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Piano player here : I am so used to only playing the 3rds and 7ths with my left hand when playing with others that when playing bass I keep leaving out the roots to give the bass player freedom , and then realising I am the bass player .

Recently acquired this Taylor T5Z which does both electro- acoustic and electric guitar sounds.

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I think the best option is a day out to a bass shop to see what you do like.

A pedant writes: "Actually, I think you'll find you can drive over any gig bag in a Sherman tank, or any other heavy vehicle for that matter. Whether it survives or not is an entirely different matter. To be strictly accurate, I think you'll find that you should have stated that you are 'not after something diamond-encrusted that will survive intact should it be driven over by a Sherman tank or any other tracked or untracked armoured vehicle'. No I don't have very many friends, as a matter of fact. Why do you ask?"

So a few weeks ago I was sitting noodling on my Sire V when I noticed what appeared to be a protective film lifting from the scratch plate next to the bell plate. Thinking I mustn’t have removed this when I bought the bass, I foolishly pulled it and actually removed the top glossy layer of the tortoise shell leaving a dull lifeless brown shell pattern underneath. After searching online for a replacement and trying both Fender USA and Fender Mexico replacements with no success, I bought some BWB scratch plate sheet material and made my own. It’s not perfect, but I think the black looks better than the tort😎

Unbiased review: Sire U5 short scale (30" scale) P/J bass First Impressions: Straight out of the box I notice some flaws that shouldn´t have gotten past quality control, but I´ll get into more detail regarding that later.* The neck looks wonderful and the rolled fret board and fret edges, combined with the satin finish on the back of the neck make it really comfortable to play. The body on this one is finished in a nice tobacco sunburst with a white binding which just radiates class. The bass is nice and light with a total weight of just 3,78 kg. With the bass hanging low on the strap I could notice just a small amount of neck dive, but when strapped higher on the body it appears to be nicely balanced. The neck: As mentioned above the C-shaped, hard maple neck feels really smooth, the rolled fret board edges make this neck a joy to play and the fretwork is nothing but excellent. The nut is made out of synthetic bone and 38 mm wide, which combined with the shorter scale makes it very easy to play for people with smaller hands. The fretboard has a 9,5" radius, which will make Fender players feel right at home when playing this bass. The black dots on both the fret board and the top edge of the fret board make it really easy to navigate around the neck without getting lost. The shorter scale length certainly makes a difference, making it a lot easier to do those wider stretches and fast runs, thus reducing hand fatigue. The body: The body is made out of North American alder with a very beautiful flamed maple veneer top that pops up nicely through the see through tobacco burst finish. The back of the body has a see through dark red finish which shows the nice grain of the alder underneath. It is a slim carved body shape that feels very comfortable while playing both standing and sitting down. Factory set-up: Straight out of the box, the playability was excellent, it was set-up with a medium low action, and I was able to set the action even lower with just a few tweaks of the bridge saddles and the truss rod, making it play even better without any disturbing fretbuzz noises. The split coil Precision pickups needed some tweaking as the pickups were set higher under the E and the G string than under the A and D string,resulting in a lack of volume in the mids. The same problem occurred with the bridge pickup which was a bit too close to the strings on the treble side and a bit too low on the bass side, but after some light tweaking with a screw driver I was able to balance the string to string volume pretty easily, which made the pickups sound a lot fuller in no time. Neck pocket, tuners, pots and knobs: Here we get to some of the flaws i mentioned in the beginning of this review. On this particular test-model there was a noticeable gap in the neck pocket (as seen in the pictures), also there were some scratches in the black paint on the aluminium knobs. Everything worked fine though, the tuners feel solid and do their job, the pots turn smoothly and seem to be of a decent quality and the black aluminium knobs that are used for the passive tone controls (volume/volume/tone) are definitely a nice touch. The bridge: The bridge is a sturdy vintage type bridge with threaded saddles, with grooves underneath that keep the saddles from moving sideways. It´s bolted firmly into the body and it allows for both top-loading and string through body stringing. Although there´s a lot of discussion concerning the up- and downsides of both these options the fact that you can choose between top-loading and string through body stringing definitely makes it easier to find a suitable set of strings for your personal style of playing. Again I was slightly disappointed in the quality control of the Indonesian factory where these are made as one of the bridge saddle was completely covered in rust. Amplified sound: After raising the pickup height to my preferences I was able to get a nice Precision bass tone out of the split coil pickup really easily, the jazz pickup sounded nice as well and although it might sound a little thin compared to more expensive jazz pickups it certainly had a nice tone and it combines very well with the Precision pickup. Some of the people that are used to having the very versatile pre-amp that comes standard on most Sire basses might have the feeling that they are missing out on something on this bass with only having the volume-neck pickup, volume-bridge pickup and overall tone controls, but to me, being a fan of passive basses, these easy controls really made me feel like coming home as you can have a variety of tones at your disposal without having to worry about running out of battery in the middle of a gig and/or accidentally touching a knob of the active pre-amp and thereby possibly overpowering the gain stage of your amp. All in all both these pickups sound really good considering the price point of this instrument, especially compared to the pickups that are in some of the