mcnach

Fortunately for you, there's plenty other threads not involving Flea

I'd say yes. I used one for quite a while and it didn't seem to lose bottom end. The tone control is pretty wide and gives you anything from really aggressive to thick and dense. My only 'problem' with it was that the gain and level controls are very interactive: turn the gain up a tiny bit... and the volume goes up noticeably. This means it's hard to tweak on stage: you can't just bump the gain up or down a bit and continue, you'll need to adjust the volume too. It's normal for overdrives to do that, but they're usually not as pronounced. It's a minor niggle really, and the pedal sounds very good both for bass and guitar.

I completely missed that this was a used bass not new from a shop...

The thing is, it's not really a £250 bass because that does not include VAT. VAT will have to be paid regardless, the only question is whether that happens at source, or afterwards, so the price is always 250+tax, if you know what I mean? It tends to cost a bit more buying from the EU than from the UK, but not THAT much more. Sometimes it even works out cheaper, although it's rare, but I noticed a couple of instances back in February, at Thomann (Germany).

very much this transparency to avoid posible drama or at least awkwardness.

I've been using a G30 since 2009 or 2010, with a leather pouch attached to my strap as I thought the belt clip was a bit flimsy. Very happy with it, still going strong.

I met a guy who used to write for the Guitarist magazine. When chatting about reviews and how honest they can be he said that indeed, they sort of have to give good reviews since their advertising pays their salaries, and that the way to get the best info from the reviews was 1) for the good stuff, read the review, and 2) for the bad stuff, check what catagories didn't get 4 or 4.5 stars instead of 5

Beware. I hated Precisions until I got my hands on a Sue Ryder, which I got just for a bit of fun and modify it... Since then I've bought probably 7-8 Precisions

Interesting contribution to a thread titled "RHCP fans"

This x1000 Outstanding.

It depends entirely on what you play. For some bands I am a plug in straight into amp and I'm done. For others I've got a bunch effects that I do use: overdrives (several), octave, envelope filters, compressor, wah, phaser... You're right, live you will not notice subtle differences in which case what's the point, so I don't care about that, but the different sounds I use are very noticeable live. FX can be fun, but if you don't feel the need then enjoy your situation Get some FX when you need them. Having said that, I always found having some kind of multiFX can be very handy for those moments when you want to explore a bit. I used to have a Zoom B2, and later one of the tiny but versatile MS-60B. Cheap too.

I bought a TC BAM200 as a sort of backup that I could take anywhere as it's so tiny. It's become by home amplifier, I use it every day. It's basic but it's got a nice tone. It's also very cheap, which is a bonus, and it seems a good match for the BC208. It'll probably work well as a monitor live if you go through the PA.

The Luminlay ones are particularly good where there's soem kind of blue/UV lighting onstage. Years ago I had a 'nirvana black' Warwick Corvette $$ and I used to play in a couple of very dark venues (well, it was dark on my side of the stage). One day I bought some Glowtech paint and some powder too, and made a paste with it, then applied small 'blobs' at the side dot markers. It wasn't very pretty if you looked up close, but it wasn't that obvious. It glowed brightly for long enough, but I could also feel the 'blobs' with my thumb, so I could find my way even if the glow weren't there. Not the prettiest solution but that worked very well for me. If you want it to look good, Luminlay is great. Just have the little UV keyring-torch in your pocket if you think you might need to refresh the glow, a simple swipe along the neck will get you going. Since I switched to maple neck/fingerboards I haven't bothered with anything glowing.

Not on mine, no. It stays put when I take my hands off.

I can't fault the stock pickups, to be honest.

A video from last week... We're rusty and any semblance of a 'show' is sadly missing, but we'll soon look like we are enjoying being there

Two gig weekend... little by little we're getting busy again.

And that purple pearl in the picture is mine That and an orange one (Halloween )

It is indeed. I sent him my MB-5 plate that he made a template from.

Exactly, at that price you get a perfectly usable instrument, and nothing too precious so experiment at will! Being a Stingray/Precision kind of guy, mostly, I was considering buying another and turn it into a 5-string Precision sounding machine: those pickguards can hide all the routing sins so even I can take care of that. My chisel work is not pretty but it is functional

It wasn't as good on mine, but nothing terrible. Intonation needed adjustment, the nut was a little higher than needed to get the lower action I prefer, but just a little. I took to filing the slots a bit at a time over several days until they were right. The fret ends were pretty sharp, 'though. I got all these little microcuts after playing it for an hour. Twenty minutes with a file, a bit of masking tape and care, and all good. I'd rather not have to do that, but when you look at the price... "ok, fair enough"

I like it just fine. It seems pretty even in volume with the others and it's got good definition but I guess that's in great part a function of the pickup & its position. I'm still on the original strings. I bought a set of stainless steel Newtones but as soon as the original strings mellowed a bit (took no time) I liked them enough to keep them on.

To play devil's advocate for a bit, I think I know where he's coming from. There are too many examples of something cheaper being hyped-up, sometimes ridiculously so, and it's hard to distinguish the good from the bad unless you have direct experience. Even Youtube demos can be very misleading.

I thought I had read 'kittens' and I was very confused. Need coffee...

Glad it made you chortle. Do all Precision style basses sound the same? Not to me, but put a P pickup at the right spot and it's going to be 'precisiony'... and nobody seems to laugh at the notion, try that with a Stingray and it's comedy time 🤪 If Thomann stuck a MM style pickup at the right place on that thing above, it's going to sound more Stingray than anything else... look, they even put the G string falling off the edge of the fretboard, a bit like in a SR5 I know my way around a Stingray and Stingray style basses, and have been for years so I would like to think I know what sounds a Stingray makes. But feel free to criticise without trying them, it's free.