This YouTube version is the only version I’ve ever heard. It features only drums and voice (is that James Taylor or Mitch Hedberg; it’s hard to tell), but we can guess at the chords implied:
"Traffic Jam" starts off with a chorus, which seems to feature a G Major drone, all the way up to the verse at 0:23.
Then, each line the verse seems to get its own chord. So at 0:23 (“Well I left”) we hear a G Major, followed at 0:25 (“It took”) by F Major, then a B-flat Major at 0:28 (“Just”) and back to G Major at 0:30.
Each verse and chorus seems to get the same treatment, to my half-deaf ears (contrary opinions are not discouraged) until we reach the “road to ruin”.
Hope that helps.
And thanks, Word and Ace; I’ve always heard that pawn shop owners have to keep tight records, but whether this pawn shop owner is complying is what has me wondering.
I mean, how did he manage to get an expensive guitar so cheaply that he could sell it for 10% of its used market value? I mean, it’s only two years old at most, right?
I know a guy in law enforcement who owes me a favor; I’ll be talking to him in the next week or two, and see what he thinks.
I selected the P style neck in rosewood.
Translucent blue finish
This was my best option to get a full scale bass that’s light enough for me to play. I have back issues and have been playing a short scale bass. It’s even a bit heavier than I like.
It should be built around Nov. Mike has a 3 to 4 month waiting list on custom orders. But I’d suggest ordering one from Reverb unless there’s a specific custom feature that you need.
I didn’t see the link. Score!! Why again do you have to report your deal back to the seller? They are a professional business, yes? They should do their research.
As for the 4-way switch, that’s a super common mod, so much so that maybe they included it here? Looks very cool.
Yes, of course, to all your points. I was j/k about going back to the pawn shop. If he can’t be bothered to do his due diligence, well… “you snooze, you lose”, as my buddy Ivan used to say. If I do go back, it’ll only be to see what else he’s giving away.
But this is the first axe I’ve actually owned with a series feature, and I like it.
Ace, congrats! Mike Lull has a good name in that biz.
A 7 lb. bass? Sounds like just what the chiropractor ordered.
I’m excited to get this bass ordered. I enjoy playing bass. But the weight can make my back flare up. Especially if the bass isn’t balanced and the neck dives.
I originally planned on a P bass. I talked with some friends and they convinced me the PJ offers more options. Blending the P and J pickups gives an awesome sound.
That Redwood Tele is sweet.
I’m surprised the pawn shop let that one go cheap. You snagged a great deal.
Sounds like it’s gonna be gorgeous, ace. I’d personally go for the Jazz style neck, but that’s just me and my little hands. Really, if I were gonna drop that much on a bass, I’d get his T-bird copy, but that’s still just me and my primeval Thunderbird lust.
And you had me worried there for a second, EtF. Trust me, the pawn shop is making money. The only pawn shops that I know of that ever closed were ones where the owner died. And yeah, series wiring is great. I have a 3-pickup EKO 700 that has a series veg-o-matic setting, and it thumps. I so want to try a 4 pickup model.
Well, the Super Bassman ate 2 power tubes at practice last night. It’s a modern amp, so it took them out of the circuit and went on with 200 watts instead of 300. Thankya Fender!
But with a show tomorrow night where the touring act we’re opening for is using my rig, and a road show ourselves this weekend I didn’t want to risk losing more pairs. Finding 6550Cs that you can grab on your lunch hour is hard. Little guitar amp tubes like EL34s or 6L6GCs, no problem. I ended up buying the bench tubes from a repair guy, as he had enough on hand to swap them out until he had a set that matched the other 4 in the power section. I have a couple of amps I can use as backup, but none sound as good as that one. I’m gonna have to buy a backup sextet of tubes.
You need to check the plate current on the output tubes. A amp tech on YouTube, Uncle Doug explains how and what to check if it’s high.
He also explains how to set the bias and calculate the Watts output.
My first career was in electronics. TV and stereo repair. I worked on a lot of tube amps back then. Parts were easy to get in 1984. Lavender’s electronics was a 10 min drive. RCA 6L6’s were $7 wholesale. Now parts requires mail order and they charge a premium for NOS. Tubes come from overseas.
Uncle Doug has over 20 videos. This will get you started. He’s worked on a lot of Fenders and his videos are a tremendous resource.
Usually, like 90% of the time, you do. But that rule has never been universal.
This particular amp is self-biasing. As long as you replace the tubes with a matched set (or replace dead tubes with a tube of the same grade), it will bias itself without any bench work needed. I went to the amp tech, because in his assortment of a dozen or so 6550Cs, he was likely to have one that would be close enough to my existing tubes.
