mcnach

It's got the right style of pickup at the right spot, so it's going to remind you of a Stingray. The preamp gives you versatility, but a passive Stingray sounds very much like a Stingray. These basses are passive, but if you get one and like it enough there are lots of preamps you can try. I am happy enough with the original pickup. I'm a tinkerer and love modifying guitars, but I don't feel the need to change it. My 4-string Stingray sounds nicer, but we're talking an order of magnitude more expensive with a very nice 3-band preamp (John East MMSR). Regardless, I like it plenty.

9.1 lbs this one

It is not very heavy, the SBK series (black satin) seemed to be generally on the light side from comments that I've read from others. I will check when I'm at home.

Indeed I was considering installing a rotary switch for pickup series/parallel/neck-facing-singlecoil, master volume and a tonestyler type of tone control... then I remembered I have a John East U-Retro in a drawer somewhere, so I'm tempted. The semiparametric mids really makes the series/parallel option unnecessary. Not in a hurry, 'though.

It does sound like some flavour of a Stingray. It's passive, with a Jazz style wiring like the old OLPs used to be, where you get a separate volume for each coil. I don't find that particularly useful, although I often play it with just the neck facing coil and rolling the volume down a bit. Nice and fat and funky. I might rewire it so that I get both coils in series too, which is an option I really like on Stingray style basses. The string spacing is a bit on the narrow side, and I prefer wide necks/spacing, but I got used to it.

Good luck finding a MusicMan SUB5, let alone at that price. The 4 string ones tend to go upwards of £450 these days. I used to have one, it was great, and heavy as... Great basses, no doubt. I do prefer the HB. As it's often the case, I had to carefully file the fret ends and the nut could be cut a bit lower, but it just feels right in my hands and sounds great too. The first 5 string bass I feel at home with.

I have one, I love it... and after being unavailable for many months it looks like it's back: https://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_mb_5_sbk_deluxe_series.htm

I had that with the Ashbory I used to have. It's a shame, as the rubber strings are a big part of the way they sound (otherwise it's just like a small scale acoustic bass, very different sound), but I noticed there a few different string suppliers now, maybe some are better.

Love it! That bass is delicious, and very nice to see Vai in a different setting from usual.

Brilliant! Thank you, I suspected there would be an obvious place to check.

I bought a couple of Broughton pedals in the past few months, and both times I had to pay (which I was expecting). One was under £200 but the other was well above. I guess you got lucky?

I've been subscribing for years, but I have not been selling anything in ages (you'll see me in an episode of hoarders soon ) which is how I think I was finding that my subscription had ran out. I still intend to keep paying the annual £20, as I lurv the site and I am sure I'll sell stuff again, but I have no idea when my subscription runs out. Is there a way to check, or maybe we get a reminder when it's a bout to expire or... Apologies if that information is already on display somewhere, I'm having my morning coffee and maybe my sleepy brain missed it.

Yup. Two out of a 6-piece band. As a result the band is on hold and unlikely to be active this year, if ever. Other bands are being formed/rearranged. You can't force people to do something they don't want to do, especially if there are health reasons involved, and discussions are not comfortable our of fear to be seen as putting pressure. With this particular band I said "call me when you're ready, I am and will be interested whenever". In another band a member has been replaced. Weird times.

yes it is! especially when you start developing a taste for the honey and keep adding more each time... willpower is required to not become very round in a short period of time

I just heat up coconut 'milk' in the microwave, add a teaspoon of turmeric, a bit of honey, and black pepper to taste. I haven't had it in ages, so of course I don't recall what coconut milk was my favourite: I tried a few and some were better tasting than others, but the result was always tasty

Very nice! I have the 4 string version and it's my #2 bass, ahead of the yummy Sandberg VM4.

Turmeric 'latte', especially if made with coconut milk, with a bit of black pepper, yum...

Emubands. One off payment. Been using them for around 8 years.

Same here. The Kala U-bas sounds nice, and the Ashbory I had was cool too, but I didn't like their size. These, at 23 or 25" scale lengths are a better compromise for my liking. I think I'll end up getting one soon, probably the 23" version. They make a solid body one too which is very attractive in terms of being less 'fragile' when on the move, and I don't think the acoustic output of the standard ones are sufficient to warrant getting one with an acoustic box... but I can see myself playing it a lot at home unplugged... hmm, decisions.

[ crickets ]

I recently came across these basses. I am not a fan of acoustic basses generally as to me they seem to be too much of a compromise with their relatively small bodies, they just don't get loud enough without amplification and their sound is not something I like much. I do like the sound of those small uke-type basses, like the Kala, especially with those silicone strings, but not their small form. However this one caught my attention. The 23" scale (they also make it in 25") makes it feel more like a bass guitar, while keeping it still reasonably small. The fretless version in particular with those rubbery strings sounds really cool (there are some other more standard strings one can use for a more typical acoustic bass sound if desired, not for me though). Has anybody got personal experience/own one? I would get the fretless one. It would fake that upright type of sound much better than my fretless Precision with nylon tapewounds and it would also 'look' better on those 'acoustic' sessions although that's less of a selling point for me. Here's the beast in action: Overview (fretless) The fretted version on some funky ride: They seem to cost around £4-500, which is not terrible at all. I'm interested in hearing people's experiences with these. What's not so nice about them? What do you dislike about them? What's the build quality? If I decided to go for it, it's very likely I would not be able to try before I buy so I'm trying to get a sense for what to expect. I used to own an Ashbory years ago, so I'm familiar with the feel of the strings and how long that kind of string takes to settle before the tuning is stable. The built-in tuner would come quite handy on this bass.

Yup, same thing as the Joyo American Sound. I love it for bass and guitar and it records nicely direct to a USB interface.

Still use mine! It's my only fretless now, I ended up preferring it to the other more expensive fretless basses (let's face it...ANYTHING would have been more expensive ). Model P pickup, 'though, original was kind of microphonic and not very good. Decal stays, I'm not that insecure

A bad singer makes any band sound bad. On that point alone, I'd keep looking. Couples in a band are not necessarily a problem, it depends largely on whether they've been together solidly for 20 years or it's a relatively new situation, but the possibility for drama is increased. It's not something that would make me pass, but if you say the singer is not good then it really looks like you'd be stuck with her. Pass.