Thursday Lunch Report- June 2nd 2011

Lunch: Hell if I know. I find something somewhere to eat. It may not be healthy. 'nuff said.

Today's bass project - The Ultimate Fretless bass
I have parts Jazz bass that has filled this role for me.

This bass has the largest and heaviest Fender Bass bridge ever made:


This bass required new pickups and controls and the neck has so many marking on the side it is impossible to tell where to place your fingers. This is great for training your ear and pissing off the other members of the band. LOL

G&L question:
Do you like the sustain form the bridge that your guitar came with or do you want the additional sustain form a Callaham block?

I may amend this report later. I have to be at a training session this morning.
Discuss amongst yourselves.

Hey Bassman,

I have a student (who is a lefty BTW) and he has three actual Callaham guitars. They are really, really nice but i am not sure if there is a great deal more sustain from those guitars to my g&l's. I have heard really good things about the bridges, but have never had a chance to A/B them on similar guitars. I am super happy with the amount of transfer and sustain from the Saddle Lock and DF, but i guess if i needed to hold an A chord for the entire 1st set i might consider upgrading to the Callaham block .

that pink bass is awesome, in tune or not i don't know how it could ever piss any band member off! It would put a smile on my face all night.

I also could not resist posting a clip today, given the poll contents.... we open the 3rd set with this

[youtube]fMvvFTaXx8M[/youtube]

Bassman, I couldn't take the poll. Who are the Black Eyed Peas?? I live in a cave in Minnesota.

Cool Bass. I like pink and am going to own a Pink guitar someday, even if I have to paint my own! That is some saddle and reminds me of something from the 60's when everything was getting bigger. I looks like a hood ornament from a car. I am assuming it is steel and must pack some weight. Sustain is a deep subject and I have never replaced a bridge block. I believe the build quality, tight neck pocket and good bridge/body contact contributes to sustain but if there were a perfect answer, everyone would be doing it. Some of my chambered guitars have great sustain so I am not convinced it requires a solid body which I think is the reason attributed to LP's.

I have not mastered the fretless bass that well, but I really like it. Mine has small dots on the side of the neck which helps, but ultimately you have to listen. I would like to use it more on gigs but have become addicted to the 5 string. Have a great day, everyone.-- Darwin

Hey Bassman - I voted

Never had a problem with sustain - some of which is definately down to technique as well. I have an unrelated question for all of you as well (especially Bassman).

Is there some unwritten rule somewhere that all Bass players stand off to the right hand side (as I look at the stage from the perspective of the audience)? I mean, you always get the singer in the middle (fair enough) but the lead guitarist off to the left and the bassman (pardon the pun) off to the right. I note in Bassman's avatar that he might actually be stood to the left of the drummer (again, left as the audience views the band) - which is a first fo me....

Is there a 'stage-law' as to the positions of the guitarists vs bass guitarists? or is it just preference?

PS - one other exception was "The Who" - but hey......

The bass is actually metallic purple, or a sort of Burgundy Mist attempt. I can see why you guys see it as pink. I didn't paint it I swear!

I would piss off the band with this bass or any fretless bass by playing out of tune. It takes a while to get good on fretless bass. Some players are not meant to play fretless and your band mates will let you know if its you.

Dr.b- The placement of the bass player should be to the hi-hat side of the drummer, so that the bass player can visually lock in with whatever beat he is playing.
My avatar shot is one of me playing at Carter Barron amphitheatre in 2009 with the Capital Blues Ensemble. You can't tell form the picture but I was stage left of the drummer, on his hi-hat side as I explained.

Google Black Eyed Peas half time show and you will see what they are about.
Darwin- The bass bridge is solid brass. I estimate it to weigh about 4 -5 lbs. easily. It is a massive bridge that came out in the 70's - the decade of brass! Everybody was putting brass nuts and bridges on their basses back then. Alembic started the brass fad and some of the hardware is still good . Its just heavy. It works on this bass because this bass has the lightest body of any bass I have ever played.
It been a good project bass.- Bill

Bassman, I couldn't take the poll. Who are the Black Eyed Peas?? I live in a cave in Minnesota.