similarly priced alternatives like the higher end Squier basses and although I will probably replace the pickups by a set of more expensive after market pickups at some point I can easily understand that 99% of the people that buy this bass will see no reason to change them at all and are totally happy with the sound of the bass as it is straight from the factory. Acoustic sound: Even when playing unamplified you can definitely hear you´re holding a quality instrument, the bass has plenty of natural volume and the hard maple neck gives it a snappy attack with plenty of brightness and resonance which makes it easy to hear all the details of your playing when doing some late night acoustic practice. Pros: - Superb playability - Rolled fretboard edges, rounded fret edges, excellent fretwork - Compact and lightweight - Despite it being a passive instrument it is still very versatile and it has wide range of tones on tap - The stock pickups sound pretty good, especially considering the price point of this instrument - The flamed maple top, body binding and aluminium knobs definitely give the instrument a classy look and make it look a lot more expensive than it actually is Cons: - * QUALITY CONTROL! As mentioned above a couple of times there were a couple of issues on this particular bass that should have not got past the quality control. As shown in the pictures there is a noticeable gap on the top side of the neck pocket, one of the bridge saddles is covered in rust, one of the aluminium knobs has some scratches in the paint and also in the truss rod cavity I could see some scratches. I must mention that this could just be "a bad one" though as none of the other Sire U5 owners that I´ve spoken to so far encountered any of these issues. - The tone control could do with a wider sweep, so experimenting with other capacitors might be one of the mods I would suggest for this bass. - The U5 does not come with a gig bag or case, so it might take some time to find a fitting case or gig bag for this bass. - Not really a bad thing, but compared to my Fender Mustang and Medium scale Squier Jaguar the U5 is about 0.3 kg heavier, at 3,78 kg it is still a very manageable weight, but I thought I should mention it anyway. Conclusion: Even though there clearly were some issues with this bass, I´m really impressed with the playability and overall quality and sound of the instrument. As I´ve talked about this with other U5 owners that I know and none of them mentioned having any issues like the ones I found on this particular bass. I choose to believe that I just got unlucky by receiving a "dud" and therefore I mailed Sire concerning the issues I found on this bass, and they agreed to send me a replacement immediately. So, thumbs up for their customer service! Since the (those few issues I talked about left aside) overall sound, quality and playability of the new Sire U5 left such a good impression on me I´m definitely considering keeping the new replacement if it turns out to be a "good one" this time. In the long run I do plan to replace the pickups with Dimarzio´s and while I´m at it redo some of the wiring and replace the bridge saddles with Graph tech replacements, but that has more to do with personal preference than necessity as the bass is probably good enough as it is for most people. At this point I´m really looking forward to getting the replacement as I´ve already tried most of the newer short and medium scale basses on the market today and if this new one has none of the issues this "bad one" had, it could easily be in my shortscale top two next to the Schecter Banshee bass (which has a slightly better bridge, lightweight tuners, carbon rods in the neck, but is also almost double the price and comes with only one pickup) and it could definitely become "my go to bass" for quite some time. Some extra info about the Sire factories: The CEO is Kyle Kim, and the company is an offshoot of his company Dame guitars. Dame is big in Korea but could not break the international market, so they started the Sire company in co-operation with Marcus Miller with the goal of putting high quality, yet affordable instruments in the hands of youngsters and musicians on a budget. While Kyle Kim´s other brand Dame guitars (Sire/Dame, see the link?) is produced in both the Korean and Indonesian factory Sire has expanded it´s factory to China in 2015, having the entire Sire range being produced at both the Indonesian and Chinese factories.*** ***Quote from Sire: "Hello Bass Players! We would like to let you know that our factory has expanded to China. Before, we had only a part of our factory in China that makes other parts of our products. But with a strong demand for our products worldwide, Sire Guitars expanded its full product line-up in China as well. So right now, basses are coming from our Indonesian and China factories. The reason why we expanded our factory to China is that all the component, parts, accessories and the new technology for building better quality instruments is based in China these days. Those who are familiar with musical instrument production will understand this. China has a great potential and possibilities in producing high quality instruments. Such as high quality CNC, 3D printer, preamp parts, coils and all the good components which is necessary in building guitars. So in order to pursue our revolutionary vision, Sire Guitars decided to expand in China, and we will continue to produce quality instruments at an insane low price. We've heard some of our customers who are worrying that our China made instruments quality will not the same with the Indonesians. We at Sire Guitars assure our customers that this doesn't affect the craftsmanship and quality Sire Guitars is known for. Our factory is not an OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) and we only produce Sire Guitars both in our factories within Indonesia and China with the same high quality standards. For everybody's information, other major brands of guitars and basses are manufactured in a number of OEM factories. This huge OEM factories deal with more 10 brands under 1 factory alone. There are higher risks for quality to be low within that process, but we at Sire Guitars choose not to accept any OEM orders as this can greatly affect our high standards for quality control. (By the way, we had been offered to make guitars and basses for some of the top-notch brand that everybody is aware of, but we refused to do this.)" Ps: I will add an update to this review as soon as the replacement U5 has arrived. Greets & Grooves! Bassdude's Bassment

