/ \ / / - _--__| / | | / \ ________--__- O --- ____ | | \ \ / \ =======/-/=======| |) O --- ___ \ | / / ======/-/=====================| |) O--- ___ | / =====/-/===================================| |) O--- ___ ====/-/================================================| |) -__ ___/_/ _|_ | _ ___ ___ __|__ _ \__ __ \ ___\_\\-_ | |_ / \ | ) __ | | | | / \ | | \ \\ \\\\\\\\\-_ \_/ | \ |-- |--< / \ | \_/ \_/ _ |\ \ | | \__ | \ \__/ | ____ \ o \/\ |_\ /\| \_ |___/ ____---\\\\\\| \ \ \ \ \_ /\| \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\--- \_ \ \ \ _/\/ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\------ \_ \ __-\\\/ ---\\\\\\\- Issue #282 January 23, 1993 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To post: Subscriptions, deletions, requests: bass@uwplatt.edu bass-request@uwplatt.edu (Bitnet: bass@uwplatt.bitnet) (Bitnet: bass-request@uwplatt.bitnet) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Today's topics: Broken Bass OVER rated Bass Players yaub (Yet Another Underrrrrated Bassist) Ron Carter plays Bach punch, etc. More On Warmoth Necks; Entwhistle w/ Stones; Michael Stebbins© String Rattle Warmoth Finishes.. Under- rated bassists Hipshot D-tuner a little late, but.... RE: Fretless Questions Joe Barden pickups - recommendations? Lessons in tapping and slapping and other news New Posts PV & Oz \ Joni & Jaco \ Ovation \ side pull vs center pull ---------------------------------------------------------- Administrative notes: Just a friendly reminder: It makes looking up a particular topic in the indexes *much* easier if you make your subject lines very descriptive. The key word here is "keywords"... use terms that people are likely to search for. Please try to avoid simply replying to a particular digest, since the subject line "RE: The Bottom Line #xxx" really doesn't help anyone. Thanks for the tirade, Kevin ---------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1993 00:26:10 -0500 (EST) From: Peter C Norton Subject: Broken Bass From what little I know, the Ibanez Bass I bought (a CTB-1) is relatively new. That may be the problem. I got my bass this summer, at Sam Ash, and it worked fine for a while. For $300 it's a good buy. But while I was home for thanksgiving, the plug died. Freak accident, I thought. So I got it repaired, and brought it back to school (making sure that it wasn't hurt on the ride up), and I plugged it in. The rear pickup was blown. Not even static. no loose or disconnected wires when you open up the bass, and the pickup is one solid plastic piece. In other words, I've gotta go to the house of guitars and get it sent back, to be repaired again. If anyone out there with the same budgetary constraints as me has had to have one sent back for repairs, I'd like to compare notes. I've seen other insturments suffer far more casual abuse travelling to and from gigs, and don't understand what the hell happened. Oh, well, you get what you paid for, but it's all I've got. The worst thing is I love this bass... It sounds nice and punchy,, just right for slapping (when both pickups work, that is) and it feels good too. Oh, well. ---------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 22 Jan 93 14:43 GMT From: Stuart Mawby <0005004069@mcimail.com> Subject: OVER rated Bass Players Hi everyone!, With all the talk about under rated bass players recently, I was sort of curious who some of you think is OVER rated. Who out there in pro bass land is good but not as good as the critics would have us think? Some of you have met these people personally and can judge a bit more accurately, so let's hear the dirt!.... [ Please be careful in this area. The idea of "slamming" other players doesn't sit well with me, ever since I got negative mail about including the category "most overrated player" in a survey a couple of years ago. I'd really like to avoid possible flamewars, etc. Bass Mgr. ] As for the UNDER rated.... my only thought is a person who is not generally considered for this category: Tony Levin (correct me if I'm wrong here), Peter Gabriel's bass player. He is very Very tasteful. I suppose that I would also include the bass player for Susan Vega's previous album 'Days of Open Hand'. He has a style similar to that of Levin, but a little more active and dis- jointed at the same time. - Stuart ---------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1993 10:24:14 EST From: Mark Crimson Friedman Subject: yaub (Yet Another Underrrrrated Bassist) My offering for the underrated bassist list is none other than: Art Liboon of Mordred! This guy is one funky player. He can slap with the best of them, and his fingerstyle stuff is great too (listen to the intro to their "In This Life" release: wacky arpeggios!). A's sense of rhythm is certainly skewed, yet solid: the accents of his lines often fall on odd beats of a measure, but always remain consistent. In this department, he's been a tremendous influence on me. Then there's the one song where they yell "Gimmie a funky-ass bass line!" and he takes off like a rocket! Reminicent of Fishbone's "Bonin'", methinks! BTW, Mordred plays a mix of metal and funk, shifting gears in midstream. If you like Faith No More, Fungo Mungo, 24-7 Spyz, Primus, Chilli Peppers, Fishbone, Infectious Grooves, and other such aggressive bands (like I do! ;-), then "In This Life" is the CD to check out! - Mark [end of plug :-] Mark "Klone Crimson" Friedman is friedman@cis.ohio-state.edu ................. "There is nothing former "Beat poets, "Bite me, "My jacket! I killed about King Crimson." not children." it's fun!" Kennedy in this jacket!" - Robert Fripp, 5/11/90 - anonymous - MST3K - Ron Post ---------------------------------------------------------- Date: 22 Jan 1993 10:48:28 -0400 (EDT) From: PBAYMILLER@ocvaxa.cc.oberlin.edu Subject: Ron Carter plays Bach I recently received the new Ron Carter CD in which he plays both on Bach pieces he has arranged. I had high expectations in that Ron Carter is one of the best jazz players around, but when I listed to (listened) the recording, I was surprised to hear that throughout the piccolo bass sounded flat and was slightly irritating to my ears. Am I missing something? Has anyone else listened to this recording and had the same response? I am aware that the piccolo bass is tuned differently, but that should make no difference as to whether the notes are in tune. --pmb. ---------------------------------------------------------- Date: 22 Jan 93 11:50:02 U From: Paul Desjarlais Subject: punch, etc. REGARDING punch, etc. Firstly my $0.02 on the being-able-to-read question--it all depends on what you're doing! In all my ten+ years of playing in rock bands, I've never had to read, or seen anyone read music. I ain't proud, or ashamed or anything, that's just the way it is. And when I first stared playing bass, I had been in school bands for like a bazillion years (on trumpet) so I knew what the notation looked like. I just never needed it. Nobody writes down rock songs. It's like, if you have to write it down, it's too complicated.... (smiley face!) Regarding the Waitresses--yeah, I like that bass line too; I actually bought the album when it came out. I meant to check the sleeve to see if it mentioned the name of the bass player but I forgot to; perhaps I'll remember this weekend. Regarding the T-shirts--has ANYONE seen the drawing? It's pretty much a straightforward line-drawing rendition of the ASCII logo. (I'm the one who did it, by the way, so please be kind...) Regarding "punch"--I think the definition of punch has to do with the reason that TBLer Preston Carter bought the SWR instead of the Peavey cab. It's the midrange-y stuff (or high end for bass) that occurs mostly in the attack that allows your notes to be heard in the mix. As opposed to the low rumble which is often like mud by itself. This leads me to some questions on recording; I'd love to see more discussion of bass recording techniques in TBL, if anyone has some tips, because getting a good bass sound in a mix on tape still manages to elude me and my band. After years of making inferior, low budget 4-track and 8-track recordings, we finally agreed to cough up the dough for a 24-track studio to do an album. Still self-produced, but with a good engineer. This project has been going on for over a year....anyway, I thought FINALLY, I'll be able to get the bass sound I always imagined. We recorded at least 3 bass tracks on every song: a direct signal, a near mic, and a far mic. Plus, on some songs there are FIVE tracks, with a second take being recorded via the near and far mics. This was not done with the intention of using all the tracks, but to have the flexibility to choose the best tracks. The engineer was very happy with the sounds he got; he said seldom had he been able to acheive such a good range of frequencies on the bass. Problem? After doing a couple of mixes, it seems we're still stuck with the problem we've always had: we have a choice between the low rumble and the "punch". If you use both, the bass takes over the mix. But if you only use one or the other, the mix seems to be missing something. We've tried thowing graphic EQ's at it, or other effects. A "sonic maximizer" will make the notes more distinct (I have no clue how this works). Another interesting thing we've used is distortion--we'll put fuzz on one of the tracks using a SansAmp, which tends to add a good warmth to the sound. But still... Any suggestions would be most appreciated! I'm all ears! Literally. I mean, I am made only of ears. My hearing is incredible! Just kidding. -pd ---------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1993 09:41:25 PST From: Graham_McClelland.Sthq@xerox.com Subject: More On Warmoth Necks; Entwhistle w/ Stones; Michael Stebbins© String Rattle Hello All, I've used Warmoth necks on two basses and am absolutely sure they were the best choices for me. The first neck was