Cool Bass. I like pink and am going to own a Pink guitar someday, even if I have to paint my own! That is some saddle and reminds me of something from the 60's when everything was getting bigger. I looks like a hood ornament from a car. I am assuming it is steel and must pack some weight. Sustain is a deep subject and I have never replaced a bridge block. I believe the build quality, tight neck pocket and good bridge/body contact contributes to sustain but if there were a perfect answer, everyone would be doing it. Some of my chambered guitars have great sustain so I am not convinced it requires a solid body which I think is the reason attributed to LP's.

I have not mastered the fretless bass that well, but I really like it. Mine has small dots on the side of the neck which helps, but ultimately you have to listen. I would like to use it more on gigs but have become addicted to the 5 string. Have a great day, everyone.-- Darwin

I'm looking to replace my excellent-sustaining G&L bridges with something that will quickly kill the ill-chosen and dissonant notes I manage to pluck from my instruments. - ed

On sustain, I had no idea how full of sustaining power that good ol' saddlelock bridge had until mine came in. here is the scene, my brand new ASAT in my lap and I am playing into my Vibro champ XD, moments later I stop but I still hear this noise. my first though is maybe its 60 cycle hum? nope I am on the middle position and even then My ASAT is dead quiet on the bridge and neck position is it a ground problem? no my fingers are still on the strings... so I mute the strings and find out IT WAS SUSTAINING THE WHOLE TIME! Amazing I had no idea a guitar could sustain like that.

I'm looking to replace my excellent-sustaining G&L bridges with something that will quickly kill the ill-chosen and dissonant notes I manage to pluck from my instruments. - ed

I have old sock you can use. A relic'd one and all. I'll include it with the Iced VoVo's


Love that fretless, Bassman! Just admit that its pink. Burgundy mist, really

I'm a big fan of G&L bridges, whichever one. They're all good!

Don, the bassist in my band, has a fretless bass that he does pull out on occasion, a black '70's Jazz. Not sure he'd play the pink/purple one you have, but I like the color.

Sustain is a tricky thing. I mean, you COULD build a guitar out of a slab of granite that would probably sustain for days, but I probably wouldn't like the sound of it.

When I think of sustain, one of the guitars I think of is a Les Paul Custom. The overall design and construction; the ebony board and the heavy tailpiece, produce a guitar with excellent sustain. However, I prefer guitars with a more organic feel. While my Historic R8 and G0 Pauls have excellent sustain and resonance, the attack and dynamics of the notes are noticeably different. Their true-to-vintage spec aluminum tailpieces make a big difference over the cast zinc stop bars of modern era, non-Historic, Les Pauls. I definitely prefer a solid body or semi-hollow over a jazz box arch top--I do need some sustain for my style.

With the G&L equipped with DF vibratos, I notice similar differences between the alder and ash bodied instruments. Alder has the softer attack and more dynamics; while the ash tends to sustain longer. Typically, I use these guitars interchangeably, except for ONE song that I prefer to use the alder.

I move between the Les Paul world and the Legacy world, without too much thought these days. I like having the right guitar for the song. Sometimes I want the thickness and sustain of the Les Paul; while other times the spanky tone of the Legacy, thin as it may be to some ears, simply fits the song better. I don't believe in the concept that there is one guitar out there that can do it all.

And lets not forget the amp in this situation. People don't understand why Dumbles are so sought after, but I can tell you that the deepest memory of playing a couple of Dumble amps nearly three decades ago is the incredible sustain of the amp on the CLEAN settings. That tone is as seductive as any piece of gear I've ever seen or heard, and I can easily understand why they demand such high prices.

I use Mesa amps these days, and the LEAD channels of these amps are amazing. You're never going to get that tone out of a stomp box. And with my Legacy Special and my Mark III Coliseum Head, I've hit notes that I could sustain for days, just over the edge of feedback, totally musical. The kind of note that just puts a huge smile on your face.

So, I'd say I'm good with the the sustain of the guitars I have. It's only a part of the tonal equation. And overall, I'd say I'm happy with my tone. That's a good place to be.

Bill