mcnach

I never thought I was the adventurous type, but I guess I am then

I should check my crystal ball before leaving the house more often...

Oh, we have indeed! Good times

NOt an iPad but an Android tablet user here, and having both iRig2 and the Solo, I'd say go for it. Nicer in every respect and if I can use it anybody can In addition, you can power the Solo directly from the iPad/tablet which comes handy sometimes.

The Verve - in Norwich around 1991 in a small bar, before they became big. I didn't know who they were, I just went in because there was live music. Entry was £3 or something like that. Uninspiring drivel. After nearly falling asleep on my beer we decided to walk away and find something more interesting to do, like watching grass grow. Gogol Bordello - Glasgow 2017. Terrible terrible sound, couldn't really hear half of the musicians onstage, and except for one guy dressed like a pirate they all looked like they were going through the motions. Eugene, singer, looked particularly bored and uninterested, bringing props and doing things as if 'it's expected'. Here came the obligatory bottle of wine pretending to take swigs of (mostly falling down his chest) and spraying those on the first rows with it (nearly got me). After around 40 minutes I left. The good thing is that Lucky Chops were their support (a superb and funky badass brass band) and they were amazing, beautiful sound, great show... I was a fan already but they went above and beyond what I was expecting. Sea Bass Kid - Edinburgh 2012. Yeah, my band Outdoor festival. After getting crap repeatedly from some ignorant cnut who was part of the organisers because according to him we were too loud, despite my pointing to him every time that it was THEIR engineers who actually controlled the volume out there by the mixing desk. We were all getting annoyed at this guy coming on stage to tap us on the shoulder and yell at us. Guy comes again and grabs my shoulder. That was it. He was lucky he didn't eat a slab of ash that evening.

Small world! I was living there between 1990-1994, but the fish&chips experience was in 1989. edit: and I remember enjoying Boddington's cream ale next door... and telling someone after a few pints "this beer is amazing, my English has improved so much since I started drinking it!" but my friend replied "that's what YOU think". Ah well, I decided that it was only wise to repeat the experiment to see who was right. Many many more visits followed.

there's beer too

My very first time having fish and chips in the UK was in Norwich, at a place called Chish and Fips, true story!

I'm pretty sure the vast majority if not all of us would find a way to make it work when faced with a problem. What I don't get is the semicondescending tone of some towards those who have other preferences.

Sometimes these discussions sound like people arguing about how many grains of sand there are on the beach exactly, while the rest happily play, sunbathe and swim on the sea.

That is crazy. I have to say that the warm fuzzies I got with Maruszczyk when I first came across them (I bought 3 of their basses over the years, new) are quickly cooling down. I had trouble with pickup screws that snapped (made of an alloy of iron and cheese, apparently, which has no place in any decent instrument), and his attitude seems less than exemplary these days. Worth posting your experience on the Maruszczyk thread. I like their basses but what kind of BS is that? Refusing point blank to accept that maybe there was a problem with the truss rod and implying the user was at fault without having even tried to look at it is a bit NO NO for me. Sandberg are looking more and more like the better option.

Personally I didn't get along with the Mojo Mojo, it seemed to have a certain character that just wasn't to my liking. I've seen the Joyo Ultimate Drive being mentioned too and that's actually a pretty cool pedal, especially if you want higher gain sounds but it does low gain very well too. My only gripe with it was that gain/volume are very interactive and also a tiny turn of either knob will have strong effects, which made it a bit problematic live: I'd move one knob a bit by mistake and my volume will either jump or I'd disappear. Good sound 'tough, but I'd still choose the American Sound as a first pedal, that subtle speaker emulation is very handy.

I haven't got enough positive words to say about the Joyo American Sound. It covers quite a wide range of tones with its 'voice' control, plus the 3-band EQ is handy. In addition it has some built-in speaker emulation circuitry which means if you DI your bass it will not sound like you are summonning a nest of angry wasps (great for recording too). It's really nice on guitar too (its primary purpose, I imagine), but there's no low end loss when used on bass (the EQ would take care of it anyway). And on top of that it's less than £40 new. I have an OmniCabSim (speaker simulator) that cost me a fair amount over £200 which I used because I use a lot of distortion in one of my bands and that sounds terrible when DI'd live, but to be honest, since I got the Joyo I see no purpose for it. I often just set it clean and combine it with other overdrive/distortion pedals just to get different sounds. It's really good. It does the low gain almost not distorted sounds very well and it goes into really raunchy distortion if you want it to.