I realised today that I can gig a set up almost entirely bought from the BC marketplace. Fender CIJ Jazz Boss GT10B multi effects Ashdown RM500 Head Ashdown 1x15 speaker The only things I've not bought from BC are the strings, cables and gig bag. That's a very decent, reliable gigging set up, all traded with people here who have been fantastic in selling for fair prices, highlighting any small flaws, delivering quickly, no messing about. All for a hell of a lot less than market value, but everyone walks away from the deals happy. I have other gear, of course, but this just proves to me the value of buying second hand but also from buying within this great community! Adding to the gigging set up today is a vocal effects pedal from Happy Jack too, it just keeps growing! Am sure there are plenty of you with similar success stories, let's hear them!

The answer to the question: "How would my bass sound without sustain?" Commodores - Nightshift | Bass Transcription | Ronald LaPread

UPDATE: Replacement Sire U5 (and it´s much better this time!) Hi, as mentioned at the end of my OP I contacted Sire concerning the issues on the U5 and they agreed to send me a replacement right away. This replacement already arrived yesterday morning and I´ve spend most of the day playing it and going over it in detail. This new U5 is definitely much better than the first one I got, which kind of confirms my suspicion that I got a bad apple the first time around. This new U5 doesn´t have any of the aesthetic flaws of the first one, no rusty bridge saddles, no scratches on the knobs or truss rod cavity and it came with an almost perfect set-up straight from the factory. One thing I noticed is that there´s still a small gap on both sides between the neck and the neck pocket, but it´s a lot less obvious than it was with the first U5 I received. This doesn´t seem to affect the sound though, as this particular bass has sustain for days. A few other things that I didn´t mention in my review is that I opened the electronics cavity and was very happy to see that everything was nicely shielded with conductive paint and that Sire didn´t go cheap on the poti´s and wiring. They´re using Alpha pots, which are good quality and the wiring and soldering seems to be up to a quality standard that is rarely seen in an instrument at this price point. The standard string spacing at the bridge is 20 mm, but as they use threaded saddles this can be adjusted slightly to your personal preference. The total length of the bass from the top of the headstock to the bottom strap pin is 108,5 cm and I managed to find a suitable guitar bag for it at Thomann which should fit the bass without issue. (link to fitting gigbag: https://www.thomann.de/be/thomann_gigbag_deluxe_egitarre.htm) The weight of the new one is exactly the same as the first one I got, weighing in at 3,78 kg, so these basses seem to be very consistent weight wise. All in all I´m very pleased with this replacement U5 (which is obviously a lot better than the first one) and as the neck and fretwork seems to be even better than on the first one, this is definitely going to be a keeper. NOTE: For everyone buying this bass in Europe I would strongly recommend buying this bass from Thomann as they now have an in house quality control for Sire basses, thereby greatly reducing the risk that you would end up getting "one of the bad ones". The fact that I got the first one with all the issues via another European distributor kind of shows the value and importance of this extra quality control i.m.o. For the modders: There don´t seem to be any drop in replacement bridges and tuners for the 2nd generation of Sire basses, Hipshot made a drop in replacement tuner set for the 1st generation Sire basses (the HB-14), but as these used a different size tuner, the HB-14´s don´t fit the 2nd gen Sire basses. The stock tuners and bridge work fine though, so replacing them is not really a necessity, but as I am a bit of a nitpicker when it comes to tuning stability and love to personalize my instruments a bit, I´m planning to install a set of black Hipshot ultralites to reduce the weight a little bit more, increase tuning stability and make the bass feel even more balanced on a strap. I also plan to replace the bridge with a black Hipshot Kickass as these allow the adjustment of the string spacing at the bridge, so you can line up the strings with the pickup pole pieces (set for 20 mm spacing) perfectly. (most other after market bridges are set for 19 mm string spacing at the bridge, which would cause a slight misalignment of the strings over the pole pieces) Please note that both these upgrades require filling up and re-drilling some screw holes, so if you don´t feel comfortable doing that I would definitely suggest asking your local luthier or guitar tech to do the work for you. I was also planning to experiment with some different value tone capacitors as the bass sounded a bit bright to me, even with the tone rolled off completely, but installing a set of Labella short scale flatwound strings seemed to balance things out nicely, making it unnecessary to do this mod. Greets & grooves!

