard time for playing a purple bass.That's what I was thinking...

"Geez, Dave seems to have traded his '73 for this new purple jazz. Ooookay, then. Not gonna say anything unless asked."LOL! Most believable explanation so far. Except for the whole bass cloak of invisibility thing. Which I'm really starting to believe.

next gig bring this

http://www.comparestoreprices.co.uk/images/b-/b-c-rich-platinum-warlock-bass-whs-met-blue.jpg

LMAO!

next gig bring this

http://www.comparestoreprices.co.uk/images/b-/b-c-rich-platinum-warlock-bass-whs-met-blue.jpg

+1000000000

Maybe they noticed, but just didnt feel like talking about it.

next gig bring this

http://www.comparestoreprices.co.uk/images/b-/b-c-rich-platinum-warlock-bass-whs-met-blue.jpg


I actually did that a couple of weeks ago - except it was bright pink.

Most of the band did actually notice and thought it was cool - one even noted that the tone was different to my regular bass!!!

The guitarist didn't notice though...

Ian

Maybe you are one of the lucky ones who's bandmates spend more time on rehearsing than on geeking up on what bass is being used.
Maybe they are not listening to what your instrument sounds like...

You can borrow this one if you really want to make a statement:

http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee107/mikeyswood/DSCN3598.jpg

It takes me nearly an hour anytime someone new is around to explain all the controls :)

It takes me nearly an hour anytime someone new is around to explain all the controls :)

Which switches do you use to set it to "Phasers on STUN"?

I have played with one of my groups for 3-4 yrs now last night the singer looked at my main bass which I have brought out at least 100 times and said...hey that has 5 strings.

Maybe you are one of the lucky ones who's bandmates spend more time on rehearsing than on geeking up on what bass is being used.
Maybe they are not listening to what your instrument sounds like...Yeah, I should take it as a compliment. If I have the groove there--that's what matters. The band mates are real pros. I guess they expect that of me, too. Which switches do you use to set it to "Phasers on STUN"?I about spewed on that one. My keyboard barely survived.

You guys got some WICKED basses.

hey mikeyswood...you wouldn't happen to have any soundclips of that bich 8 string would you? that thing must sound killer!!!

You can borrow this one if you really want to make a statement:

http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee107/mikeyswood/DSCN3598.jpg

It takes me nearly an hour anytime someone new is around to explain all the controls :)

I recognize the Leo Quan Badass Bridge. Had one on my Fender BULLET in the early 80's. What do those controls do? Looks like they can change weather.

@mikeyswood

Where do the other strings stop? Do they go through the headstock?

Vic was asking about this as well. These were created before active, as we know it, was around. This thing is called "Full Active Electronics" for good reason:


Hey, I'm just curious if you don't mind, what are all the controls on it? :)

For convenience, here's a pic with numbers... :)

http://www.vsbass.com/pics/bich_8_numbers.jpg

For example, I'm assuming:

1.) Master volume- Yes
2.) Pickup selector- Yes
3.) now I get lost... :D- Preamp 1 On/off
4.)Preamp 2 on/off
5.)Phase in/out
6.)Preamp 2 Vol
7.)Preamp 1 Vol
8.)Neck PU Vol
9.)6 position Varitone switch
10.)Master tone
11.)Dual sound neck PU
12.)Dual sound bridge PU

....whew!


Neal Moser came up with this starting in 75; way before the two acre pedal board started coming to light. So this was like on on board footboard. There is nearly every sound in the combiation of knos and switches :)

MikeWOW!!!!

So why the dual preamps? One per pickup, or are they voiced differently and are actually ganged together somehow?

I hope you don't mind all the q's, I'm REALLY intriqued by such an instrument!






Which switches do you use to set it to "Phasers on STUN"?

#5 :)


hey mikeyswood...you wouldn't happen to have any soundclips of that bich 8 string would you? that thing must sound killer!!!

It is just octave pairs. Think of the opening to "Money" without having a guitard to throw off the timing :)

I am sure that I can get some up.


@mikeyswood

Where do the other strings stop? Do they go through the headstock?

I used this shot from my freind Lorne. He has 1 of only 20 Bich Supremes ever made and I hope that he will be kind enough to let me borrow it sometime ;)

http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee107/mikeyswood/SupremeHead.jpg


I enjoy talking about my Bich.... perhaps my Bich brings me out from the cloak of invisibility....

Personally I think those Pre-amps are pretty damn useless,they overdrive like mad

The idea was the first booster boosted it by up to 10 times and the second boosted that by up to 4 times,so you had like 40 times boost

And most of the other stuff is pretty redundant too,the Series/Parallel switches and 4 positions on the Varitone-but the basses play so damn well,you've just gotta buy 'em,even if the rear end is ugly as sin

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y146/190968/porn14-11-07011.jpg

And @ Mikeyswood-the answer is still NO:smug:

nice looking axe.too many knobs on it imo.meat and potatoes sorta guy.

in response to the OP:

if my guitarist suddenly ditched his beautiful PRS for a purple axe - i too would say nothing.

...what would you prefer, silence or 'uh, i see you have swapped your usual excellent vintage instrument for a really fruity-looking purple monstrosity. kudos.'

