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Find as I get older, I use much more of a lighter touch when playing. String preference is (45-125). Did find some NOS Dean Markley (40-120) to try.Awesome, looks killer! Always was a 130 or 135 B guy, but I'm using .125 Bs on everything now with DR Nickel Lo Riders and Legends (45-125). I find I get a clearer, and (perhaps counterintuitively) more integrated with the other strings low B this way. Sounds better in the upper registers too.
I'm also 71 and see that conveyor belt of life sliding in my direction and how fast time is going with old age. Z.Z. Top is another band that seemed to come around the time I was starting to play and discovering a lot of monster three and four piece bands like ZZ, Free, Mountain etc. Perfect three piece with a monster rhythm section.Going to miss FB, as well as Dusty Hill. I grew up in the late 60's/early 70's and remember a club one night with these three guys, somebody said one of them used to be in the Moving Sidewalks. They weren't quite ZZ yet.
I find it vaguely unsettling at my age (71) that one by one, as surely as time passes, more and more of these bands are going to lose people to old age and/or failing health, and not wonder when it will be MY turn at the wheel.
The only place I've seen in the Boston area that typically has at least one new Ric in stock is Mr. Music in Allston. Apparently GC sells them again, but I haven't seen one for sale in a store for at least three years. I'm sure it's regional, but Boston is a Ric Desert.It seems like they don’t make a ton every year, they have a small dealer network, and due to demand everything gets gobbled up pretty quick. The only place I’ve been able to try one is this high end boutique near me that gets a used one about once a year off a trade.
I have a mld pedal too. I like the Aguilar sim it has. It was great for me for a while but I have other pedals that do the same thing but better. It’s definitely true about certain pedals that just help your signal chain sound better sometimes I have a lot going on with my signal so it’s nice to be able to clean up everything and get the gain right before sending it out.If I have time I can record something. Jazz Bass with rounds and P with flats. I really like it. I got it when it first came out. My only other DI pre amp pedal was a Radial bassbone which was underwhelming low output unless you crank it and use the boost but then it was noisy. Also the NUX MLD which sometimes does not like cellphone nearby and you have a lot of cellphone in public, Had more bells and whistles which may be good for recording . but for recording, I already have real rack preamp and the DAW and the interface plugins offer more
ZIO had the least controls but for some reason sounded the best in a gig situation. Unity is about 9:30 - 10:00 so you can also use it to underdrive, if you have a lot of pedals upfront
That sucks. Since you rarely play in active mode, it might be best to go old-school passive.I purchased an American Ultra (I, no II at the time) Jazz bass in April of '24, really like the feel of the neck & fretboard...BUT last month it started cutting out on me and ultimately quit, narrowed it down to the bass as compared to amps, cords, pedals. The active/passive switch seemed to be the problem. I rarely used active mode, barely used the switch. Put batteries in, nothing there. Cheap switch s clearly broken.
Here's what my guitar tech found: "More and more modern instruments are being constructed with these prepackaged PCB control systems which are difficult to impossible to service. If beyond warranty, it looks like instead of buying one $6 part in like in the old days, you're going to have to replace the entire console. Alternatively, we could cut out all the PCB components and solder it together it together the old fashioned way.
"If we do that, you'd need to decide if you still want an active circuit in the instrument. If so, we'd need to look at which system you want because the active preamp is built in to this PCB. If not, we'd need to figure out how to wire it to your liking and replace the pots and maybe the control plated to fit."
He also suggested I could choose to replace the console with an aftermarket unit with the options of downgrade, sidegrade, or upgrade.
I'm thinking that might be better than replacing it with an apparently cheaply made original, if I want to keep the bass. No idea of cost for any of those options yet. Tech is suggesting "If it were mine, I'd pull this control board and stick it in the case. Then 'd order a new jack plated and wire it passive only, old school, soldered.
I love the NTMB pre in my MTD Kingston. To me it is very organic sounding. Passive option on any active bass is a must-have IMO. The mid control is super versatile. Mine has the push pull - in the down position the freq is 250 and up it is 800. I get my desired tone with it centered, and then often during a tune where I need to pop out a little more I give a slight boost at 800, works great. Alternatively, I'll cut a smidge at 250 on the fly if it seems I need to clear up there, go for a little more scoop. Bass and Treble also very effective, a little goes a long way.They'll sound good either way, but the Bart preamps are quite nice. I'd personally recommend getting one with active/passive option and a mid-freq switch too.
Nice color. Strings are leaning toward the E quite a bit. Is the bridge off center?
Looked like there was some interesting architecture in the downtown area.

It’s unfortunate that Adrian didn’t address this for you, that’s truly disappointing. I’m sorry you’ve had this type of experience, it seems to be an anomaly rather than the norm. I hope the replacement neck at least resolves the quality issue for you, it’s truly unfortunate that it’s at your expense however.I have an update about my issue. I was going to wait until everything was solved, but here it goes. I will make a summary as well:
So, I bought this bass on 12th June in the morning. I checked everything at home and it worked perfectly. I took it to a gig that night. It made a horrible noise. It didn't make any noise at home so I blamed the venue. I played my trustworthy Yamaha BB414 without any issue.
I talked with my tech guy. He said that it was probably a shielding issue. We checked and it was perfectly shield. So I thought it could be something weird. I took it the following week to another gig. It made a little bit of noise, but something more normal. I played the gig.
The following day, I changed the strings and, while adjusting it, the truss rod broke. I confirmed it with my tech and also with the retailer who sold it to me. I have more than 12 basses that I set up myself and never had any issue with any of them.
The retailer starts talking to the brand. They say that it is not covered by the warranty and that they can make me another neck. I pay full price for the neck of course (the retailer told me that he had a similar case with a Sandberg bass and Sandberg made another neck at a little cost). Today (19th Aug) the bass is sent to Poland so that they can make a similar neck. I have to pay sending it to Poland and also that they send it back to me.
So, to sum up, I spent 2500 Euros on a bass that it broke within two weeks. Now, I have to spend another 500 Euros on a new neck and 140 Euros delivering the bass... I cannot recommend this brand. My tech guy, by looking at the truss rod, said that the truss rod didn't look very good. He said that the screw didn't look in good condition. What is more, when we tried to separate the neck from the body, the screws were set very poorly. Two of them were stuck, impossible to move them (those are comments from my tech, who was working on the bass while I was in his workshop). Very poor QC in my opinion.
I know this brand has a good reputation, but it is not my experience. And the fact that they make me pay even for delivery, makes me a huge customer dissatisfaction.
Maybe post there at the Alembic Club - I bet some of the JJ fanatics will have some leads, if not the man himself!Thanks, I've followed that as well as the Facebook Jimmy Johnson appreciation page for years now but I'm looking for in depth audio and video interviews with Jimmy.
Jimmy with Steve Gadd and Mike Landau is such a great band especially live, as was the trio he had with the recently departed Mike Miller and of course the legendary Holdsworth performances which made such an indelible impression on me.