I rarely take a back up, but when we have gone places where there's no PA support for the bass (our band PA is small and mostly just vocals and brass) I like to take another small head, but I don't always do it. However, there are some really tiny ones these days. I got a TC Electronic BAM200 which just fits in the gigbag so it is not hard to carry. I'd prefer something more powerful, sure, but my reasoning is I'd rather have this tiny amplifier than nothing, which is what would likely happen in most situations. The band will still be alright even if the bass is not as strong as I'd like, but it would be positively rubbish without bass at all. And it only cost around £120, so it's hard to find reasons not to, for me. Incidentally, it's become my home amplifier, it doesn't sound half bad.

This. I'm a recent convert to 5 string, I admit. It happened by accident, I just found a bass that felt good and as I don't have any gigs or anything and I won't for quite some time I figured why not 'relearning'. I rarely use the lower notes I now have at my disposal, perhaps down to D, but what REALLY feels good to me is the ability to play a lot more across the strings. It's actually easier than a 4 string in the same way that a 4 string will feel easier than a bass with only 2 strings. There are pedals that can be handy, as mentioned earlier, and the Hipshot Bass X-tender (often called D-tuner) is pretty handy too (in fact I wouldn't rule out installing it even on a 5-string, simply for those drop-D tunes when you want to bounce around that open D string, but that's another story), but a 5-string is a really nice tool that would make your life much easier in the long run. I wouldn't rule it out, but I wouldn't buy without trying. I owned many 5-string basses over the years and I didn't gel with any of them... until the right one (for me) just happened to come along.

Once upon a time I had become a bit of a 'collector' of Jazz basses, which is weird as it's not by far my favourite kind, but that's another story. I had three different Japanese Fenders, 75RI, a Roadworn, and various others of different qualities and prices. I think I had about 8 of them. When I came to my senses and I decided to 'thin the herd', I kept one and only one. It had the best neck, felt great and sounded fantastic. It is a '94 Korean Squier that has a plywood body, as I found out when I went to put some nice pickups on after I bought it. So what? If it feels and sounds good, it could be made of cheese for all I care. Wood type alone is not a good indicator of how an electric instrument will turn out to be.

Honestly, that sounds like a load of B... Like you say, Sandberg (and others) show there's no problem. It does sound like a big departure on the way they make things so that's probably the reason. Making necks with a different profile, or different pickup routes etc, easy, but that's a different way of making the necks and I can understand he may not consider it worth the investment. Just my thoughts. What don't you like about the angled headstock? They're solid, if that was a concern.

I don't find the extra width much of a hindrance, it's the combination of that plus the neck depth/profile. The G&L L2500 I used to have was narrower at the nut than the Lakland 5502, but the Lakland felt really easy probably because it was shallower in profile. I think looking at any one parameter on its own is not going to give you an accurate picture, it can help, but you may miss on the right one for you. Of course these days it's reall hard to get out and try many different basses.

Yeah, mine is very narrow spacing, which in the past has been a no-no, but for some reason I liked this bass enough to make me push through and now I don't really mind. One thing that brings a smile to my face is when I'm playing something I used to do on a 4-string and realise that I can sometimes go one octave lower, and I sometimes go there, others I don't, and on the whole it makes even simple basslines sound a lot more dynamic.

I've been playing 5 string exclusively for just over a month. By now I find it quite comfortable as long as I am playing something new. The minute I try to play songs that I already knew 'on autopilot'... it's like I haven't played in years, arghhh!!! I intend to keep using the 5 string exclusively until I'm equally comfortable. I thought I was getting pretty good, my muting is not yet perfect but I would get away with it if I had to use it live now and even slap is not great but ok, I don't miss the strings half the time like I used to But last night I went through a bunch of songs from my band, songs I have played a million times and I made those basslines... and I just kept losing myself. I think part of the problem is I was trying to think too much, because at the end I just decided to play whatever felt right, and it started sounding ok again. Funny thing, that extra string eh?

Or... they hate them, drag them behind their cars and throw them into a swamp... only to find out that next morning... they're back in their guitar rack! Stephen King, feel free to PM me.

I think some of it gets lost in translation, Polish language tends to be a bit more direct without implying rudeness. When I wanted a wider nut than his usual for one of my Jakes he also responded with something that at first came across as a bit impolite, saying no. But as we were discussing a couple other things, I added in my reply that I happened to really like it and want it a bit wider at 43mm (at the time I was enjoying the Fender Classic 50 Precision at 44.5mm). And that's just what I got. If that's what you want, insist.

Yup, I plan to use it in every gig... oh...

... and it arrived yesterday. Not bad, considering all the issues with transport etc! Now I just need some time to really get to play around with it, probably not until the weekend...

Nice! They don't do the Stingray sound (which is great, as you can still justify getting one, not that any justification is ever needed ) but they're awesome basses, and THAT one in particular, what a looker!!! I'm a little envious