Of course he got it right, it just took him until G&L to do it, and noone was paying attention by then

Having started home recording once more in earnest I decided that it was time to invest in a large diaphragm vocal mic and plumped for the Rode NT1-A. There are some features on the NT2-A that I just wouldn't use, and another couple (pad and EQ) that I'll take care of in the DAW, and given that the capsule in the two is the same it made sense to invest that additional £100 elsewhere. Initial (untested) thoughts are good - mic is well made and feels nice in the hands (the shock mount seems particularly robust) and great service from GAK. Rode have excelled in the packaging which is generally an indication of the care given to the product itself, with internal spacers, separate boxes for each component etc. I'll fire it up over the next couple of days to see how it performs, but I'm not expecting anything untoward - just a good faithful reproduction of vocals.

Here’s a little taster from the paint shop first thing this morning. He’s taken the green down to the blue and there’s just a hint of white showing through that. Really looking forward to the finished article. But for now, patience....

Hi Guys If you have any Acoustic Image questions or issues just e-mail direct to [email protected] or call and leave a message on my cell 07790 528674. Just to Clarify I do Acoustic Image warranty repairs for the UK and Europe. Many thanks Laurence

I like presents on my Birthday and at Christmas. The real bummer is that these events are only 1 day apart so there is no breathing space or time to play with them before the next lot arrive.

Carey doesn’t know how to do crap 😂

I think those suggesting Mono are forgetting that the OP specifically said they don’t want to spend a lot of money

Yeah I know what you mean, but on the other hand I don't own a bass with a reverse headstock, so there's as good a reason as any!

Many thanks for all your suggestions on this topic they have proved to be most helpful i ended up purchasing https://www.gear4music.com/Guitar-and-Bass/Pro-Bass-Guitar-Gig-Bag-by-Gear4music/P17 which was suggested by Cat Burrito my deepest thanks to you

And here it is! Sounds fab too. Has plenty of bottom end and kick.

Spend time understanding what you do like, not things which are merely different to what you don’t like because they can be just as unlikeable to you, too.

