The Last Bass Outpost

I like that shot of him backstage:



Weird that he tried 'a Hendrix' and took a lefty Strat and flipped it over. I'm guessing the black Strat down the front, with the heavy duty replacement tremolo arm and Telecaster knobs, is the Machine Head/In Rock Strat he's playing in all the early videos of the band? That Strat took a kicking at every gig, and I'm sure there's a photo of him playing it in the liner notes of the BBC In Concert album where the headstock has broken and lost its lower half.

Here is me:



Playing my Thunderbird-powered Jazz bass with Jim Dunlop flatwounds. Blasphemy 'n' all that, but this is yet another gig where I turn up with my Tech21 VT:DI, tell the sound guy it runs on phantom power, and he's the happiest guy in the building. I had some sort of TC Electronic amp up there blasting into the back of my legs.

Actually I always kind of preferred the gold, but they rarely come up on craigslist...

Move to the UK!

The sunburst seems to be vanishingly rare here. I've never seen one in the flesh, never seen one listed for sale...

Very few people are disappointed with it.

A challenge appears! 

Here's a thread from TB about the JC electronics. See if it helps you.

https://www.talkbass.com/threads/how-do-the-epiphone-jack-casady-electronics-work.1241184/

That is cool to see, many thanks! I think my basic premise was right, but I didn't realize that the 3-way switch settings actually indicate ohms.

I agree with you, the original Epi gold fin can't compete with the gold of the Gibson model though I'm not a gold fin fan either way.

Yeah the gold isn't really 'me'. But the original seems more vibrant somehow, and the Epi has a sort of plastic shine to it, whereas the '70s originals have a deeper luster. Hard to describe.

Because flamed maple is more expensive.

Do these have a solid maple top, or simply a veneer?

I also had a think about the bushings for the bridge, and are these drilled vertically down? How was it done on the original Les Paul Signature (?) bass? I know Epiphone used these 3-point bridges on the Rivoli reissue, but the original basses had the 2-point system. I'm thinking that bushings mounted vertically don't match well with a curved top, whereas a flat EB-3 or Thunderbird top makes better sense.

I'm keeping an eye on these JC basses actually, as I like the look of the red finish on these. I've never liked the gold finished JC basses as the finish doesn't look as regal as the '70s originals for whatever reason. If a black one showed up locally however I might spring for that.

Quite interested in the circuitry of a JC bass. Is it simply a low-Z pickup which is then fed into a transformer with a few different taps on it? What does the '50, 250' etc actually signify? It seems the lowest setting has the widest bandwidth but the lowest output, and the bandwidth diminishes as the output increases, with the 250 and 500 setting? As such these aren't strictly low impedance basses as a line transformer converts the output to high impedance, so that you can connect the bass to a conventional amplifier? Is this, then, a tradeoff between the higher fidelity of a low-Z pickup system and the general ease of usability of a high-Z bass?

Well come on man, its a Telecaster made out of a bit of wood that somebody's arse might have been planted on when the Beatles were playing. Infused with a magic mixture of farts, spilled weed and beer.... Only it isn't anything of the sort. It looks like it is made out of scrap wood recovered from a demolished barn, costs as much as a car, and will never be played by a musician of any sort.

And Boss decide to reissue ancient two-knob pedals, for $899.99! What?!?!?!

Looks really great and I'm sure it sounds great too. Have you checked how the pickup locations measure with a 60's T-Bird locations?

I'm not sure where to start with a thing like that! If you have the numbers I can do some checking.

I got a chrome ring for the bridge pickup, and had to grind 1mm or so from the inside of the ring to fit the pickup. A bit annoying, but it does look cleaner for it.

The bass is getting its first public outing on Sunday, so I might have some pics or something to show for it then. I will try and get some audio of it out. As I have it strung with flats you only get half of what I'm sure the bass can do; with rounds I imagine it would really snarl. Imagine a thicker, fatter Jazz bass without the dental-drill highs and you might be imagining the right thing.