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I wonder how many of these items will still turn up on the end of 2018 thread, 'stuff I shouldn't have bought, but still did'!

I didn't say it was a good deal.

I think the key is the fact that the chap was an "older gentleman". I'm 64 and I can remember when I was in my teens/early twenties, a "real" Fender was a pretty rare beast in Blighty, unless you were a pro'. Now, they're everywhere and you can choose between US, Mexican, Korean, Japanese, etc instruments, all Fender branded, at varying price points. The guitar hero at the school I went to was the only bloke for miles around with a genuine Strat' and the copies hadn't started appearing yet. When I finally got my first "proper" Fender ('72 jazz, which I still have), it cost me several months wages and was a real red letter day.

On this evidence, she has a cracking pair of lungs . . .great voice.

Absolutely. Just wondering how many on here can honestly say that out in the audience they could tell the difference between a P and a J for eg. Ive been to a few concerts this year and the myriad of diff basses might have well been wash tubs for the difference each instrument made.

I found the Ultimate Drive quite lacking in bass for me... The American Sound has tons on tap though due to it's 3 band EQ that still has decent low end without having to boost the bass. It's pretty versatile too, just at home with a mellow Precision and flats or a more aggressive Jazz with rounds. I think I got mine for £15 used! I've yet to try the Orange Juice though but will probably get one to try soon - might order the out-of-stock one on sold by Amazon for £38 delivered (normally £50 everywhere else) as they would have to honour that price when it came back in stock!

My objection is to actively forcing people to do something they don't need to do. I'm not a fan of making superfluous rules.

I actually think it helps the debate a lot in that there is no set perspective, one can have one's own taste and preferences about an instrument but I think if this thread has highlighted anything it is that there is no definitive set of criteria that make a vintage bass superior to a modern one or vice versa. There may be something about the materials used in construction, the manner of it's manufacture, but in the end personal preference seems to hugely outweigh any other factor, somehow that pleases me a lot. One thing I do know is that the reasoned arguments and totally friendly discussion on this thread has kind of warmed an old misanthrope's heart! If I were ever attracted to a bass that was considered vintage I'd be straight on here asking for advice, that's for sure.

Well..? Don't just sit there..! Get to bed..! ...

I would put a link to Shine and St Mary's charitable donations pages on here, on this site. There are a lot of good people on here that I'm sure would love to contribute. All the best to you and your wife and your new addition.

I've never understood the obsession with resale value. Maybe because I've never bought any instrument with an eye to selling it on at some point. I've always bought because I have an actual need for the instrument at that particular moment in time. If I can afford it and it's something I'm going to use then I'll buy it. At the time I rarely think I'll be selling it later. If at some point I no longer need it I'll probably sell it or if I think I might use it again in the future it will go into storage. When I sell stuff sometimes I make money compared with what I originally paid for it, and sometimes I lose money. If I loose money, I look at the that amount as the rental value of the instrument for the time I was using it. TBH the amount I've spent on guitars and basses in real terms is small beans compared with what I was spending on synthesisers in the 80s.

Y'know, although I've had loads of gear over the years, I don't think I've ever posted anything in the review section..! That's a shame about the Class AB stuff. Maybe they've decided that the Subway is finally 'there' in terms of equivalent performance? The amount that were moved on on BC not long after launch makes me think... maybe not?

Some great Qs. To get the ball rolling for you... I'm a fan of their older no longer in production amps - in particular the M series. Class A/B mosfet power amp with a 12Ax7 valve preamp. Somewhat similar architecture, in that sense, to the Aguilar DB751 (another awesome amp). Delivers a warm, creamy, gorgeous tone through a Mesa 2x12 cab with a Jazz bass. I tend to play all my basses in passive mode and my goto basses are a Sandberg TM4 (Delano pups) and Ibanez SR1800 (Nordstrand pups). I'm personally less enamoured with the Subway D800 series, although I hear that the D800+ with it's semi parametric EQ is a step up from its baby bro - they just seemed to lack the warmth and lovely colour of the M6 Carbine I play through. I've not had the pleasure of trying out one of their valve amps so I'll leave others to comment on those. If you can get hold of a second hand Mesa Walkabout Scout that would be a great place to start in terms of delivering on the Mesa sound but in a package that is relatively easily to take to gigs.

SGC/Nanyo did plenty of neck thru P/J's. JHS brand Vintage do a couple. Need to add "Unity Series" in small letters under Peavey Dyna bass if you want a neck thru PJ, plain old Dyna is a bolt on with 2 single coils.

