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Jon sent me a few pictures.

Finally it's back! I traded this beast away several years ago and always considered it to be 'one of those that got away'... I think we've all been there, trading a bass and then suffering instant regret! However... finally after 3 years of failed attempts to get this bass back, the right sequence of trades has now landed this monster back in my hands. It's a Warwick Thumb Single Cut 6, a horrendously expensive thing if you wanted to buy it new (price tag is a shade under €8000). Warwick only made 120 of these and now only make them to order. These are heavy, but they are exceptionally good basses. The tone is outstanding and slices through any mix, the construction is immaculate. Pommele Bubinga top with USA ash body, flame maple neck and thick ebony board. Solid brass 'invisible' frets, MEC active/passive pickups and preamp. This one is near mint, with the flight case and Warwick folder. Very glad to have it back!

Well I don’t know about anyone else but all I have ever really wanted from Fender is decent build quality and some interesting colours, not just black and sh*t-burst.....so on that note, well done Fender and yes please to this....

As part of my ongoing search for a decent Overdrive pedal (ie a warm, slightly overdriven sound rather than a dentist’s drill), I decided to pick up one of the new Fender Downtown Express Bass pedals incorporating and Overdrive, Eq and Compressor. Build-wise this thing is high quality and a really substantial bit of kit both size and weight wise. It was apparently designed in conjunction with Mr Aguilar and I can well believe it. At just under £150 the quality of the Compressor (analog) and the really meaty Overdrive (all the way from thick warm valvey sounds through some serious dirt) as well as a decent eq and a DI, it really seems to be very good value indeed. Granted I’m not a massive user of effects, but it really is a good (in essence) multi-effect pedal as one that is very intuitive and easy to set up. The LEDs are something else too!

The Q\Strip is very capable as an analog speaker sim if set correctly. I'm not familiar with the other pedals you mentioned. For a speaker sim, it's best to use after any distortion producing pedals. You should obviously have the LPF engaged. You need to make sure everything is gain staged correctly as you could be getting fizz from overloading the interface. If you're running a number of pedals in series you want to set the gain structures so you have unity gain. Here is a video showing the Q\Strip as a speaker sim in action.

I'm asking Rocco to fund my holiday to Crete

A new Fender range. "Vintage style for the modern modern era" 60s Jazz 70s Jazz 50s Precision 60s Mustang

A fellow Scot here, with a Sterling Sub Ray 4 in my arsenal. (No cheap shots, please, about tight Scotsmen, or I will hunt you down like a dog.) Like the OP, I wanted to test the MM waters, but I find the wide nut on EBMM basses to be too wide for my delicate little paws, being a Jazz Bass player by temperament. The Sub Ray 4 I nabbed may be cheap, but it really packs a punch, and sounds close enough to the real thing to me to be well worth considering, to get a sense of these things, which are very different to the Jazz. I got mine for 200 quid, and there are plenty around, so give one a whirl, I say. I will now duck into my previously prepared bunker, so as to avoid the inevitable incoming from those rightfully enraged by my maundering.. Carry on.

Always looking for a bargain...one day somebody will post an ad for something I want but missed. Hope that I'm doing the same for somebody else... That or I'm fuelling everybody's GAS...

I'd like to take some of the credit but I think at least 95% must go to @Andyjr1515..... As you say "amazing skills"..

...Handbox looks great, but sadly only 200W at 8ohms, otherwise I would have been very tempted myself! Mesa M6: definitely a bit of fan noise with this one (not noticeable at all as soon as you start playing). But does it just deliver the best tone of any amp I've come across to date? Yup

Thunderfunk all the way.

The Portamento basses has 30 “fret” boards

Every time you buy a cd with tracks you haven’t heard in the radio. Every film you’ve gone to see at the cinema, or bought as a preorder.

The basses are ‘no great shakes’, but some of the telecasters look quite tasty...

I've actually always wanted one of these. When you think about it they are ridiculous, having only 15 frets and the same range as a 4 string but I still want one but I like the odd balls from the 60s & 70s like these:

Brilliant, thank you

@cetera Oh Spector King - knowest thee what this is?

As an artist I think it is somewhat presumptuous and disrespectful to your (potential) audience to expect them to crowd fund your recording. It is my experience as a artist that if your music is worth releasing you will find a way to do it without resorting to begging. It is also my experience as a fan of bands who have used crowd funding to release their music that the incentives being offered aren't really that special. What I am primarily interested in is the music. I'll be able to buy that for £10 when the album comes out. Nearly all of the other stuff is irrelevant to me. And in this particular case $50,000 just seems to be far to much money to ask for with no explanation of exactly how it will be spent. Is it just for recording costs? Getting your music on-line with all the major download and streaming sites only costs $50 for an album, so unless he's going for a large volume physical release that seems like an awful lot of money. For that kind of money just for recording plus mixing and mastering I'd be looking at a couple of weeks lock in with a name producer and mixing engineer with the aim of producing a fantastic sounding album and turning at least one of my band's songs into a potential hit single. Getting your music recorded and released has never been cheaper. My last studio recording (made earlier this year) was charged at the same hourly rate (£6/h) as my first back in 1980 and while both were made in similar locations (converted garages) the quality and range of the equipment (as well as the acoustic treatment in the studio and control room) used for this year's session was vastly superior to 1980's semi-professional 4-track tape machine fed from a modified 12 channel PA desk and the sole effect available being reverb and echo from a spare 2-track tape machine. Maybe the way forward for crowd funding recordings would be instead of offering useless "special" incentives would be to give everyone funding the album a cut of the sales? I might be tempted to throw a couple of hundred pounds at my favourite bands in return for 1% of the sales of their next album.

Yes, I've forgotten to thank Luke for his work on the badges - looking good.

What a negative thread! Give them some credit - they've made up a word!

As mentioned, lots of cheaper basses get very close to the sound but not the feel. 'Real' Rays feel somehow solid. Confident. Keep an eye out for one on here, there's nothing spoiling so wait for a good deal. I sold my black one for not much over your £800 and it was pristine. My red one would be way under your budget if I listed it here. If you're ever in Newcastle...

I agree with Billy Corgan, the colour of the instrument changes the sound of the instrument. Well played stew -- it looks and sounds fab !! 💟

Sssssh

...that cost an arm and a leg and a kidney and a liver and... with detuners the price is over 10 k$. A used Ashula has a price tag that is less than 10 % of the Hyperbass. http://www.zonguitars.com/zonguitars/bassbuilder/index_hyp.htm https://reverb.com/marketplace?query=ibanez ashula If you are really lucky, you may find a fretless tune Bass Maniac with 3 octave fretboard. But it is really rare! I think that Ibanez has recently had a fretless with over 2 octave fretboard in their catalogue.

Hi JJ

Sunstroke? Had it, and not nice feeling at all.

So many people think the most expensive basses in a range are the best. For some they are, for others they are not. There is a reason many pro players use a MIM Fender over a US one. Don't get caught in the hype, some basses work for people, some don't. Try them yourself, and you'll know if the CV, VM or any other brand or range best suits your tastes.

Dodgy deal done in a motorway service area today with Harry. It was a transcontinental epic trade of basses with Harry travelling about a million miles and myself settling for a lowly 100! Fabulous comms all the way through. Great guy and a total gent to boot - one for the Carlsberg Basschatters group :-) Enjoy the Stingray Harry!

Thanks for that skidder, I'll check it out now.

Leeds is cool. I'm happy with this move. NORTH.

That was pre-Basschat and well before I knew what an efficient cab was. To be fair I was playing alongside a huge Ritchie Blackmore fan who had about 5 of his signature Strats and about 8 Marshall 4x12"s on stage.

There's been a lot of positive comment on this thread about the Fearless F112 which was very helpful in persuading me to give this cab a try. It's been a few months since putting in my order, but I was very pleased to take delivery of my F112 this weekend. I've had a bit of time to A/B the cab with my BF SC which has done me (and my back!) proud over the past 9 months. There's a link to a post from a TB'er in the OP where he compares a BF BB2 with a F112, in which he states that: "Under the exact same power amp output, the F112 consistently sounded a bit louder and hit with better LF extension, depth and authority." I would agree with that as being a very fair summary also when comparing with my BF SC. The F112 does the low end really well - by comparison my BF SC felt somewhat thinner. Low E down to a low B and the F112 has very considerable weight and authority. The 5" speaker on the F112 gives it an additional mid punch that had me thinking about cutting my mids a touch rather than boosting which has been my default approach with my BF SC; in a band mix this ability to cut through is likely to come into its own. There is a two-position mid-dip switch that modestly changes the mid-range speaker’s response voicing which I suspect I will be leaving "on" whilst I get used to having a fuller mid-punch than my BF cab has provided to date. The Fearless has a 1" tweeter to additionally cater for the high end. It is a more subtle tweeter than on my Berg CN212 (the BF SC does not have a tweeter) and although there is an ability to cut the tweeter volume to virtually nil on the F112, I didn't feel any particular need to do this, whereas on the Berg the tweeter is set at a relatively low 3/10. Overall first impressions are very positive and seem to completely bear out the compliments given by other BC'ers on this thread. If you're a 5 string bass player and want to get an extremely capable low end from a compact unit or someone who is looking for a cab with a mid punch that will cut through the mix then, budget permitting, the Fearless F112 is definitely worth having on your shortlist.

The thing is, when Gibson were going bust, everyone was saying “they need to go back to what they do best, Les Paul’s/SG’s/335’s!” And were criticised for all their “innovations” (which incidentally were poop...) Fender and Gibson do what they do, Imagine Levi’s making tracksuit bottoms or Dr Martens making tennis shoes. It just doesn’t work that way. Fender have a staple 5/10 models and have to work with that. They try stuff and it doesn’t always sell - there are 100’s of models which didn’t stay long. I sold Fenders for years as my Job, and all the weird and wonderful sat on the wall while black strats and white telecasters turned over in huge numbers. For years their best selling Telecaster was the butterscotch 52, their second biggest selling telecaster was the left handed version. After that it was a natural finish USA with a black pickguard and the Baja Tele in blackguard blonde...etc. Its about an “Icon” thing for players. Jaguars/Jazzmasters/Mustangs were sort of dead until Grunge - the artists bought them because they were reputable branded guitars but cheap. Then in the early 2000’s the 72 Custom Tele/Thinline Tele/Tele Deluxe were in vogue because of all the hip indie bands using them for that same reason - before that they couldn’t raise an eyebrow let alone a big ticket price. They have a legacy and they’re bound to it, damned if they do (by some) and damned if they don’t (by others). More stringent quality control and they’d be away - but that adds cost, and that’s why a Deluxe USA Jazz is £1800 or so and a USA Sadowsky is about £4500. Incidentally - I side by side compared a USA 2010 Deluxe, A USA sadowsky and an Alleva Coppolo (check spelling) and the Fender held its own, massively. I preferred it in sound to the other two and it felt as nice as the Sadowsky. It was just a bit heavier than the other 2. It was also about £1449 at the time. They should open up 12 month contracts to us all and see if we could do a better job. Anyhow, as someone said earlier - if you weren’t thinking of buying a Fender this year - these probably aren’t aimed at you...I’m off to play my yamaha 😂

The newer Dimension was a killer bass. Beautiful compound radius, oiled neck, great weight and balance, 18v active electronics, dual humbuckers. They tried. We didn't buy them because they weren't 'Fender enough'. We don't actually want Fender to do anything other than what they are currently doing, it seems.

Oh, and I've added tweeter protection to the crossover. Bass guitar is never going to stress the compression driver in this system, but better safe than sorry.

Well - other than I'm going to recommend to @TheGreek that I order a replacement barrel jack for it (it works - but it crackles when you really start rocking!), it's finished. Hatch fitted and magnets installed; frets polished; fretboard cleaned and oiled; bridge fitted; bass set up; sound check completed Here it is:

I take it when you but the 70`s Jazz you get a dodgy neck pocket, boat anchor weight and general shoddy QC? But not all 70`s Fenders are crap: so says everyone who tries to sell one I take it that knowing Fender these ones will be more expensive than the almost exactly the same models that these ones replace?

Thanks for the corrections, chaps - much appreciated. I've posted an updated parts list in response to your comments and to include an additional few items. Next week, I'll post the final drawings and cutting list (thanks RichardH) with the crossover circuit and layout for the Faital PR320/Celestion CDX-1425 system. Anyone wishing to cut their own wood and build their own crossover will then have all the information they need. All the quotes are now in for the CNC kit cab. I'll be choosing a supplier early next week and progressing the matter so that we can get moving on the kits again.

Just to tidy the thread up, all my v3 sound clips are available to listen to here. If you let it load through the google drive app you can then swipe right to move to the next clip and all patch numbers are given. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1u2-dJaWdaAbPDnDdWkipu-P7IH_GHLQ2 Current numbered list looks like this:

[u][b]Zoot Custom 4 string, 32"[/b][/u] I took delivery of this bass back in the Summer and have resisted the temptation to review it any sooner to try and ensure the 'New Toys' syndrome didn't exert too strong an influence. I've had four basses built for me in the past - three by Les Evans from Liverpool and a more recent ACG Finn. I think there's always a leap of faith element to every new commission but they've been more successful every time as I've become clearer and more confident about what works for me. The Finn, with its filter preamp, and single pickup moved slightly towards the bridge was the best of the bunch for my personal tastes. I'd owned a few Zoots over the years, and played a few more - mostly in Mike Walsh's shop, The Bass Merchant, a good few years back. I'd always promised myself a custom build but had never got round to it and, after having had quite a low profile in recent years, it was just coincidental that has name popped up on BC at exactly the time I was thinking about adding a passive bass to my Finn and Les Evans fretless. Mike lives quite close to my family down south, so we met up when I was down visiting them and eventually settled on the following specification: [list] [*]Splat Ash body with figured maple book matched top, finished in am Amber trans' tint. [*]Ebony veneer dividing line [*]5 piece laminated neck of Canadian rock maple and Blue Jarra [*]Satin finish to back of neck [*]Hi-gloss finish to face of headstock [*]Ebony finger board with side dots [*]Soft 'V' profile [*]38mm bone nut [*]16" radius to board. [*]24 frets [*]Bi-flex (two way) truss rod adjustable body end [*]ABM bridge [*]Hipshot 'Ultralite' machine heads and string retainer in black [*]Dual Aguilar DCB pickups [*]Passive with Vol/Vol/Tone/Master Volume and three position pickup selector [*]1 X mini switch for H/B soap bar [/list] A mere five months later this beauty was ready to pick up: [url="http://s120.photobucket.com/user/Myrtle2014/media/Zoot%20Custom/WP_20160722_09_23_39_Pro_zpseldsho1h.jpg.html"][/url] [u][b]Fit and Finish[/b][/u] As ACGs have a lot of love in these parts and there's a fair few owners in the BC parish, I'll use my Finn as a reference point. The Zoot is a more straightforward, traditional bass, I'd say. It's a bolt-on build like my Finn but Mike sticks to the tried and trusted Fender method of securing the neck to the body with wood screws rather than Alan's preference for captive nuts and machine bolts. I've no complaints about Mike's method at all but the ACG method does feel a bit more robust to me. In all respects though the workmanship is fantastic. The frets sit low and level and the fret ends are perfectly finished - I mean really perfectly - and the rounded over finger board edges make for an incredibly comfortable-playing bass. I asked Mike for a soft V profile neck to try and get close to a friend's Wal I played years back and he's absolutely nailed it. I had no complaints about the offset neck on the ACG but this profile fits like and glove - it's fast, effortless, and simply puts a huge smile on my face. [url="http://s120.photobucket.com/user/Myrtle2014/media/Zoot%20Custom/WP_20160722_09_25_15_Pro_zps66mprjtj.jpg.html"][/url] Having mostly played basses with satin or oiled finishes in recent years the high gloss took some getting used to from a playing point of view as it's more 'grabby' over the forearm cutaway area of the body, but that was a small price to pay for the stunning looks (I honestly stood there with my mouth open when I went to pick it up and saw for the first time, lying on the bench!). The high gloss is a preference of Mike's but I didn't take any convincing as I quite fancied a change anyway. The only slight reservations I have are so minor as to hardly merit a mention, but in the interests of balance I will: the nut and the string retainer. I'd have preferred a black or darker nut material. Nothing 'wrong' with the white one but it sort of draws attention to itself to my eye and grates slightly. Similarly with the string retainer a three string version was fitted because that's all that was needed, the break angle of the G string rendering it unnecessary to be retained; however, it makes things looks slightly unbalanced now and we'll be changing it for the 4 string version on a visit soon. [b][u]Sound and Playability[/u][/b] Okay, I freely admit all attempts at objectivity are now futile because, quite honestly, I think this is the best bass I have either owned or played in my nearly forty years of playing. I think with my Finn (as good a bass as it was) I began to feel it lacked a certain 'something'. Don't get me wrong, it cut through like a bastard in a band situation and the filter preamp offered a huge range of tones. But I think that maybe the huge variety of tones it had up its sleeve seemed to mitigate - for me - against a fundamental character or personality. It was a brilliant bass but it never really put a smile on my face. The Zoot has character. In spades. It has a fundamental warmth, breadth, weight and punch; it doesn't just put a smile on face, it actually makes me laugh out loud. It's one of those basses that encourages you to try new things. I have one bass 'pupil' who commented on it sounding like a fretless, and he's right. There's something about where the attack in the note occurs that is very fretless-like. I was worried about it cutting through in a band situation as passive basses often sound great at home but struggle in company. Played through my TC RH750 and Barefaced BB2 at last week's rehearsal there were no such issues though. I didn't back the tone off quite as much as I might do at home but that was the only concession I had to make. I also have to say that returning to a slightly more traditional neck after the ACG feels good. There's something about V profiles that is so comfortable; I really don't know why they're not more popular. Likewise the radius - 16" is a great compromise between the benefits of a flat board and something more pronounced or Fenderish to me. [url="http://s120.photobucket.com/user/Myrtle2014/media/Zoot%20Custom/WP_20160722_09_24_34_Pro_zps0efhjssp.jpg.html"][/url] [u][b]To Sum up[/b][/u]: I love this bass. And I say that after 4 months of ownership and playing. There is nothing about this bass I don't like. Even the finish - which turned out darker than I imagined - turned out to be a happy accident. It looks fantastic, it sounds fabulous and it fits like a glove. It feels like home. I wish I could find something negative to say about it beyond the rather lame nut and string retainer observations but I can't! Suffice it to say I have sold the Finn and commissioned a fretless from Mike too. Make of that what you will.

Excellent review and Mike does make some fantastic instruments. I am glad to see he is now concentrating on bass building again rather than spreading himself a bit thin with cabs and amps. That said I still have my Zoot cabs and plenty have been and gone, but they are with me for good.

OK - here's where we began: ....and this is where we ended up: