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Hello! Picked this Japanese beaut up on a whim the other day, because you can't have too many Sunburst Precisions.... right? Spec... Jazz neck, oval tuners, light weight (8½lbs, thanks to the basswood body, which is surprisingly pretty). So far, the usual cliches apply. It's very resonant, balances well, feels great, it's rich and punchy... I'm gigging it on Boxing Day, and as ever the proof will be in the (Christmas) pudding. I'll report back..

I've wanted a Yamaha BB1200 ever since I learned what Yamaha BBs were. Well now I have one. A 1978 model in natural, it has honest wear and bumps on it being 45 years old but it's sound as a pound and an absolute joy to play - thin frets on an ebony board, wide but not too chunky neck, it feels lovely. Sounds great too, reverse P be reversin'. This makes me feel fancy, in a similar way that my Wunkay does. I truly feel like I own one of the cornerstone basses of history. It weighs 9 and a half pounds, not too shabby for a late 70s bass. Enough chat, I'm off to play it some more!

Arrived today, and I couldn’t be happier with it. Looks amazing, detail is spot on, sounds great… a nice alternative to my P and J and the 5 strings (my first) are pretty easy to adapt to… bonus. i think I’ll need to work on my muting a bit, and the string spacing is obviously closer, but that’s no biggie. ill have to work out what all the knobs do mind 😂

Final show of the year (and indeed our second ever show!) was at Heartbreakers in Southampton, opening the show. We had some technical issues with our previous gig (venue's bass head and cab didn't work 5 mins before we were due to start...) and, while it was overall really enjoyable, I wasn't too happy with the sound on-stage. This show was miles ahead sound-wise, and that's because we managed to have a proper 30-40 minute soundcheck before doors. Big shout out to the sound guy Izaak - we're a loud band, so it really helped to have an outside ear to keep us all sounding even and ensure we had enough coming through the monitors so we could hear ourselves properly. The sound guy took the DI from my Darkglass Element to the PA, and I used the venue's (or maybe the other bands? didn't check!) 210 Ashdown combo for stage monitoring. Sounded great and most importantly I could really hear myself, which felt like a world away from the other show. It's made me think I should invest in some kind of lightweight head/cab/combo for stage monitoring in the future. Done a few hours research and I have complete option paralysis, but that's maybe for another thread... I genuinely thought we'd be playing to about 3 people as this was a paid event very close to Xmas, so was pleasantly surprised to see a good 25-ish people there. A great local show by Psych Ltd and v well-organised, I'd play again in a heartbeat.

Make sure that you check for contents, you know what our Happy Jack is like. 😎

Having decided that my recently acquired Gibson SG is the perfect bass for my band I stopped looking for anything else. For a fortnight, at least. I was having a cheeky look on eBay and saw a MIJ Mustang for sale at a price that was hard to resist. 😍 I've had several 'similar' basses - a 70s Fender Musicmaster, couple of Squier VM Mustangs, couple of Squier Musicmaster Vista Series - In fact I have one of those currently. But I've never had a MIJ Mustang. Weight was good - under 3.6kg, price was good as the body is rather tatty. Anyway, it now resides here and it is totally fabulous. Def. a different league to the others I have had, even the Vistas, which are damned fine basses. The neck is superb, bit slimmer than the Vista, but it is the tone from the stock pickups that is the stand-out for me - exactly what I would want from a Mustang. That lovely woody, organic thump with just enough edge to make it interesting. It is the best of the Fender flavoured basses I own at the moment, for sure. It has a little bit of neck dive but a grippy strap has cured that. It is vintage white with a black pickguard, can't live with that so a white pickguard is coming. Odd place for a thumb rest! 2 more holes or leave it? Dunno. Here is the eBay pic, which doesn't really show anything much.

Don’t think the original post was begging for a bass. We’re part of a community and are happy to help. it’s sort of what (virtual) friends do.

Totally Clips Off The Heart ～ Bonnie Tyler

OMG thank you so much guys. I wasn't expecting such a response. I will PM you all.. The legend that is Happy Jack has offered to loan me a bass. Thanks Mick. Im in Worcestershire btw.