a 5-string neck. Now that sucker is HEAVY - TWO truss rods and alot of wood (it's as wide as an interstate). Using a mahogany body and small Gotoh tuning machines helped counter act the neck heaviness of the bass. Needless to say it's a Chiropractor's dream. The second neck was was a fretless 4-string which replaced a stock fretted neck. Sound familiar to anyone? Again, the body and electronics offset the neck weight, so no problem. If I'm not mistaken, Fender (and probably others) is using fairly light woods like ash in their production instruments. This would account for the problem with matching a heavier Warmoth neck to a stock Fender body. The answer? - hang a dumb bell weight from your lower strap lock and find a good Chiropractor. I've gotta agree with Arte Kenyon's accessment of John Entwhistle joining the Stones. A laid back grove player would seem to make the most sense for the Stones. Entwhistle just plain plays too much for their style. Anyone who uses a cabinet with 20 five inch drivers in it as part of his touring rig (Entwhistle) wants to be a dominant player, not strictly a "hold down the bottom" guy. I'm also a big Entwhistle fan, but in a different forum than the Stones would provide. Would Geddy Lee fit in with Little Village? - Not quite! Re: Michael Stebbins` string rattle problem - I'd say your rattle is being caused by your "recently homemade steel nut". If the diameter of your Boomers doesn't match the width of the new nut slots, you gonna get rattling. That's one of the downers of using metal string nuts. The nut has to fit the strings like a glove. If you change string guages with a metal string nut you should really change the the nut too. It's a drag - I've had to replace the nuts on my basses because I use brass string nuts and have a tendancy to become fickle about my string guages. Each bass now has two different string nuts. Just another quirk... Happy Trails... Graham graham.sthq@xerox.com ---------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 22 Jan 93 13:24:44 EST From: rrathgeb@ultrix.ramapo.edu Subject: Warmoth Finishes.. Hello, This is directed to the Bass Manager who raised an interesting point and all those who are interested. My Warmoth neck only has the Warmoth insignia burned into the heel. I didn't specify any finish and assumed it has a satin finish. I will call them up and clear up this confusion. Maybe they changed their policy or I missed something when ordering. Maybe my neck has no finish. Is there a sure fire way to detect a satin finish? I'll post again when I find out exactly what is going on. I know for sure you can specify finishes when ordering. I not so sure if they have a "default" finish. Thew catalog is quite descriptive but doesn't speak much about finishes att all. I'll be back! _ROB_ ---------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1993 14:50:00 +0000 From: "Oliver (O.R.) Sampson" Subject: Under- rated bassists As for under-rated bass players, how about Joe Bouchard of Blue Oyster Cult. My vote for soon-to-be highly-rated bass players, goes to John Myung (sp?) of Dream Theater. There's a bass player who used to be with a jazz band from Richmond called Secrets. His name is Keith Horne. He is absolutly unbelievaphenomenable. Last I heard was that he was in Nashville working with Tanya Tucker.....Go figure. I think the record stores in Richmond (Plan 9 in particular) may still have some of the Secrets stuff. Hip shots: They're fantastic. Later ************************************************************************ Oliver R. Sampson "Mongo only pawn in game of life." Member Scientific Staff -- Mongo, Blazing Saddles Internet: olsam@bnr.ca "All opinions expressed here are the opinions solely of the author, and they are in no way a reflection of opinions or policies of BNR, Inc. or Northern Telecom." -- The boss says I have to put this in here. ************************************************************************ ---------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1993 11:28 EST From: GRSARTIANO@apollo.davidson.edu Subject: Hipshot D-tuner Yeah, the Hipshot extender key is great! I ordered one in black ('cause the local store only had chrome...and they made me pay $10 more for black!) and had it in a week or two. Installation was a cinch -- the hardest thing about it was loosening the E-string so I could take out the stock tuner. It's a drop-in replacement. The Hipshot key apparently comes in two types for bass: a Fender key and a Music Man key. I could be wrong here, and most tuning keys look kinda generic anyway. My bass is a mid-80's Fender Jazz Bass Special. I've used the D-tuner for about 4 months and I have to say it has given me no trouble at all. I was afraid before I got it that the string would "hang up" at the nut (like they do for guitarists) and I'd have tuning problems, but I have NEVER had it go out of tune. What's the deal on "Henry the 8 by 8???" Underrated bassists: Well, Steely Dan is the most underrated band in history, and Pearl Jam is riding the alternative=>mainstream wave, but TBL-ers still don't talk about either of 'em much... (just a comment) Later, -- Gregg S ---------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 22 Jan 93 09:08:40 PST From: karlo@tanaga.island.COM Subject: a little late, but.... I've never been too into their style of music, but ABC has an album (Lexicon of Love, 1982, produced by Trevor Horn, you all know who he is right? The only other person to ever play bass on a Yes tune!) and the two cats playing bass on it (Brad Lang and Mark Lickley) are pretty impressive. Anyone know anything more about them, what else they've done, are doing now? Big influence in my early years. Another big influence in my beginning days was Ralphe Armstrong, who played on Jean Luc-Ponty's live album (early 80's?? late 70's??). He was the first bass player I ever heard solo (hey i was quite young and just starting my bass quest), and use lots of effects. And of course, I can't leave out my teacher, Kai Eckhardt. You can hear him to great effect on John McLaughlin's "Live at the Royal Festival Hall" disc, and also at the Kanzaki Lounge in Japan Town, SF on alternate Tuesday nights with the Frank Martin Band. it's all a little strange, isn't it? kk ---------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 22 Jan 93 16:05:21 PST From: Alan.Henley@EBay.Sun.COM Subject: RE: Fretless Questions Thanks to everyone who responded to my fretless neck questions, both in TBL and directly. It's great to have a resource like this. To quote the Burger King commercials, "I love this place!". (And yes, I have been watching too much TV lately.) Here's how it all turned out. I went with the Warmouth neck (rosewood, lined, side-dots only). For one thing, Warmouth has a great reputation for making a quality product. The last thing I wanted to do was go through all this and be disappointed with the outcome. Secondly, I was looking specifically for a solid, heavy neck because the body of this bass is ash and quite heavy. (The current neck is a log, too. I definitely will not have any problems with the neck being too heavy.) The Chandler necks I played all seemed to be matched up with light weight basses. Going with a light neck and a heavy body just seemed to be asking for trouble. I also learned a couple of things I wanted to pass along. When Warmouth makes a lined fretless neck, they pull from their stock of ready to be fretted necks and inlay the grooves with holly (or something similar). The problem is that the necks they inlay already have dots on the fretboard. If you don't want the dots, (which I don't), they charge you more for the special handling involved in specifically lining a neck without dots. To get around that, the repair shop said they would order a ready to be fretted neck without face dots and do the inlay for me. Of course, the biggest hang up right now is that California is experiencing rains of bibilical proportions. Since I want a hard finish (I play too often in wet climates not to have one), they won't be able to finish the neck until we have more than a few days of dry whether. Lastly, I just wanted to echo Rob's comment about lined vs. unlined. Lined is the way to go if you're just a beginning fretless player. I tryed both when I was doing my research. My intonation was a billion percent better with lines. (Although I do like the unlined look better. I remember someone telling me in the past that some fretless players (like Sting) actually use a lined fretless, but the inlays are only a shade darker or lighter than the fingerboard so that only they can see them! Hmmm... maybe I should consider that?) Thank you all. Alan Henley ---------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1993 22:29:43 -0500 (EST) From: Geff King Subject: Joe Barden pickups - recommendations? I'm considering a new set of pickups for my Jazz Bass, and the pickups I'm interested in are made by a guy named Joe Barden here in the DC area. I've recently talked to Joe, and the way he tells it to me, these pickups are humbuckers with side-by-side coils which fit in a standard-sized J-Bass pickup cover. They supposedly give all the tonal range and no noise. He's making some upgrades to his old design, and the new ones should be ready to go by spring. I only ever played one bass with Barden pickups, and I didn't like it, but I suspect that was more the neck and the amps than the pickups. At least two guitarists (both Telecaster players) hav ehis pickups and swear by them. Can anyone on TBL provide any more input on Barden bass pickups? Email if you can, 'cos I don't get to read TBL all the time. If I end up going with 'em anyway, I'll be glad to post a review. -- + ----------------------------------------------------------- + | Geff King, EPA Contractor by Day - C&W Bass Player by Night | | Mail geffy@access.digex.com or king.geffry@epamail.epa.gov | + --- "If you're in tune, you're fired" --Ira Louvin, 1956 -- + ---------------------------------------------------------- Date: 23 Jan 1993 00:27:05 -0700 (MST) From: Doug Wellington USGS Subject: Lessons in tapping and slapping and other news Hi folks, It's been quite a while since I posted. Sheesh, the holidays do make time fly! I recently picked up a bass that I had on layaway. It is a natural color Yamaha TRB five string. I've hardly put it down since I got it! A couple days before I picked up the TRB, I came home with a Fender BXR combo (15"). This is a great amp! I actually like the Fender better than my GK/Hartke setup for some things. (Especially since the Fender has wheels!) I had test driven three Peavey combos, an SWR Bassic Black, and a Crate combo. Of all of them, I liked the Fender best. And it wasn't even the most expensive! (Came in second though. :-( Oh well, it is definitely worth it.) At first, it came in about even with the SWR and slightly better than the Peavey 300. Then I found the bass and treble boost switches! (GRIN) Now that I have it at home, I'm only using the GK/Hartke for a rental unit... (Gotta make the gear earn its keep!) Anyway, the combination of the TRB and the BXR is absolutely killer! I think I may sell my P-bass and my Jazz fretless... I don't know how many TBLers are also able to read Netnews, but there has been discussion there on publishing weekly lessons on different aspects of bass playing. I have taken it upon myself to not only add my two cents to the lessons, but to also coordinate posts between TBL and Netnews. (For those interested, the news group is called REC.MUSIC.MAKERS.BASS) So far, two lessons have been written, one on tapping and one on slapping. I will post those two lessons right after this message. Ian is planning the second tapping lesson for sometime next week, and I will be putting out the first modes lesson next week as well, with a second slapping lesson at the end of next week. If anyone has any comments, suggestions or requests, please email them to me at "doug@arizona.edu". Cheers! -Doug [ I'll be sending these lessons out as separate digests for easy reference. They'll also be available at the ftp site shortly. Let us know what you think of them. Bass Mgr. ] ---------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 23 Jan 93 09:01:22 EST From: Dave Rule Subject: New Posts Greetings TBLers! I've been kind of busy the past week or so (Marist College started its spring semester this past Thursday -- been busy with syllabi and stuff) and I just got caught up with my e-mail. Some good conversations and I think I'll respond to a few. Chris (& others) have been conversing on the topic of reading music. Well, I have to admit my bias, so here goes. Having been trained as a classical trumpet player my reading skills are quite develop -- albeit in the "wrong" clef. When I started playing bass (about four years ago) it was this reading ability that really allowed me to get going quickly. After a couple short lessons from friends on bass technique (e.g., hand positions), I was able to begin practicing by playing the bass lines from my church's hymnal. This had two positive effects: 1) it forced me to become comfortable note placement on the neck and how to get around and 2) it was a wonderful lesson in harmony. Those old hymns (some of which can be traced to Bach) are a wonderful source of ideas of how to get from chord to chord in both a functional and melodic fashion. Also, the changes COME FAST! That is, with some of the hymns the chords change every beat! To address some of the other questions . . . Yes, I still do a large amount of reading and have found in invaluable to my advancement on the bass. For example, I have John Patitucci (spelling?) Electric Bass video. In the accompanying book John writes out (in notation, NOT TAB!) most of what's covered in the video. This allows me to both follow him as he plays and work on the lines myself. (NOTE: No flame intended, but the only use for TAB that I can see -- for me -- is the ability to send it via e-mail. Otherwise, musical notation is FAR more flexible and expressive than TAB ever will be.) And yes . . . when I'm reading charts I do modifying them when I feel it adds to its sound or doesn't conflict with the keyboard player. (It's essential to be sensitive to this. That is, if the keyboard player is reading the chart note for note -- including the bass line -- it really restricts the bass lines!) Although I don't do alot of reading the band, "Manna", when its a great skill when needed (e.g., need to learn a song fast!). In _TBL_ 281 and prior, Larry and Wotton were discussing Ibanez SoundGear basses. I own an SR 1500 and love it! I checked out alot (and I mean ALOT) of basses before buying the Ibanez. However, when it comes down to sound and quality construction for the dollar, the Ibanez basses are a great value. Yes, they are not a Warwick, Pedulla, Zon, etc. but, theses basses are often twice the price of more. Personnally, at least with the basses I tried out, I didn't think these basses were worth the additional money, given the sound and construction of the my SR 1500. Finally, William asks some questions concerning playing fretless. I play a 4 string Fender Jazz Bass Special (modified with EMG pickups). The fret board doesn't have lines (I prefer it that way, even though it did add learning time). To answer some of his questions . . . Intonation: I own a Korg DT-1 tuner. When practicing the fretless at home, I often plug the tuner in line before the amp. By placing the tuner on a music stand in front of me I'm able to quickly glace at it to check myself. It also really helps in the development of vibrato technique -- a MUST with the fretless. Exercises: That's a tough and easy one. Easy in the obvious answers like scales, arpeggios, etc. I often do these exercises and stop at expected and unexpect points to check intonations (see above). Tough -- "Manna" does several originals where I use the fretless. These are tougher to practice because of the absence of the rest of the band. That is, without the other musicians, especially the keyboardist, it's hard to really work on the lines. I also practice by playing my fretted lines on the fretless. Again, good, but tough because lack of "band reference." Learning: That's easy --- PRACTICE. No way around it! (My music training made this extremely clear.) Well, sorry for the length of the post, but, like I said, I got behind on the e-mail. Hope some of the above helps or is of interest! God Bless ========================================================================== David L. Rule (914) 575-3000 ext. 2979 Assist. Prof. of Educational Psychology Marist College Poughkeepsie, NY 12601 JZKV@MARISTB.MARIST.EDU ========================================================================== ---------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 23 Jan 93 12:27:36 EST From: john010000schiesser Subject: PV & Oz \ Joni & Jaco \ Ovation \ side pull vs center pull Hi, Oz liked the Peavey 2x10tx and the Hartke 2x10. I run both of these out of a biamp Galien Krueger 800RB - the Hartke is the top and the PV is the bottom. It is portable and like Preston Carter says, the PV has an outstanding bottom. The Hartke really takes up where the PV leaves off. I love the two of them together. I just to write cause I just listened to one of my all time favorite songs - Joni Mitchell's "Cotton Avenue" with Jaco playing. It is on her album called "Don Juan's Reckless Daughter." Give it a listen if you can and let me know what you think. I have an Ovation 4 string acoustic bass that I just started playing in my band with. I used to to just use it for home practice (which it is wonderful for - no amping up time). Well the people in the band love it! They say it really comes through, and really adds another dimension. I have always used the finger style, but with this bass, I have started using a pick often, and I really like the sound. Trouble is, I cannot really use it for the louder rock songs as it has a limited bottom end - the volume from the fourth string is pretty low, even when I boost it at the amp side - and it starts to feed back! I want a solid body bass that approaches this nice acoustic tone and has great bottom, under 1000. Any recs? Oh - one more thing - I have noticed a funny trend in basses that mimics my childhood bicycle experiences. Years ago, you bought a bike, and it had side pull brakes, your friends had center pull brakes and they were better. Then, when you bought your next bike, with center pull brakes, all of a sudden, side pull breaks were better. Now, I thought that neck-through basses were the thing, but now that I have one, it seems that the thing to have is a bolt-on-neck. Sheesh! Could the neck-though on my solid have something to do with the tone being better on the acoustic Ovation? In other words, are bolt-ons better for tone? rock on, john ---------------------------------------------------------- Anonymous ftp access for back issues, etc.: kappa.rice.edu (128.42.4.7) in the /pub/bass directory (Username is 'anonymous', password is your e-mail address. Try typing 'help' for more info once logged in.) _The Bottom Line_ is a digest dedicated to the art of playing electric and acoustic bass. It is distributed on a basis that coincides with the amount of material received, from the University of Wisconsin - Platteville, USA; Kevin Tipple, Erik Habbinga, editors Copyright _The Bottom Line_, 1993 The contents of _The Bottom Line_ are solely the opinions and comments of the individual authors, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the authors' managements or the digest management. The editors do not assume responsibility for copyright infringement of submitted material. *************************** End of The Bottom Line #282 ***************************