Rayman

[url="http://www.guitarpartsresource.com/middle_bass.htm"]http://www.guitarpartsresource.com/middle_bass.htm[/url]

Fralins or Aeros. In my experience they were the dogs danglies. I've had both in a couple of Laklands and loved the crunchy bark and growl from them. Clean and clear highs and thumpy lows, and they cut through a treat. Marvellous. Also a heads up for Villex. I had a set of those in a H1 Jazz and they were fabulous too, but I think Villex have disappeared.

Cetera is your man when he's about. In my case, I had a Euro LX4, and it was absolutely stonking. The EMGs were fantastic combined with the Tonepump. Some people don't like the Tonepump, but I very much did. A mate of mine also had a Euro LX5 which was equally amazing in every respect. Power, tone, clarity, punch, everything I personally could ever want. However I moved onto 5ers and moved away from Spector purely because I couldn't find a 5er I like at the time. Possibly my favourite bass [i]ever[/i] was the NS that belonged to Peter (Greeneking). I've played hundreds of basses over the years, and that one is still the sexiest piece of timber I've ever had my hands on, period. I'm yet to play a bad one, from the budget models all the way up to the top end models, they're superb basses.

I've bought a couple of basses from Phil. Top chap to deal with.

I'll be going this year. I've been to them all except last year because I had a gig. Stevie, Pris and Gary do an amazing job organising a great event for bass players, and anyone who can get there should give it a go. Ear plugs might be a good idea though....I like a bit of [i]tasteful[/i] slap if it's done well, but having sat with ACG and John East opposite the EBS stand I can tell you, we were ready to ram a Precision head first through the front of their gear just to shut the [i]deafening[/i] slappers up that haunt the place year in year out.

First off, you love the 4 string Jazz, so that has to stay. I'd agree from the point of view of not getting a similar bass in a 5 string version, as tonally it'll be similar to the 4 string. So if it was [i]me[/i], I'd be thinking of getting either a Stingray 5 or maybe something like a Sandberg PM5 with a Precision/Musicman configuration, then you really have got all basses covered.