Very clean bicentennial Bird at Norm's

[ilan]

Yes, he's a guitarist.

[4stringer77]

Sounds nice. Rob DeLeo must be right!

[Granny Gremlin]

Like can they get a guy who knows what he's talking about to do these vids?  I counted 3 glaring errors before I switched it off.

[Basvarken]

It does sound great. And it looks mighty clean, except for the tip of the headstock.

[lowend1]

There was a dead mint one for sale a couple years back that was owned by Chris Campbell from Bob Seger's band. I wonder if it could be the same one.
I remember back in '79-'80, the local Sam Goody music store was clearing out all their instruments and amps. My friend bought a brand new, in-the-box Ampeg V4 for $150. They also had a TSB Bicentennial there for $250. I didn't have the money, and my dad refused to float me a loan for it because there was "no reason to have TWO guitars". 
These are the things that keep me awake at night...

[Dave W]

He's no Mark Agnesi, that's for sure.

[ilan]

He's no Mark Agnesi, that's for sure.

Yes but he still does not play like a bass player. For example he has the pick slanted in relation to the string, which is what guitarists do to get nice distortion, and with bass is just wrong - the pick should meet the string when they are parallel for good attack.

It freaks me out. They can take any half-decent guitar and make it sound like a million dollars, especially Agnesi - the guy can play, and he can get the best out of Gibsons and Fenders - and at the same time take absolutely fantastic basses and make them sound like crap. Don't they notice that these basses sound so much different in a bass player's hands?

[Basvarken]

Does this bass sound like crap to you in that video Ilan? To me it sounds fantastic.

[Dave W]

Yes but he still does not play like a bass player. For example he has the pick slanted in relation to the string, which is what guitarists do to get nice distortion, and with bass is just wrong - the pick should meet the string when they are parallel for good attack.

It freaks me out. They can take any half-decent guitar and make it sound like a million dollars, especially Agnesi - the guy can play, and he can get the best out of Gibsons and Fenders - and at the same time take absolutely fantastic basses and make them sound like crap. Don't they notice that these basses sound so much different in a bass player's hands?

I don't think Agnesi made basses sound like crap, he just didn't know how to get the best out of them. This new guy apparently doesn't even know any bass riffs, he's playing guitar on bass.

[ilan]

Does this bass sound like crap to you in that video Ilan? To me it sounds fantastic.

You're right. It does sound great. I was particularly mad about not long ago that Mark Agnesi demo'ed and made it sound very thin. As for the Bird, I'm sure a real bass player could make it sound even better.

[Chris P.]

I was wondering about one thing. My '76 has an all black headstock. I did some googling and I can only find all black headstock '76ers. This one has only the raised part in black. Opinions?

[Rob]

I had a friend with one that had a black headstock also.  I wonder if they may have been the end of the old like.

[bobyoung]

He's no Mark Agnesi, that's for sure.

I miss Agnesi, I wonder if videos are scripted? He's using all the same lines Agnesi used to use. That's a beautiful bass, I wish they had bass players playing these things though.

[Dave W]

I miss Agnesi, I wonder if videos are scripted? He's using all the same lines Agnesi used to use. That's a beautiful bass, I wish they had bass players playing these things though.

I missed Agnesi until he made his ill-fated video for Gibson. After the backlash, I wonder if he'll ever do another video of any kind.

[doombass]

Agnesi sunk like a stone doing that "play authentic" video. Regarding the Bicentennial video it pretty much represents the true sound of the bass in my experience. I do agree the picking style is just fizzly and I'm sure he plays that way because he's not used to the tougher strings. Playing that fizzling style makes the strokes feel more like guitar strings.