Getting ready for a gig tonight and decided to clear out one of my lead bags. Here's a selection of set lists I've been given for dep gigs I've done over the last couple of years. Not sure whether it will be fully legible, but all kinds of everything on there, you name it, I've maybe played it.................

This is a very heart-warming thread.

I was ready to give up playing in bands, in fact I probably posted earlier in this topic. But just this week I met a potential band member - a mulit-instrumentalist with similar music tastes to me... meeting up for a jam after Christmas. 😎

Sorry for the lack of updates! The neck has been stripped and refinished - we left the headstock original and just retouched it, but the back has been refinished entirely to a kind of black burst. I'm really vibing it at the moment.

Well done Jack

Christmas Day has come early for me today. I have been extremely lucky enough to acquire an absolute beauty of a bass from the master Alan Cringean of ACG. The piece is an absolute dream to play and the tone from it is exquisite. This one is the Finn version, 5 string with a 33 inch scale. Incredibly smooth, comfortable and a joy to play. The body core is black limba with the top wood being ebony with a blood wood accent. Headstock is ebony matched. The neck is 3 piece maple with a bloodwood fingerboard with ebony blocks. Stunning! Hardware is a Hipshot bridge with Gotoh tuners. The pickups are ACG SB70 single coils paired with a John East Uni-Pre 4 preamp. It plays incredible and the pics don’t do it justice. One tasty bass. Alan as usual was excellent and a gent as always. The craftsmanship is second to none. If you’ve ever been in two minds about committing to an ACG build then don’t. Have a good look at the website and the various options available to you and contact Alan. Now for the pics Cheers Stuart

My best bass purchase in 2023 is my 20 year old American Vintage RI Precision. Now set up with a set of TI flats, it sounds, plays and feels great. I think it looks quite good too! Definitely a keeper. The AVRI series are really good basses. A Laney Digbeth preamp found its way to my home in 2023 and is another keeper!

I like the 82-84 Fullerton ones , I often look and they don’t come up very often , but that’s overpriced for the condition it’s in and the neck wear doesn’t seem natural to me

I think the price is the only thing I don't like the look of there. 82 - 84 means it's one of those highly regarded Fullerton reissues I think. Correct me if I'm wrong... Edit - yes it is. So it's one of the first reissues that Fender ever did, carefully built to the original specs of the 60s instruments. So it's kind of like a custom shop bass, but pre- custom shop, and old enough have been worn in genuinely. I like it, it's certainly interesting, but I wouldn't buy any bass that expensive again.

Cool story, Cap'n Obvious

I feel your pain. When my second marriage was falling apart and we had £45k of debt I had to sell my motorbike, 4 basses, 4 guitars, 2 drum kits, 3 keyboards and my collection of hand and stick drums. Got back in the game a couple of years later once I hammered the debt. Best of luck to you Bubinga 🤞

Nice one @Happy Jack 👍

Had a full clear out about 25 years ago, just because I fell out of love with playing following an overlong wilderness period. Didn't play for ages. If there's one positive outcome, it's that when you do start rebuilding - because we all will at some point under similar circumstances - it really focuses your mind on what you need to build a set up from the bottom up. Good luck to you @bubinga5

Reviving an old thread, I’ve just got in from rehearsal where I used one of these and I really liked it, had a really nice solid sound to it that was great for the classic rock that we do.

My best purchase is without a doubt this '94 Warwick Thumb. The only 5 string I've played in nearly 30 years that has a decent B string and actually feels and sounds like it's supposed to be a 5 string and not just a 4 with a bonus floppy cable stuck on the side. It's an ASTOUNDINGLY good instrument. That growl... Worst? Nothing comes to mind...

