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For anyone interested, here’s a picture of my 63 Precision in the hands of its previous owner! Jeff Ramsdale was originally in Hull band ‘Roger Bloom’s Hammer’, who had a good go at breaking into the big time. They were signed to CBS and supported quite a few famous bands in the late 60’s including T.Rex. When Roger departed they carried on as ‘The Hammer’, and as well as Jeff they had Rod Temperton in the band of Heatwave / Quincy Jones /Michael Jackson fame. When The Hammer broke up, Jeff carried on playing, and the picture below is him with my bass playing at The Hofbrauhouse in Hull, probably in the late 70’s. By then someone had made a strange scratchplate for the bass which you can see. I played in a couple of bands with Jeff after this and the bass was refinished in a sort of mustard yellow by Rokas in London. Sadly Jeff died in a tragic car accident, and I was contacted by his family a year or two later to see if I wanted to buy his bass . When I went round to see it, it wasn’t in a good state after being kept in a loft for a while. After acquiring it I had it refinished to natural, and Paul did a great job of making the horrible holes from the previous scratchplate look like knots in the wood. Fortunately the original plate was still intact, and that’s how it’s remained for nearly 40 years. It’s a lovely bass, not heavy and sounds like a good P.bass should - will remain with me till I’ve departed.

My contribution - a ‘73 Mustang, all original and the same age as me (not all original 😂). Bought via Andy Baxter and I’m sure I’ll spend many hours wondering where it’s been during its life, before it came to me.

Here’s my Precision , 61 years old and mine for nearly the last 40. Refinished in the late 80’s by Paul McNab (Paulman guitars of Huddersfield).

No. I barely rehearse with any of my own bands let alone anyone else’s.

Newly aquired 2022 Raspberry burst Special. Also pictured is my 2023 Smoked Chrome.

The only person who needs to be happy with your string choice is... you.

You need two P basses. One for flats, one for rounds.

Said no one on Basschat....ever 😂

Well... 1: Flats 2: Steel rounds 3: Nickel rounds 4: Nylons/Tape 5: Groundwounds / Pressure wounds 6: A set of those mad glow in the dark DR String Neons. Same again for Jazz and rays.

For me, the answer to the actual question being asked is, it depends on the band. In a 4/5-piece covers band with either two guitars or guitar + keys I prefer to stay well away from that sonic territory. I use flats to supply the underpinning for the band. In a 3-piece rock'n'roll outfit I need to be period-correct so it's flats all the way. In a 3-piece covers band where there's a lot of sonic territory to be filled I find that flats just don't cut it, so I use a Rickenbacker 5-string with rounds. I've heard plenty of bands over the years solve that last conundrum (sonic territory to be filled) by just cranking the amps up to 11 and/or adding loads of FX but I have no interest in being in that sort of band.

Maybe they're unhappy with their bass player and want to try someone else out that might be a better fit than the usual guy. Maybe he never turns up for rehearsals and they're getting cheesed off. Maybe they want to make him aware he's walking on thin ice. Girls always used to use me as the dude who made their boyfriend jealous and pay more attention to them, by dancing with me all night while their boyfriend was slumped by the bar (if their boyfriend punched me they knew they'd got his attention and their plan had been successful). You're ME, The band is the GIRL, their normal bassist is the BOYFRIEND

I see @FinnDave has reduced his 60s Vintera Jazz to £550. Slap bang in the middle of your budget, and a very fine chap to deal with to boot.

Ned Steinberger just announced a limited production carbon composite multiscale 6-string . According to someone on Reddit they're only making 12. I'm afraid to find out what it's going to cost. NS Fin

Bass The World do one of their brief reviews of the Mark Bass Yellow Basses.

Italian made Markbass cabs and combos originally used Italian made drivers from B&C Speakers. They were cast frame as opposed to the cheaper pressed steel versions made in the far east. When I owned a shed load of Markbass cabs loaded with both types I definitely preferred the B&C in side by side comparisons, but in isolation I doubt I could tell the difference. The B&C drivers just seemed to be a bit more dynamic and could go louder and lower before farting out. My two remaining NY121P cabs are B&C loaded. I too loved my CMD121P combo, but ended up using the slightly better NY121P cabs with my Markbass heads. The combo head does reduce the combo's internal volume, reducing the low end a tad, but not needing a separate head is obviously more convenient.

Best of luck getting the audience to kneel at your crotch. especially when from another angle it looks like this

It’s reassuring to see a lot of long term owned basses here. I’m not saying you can’t instantly have a connection but (without wishing to romanticise too much) you do build a relationship with an instrument over years.

Thanks all! I've found a local handyman who loves messing with stuff like this and he opened it up, identified the broken connections and mended it better and stronger than ever for just £20!