;) :ninja:

well it kinda follows along the same mentality as when i bought my Lakland, i bring it to practice and am all excited but no real response from anyone...it was basically the same to them as my spector.....5 string, natural finish, etc......when i got the 6 and brought that to practice they noticed, its dark maroon and the neck is massive next to my 5s...that and i was kinda sloppy on it since i hadnt really gotten the hang of it, but mostly just the appearance

I swear, if people don't play bass, they don't notice a damn thing the bassist adds to their rig of doom.

I bought a 2nd bass and told no one - debuted it at practice. The signer noticed that that I did not have to retune my basses during practice and I was always "mysteriously" ready to play. THEN he figured out I had a 2nd bass tuned differently. Even though he looks at me from time to time.....

What's even funnier is that I haved played bass lines WAY off the beat, hit every wrong note imaginable and I still get compliments from my bandmates about how good the band sounded! AAAAAH! Are they deaf? Or is no one really paying attention to my bass line?

As for your bandmates not noticing the difference between roundwounds and flatwounds - wow! There is a MAJOR difference in tone that even the usual guitard can hear. You go from muddy thump to growly mayhem in seconds. Guitards love high end and all that crap - they shoudl be able to hear the difference in high end content on a bass!

I used this shot from my freind Lorne. He has 1 of only 20 Bich Supremes ever made and I hope that he will be kind enough to let me borrow it sometime ;)

http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee107/mikeyswood/SupremeHead.jpg

The top and bottom bass strings don't look like they've been put in correctly.

I want to buy/borrow a Rail bass to take to my covers gig practice - one of the guitarists is a rabid Fender/Gibson purist. My co-conspirator is the other guitarist, he'll bring in something like a UV7 painted neon green just to annoy the first guy ;)

I play a beautiful koa topped Rob Allen MB2 Fretless. One day I show up at rehearsal with my old beater L.P. blue fretted Pbass. No one said a word. Of course this is the same band where I was going over something with our guitarist (who I will say really likes my lines) and I'm playing the line for the song unaccompanied, suddenly the drummer says " I didn't know that's what your play there, That's cool".

Go figure!

i'll take the equipment Cloak of Invisibility all day as i'm guessing what happened to me Wednesday night qualifies as some form of the Cloak... played four 60-min sets the other night and during the latter two i noticed a comely female, by herself, completely scoping me out... (it was in the Mission, she's latina, she's pretty hot, we'll call her J-Lo).
so she sticks around, band is done, we're breaking down gear, she's the ONLY one left, maybe not a slam dunk but i got an uncontested layup ahead of me here, right?

whoops...

i forgot about the cloak.

"did you play a song with that band tonight, you know, the one that played here?"

:-/

there was no other person on the stage or in the place that looked remotely similar to me; i was in my Unibomber phase and sporting the hooded sweatshirt over baseball cap look. mandolin players palm more backside.

i'll take the equipment Cloak of Invisibility all day as i'm guessing what happened to me Wednesday night qualifies as some form of the Cloak... played four 60-min sets the other night and during the latter two i noticed a comely female, by herself, completely scoping me out... (it was in the Mission, she's latina, she's pretty hot, we'll call her J-Lo).
so she sticks around, band is done, we're breaking down gear, she's the ONLY one left, maybe not a slam dunk but i got an uncontested layup ahead of me here, right?

whoops...

i forgot about the cloak.

"did you play a song with that band tonight, you know, the one that played here?"

:-/

there was no other person on the stage or in the place that looked remotely similar to me; i was in my Unibomber phase and sporting the hooded sweatshirt over baseball cap look. mandolin players palm more backside.

Ouch.

Well, I switch off between guitar and bass, up to three times in any given set, and more than once I've been asked "why did you change to that other guitar?" Puleeez.

mandolin players palm more backside.


ROFLMAO. :D:D:D

I have experienced instant BCI removal, a few months ago.

I was with my band of the time, jamming on jazz-ish rock ideas, and both guitarists were playing around the lower-end of their register, so I thought why not fill the higher range.

Played a couple simple riffs, and then I played a chord.

Everyone in the band stopped (except the drummer) and one of them simply asked "who did that?". On this very day I introduced them to the fact that bass players can play chords :p

But it seems like chords make the bass cloak of invisibility vanish.

i'll take the equipment Cloak of Invisibility all day as i'm guessing what happened to me Wednesday night qualifies as some form of the Cloak... played four 60-min sets the other night and during the latter two i noticed a comely female, by herself, completely scoping me out... (it was in the Mission, she's latina, she's pretty hot, we'll call her J-Lo).
so she sticks around, band is done, we're breaking down gear, she's the ONLY one left, maybe not a slam dunk but i got an uncontested layup ahead of me here, right?

whoops...

i forgot about the cloak.

"did you play a song with that band tonight, you know, the one that played here?"

:-/

there was no other person on the stage or in the place that looked remotely similar to me; i was in my Unibomber phase and sporting the hooded sweatshirt over baseball cap look. mandolin players palm more backside.


alright, seems the cloak has been removed [at least for the moment]... that same hot thing's been back in the club a couple times since; got chummy with her last night after getting asked out for a nightcap(!)
i couldn't keep a straight face.
i still can't... anyway, gotta hit the shower, i think i'm being called out for an encore!!