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Here's 4 of mine, and while beauty is of course subjective, I love the look of them, they are playable art to me, the woods used and sheer quality of work are simply stunning, they all play unbelievably well with low action and comfortable necks, and they are absolutely not for everyone, but most people who can't get their head round them, who have played them, understand instantly after 5 minutes of playing! For me, they're perfect, for you maybe not. For each their own lest us all be assigned a number and wear only beige!

I think it's cool. Tbh every instrument I try, I use like a bass player. Being a bassist isn't about what you play, it's how you think as a musician. Or don't think

Lee from Ashdown has just been in contact and informs me that there's a spanking new driver on it's way to me gratis! He also pointed out that I should never have been asked to pay for one in the first place and would never have happened if he had been aware of the situation. The man is a gent and I wish I'd dealt with him from the beginning. My faith in Ashdown has been restored! Thanks everyone!

Thanks all for your thoughts on this. I'm going with the glass half full view on it. I love it, plays like a dream and looks awesome. And I've got the cover note from Fender if I decide to sell in the future.

Erm... I dont buy this at all. You're implying that users of Squier or Fender-type basses are all cloth-eared root and fifth plodders. You can be subtle and inventive on any bass - you don't need a seven-string ironing board to be nuanced and intricate. That is entirely down to the player. IMHO, etc.

After many years without "the one I shouldn't have let go", I've managed to get it back. I sold it to the previous/now owner, probably 8 years ago and I've missed it ever since. I asked him 2 years ago if he would let it go, but no joy, that and I didn't have the right cash. By chance I messaged him, and he's looking to sell it.. Great timing or what.! Its a stunning instrument, with THAT Sei loveliness, and the great U Retro. Easily the best bass I've ever played. Thanks Steve. My excitement has got the better of me. After an 8 year wait, and a 6 hour drive, she's back. Nothing wrong with a Sire that I just sold but playing this, is just a totally different experience. Its just sublime. As I remember, its soooo light for a swamp ash 5 string. On my digital scales its 8.1 pounds. Adjustable string spacing from 19mm to 17.5 on the ABM bridge. I found out, It was made in the early 2000's, Has an Olive Wood top, Brazilian Rosewood fingerboard, Birdseye maple neck. 2 piece american swamp ash body, single coil Bartolini 59j's, East U retro ( I think). Im sure Molan and Gwillym can remember this bass.

Sorry but I simply don't believe this - are you sure it was the basses? (I'll accept the lack of cloth ears - though I've played with plenty of half deaf guitarists and drummers in my time so I'm not but sure why bassists are exempt - even CLF himself was half deaf i understand). Ah well - when we're all playing Squiers in a few years....... no doubt that's all that'll be left in production or worthy of playing when this viewpoint extends everywhere. Reminds me of the days we all drove Moskovitch and Trabants - because the powers that be thought they were perfectly adequate to get from A to B and everything else was an extravagant, decadent irrelevance - we're just showing off in our unnecessary Audis and Mercedes these days - after all who needs aircon, ABS etc etc - it's all irrelevant 😂😂

Maybe he tried to sell it as a bass ?

Hy guys ! Here is my baby!

You could say the same for certain players and their use of a 4 string bass! It is a bass, it operates on the same principles in every fashion, just with a few more strings. Same build techniques, scales, spacings, pre-amps, strings (with a few more either side), tunings etc. ERBs have far more in common with a standard bass than they do any other instrument as they are basses! It's like saying an 64 key keyboard isn't the same instrument as an 88 key keyboard... they are both keyboards, one just has more range.

That's probably racist, or something...

Be careful posting stuff like this in case someone knows a drummer with a kit like that, and gets offended on behalf of someone else

To be fair, he’s put himself out there, so he should probably expect a bit of joshing as well as the good stuff.

I played this to death, back then. Excellent stuff. (I left decades ago ...)

Very true, they're both fairly heavy. Maybe buy a nice wide strap and keep the Wal?

But the difference is he'd thrash you even more comprehensively on a Ducati because it's a lot better at going fast and almost everything else. How well would your Squier take bowing - orchestral music for instance. Or rockabilly upright style? This thread is in general so per se must apply to upright bass as well. I don't think I'd be playing a Squier on Beethoen's 5th!! 'Coffee table' basses aren't bedroom basses - they're mostly used by very experienced players where tone, articulation and nuance required are way beyond the thump along rock or to quote another thread once on this forum - boring plodding. Bass guitar - indeed music - is often about nuances and intricacies - this thread simply proves to me that many bass guitar players on this forum don't either get that or don't play in a style that uses them or needs them - that's fine but don't use that to judge what other people should do - they can take a lot of forms - if you can't hear them (or the guitar does not allow you to play them) then there's no differentiation from one style to the next and the bass guitar becomes no different from one thing to the next. That devalues most of the subtleties which can be used by skilled and inventive players.

So I bought a Mark Bass set up comprising a head and two cabs. Then, a while later, GAS got the better of me and I couldn't say no to a couple of Barefaced cabs. As Patrick O' Brian would say I was with child to try them out and promptly did so on the evening of the day upon which I'd wrested possession of them from @Happy Jack in the car park at Newbury services. They gave an incredibly detailed account of the instruments I put through them, but I did spend much of the rehearsal fiddling with the controls of the Little Mark Tube to achieve a sound I liked. No problem I thought, new gear takes time to learn. Every set up has its foibles. Last night I gazed along the mountain of amps and cabs I've accumulated over the years, and in a fit of quite astonishing laziness decided I could only be arsed to take the smallest of the BF cabs and a couple of cables and one bass. Once the folly of not taking any amplification had fully dawned on me I trotted back into the house and on nothing more than a whim I grabbed my ageing Behringer BX4500H. This cheap and cheerful head has been with me for yonks usually coming along for the ride as a back up where it has served me honourably. In fact on more than one occasion it has stepped bravely to the fore when far more illustriously named amplifiers have croaked in mid gig. Imagine my utter astonishment when the diminutive Barefaced Midget in combination with this ugly ducking of the bass amp world proceeded to produce the most astoundingly beautiful bass sound with which I have ever been associated. My singer looked up wide eyed from her seat to comment how the bottom end of the sound had passed through her chest in such a way as to make her draw breath, the clarity and smoothness of the upper frequencies had my aged yet nimble fingers dancing up the fretboard and the mid tones boxed their way cleverly through the other instruments there present as they seamlessly and fluently held together the whole in a way I'd not previously experienced. And loud. Boy oh boy. The master pot was barely off the floor and yet I filled the room with a sonic feast both voluble and delicious. The tone knobs were set to neutral, just the shape control engaged and the bass boost button depressed. I was playing a Stingray, the infamously zingy, tingy, teeth on a metal fork quality of which I have tamed by the application of some flatwound strings. It was truly bass heaven. I look froward to trying other combinations of amp and cab before flooding our for sale section with unwanted goodies but honestly I shall be extremely surprised were any of them to match up to what I heard last night. Just goes to show, don't write off a 'cheap' brand from a position of prejudice, and don't assume amp 'A' will be amazing with cabs 'B' or 'C' without trying them first.

Here are four to start with Journey. Foreigner. Fleetwood Mac. The Eagles.

I think the expression is "Ernie ballsack"?

Got this in a recent trade, 14 mm strings spacing at bridge, 8 mm strings spacing at nut, 6 strings and 32 3/9 inches scale ! Status Electro 6, just like the one Jonas Hellborg used to play.

I agree, I understand the temperamental creative type but such skittishness surely could be addressed by a cheeky uppercut?

Better have yourself thrown down the stairs as well, for good measure.

I'm with Ped and his Zen-like comment above.

Root AND fifth, well that's something for me to try.

Pulled the trigger on the BEAM. Lets hope it turns up!

I read the OP as a humerous comment on the width of the instruments neck, not as a personal attack on the person playing it. The gentleman himself wasn't mentioned. But I guess we can see what we want in any given situation. Personally I'd prefer a Chapman Stick for ERB but each to his own.

How does that work if one genuinely wishes to criticise..?

Agreed, but Basschat's all about the pointing and the laughing isn't it ?

@blue I did like my rb1001rb, it was very clear and bloody loud!! Like you say, it had headroom for days especially at 4 ohms. My only gripe was that it was difficult to get what I would call a “warm sound” but that may just be my paying style. When I switched to the fusion 550, it opened up the option of that warm vintage sound I was looking for plus still had the ability to do the GK sound. If you get the chance, give one a try. Plus I enjoy watching the motorised Knobs move 😂

As long as it's fretless

People can play what they want; indeed they do. He says he really wanted an instrument that was going to challenge him. Fair enough, because that is exactly why I play four strings.

I think it's pretty damn cool. Not that I would want one, but the fact that he can play it and it serves his purpose. Its always good to see something out of the ordinary.

Hi Blue Well I wouldn`t say we`re a pro band - def hobbyists, though a great hobby it is. My reply was more along the lines that originals bands might think they`re not seeing any money, but could look at the overall picture and might realise that their band is actually driving business pretty good. I think the challenge is still the same, crowd size and bar takings, after all venues want those bar takings, whether it`s covers or originals, that`s what they`re in the business for. For us originallers we then have another challenge, getting the product out there, but in all honesty to me it doesn`t matter how good your product is if people don`t come to see you, which comes back to the bums on seats/drinks across the bar aspect of your query.

I bought a set of the Sheehan sig Rotosounds last week to put on my Aria Black and Gold. I used to use them all the time with my white SB Elite back in the late 80s/early 90s. The E string was flat and lifeless compared with the other three strings. So I emailed them, the reply was along the lines of: "Yes, heavier gauge strings are prone to that" I'd already pointed out that I'd never had that issue with 110-127 gauge D'Addarios. They're sending a replacement, so we'll see.

You could always get an ABY box with gain for each input to put in front.

Our very own eude put me onto Lee at Ashdown and he emailed me back with a very positive response. He is going to contact me again in the morning. Thanks everyone, I'll let you know what happens.

Yes, but we did that one last week!

Anyone that says no is talking poop.

They make P and J fretless versions

Of course, the other option is to burn the studio down and everything in it. Perfect excuse that covers all eventualities.

Played Pilton WMC and Village Hall last night with the Bad Cowboys. Told to arrive at 7.00 as PA would be provided. Massive PA, helpful crew and the wall was posted with all the enclosed. Pilton is the nearest Village to Glastonbury, for those who are unaware. Gig went well and at the end this nice chap with white hair was very keen to be photographed with us. He's in the middle, I'm on the left: apparently he's some local celebrity, I'm not......

As you lot haven't bought one, I'll have to take one for the team. The rack units won't land for another 4 or 5 weeks, but one has my name on it.