I say use whatever strings make you happy in the moment and not necessarily what internet forums think is right. Internet wisdom has told me several times that I must use flats on a P bass and rounds on a Stingray, but after much experimentation, I've found I like flats on my Ray and rounds on my P. And they're both short scale (which the internet says is only for children and people with small hands 😉)

Here’s my old lady. 54 years and counting. Bought it 30 years ago from Musical Exchanges in Coventry, which involved part-exing my only bass, a Charvel 1B. I was in university at the time and this has been everywhere with me over the last 30 years. For a very long time it was my only bass and as such helped to shape the way I play. It’s on its third set of frets, second nut, and has had the usual maintenance visits to the local luthier from time to time, but the rest is all original and it’s light as a feather and a pleasure to play.

Yes, happened twice with me, both a good few years back. Was originals in both cases as well, so I couldn’t practice in advance. In both cases I ended up joining the bands.

Having bought this Custom shop 62 P bass relic about 5 years ago, I immediately order a set of La Bella flats to go on it. A bucket list bass. Only used for jazz since i got it as it sits under the radar nicely in that situation. However I fancied using it in the rock band i am in, Lets say heavy covers band. Many of you I know use Flats on your basses in similar bands, but wondered If you have also gone back to round wounds, for some extra bite and harmonic content. These are also easier on the fingers with reference to tension as my pinky is playing up these days. New strings are D'Addario Nickle 50,70,85,105 It sounds wonderful and having used it this week for jazz and rock I don't think i will go back now. any thoughts

Standing room only. I need a gig like that. Daryl

Now that’s the Basschat attitude, well done Steve 👏🏻

I'd also add the obvious....reissues do not use the same quality and grade of woods that were available in the 70s/80s. Back then, Matsumoku were pretty unique in that they spent at least a year longer in seasoning their wood stock before use. As a builder and industrial woodworker, I can tell you flat out that this makes a significant difference even though it doesn't make sense that the same wood doesn't seem to achieve that "as an instrument"! I'd use the analogy of whisky aging in a barrel where it doesn't continue to do so in the bottle, but that's just faulty. Anyway, they used super good wood and really discriminated between excellent and "okay" with the SB-1000 and other laminated neck flagships. Originals in good nick are worth hunting down for care and resto.

Hey all. Apologies for being late to the game, and hey over there @Norris, @Hellzero, etc! Yes, I am still selling upgrade preamps for SB-1000s both on eBay and Reverb however it is cheaper to deal direct since that way I am not forced to have to use an expensive tracked shipping option. Reissues. Well, there are multiple issues with those. First and foremost, the hardware is not the same. The Gotoh bridge is way more adjustable and sane than the original, but isn't the same sort of "the mass of brass" by comparison. The fingerboard is now Ebony, whereas originally they were Jacaranda....which is a vague name for many woods, and without trying or wanting to stir controversy....I've heard Braz Rosewood called that multiple times before today. The pickups are not the same, but are more or less similar. My big issue comes with the electronics. When whoever owns the IP took the design back to manufacture, they started using a big open PCB-based preamp with a Mitsubishi alarm SIL IC for the battery blinker. What they did not do is maintain any of the quality of the parts. The resistors and caps are literally the cheapest ceramics and carbon comps, and inexplicably they retained the JRC4558 op-amp which is just insane. It's literally an iteration of the uA741 which was 60s grade tech. Current hungry, noisy and just not an efficient design. They also made it incompatible with the originals without significant rewiring and decisions needing to be made on how the LED works. So yes, as far as calling it a "re-issue" is concerned, that's stretching it. Talking of Armstrong and stretching things, Kent Armstrong in the US makes some very well-regarded repros. Aaron Armstrong in the UK apparently, not so much. It's been a good ten plus years since I've known anybody order one from Aaron, but that disappointment and poor experience stuck in my mind. Several people I know to be credible rate Kent's copies. Interesting that somebody else is making them here in the EU. I'll have to check out bassculture. @Jack The six-way varitone is an active LPF with a different decade characteristic to a passive LPF like a tone control. It also has a distinctive mid-bump which provides the character of each position. It's a very to-taste filter, but is another part of why the SB-1000 was a definingly 80s-sounding bass. It picks its way through a mix with that "honk", especially in the positions around the fifth fret. This is another area where they cheaped out on the re-issues, because they bought in the cheapest open-frame rotary switch and banged on the cheapest components for the RC array around it. For a nice demo on the woody honky tonality of the SB-1000, check out my good friend Zuma's channel. His recent re-do of Duran Duran's "New Moon On Monday" showcases wonderfully just how this bass pushes through a mix in a very specific way....

95% of £6K target reached. Looks good!

Wow, shows what this community can do!