Sorry about the S on the end. I am wondering if a lot of musicians are unlucky. Instead of enjoying a show, musicians are seem to be looking to find fault. I don't tend to be too critical as I am not a good enough musician.

I have no Mrs - and on that basis you should bring her with you next time we meet, @Al Krow 😂

Mk1 Yamaha TRB5P would fit the bill.

Yes, @stingrayPete1977 I did get to thinking, "if you can't find the £175 to buy it outright, are you the right kind of person to borrow this, and keep it in good nick?"

My Reply would be "Pay the full asking price and collect it and you can use it as often you like."

You'd also have to test first whether simply taking the neck off the bass and replacing it made any difference to the sound.

I thought they had to cancel due to unforeseen circumstances.

If I had a penny...

I have recently acquired a 2009 AVRI 62 Precision. It's the same colour as my original 64 Precision. Same dimensions, same nut width, same neck profile. Let's just split out a couple of points and give my prespective on things. 1. If we take out prices, and age, and I walked into a room and was asked to pick one of the two, I would pick the 64. Why? How it feels to play, how it balances on the strap, and how it sounds through a variety of amps. That's a simple A/B comparison as done in real life. They are close - damn close. But the 64 edges it for me in those areas. Someone else might feel the complete opposite. So if we all had a chance to try a range of basses old and new, vintage and modern, I suspect some would go away with a new one, some with a vintage. And herein lies the problem. The vintage vs new debate is often clouded by the issue of price - if price were at parity, it would be a question like any other A vs B - some will like one, some another. Now, pre-CBS fenders probably did use a slightly better wood - often it was aged as stocks were available - not so much these days. Mine has a braz rosewood board - it feels nicer than Indian to play. Similarly, tools and techniques differed - I'd say the 64 has a bit more "character" compared to the AVRI. But, 2. Pricing. Is a vintage bass worth what it's often advertised for? Only the purchaser can decide that. Scarcity, age, uniqueness, history etc come into it, but ultimately it's only worth what someone is prepared to pay for it. I don't think price is a fair indicator of relative quality as an instrument for a vintage bass - the price often doesn't reflect it's relative "quality" compared to a modern equivalent. The vintage market is difficult. Mainly because it's now more about collecting and possessing rather than playing or how it sounds. It's sad, but it's the way it is. My conclusion: is my vintage 64 better than my AVRI? Yes, for me. Is it worth the massive difference in price? Proabably not. But maybe for others in it's collectible value rather than it's value as an instrument.

Oh yes, I get that. But if the seller is not bothered by that, why force them? I think having the location displayed is useful and I have no problem displaying mine. I'm just against making it compulsory when there's no better reason than "but I often search the marketplace and sometimes I don't know if an item I might like is local to me or not". edit: I said 'displaying mice' when I meant 'displaying mine'... but if I had pet mice I'd happily display them too. I used to have rats and they were a lot of fun.

If this were me then I’d definitely try putting bass through your existing PA, using both speakers, to see whether that's up to the job. Assuming it is but you absolutely have to have something for gigs where you need a smaller footprint then I’d definitely be thinking hard about something like the RCF 735 that others have mentioned. There’s no reason why you can’t feed that from the main out connections on the front of your existing mixer so you wouldn’t necessarily have to buy a new mixer yet. Then your upgrade path is another 735 in the future, and a passive mixer, which would let you get rid of the existing PA. One other question - I’m guessing that somewhere along the line, or in your future plans, is something bigger than the acoustic duo, as your Ashdown rig is probably overkill for that? If that’s the case then the 735's would be more appropriate for a bigger band, so would make sense from that point of view. If not then perhaps looking at a smaller bass rig along with smaller active speakers could make some sense?

Just bought a TE 15" cab from Clive. The cab is in great condition and at a great price. Excellent communication, prompt responses and very helpful and friendly. Have no qualms dealing with Clive.

No, it's fine for you to buy a fake bass yourself - just be a control freak and complain like an idiot on the forums when it comes to people doing what they like with their own property.

You've nailed the part most people miss, in an acoustic setting you could probably ditch all the amps if you set the speakers up slightly further back than you would a vocal only pa. That's tight stage area space saved and no need to upgrade for larger gigs where you can use on stage amps along with the 735s running harder. Buy cheap, buy twice.

I love my 1966 Gibson EB2 partly because it's 50 years old, and it's been part of such a long history of music and makes me feel part of it too. It's slightly faded and worn and rubbed, as you'd expect, mostly on the back, but just enough to feel comfortable and genuine. From the front and from not very far away it looks immaculate. But I mostly love it because it's a joy to play and sounds wonderful. The only other EB2 I tried, also a 1966, was just dead wood. The down side is that I can't gig it - it's too fragile (and valuable, and hard to replace) to take anyplace I'm likely to be able to play. I do gig my 1992 Jazz Aerodyne, which is visibly better finished than the 2005 Aerodyne I saw for sale recently (and didn't try, so I can't speak for any other comparison). Ok, can't resist a bit of a brag:

Hello from Greece! I was really glad when I found this forum. None of my (musician albeit not bass-playing) friends could understand my happiness about simple bass things, e.g. the sound of the flatwound strings on a semiacoustic

What about the children..? Who's going to think of the children..? ...

IMHO profanity filters stem from a kind of philosophy that I strongly disagree with, to put it very, very mildly. I love your "tea under the pier ar Brighton" though.

I'm sure you can get some cream for that....

Ah, those memories of tea under the pier at Brighton, eh..? We all have 'em. OK, I see it now. An even better joke. It's our old friend, the Cuss Protector at work..! Nice one..! I tried, I really did.

Chic and Nile were wonderful. Regardless of the genre the performances were superb. A super tight band full of great musicians and good vocalists. They also put on a proper show and created excitement and joy, whats not to like?

Happy New Year to all Basschat members. Ok, so I’ve been dipping in and out of the site for the past month or so to see what’s what (and to read some very interesting / funny threads) but there's nothing new been added to the thread about the Wal and with no news from anywhere else I think it’s time I can actually call it my own. So, as promised (if anyone is still interested) here are some pics. As soon as you see them you may understand why I didn’t want to just post pics etc but rather wanted someone to come forward and say “is it serial number $%^$&* and is it such and such a finish?”. Being such a distinctive bass nobody could have guessed the details i don’t think so it would have been pretty apparent that they actually knew the instrument! I can’t imagine there are many like it out there?!!! as I haven’t heard a thing from anyone about it or even a hint of a mention of it anywhere I’m really hoping that I’ll be it’s new custodian from now on but if these pics throw up any new leads i’ll follow them up for sure. A little bit about the instrument. It was virtually unplayable when I found it; action was through the roof and the neck was so loose in the pocket it would move from side to side with little effort. I appreciate some people may have liked and played a set up like that (apart from the loose neck perhaps) but I got the feeling it hadn't been played for a while. It all just needed a little tweaking though and now it plays wonderfully, though it does still have some electrical problems. a quick once over by electric wood at some point will sort that I’m sure. Ok, so over to the pictures to tell the rest of the story. Not a beautifully exotic wood faced instrument and perhaps not everyone’s cup of tea (or glass of banana milk?) but…it’s….a….wonderful…..WAL (and definitely not something you ever expect to find at a bootsale so keep your eyes peeled!).

I have said all of that because somebody has complained 400 quid for CV is too much.... well to me 1200 for Fender USA standard Jazz is simple robbery... 550 for Mexican Bass - still too much if we talk about overall quality... As always, we all having different taste and ways of spending money. One day maybe will buy Fender`s bass but definitely 2nd hand, lightweight with decent fretwork - IF find one and could play it (so buying here wont work)

I lose most of my money through magic. I get paid one day, and when I look at my bank balance 48 hours later, hey presto! it's all buggered off.

Came across this guy by accident, looking for something else completely. Love his voice & his passionate delivery. Talented chap too.

I saw what you did there, just like that.

Oh I don't know, I liked it, not a lot, but I liked it

It's not like you can just pull one out of a hat I guess :).

Yes - for One10 I'm using channel A (500W at 2Ω, around 250W at 8Ω) and it's just enough power. But it's also perfect with my Super Twin in bridged mode (1000W at 4Ω). It is powerful and detailed amp - and taste button is really cool also

That's a great choice. I'm sure this will be perfect for you. I'll be gigging a one10 and Quilter Bass block tonight. The one10 is a marvelous little cab. Frank.

When you go to Hell can I have the Lindisfarne gig?

Very nice!! You’ve done a lovely job of the sunburst!!

[quote name='Pasco Jacorius' timestamp='1429405278' post='2751168'] For me it's definitely my Tom Marceau bass. I can have all the 3 "main" bass sounds (pbass, jbass, MM) while retaining its character. I've rarely played a bass that could fit so much voicing while retaining its own identity. (And it's also dead confortable and the Low B is surprisingly good for a 31" bass!) [/quote] That looks great! I'm not normally a fan of single cuts but it just looks so balanced and I bet it feels great.

This One. My Lakland 55-02 Deluxe. Fits my Needs an my Taste the most. A wonderful Bass.

I don't think I'll ever sell this, I've had quite a few basses come and go but this one is a keeper.