The other time where you won’t need to adjust the plate current (unless the amp is broken) is in a fixed bias amp, like my Silvertone 1484. If you want to change the plate current on that amp, you’re changing components, as there’s no adjustment. Pop a set of 6L6GCs in, and go. They’re going to last as long as they’re going to last. But, that amp’s so easy on tubes, it still has its original 1965 RCA made power tubes, that keep getting a clean bill of health when I have it serviced.
OK, now that’s crazy. Have you ever considered that the Tube Fairy might be replacing the tubes while you’re asleep?
Your post makes me wonder if you’ve replaced those old capacitors in the power supply, and how long ago?
As a matter of curiosity, I checked into the design of that 1484 of yours, and it turns out that it uses a pretty unorthodox power supply: two voltage-doublers generate the high voltage for the output tubes. I guess this was done to save money, but as those doubler capacitors age, they’ll reduce the voltage to the output section, likely extending the life of the tubes (Brilliant!). Of course, this will happen at the expense of power and clean headroom, but that may not be a problem, depending on your taste - I had an ancient Silvertone practice amp that made spectacular distortion, like an extremely musical chainsaw.
Hehe, the Tube Fairy might have access to Sivertone branded tubes, so can never be sure. I had a set of EHX tubes in it for awhile, but went back to the originals. The amp’s been gone through a coupe of times by a reputable guy, and had quite a few caps replaced. I don’t know if the power supply caps have been replaced, but they’ve been checked.
Yep, Nathan Daniel was kind of a genius on the order of Leo Fender, but he seemed almost obsessed with making everything inexpensively. It all sounds pretty damn good, sometimes awesome, but his instruments are filled with weird cost-saving choices like the aluminum nuts and masonite bodies on the guitars. Another weird thing about this amp is it’s got around 50W of tubes, but the output transformer is good for about half that. It saturates early and makes nice, creamy distortion.
I’ve got a friend who has one of the little ones, the 1482, and it’s exactly as you describe. It’s a roaring little monster. If it was loud enough to keep up with a drum set, it would be the ultimate amp.
Thankya! I’ve been playing since I was 13. Even though I’m a total cheapskate, I’ve tried to hold on to the good stuff.
What is the makeup to Robin Trower’s sound on “Bridge Of Sighs”? I would love to get that “liquid” sound, even if a lot of players toss Trower onto the “Hendrix Copycat” trash heap. I am guessing along with obvious distortion and most likely neck pickup, there’s delay, but there’s something else going on there that I cannot grok. Help?
A quick Google says he’s using a Uni-Vibe, which is kind of the holy grail of tremolo/vibrato pedals. Gorgeous sounding thing, but it doesn’t really sound much like a rotating speaker.
ETA: It’s a seriously weird pedal. I was thinking it was a phaser before I listened, an in-amp tremolo set real slow after I listened. That thing sounds like somewhere between a phaser, a tremolo and a vibrato.
FG: you can approximate it pretty well with a vanilla phase-shift like an MXR Phase 90. Experiment with putting an overdrive pedal before and after the phaser; I forget which arrangement sounds more Trower-y. Or put the phaser in your effects loop for that matter. Set to slow phase and dream of “In City Dreams”.
I’m starting to make progress with my Travis Picking.
I’m only focusing on the most basic pattern where the bass is played on beats 1 and 3.
Jerry’s intro has been helpful. He’s got lessons for at least 15 songs using this basic pattern. John Denver’s and some of John Prine’s stuff uses it.
I search Jerry’s site for Travis to find the songs. For now that’s the only pattern I’m practicing. It’s the easiest and most consistent.
He calls other patterns, fingerstyle. Jim Croce, James Taylor, and Gordon Light foot for example use unique patterns that you have to learn. They’re harder because the pattern isn’t as consistent.
I’ve been practicing while watching TV. Making myself play accurately without thinking too much about it. Just relentlessly plucking the bass like Jerry teaches and filling in between the beats. I’m slowly getting better on Leaving on A Jet Plane. It’s my first Travis style attempt. I fooled around with it last year and got distracted with other projects. I’m doing better this 2nd time.
Here’s Jerry’s intro on the basic Travis pattern. It’s kind of fun.
Piedmont style is good for that. Have a look at Mississippi John Hurt, if you’re interested. “Ain’t No Tellin’” and other tunes are pretty easy to figure out because of the consistency of the picking pattern. Also, there are a few relatively simple things by Reverend Gary Davis that will get you started on “reverse” patterns in which the first bass note isn’t the root (picking E-A-E-A bass notes under an A chord, for example). That’ll mess with your head (in a good way).
