Lozz196

Just shows, sometimes doing the simple stuff isn’t quite as simple as would initially have been thought.

I found, having to learn much more complicated material than I’m used to for my current band, that both playing much softer than I usually do, and the age old “repeat the difficult passage on its own many times” really helped. Specifically re octaves, I use index finger for the low, little finger for the high, means much less movement over the neck.

I suspect that setting up like that adds depth to the sound but without being really noticeable as an effect. Whatever anyone thinks of Adam Clayton or U2 they’re not likely to do anything that has a negative impact on the sound.

From what I’ve read the first time he used an Ashdown his words were “now that’s proper bass amplification”. Couldn’t have put it better myself.

Passive Precisions, volume & tone on full. If I’m tinkering around at home playing to something requiring a softer tone I’ll back off to about 80%.

Very envious, I didn’t know they were touring at the moment, I’ll check this out

I def agree with those sentiments, I’m sure there are very few who see a bassist using one fretboard material and think “I wish they were using the other type”. My realisation is more to the actual playing experience, similar to (although I’m not in the same league of course) Eric Clapton as mentioned above by @Ricky RioliI just enjoy the feel of a maple neck when playing more.

I do think that the pricing is on the right slope, from Squier to Fender US, but I think there’s too much of a gap between them, I’d price them: Squier Affinity - as they are, £225ish Squier CV - as they are, £400ish Mex Fender - £650ish US Fender - £1000ish And then aside from artist sig models remove a lot of the “in between” ones. Keep it a bit more simple. But then that’s not the way to make mega bucks.

I think reading that this exactly it Steve, the hardness of the maple board just seems to be more favourable to my playing style.

So recently I decided to make a return to my rosewood roots, and have bought a few really nice Precisions (US2015, Mex2014, Squier Affinity) to fill this void. But last night at rehearsal I just found that I was "missing" my maple fret-board. I suppose it`s because for years I`ve only played maple fret-boards and I`ve just got so used to them, but I think it will have to be the maples for me from now on. Although I like the rosewood boards I just feel more at home on maple. So as usual a few basses will be moved on (all black/white/rosewood in case any eagle-eyed spotters decide this is what they`re after). It`s good fun buying new basses & trying things out but I think I`ve finally reached a point where I know exactly what the right gear is for me and maybe I should just acknowledge that and try and only buy new strings from now on (when the old ones die of course).

Must admit this thread reminds me of that old joke that ends: Tribal Elder - Bad when drums stop Explorer - Why’s that? Tribal Elder - Bass solo!

I changed the J pickup on the one I had to a Seymour Duncan Hot Stack and it did beef the sound up, but to be honest I did it more for the hum-cancelling aspect.

Tech21 Q-Strip is clean and due to having 2 bands of sweepable adjustable mids and high pass & low pass filters, very versatile

Yep, am a Fender & Ashdown fanboi. Any bass other than a Fender (and mainly a Precision) in my hands just sounds “wrong” to me, though invariably I’ll like them when others play them. Similar with Ashdown, although I can pretty much get the sound I want from any amp there’s just something about the warmth and depth to the Ashdown sound.

If I were asked to do a solo I`d do a variation on what Lemmy does in Motorheads Stay Clean

Pretty much the same apart from I have mine on the Fat setting

That’s a good point Chris, when I got my fave 2015 for a couple of weeks my fretting hand ached a bit as the neck was chunkier than I’d been used to, but I persisted and since then the 2012-16 Series is my preferred one. Every time I played that bass it just had THE sound I wanted and I now know exactly how to get what I want from it.

+1 on Toneriders, and interesting to hear of these Ironstone ones, seems a good few of the lower priced options are only low in price, not quality