Private function for us, the lady of the hour insisting on a pic with the band. You can tell how live the room is just from looking at the pics 🤣

Here's one you may not know about, which I just stumbled across. It appears FMIC licenced instruments under the Fender brand in the early 90's, to be made in sunny Brazil, which were known as the Southern Cross series. Despite the shonky looking headstocks and cheapo parts, these things appear to be legit. https://www.fuzzfaced.net/southern-cross-stratocaster-en.html

Hope this is not too many pictures. I haven’t weighed it, but it feels like the lightest of my Jazz basses

The only Christmas Nr 1 I really liked:

@Lozz196 the guard arrived from eBay! It’s a big snug but I’ll take it off and sort it after the holidays. Got the gotoh bridge on too. Might get some loctite 222 for the saddle screws…

They look class. You can sometimes tell just by looking at a picture that a band are true superstars that deserve our devotion, and these definitely come into this category. Stand aside Taylor Swift.

Not again, recently did that to match my car reg number…..

And a Merry Christmas to you too.

The words ‘what an absolute mess’ spring to mind.

Plenty of reasons why I wouldn't buy it, the initials are way down the list.

Why not..? It's due for a 'refin' anyway.

My thoughts exactly! Loving the love.

Long shot but if you find yourself down in Sussex don’t hesitate to let me know and you can borrow one of mine. Sorry to hear about things and good luck sir x

You'll love this Atelier then......

so, after searching the internet for inspiration and missing out on a couple of choices for something different to stretch me a bit from my usual Fender J/P 4 string choices I was about to buy a Gibson Thunderbird, I like to look of them, I play like Nikki Sixx, and my back is fragile… so it all made perfect sense to me. Then I spotted the obvious… long scale, 4 strings, somewhat traditional….. urgh…. I had failed my main brief of “something to stretch me a bit”. Like a 5er/fanfret/shorty etc.. I had looked at so many basses that I was starting to fosters myself off. So. My plan was simple. 1. Drink some beers. 2. Open the iPad. 3. Don’t pretend to be deep, be your shallow self and look at things you think look nice. 4. buy it within 60minutes. narrowly skirting a mustang shorty (which I still might buy) and an Ibanez with 5 strings, fan frets, 7 knobs and an equal number of random letters and numbers for a name, I bumped back into a Sire I’d seen a couple of weeks ago locally. From what I can gather, there’s a “spread” of opinions here on Sire basses. So, I ignored them, and tried one myself… liked it. But it was a 4 string. Back home I browsed for a one second hand, then moved to new ones… and found one for a good price. Initially looking for a blue Sire Version 2 Updated M7 Alder 5 String but found one in Brown Sunburst that caught my eye. So bought it. It arrives Friday. 😬 looks like this….

I'm very sorry that you are now without a bass. If it is solely because of financial hardship then that's even more upsetting to hear, because selling your gear will only give temporary respite from your money problems. Salvation lies in changing your financial situation, not cashing in your assets. That's much easier said than done, though. Trust me, my friend, I know all about being poor and it's a seemingly never-ending cycle of misfortune and exclusion. It's very easy to feel despondent and think that there is no end to it, but that's not really true. Hang on in there and things will change for the better sooner or later. They always do.

Yep, happy to help out with a long term loan or a contribution for a collection. After all it is the season of good will and if we can't help out a brother in need....

Merry Christmas to me. Picked it up before work, now am at work for an agonising 8 hours, more later. Also, good to be back in BB land, been a few years!

Whatever it is, it's got to be better than Cliff....

I'm not sure that this adds any value to the conversation, but I have a dog that is really good at catching mice. I was about to apologise for being pedantic, and then remembered which thread I'm on......

Maybe you could try altering your technique.

Welp, I got another board. For the last year or so I've been using a Schmidt Array 350XDM as my main board, and though it looks very cool and everyone drools over it, its VERY heavy, and I'm hardly using the potential of the Atom, even with my electronically inspired jazz trio. So I'm testing out a pedal train Classic JR. The aim is a reasonable size and weight to allow for the optimum number of pedals to cover all bases, plus some wiggle room size-wise (considered a metro 24 but it wouldn't have allowed for any shuffling). I think this will cover any wedding gig, plus my original stuff, and there's room on the lower half to add a 4th pedal (provided it has top mount jacks), or swap out the C4 for something else as required.