As there was plenty of material left in the neck pocket, I did as Andyjr suggested and took a mm or so out of it to both drop the neck further, and to make sure the pocket was nice and flat. There's still a slight gap which I'll look at addressing further down the line but it's better than the pic above. The main jobs today were tackling the pickup placement and routing. I used the setup below to thread a piece of garden twine through the bridge. This was then secured at the headstock with a scrap of wood and a clamp. Some sticky tape held the nut in place so the string could sit in it at one end, and then across the saddles at the other. I measured 35" on both lengths of twine and marked them off with a best-fit line, drawn at a right angle to the centre line. If it's a few mm off, then the adjustable saddles should be able to move to compensate. Once I had the bridge in the right place, I drilled 2 very shallow holes at the top and bottom screw positions so I could keep it there while marking out the position of the bridge pickup. On my scrap Jazz, this was (I think....) 1 and a half inches from the edge of the bridge. The neck pickup distance was dictated by the scratchplate. Once I had some rough lines, I used the twine to figure out if the pickups were at the right height and once I was satisfied with everything, marked the positions off. Routing went pretty smoothly and the bridge pickup cavity was quickly done. There was an empty cover in the basement for build purposes, and this dropped in nicely. Repeat for the neck pickup, and we're done with all the body routing! Note the carpet square I dug out to protect the body from knocks and scuffs from my horrible, unfinished workbecnch. Time for the nerve-wracking bit; drilling the holes for the pickup wires. The neck was OK as the distance I had to blindly drill was pretty short, but the bridge was terrifying. I just (and I mean just) made the control cavity without going through the back of the body, and made some nice drill scuffs on the wood which you can see above. I still have the bridge ground wire to do, but I think I'm just going to run that into the pickup cavity and then through the same wire as the pickup. The picture is terrible, but you can just make out how low the pickup wire hole (marked by the pencil arrow) was in the control cavity for the bridge p/u. As the body had been abused a bit, I felt it was best to re-sand everything at this point and did a pass at 80 grit and then one at 120 grit before calling it a day.

Update on Embassy: So with the E & A saddles reversed, the D & G had to go forward anyway.. perfect intonation has been achieved! It feels great and very playable... My strings of choice for most of my basses are D'Addario EXL170's 45, 65, 80, 100 & 130 (for the 5's) So I don't envisage problems for the future. Those Superalloys sound interesting though @S.F.Sorrow I may give them a go sometime... Hopefully the dealership will pay for the work done to make it playable... They seem a decent bunch... Just had the word, yes they will! All good 🙂

I realise quite a lot has happened since i last posted on progress. We've been away in splendid isolation in lovely Dumfries and Galloway. The Cotswolds with coastline. I jointed the top, but discovered the edges did not meet, having bowed up along the centre seam. Since I was intending to thickness it, I ignored this. I made a rig for the router, as before, to thickness the top, and once more things went agley. Amazingly, without my noticing, the guides were not level, so the routed thickness was not constant. Taking more layers off merely compounded this. I decided to build a humungous sled that would not flex or warp in any direction. Once more, old IKEA furniture donated the materials. I flatted the contact surface of the sled for good measure. I was still having problems, and the top is now down to 4mm thickness without being of the required flatness. I am turning my attention back to the rails next, to make damn sure they they will not be the problem. Steve press has offered the use of a surface sander, but that feels like admitting defeat. As I said above, I am thinking of losing the bad cuts of the outline, by making a new, slightly asymmetric shape. A semi Jazz or Sterling, if you will, or a bit Sandberg Marlowe DK. The new cuts should only be varying about 7mm from the original Stingray outline. I have drawn a paper outline to see what this will look like. Also, I am considering two MM style humbuckers, very close together, instead of the proposed Jazz neck pickup. Anyhoo, here are some stills from the disaster movie:

You had a broom handle? You were lucky! I had to make do with lollipop sticks stuck together! ......youth of today 😖

I've bought from here the following := MIM Fender Precision, Epiphone Vintage Pro Thunderbird, Ashdown ABM 500 2x12, Zoom B3, Omm cables. I could gig tomorrow using gear bought here. Brilliant site and market place.

The ongoing thread on my attempt at transferring 4-track cassttes to audio files has included a couple of nice examples! However, I have been saved by the basschatters before any harm done . Thanks!!

Presets can be very handy as jumping off points for your own mappings. I certainly wouldn’t avoid gear that has presets simply because it has presets. In fact I have a couple of TC electronic pedals that can access the tone print app, and although I haven’t done much with them yet I do plan to explore in more depth at some point. I don’t play live any more so there’s no imperative to get ‘that’ sound, so if it’s free and lets you tinker, then what’s the big deal? I still tweak the knobs on my amps and that isn’t going to change any time soon.

It's a difficult one. For me the opposite of a Fender is pretty much anything that works in a different way and at the same time it's not just a P or J dressed up in a weird shaped body. I think the OP needs to take a long hard look at exactly what they don't like about their current J basses. He says he played Ibanez "back in the day" (when exactly was that?) so maybe that would be a good starting point. Personally I think the active/passive thing is a red herring. There are tone controls on the amp that should be able to do a decent job, so why do you need another set on your bass that probably aren't as good? There are exceptions such as the filter circuits from Wal, ACG, etc. that offer something that the amp doesn't, but for the most part IMO the controls on most active basses don't offer anything that it should be possible to do already in the signal chain. In historic terms the "opposite" of a Fender is probably the original 60s Gibson Thunderbird, or a Rickenbacker 4001/4003. These days there's a lot more choice.

Is that Sterling or Ray? I'd throw down the challenge/offer that I'd buy any Sterling (USA proper jobbie) at more than market value if it weighed 8lb (or as near as)... with the caveat that if it didn't weigh the stated amount the seller refunded £100 for every ounce over 8lb! 😂 That should sort the walkers from the talkers.

Here you go - my Jazz (bitsa) and my 63 Precision in the gear4music foam case. Must admit the slightly offset shape of the jazz means it's a tighter fit than the P-bass, but both well protected and snug! Hope this helps, cheers.

So £300+ for a 3Leaf Octabvre Mk3 - key selling point that it does the OC2 thing very well and with better tracking, but singularly failed to include an octave up, despite promises that it would or £119 for an OC-5 which does the OC2 thing very well and with better tracking and with octave up. Hmmm...I wonder which one is going to outsell? 😁

Single cut, exotic wood, 6 strings, enough electronics to sort out the next moon landing. You'll soon be falling back in love with Fender! or this little beauty...

I've watched and especially listened with headphones the video above. This is a winner as everything is working the way it's supposed to do on this OC-5 and, frankly, who cares if it's analogue or digital as long as it's good. The OC-2 mode, to me, sounds better than the original one from the 80's which has a tendency to be idiosyncratic (could be fun, but not for those asking for permanent reliability for their sound). And the tracking is just amazing, try an original one and you'll understand within the first minute. So, when it's available in a few days, I'll buy one as I'm a bit fed up by those geeky better sounding original Japanese ones with their aging components loosing their values and turning your investment into a nightmare when it starts f*cking up.

I've been using these soft cases. The cheaper and excellent one, if you like rectangular shape and Music Store DV 247 branded : https://www.dv247.com/en_GB/GBP/Fame-Soft-Case-Electric-Bass-/art-BAS0008530-000 Then, this more form shaped one, again Music Store DV 247 branded and faux jeans look : https://www.dv247.com/en_GB/GBP/MUSIC-STORE-Softcase-Electric-Bass-Modern-Deluxe/art-BAS0010367-000 And my favourite one as it's totally unbranded and can be used with almost any bass (my Opacic AJ6 36 inches scale sixer fits in perfectly) : https://www.dv247.com/en_GB/GBP/Fame-Soft-Case-Urban-Electric-Bass-/art-BAS0010065-000 I've used all of them for shipping basses too, so again (light) Sherman tank proof ones. I've used them all since they were available, so many many moons ago. As said, the soft cases are, to me, the best option for carrying instruments as they absorb more the impacts than the cheap hard cases that amplify the shocks because of their structure.

Sounds like you need an EBMM Reflex Game-changer. I hated mine more than I’ve hated any other bass, but then I love Fenders https://www.music-man.com/instruments/basses/the-game-changer

Or if you want a total change you could get a Rattlebugger.

The old Ibanez Musician basses from the 80s still get plenty of love, not least of all for their tonal versatility.

I think preset setters are on a hiding to nothing. There are just too many variables and no two bassists will want identical settings. I have a pedal I'm learning today it has only 3 nobs. I just started working out how many variables just 3 controls give me and stopped when I reached a gajillion. And that's without factoring in which bass, pick ups, amp, cab, playing style. In other words if I got the job of preset setter I wouldn't worry about whether anyone would actually use what I created.

Cheers Paul Great review and it's got me thinking/hoping this is what we've been waiting for.

A lot of folk bandy words like trust and respect. Well I'm going to put my money where my mouth is and prove how much I mean those two simple words. I'm going to do what you say and to hell with the consequences.

I only use Vst stuff, so no physical presets (my stuff is old school...), but the presets with the drum kits I use are excellent. Yes, I 'tweak' 'em, and compose my own, but they're useful when a synth comes with fourteen billion of 'em to scroll through the list, before ignoring all of 'em and making my own stuff. So... Love 'em..? Not really..? Hate 'em..? Certainly not. Mostly they're 'Meh', but there are some good'uns, too. I'm glad they exist (for Vst's, at least...).

Pix of the whole boorach: