Club Alleva Coppolo (Part 10!)

[Vic]

That's a tough call IMO. I always liked perloid when you have the perloid blocks... nice consistent look. However, with that very 'old school' finish, it might 'jump' to the eye a bit too much.

I really dig the black, which I think is the 'period correct' look (although I don't pay attention to much of that stuff). I guess if I had to choose, I'd probably leave it alone.

That was also my general opinion... I REALLY like the pearloid guard with the pearl blocks and white/creme binding, BUT, with that dark of a finish, it might end up being "a bit much". I do agree tho, it does look great the way it is, so even if pearl is tried and nacked, nothing lost.

 

[tombowlus]

One thing that I found (and maybe the P guys can either confirm this or set me straight) is that the right hand position on a P resulted in more extreme tonal changes than my beloved J's. The negative to that is that I found any playing toward the bridge resulted in a very unpleasant tone (nasal without the burp I love so much with a J), and that, much more than a J, which sounds 'different but good' with any right hand position), the P (at least this P) had a real sweet spot either right over the pickup or slightly toward the neck, where it really sounded like a classic P.

I keep telling you guys that the sweet spot is right over the neck pickup! At least, it is for me, but then again, I am not trying to sound like Jaco. And that's also why I sold you that killer SR5, CElton. The MM "sweet spot" is not ideal for my personal preferences, either.

While I very rarely play closer to the bridge pickup, I hear you, Ken, that playing back towards the bridge on a P-bass doesn't sound anything at all like playing over the bridge pickup on a J-bass.

In that respect, I found it a total one trick pony... meaty and full, but not particularly deep nor articulate.

I might say that a good P-bass has more than one trick, but I absolutely agree that a P-bass isn't going to get you the same sounds as a J-bass - which is why I own both flavors (and a few more, to boot)!

 

[KJung]

I keep telling you guys that the sweet spot is right over the neck pickup! At least, it is for me, but then again, I am not trying to sound like Jaco. And that's also why I sold you that killer SR5, CElton. The MM "sweet spot" is not ideal for my personal preferences, either.

While I very rarely play closer to the bridge pickup, I hear you, Ken, that playing back towards the bridge on a P-bass doesn't sound anything at all like playing over the bridge pickup on a J-bass.



I might say that a good P-bass has more than one trick, but I absolutely agree that a P-bass isn't going to get you the same sounds as a J-bass - which is why I own both flavors (and a few more, to boot)!

+1 While the 'over the neck pickup' has very little meaning with a J bass (it sounds good everywhere, and there are tons of usable tones with virtually any right hand position, which many of us change even during a tune), with a P Bass, that makes a lot of sense.

That would drive me nuts (i.e., I never touch a knob during a gig, since simple technique and right hand position/attack results in the ability to go from a great slap tone to the burpiest Jaco type tone without really every having to touch a knob... other than favoring the bridge pickup sometime). With the P, I found it was more of a 'sweet spot' versus 'suck'.

 

[svtb15]

Im with Ken on that one..
Pearloid may be too over the top.. But if you have one to throw on. try it.. and we can take a poll.
For suprize factor, Im thinking of doing a pole on TB and let TB pick my next Alleva color... hey it could be fun, and dangerous at the same time

That's a tough call IMO. I always liked perloid when you have the perloid blocks... nice consistent look. However, with that very 'old school' finish, it might 'jump' to the eye a bit too much.

I really dig the black, which I think is the 'period correct' look (although I don't pay attention to much of that stuff). I guess if I had to choose, I'd probably leave it alone.

 

[tombowlus]

+1 While the 'over the neck pickup' has very little meaning with a J bass...

My comment was meant to indicate that playing directly over the neck pickup generally gets me my favorite tones. YMMV, of course. That being said, I definitely agree that right hand placement on a J-bass yields a wider variety of usable tones than what you get on a P-bass (and yes, you can make some amazing changes without touching a knob!).

 

[tombowlus]

For suprize factor, Im thinking of doing a pole on TB and let TB pick my next Alleva color... hey it could be fun, and dangerous at the same time

Kirk, I'd suggest that you do a poll, instead. I really don't want to see you dance...

 

[Chef]

Kirk...doing a pole.

Bad visual

 

[jonno1707]

My breakfast just came up....

 

[vision]

What do you guys think of maybe going for a pearloid pickguard on this bass?

I agree with the general consensus so far - I like the black guard on that bass. Pearloid on top of that darker trans finish with the pearl blocks is a bit much...plus with that tri color black pickguard, the white binding kinda matches the white outline of the guard nicely while still remaining classy and not too over the top.

 

[vision]

I keep telling you guys that the sweet spot is right over the neck pickup!

+1...lol!!! I always play over the neck pickup (or just slightly behind it) because the tone is so fat right there. When I've tried playing over the bridge pickup the strings are too taught there for me to dig in when I need to.

 

[svtb15]

Kirk...doing a pole.

Bad visual

 

[svtb15]

yeah that Would be a scary vision!
took me 10 minutes to figure out what you were saying,.,.
(Remove attempt at poor humor).
Puke.
What was i thinking? way too early and not enough coffee yet..

Kirk, I'd suggest that you do a poll, instead. I really don't want to see you dance...

 

[MixBass]

My KBP5 is the first P that burp is even a part of the equation which caught me by surprise. I find that a lighter touch by the bridge will yield a decent amount of burp, which I've never noticed on my Fenders. Mind you that's not why I go to the P but it did make it so it can show up on a jazz gig w/no reservation. In general I agree that up front is where it earns its keep, those fat, sweet, bulbous notes!

 

[Vic]

On the whole P thing, I tend to agree with Ken the P bass is really not as versatile as a J when moving your "plucking" hand around. At least IMHO, doing much between the pickup and bridge just seems to be a negative thing tonally. I don't know why this is, but it just seems to me any bass always sounds best when you are over the pickup, or between the pickup and the nut (or fretted note).

That said, while I am very much a J, or at least dual pickup bass person myself, I do really love the woody earthy tone you can only get from a P. It's not a sound I'd use enough to justify a high end P... at least strictly P (as opposed to a PJ... Jimmy, are you listening? ), but I definitely like it a LOT for certain kinds of music, and I'm always amazed at how good a P bass can sound when slapped.

 

[jonno1707]

At least IMHO, doing much between the pickup and bridge just seems to be a negative thing tonally. I don't know why this is, but it just seems to me any bass always sounds best when you are over the pickup, or between the pickup and the nut (or fretted note).
.

I don't really agree on this point as I get a killer punchy cutting tone playing between the pickup and bridge on my 64 P.

 

[KJung]

I finally had time to take my new Zoom Q3 Video recorder out and give it a try. I just took it out of the box and pushed record. The video quality seems good, but the audio is much thinner than the Edirol recorder. However, it is a pretty cool unit for the price.

Here's a quick clip of the LM5 through the TC rig. The clip sounds much 'brighter and thinner' that it really is, but it still sounds pretty good, if a bit too sizzly. I'll mess with the recording quality settings.

Anyway, what the heck, here it is... a little slap noodlin', soloing over some changes, and a fingerstyle groove:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1bYFKkArzU

 

[YCBass]

For me there is a really cool mental factor in playing a P bass. I, like most, love that over-the-pickup sound and when I play a P bass it's that or a slap sound. So it lets me focus on playing the best I can with what I have rather than wanting to experiment with the versatility of say my J bass by tweaking knobs and changing hand positions - in the same song, just cause. Like I said it's mental.

I find there is something liberating about limiting yourself to that one good tone and just play.



With that said, I currently do not own a P bass... But I've been dreaming of a CAR/White pickguard/Matching headstock KBP4 lately... After my LM5 perhaps.

 

[Vic]

I don't really agree on this point as I get a killer punchy cutting tone playing between the pickup and bridge on my 64 P.

Yeah, with me, it's probably more that I look for certain kinds of sounds when getting closer to the bridge and the P just doesn't do it for me personally in that zone. Either that, or maybe I just never really learned how to hit the strings in that zone to get what I need (if possible) from a P.

At least for me, it's moot, because that's not really what I look for in a P. I'm with YCBass on the whole thing about the magic of the P being really about being over the pickup. Just at the end of the day all it means for me is if I were to go to one bass someday, it wouldn't be a P, it'd be a J. ...or a PJ...

 

[vision]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1bYFKkArzU

Sounds good!

 

[KJung]

Sounds good!

It has that annoying upper treble thing going on that seems to be inherent in these video recorders. The Edirol is much more 'accurate and natural' sounding. It will be fun to mess with it. The Edirol recorded clips sound very accurate to me to what I hear live while recording, which the Zoom again accents that 6K and up thing for some reason.

Anyway, thanks. Amazing that you can get a video recording of that quality for a couple of hundred bucks!