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Hellooooo! I returned to bass playing last summer after a long gap and it's fantastic to be back on the instrument that feels like home. My bass journey began in 1983 when I was 14. I taught myself by playing along to Iron Maiden records in my bedroom, having already honed my craft posing in front of the mirror with a tennis racket. I played in some dreadful teenage rock bands on my little Fender Musicmaster, which I still have, and which still sports the set of Rotosound Swing Bass strings I put on it in 1984. (I'm not a frequent changer of strings.) In my mid 20s I discovered I had a good singing voice and felt I had to move over to guitar in order to accompany myself. Never got very good at it though, and had to rely on collaborators for recording and gigging. After 30 years of everyone saying "Hey, you play your guitar like it's a bass!" I finally got the message. So here I am. I'm having fun exploring a few different basses, and the one which feels like my bass-of-a-lifetime is a Nate Mendel signature Precision – I love it so much. Fortunately my husband hasn't found out how much I spent on the Rickenbacker. Looking forward to getting to know you all and ever learning from your expertise.

No...no more pedals for me..😂😂 I would definitely forget to change key... I did try and pick the key but I was struggling with on stage volume and just couldn't pick it. In the end we had a laugh about it .. but it does go to show technology is not always for the best.... 😁

If are taking the non skylines or tributes it is tough to go wrong here. The L2000 is a complete beast. Powered all the old helmet records. I would pick that if you are playing aggressive or heavy music. It does more than that but really shines there. The L2500 was nice. Strings are fairly close together and I didn’t love the preamp. But the slap sound was killer and the wal-like tone can work well, but shines on the heavy stuff. Lakland is the more versatile bass imo. Just make sure you are good with 35inch scale. I’m personally not a fan.

Incorrect, in the context of this contest's rules at least. If this is a completely out of the blue, unsolicited gift, it's not a fail. Otherwise, I could find a bass in a skip and gift it to someone participating in the thread to knock them out of the running! Offering to pay the for shipping ain't cheating either, it's merely polite.

Big fan - saw them a bunch of times in the Fish era, I was initially highly skeptical but got dragged along by a girlfriend to see them. Front row at Hammersmith on the Real To Reel tour sort of changed my mind! I lost interest after Fish left - I hadn't liked much of Clutching At Straws, and when I heard Hooks In You, the first release with h, I thought they'd been railroaded down a commercial pop-rock route & didn't bother listening to them for a very, very long time! Anyway they played locally to me in 2011, I thought it would be rude not to go - and for the second time seeing them live blew me away. I'd say I far prefer the h era now, Hogarth is such an expressive, captivating vocalist & frontman, and lyrically & musically the band's scope is so much broader than the early years. I find much of the Fish stuff pretty uncomfortable to listen to now - so much embittered misogyny in his lyrics. Apropos of nothing - the very first time I saw them Pete was playing an Aria Pro RSB Deluxe II, which was what I had at the time. Last time I saw them was at the Berlin Weekend in 2023, and here he is playing a Yamaha BB400S fretless, just like one I had a couple of years ago!

Thanks for sharing, as a relative newby to the world of double bass I found this fascinating 🙏

Country theme night at our Weekly Monday Night Jam last night was an absolute hoot! A great mix of great tunes, cheesy songs and lots of folks not taking themselves too seriously. Did 3 tunes in the end - here’s one of them: Gunpowder & Lead by Miranda Lambert. The house band opened with a slice of Albert Lee - played even faster than Albert plays it! The guy in the hat is Nick Meier, who is the regular host. Not so shabby on the skinny strings… but then he did spend 5 years or so playing in Jeff Beck’s band in the 2010s… yes THAT Jeff Beck! Lovely guy and quite a player!

The bass is a gift. The Shipping fee is not in the signal chain... Still in, I would say.

That'll be me, right enough. "Gear Up Music. Because the Post Office is closer than the charity shop...." I shall have a look at this, too. Yes - a quick tour of the area with Google Maps showed an anonymous office, rather than a vibrant guitar shop. Yes, and even the 100 "proper" Google reviews are suspiciously well-written. Capital letters, full stops, sentences. I guess the question is "is basschat willing to risk my bass guitars on the company?" Hmmm. I might contact them tomorrow.

I really, really hope they're called 'Licker'. Because as a pal of mine said when he heard Load - "well, they ain't f*ckin' metal any more!"

My Skyline Hollowbody. An idiosyncratic design with some odd limitations. The neck is bolt-on with a Fender-style pocket and flat neck-to-body angle at the join. This keeps the strings low over the surface of the body, yet the pickups mount like Gibson guitar pickups in rings. These need to kept very low to stop the strings clattering them. The pickups themselves have chromed plastic covers, yet the pickup rings are anodized metal. The pickup chassis is ungrounded and no wires are shielded. It is a noisy bass as a result, prone to static crackles and pops. I've replaced the factory bridge. 20 mm string spacing is too wide for me and the bridge was offset 2 mm to the treble side from the factory. This caused alignment issues.

Neuser Claudia had a keyboard in the 1990's. Misa Tri-Bass had a touch fretboard. Steve Chick has made split fret neck instruments since 1985, although split fret neck was invented by Bob Murrell in 1964 (Guitorgan with six voice polyphony). Burns did first active electronics in 1963. Ovation created piezo pickup, and Ron Hoag optical pickup in late 1960's. What's new? What should we expect to see in the near future?

I’d say so. You’re only cheating yourself as you’re acquiring new gear no matter the price paid.

Nightingale - The Eagles

Well, the current Thunderbird 64 model (previously known as Vintage Pro then 60s) will knock your socks off - full 9 ply neck thru (7 ply on the Vintage Pro/60s), chrome pickup covers (and excellent pickups underneath), separate bridge and tailpiece. It's probably the best Thunderbird Gibson never made. Slightly biased because I own one, of course... Yes, @NancyJohnson the body/neck shape's on the wonk - but I can sympathise; I haven't been around for quite as long as the T-bird but my body is definitely wonky after all this time too

No doubt. I have tried the behringer uphoria and that worked ok on the PC ok for me, but just with a keyboard, but I haven't spent much time on it. I also used to have a future impact and didn't have a problem with midi on it, but understand it does seem to work for you and get you would be down on it.

last practice before before "live recording" next week it's only 3 tracks - should be fun

$9K USA is $15254.16 NZD I think that is considerably more than any instrument I have purchased (5-6x) but yes I'm a Tobias fanboy so it's on the list of things to try Had the Growler out for a session last weekend - such a versatile instrument

Poison Sparrow - ABC

Stool Pigeon - Kid Creole and The Coconuts