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There aren't many rounds you can go wrong with, it's all preference. I like La Bella Deep Talkin' Bass on four strings, not such a fan on fives as the low tension that feels so good on the EADG makes for a weak B. I think I'll just be stringing everything with Elixirs from now on, after buying a Ken Smith fitted with them. The only rounds I really dislike are Rotosounds. I tried some of Billy Sheehan's signature set on my attitude and the heavy E and light G really make sense for that bass, but the strings felylt rough and scratchy and sounded half-dead out of the packet and lasted barely a few weeks of playing before they went off. I got a few packets cheap in a deal, once they're done I won't buy any more. I think you'll really enjoy a return to rounds. The lively, sparkling and dynamic sound is a joy to behold. The dull thud of flats will always have a place in Motown cover bands, however.

It's really German or nothing for me, when it comes to Warwick. I wouldn't bother with the Asian stuff. I'm not sure which model you borrowed - two J pickups could mean it was any one of a large number of basses. For me, the Thumb is the epitome of the Warwick sound, especially the five string models with the double Jazz bars slanted and stacked right against the bridge. They are the pinnacle of growl.

I know exactly what you mean there. The Smith sound is like nothing else and I expect that six string would sound very much like the particular 5 string we're both familiar with. I'm getting back into playing after a thumb injury, caused by opening a bottle of rum of all things and that sweet, sweet naturally compressed Smith sound and perfect playability is just sublime. Over the past few weeks I've not been able to play for more than a few minutes for fear I was regressing my healing progress, so I've been noodling on my Warwick Thumb here and there. The Smith in comparison has such sweet and smooth sound.

I just got my bass out to check, its build number 940, from 1991.

I nominate, "Take me Out" by Franz Ferdinand. The first 45 seconds are really interesting, it feels like there's a good song to come, the drums are driving it forward and the lyrics are good. Suddenly, the song starts to slowly drop tempo and break down before collapsing into a turgid, awful song.

I remember my brother owning this bass, probably 8 or 9 years ago now if I remember correctly. I remember it being fantastically made and sounding amazing. I think it's by far the most beautiful bass that ACG has ever made. I don't think Chris owned it for all that long, he was buying and flipping loads of basses at that time. He'd get an awesome bass and two or three months later it would be gone and replaced by something else cool.

Why would muting be poor for electric guitarists moving to bass? Muting for guitar is just as important on bass, particularly when playing with overdrive or distortion. Left and right hand muting techniques are directly transferable between the two. I use a combination of palm, left hand and floating thumb muting, learned from a mix of playing electric guitar with a pick and acoustic fingerstyle. It was one of the things that just didn't even require a minutes attention when moving over to bass.

Worked for me, albeit as a leftie I decided to go with a regular guitar of my own volition rather than anyone telling me it would be better. You can say what you like about choice in left handed guitars or basses, but the selection is and always will be massively limited. There isn't a business case for making a leftie version of everything when only 10% of the market will buy it. I'm fortunate enough to have some incredible instruments in my collection (well I think they're incredible!) which I'd have been unable to play if I'd learned left-handed, as they either were not or are not offered in leftie models, or are one-offs built for right handers which I've been lucky enough to buy used. I'm forever grateful that I made what seemed like a harder choice at first in order to reap the long term rewards. Also the bit about being gay makes no sense. Choosing which kind of instrument to play is in no way comparable to choosing your sexuality.

Glad to see the raffle is still on, despite some rather cynical attempts to torpedo the venture. Good luck to all who enter and I hope whoever wins love the bass.

Aria should really get rid of this. It looks unprofessional and totally amateurish. Brands like Aria struggle with customer perception, that they're just cheap starter instruments etc. A video like this doesn't help their cause at all. They should follow Cort's lead. Cort have been in the position of relatively anonymously manufacturing a huge volume of instruments for many, many brands and doing their own stuff in the background. When you see brands like Dingwall charging £1700 for Indonesian instruments and Strandberg charging £2800, we're seeing a consumer emerging who doesn't care so much about country of origin but good marketing like an artist roster with some real talent, good trade show and media efforts are needed too, because the Japanese and American companies have all that. Cort's marketing voice is much louder and stronger these days. They've got great product and solid marketing to back it up. This Aria effort on the other hand...

I don't know if I'd call a P a "full-on power" sound. By what measure are they quantifying power? It's very open to the individual to interpret. Also, a P pickup in the traditional P position with a passive circuit won't do what's generally called the "modern" sound, but I doubt that has ever troubled a P bass owner. You pick the right tool for the job.

I think the fact that Meshuggah's lyricists aren't native English speakers, yet they decide to write and sing in English, helps them achieve their "words picked out of a hat and arranged into a sentence" lyrical style.

I think you should probably see your GP rather than taking medical advice on an internet forum. Hand problems can escalate and end up calling time on your playing career if left unchecked.

Hey guys, I just thought I'd stick a quite write up of my thoughts on Jeff Berlin's clinic at Guitar Guitar in Glasgow last night. It was a bit of a drive (300 mile round trip!) from Newcastle, but as soon as Jeff said he was doing some clinics in the UK I knew I'd be travelling to wherever it took to see him. He has been a long time musical hero of mine and in particular a hero for my brother, who is perhaps the most vocal Jeff Berlin superfan out there. First a comment on the venue, thanks must be given to Guitar Guitar for hosting the event, which was free, but for the 30-40 odd people who turned up, there was no seating, so we stood through the whole thing. I don't think they even had a seat for Jeff as they had to send someone out to get one which I think came from a nearby bar, but once Jeff saw there was no seating he stood for the duration too. Jeff brought a backing CD, but upon finding out they didn't have a CD player he just asked the audience to shout some notes, which he then built into a chord progression and melody and soloed over the top of it. Make no mistake, Jeff is on the absolute top level of improvisational ability, his phrasing and harmonic dexterity is beyond comprehension. Perhaps the most astounding thing about seeing him play his bass, stood about 3 foot away from him, is how effortless he makes it look. If I could ever attain even 10% of what he can do I'd be happy. There was some quick chat about Cort and Markbass, but Jeff did make clear he's not a salesman and the majority of the night would be spent not pitching products or dazzling with bass tricks, but instead on deconstructing myths about learning. The core message is as Jeff has preached for years; let go of your ego, accept that you might not be the best person to analyse and direct improvement in your playing and get involved in structured, academic musical learning. As he said, if your car is broken and you need it fixed and you pay a mechanic, you don't instruct the mechanic how to do his job, because he is the expert and has trained to diagnose and fix the car. You could fix it yourself (as you would teach yourself bass) and you might make it better, you might not. I suppose you tailor your level of instruction to the level you want to play at - you probably don't need to know jazz harmony if you never aspire to play anything other than rock or blues. In that sense, I suppose Jeff's method, which is really just classic academic musical teaching, something that has been generally missing for electric guitar and bass, isn't for everyone but his methods can make anyone a better player, whatever level you're at and whatever level you aspire to play at. I've been guilty of having this ego in the past, thinking I knew how to direct my own learning and improve and to a degree it has worked for me and while my technical ability is ok, my musical theory knowledge has lagged far behind and I know I have a lot to improve on in that field. I'm guilty of playing, not practice, which is something I must change. Some of the observations from the night - and this isn't knocking anyone, everyone who played was very brave to stand in front of Jeff and a room full of strangers and play. 1. Rock players tend to overplay thinking this adds "emotion" or "feeling", or that they need to "dig in to be heard". This was leading to people picking notes so hard they were knocking the note out of tune. Playing so hard isn't necessary, especially when practicing. Separating "performance" elements from musical practice is important because practice isn't art or performance. Everyone improved their intonation and timing considerably when relaxed their hands and stopped hitting the notes so hard. I've always tried to practice softly, something I picked up in my electric guitar days from guys like Steve Vai, John Petrucci etc, practicing with tension just makes everything harder, it makes your playing sloppy when deftness and dexterity is what you need, not to mention it increases your risk of stress injury. I think it's a revelation for some that you probably don't need anywhere near as much pressure to fret or pick a note as you might think. 2. Time is inherent and there are very few musicians who don't have good, workable time. This was demonstrated by getting a non-metronome user to play along with a metronome while Jeff turned the BPM up and down, then getting a regular metronome user to do the same and there was no difference between them. Then a non-musician was invited up and she played the intro to "Runnin' with the Devil" by Van Halen while Jeff played the guitar chords over the top. She'd never played an instrument before and yet she was able to play in time with no instruction. There was further elaboration about slowing down music to play it with nuance and help your fingers learn it, but a metronome isn't an integral tool in being successful in this, Further preconceptions such as "locking in with the drummer" were explored in more detail, as time is a shared concept in a band and not exclusive to the bassist and drummer - everyone in the band contributes to "locking in". 3. Reading music can widen the horizons of any player who doesn't read. I don't and I know I need to start - I have resolved to do this. A non-reader was invited up and and after Jeff showed him a reference note on the clef, he was reading 8 bar etudes in multiple keys within minutes. So there is a lot more to reading than that, but the point was to show that anyone can start, it doesn't have to be an unapproachable and impregnable subject. I think I've been guilty of this and I will learn to read - I know I've passed on opportunities to learn pieces of music because I couldn't read it and frankly for a lot of the stuff I like, tab isn't available. As such, I developed my ear so I can transcribe lines fairly well, but I know I've overlooked an important aspect of my musical development by not learning to read. 4. Modes and scales shouldn't be the key and exclusive focus of anyone looking to develop in music. Scales and modes are useful tools but if you don't understand the musical structures you're playing them over, you're effectively learning verbs but not learning to form a sentence. I have seen this to be true with guitarists who can play the harmonic minor scale in a few keys and sound very impressive with their bag of tricks, but can't improvise in other scales or play in unfamiliar keys. Scales and modes are a useful tool but not the be-all and end-all of musical learning. There is probably a fair bit more I've missed, but I don''t want this to go on forever. After the event was wrapping up, Jeff was selling some CDs to finance his upcoming "Jeff plays Jack Bruce" project. My brother bought a copy - although he already has a signed copy from Jeff, a signed copy from Steve Vai and Jeff and now a third copy with a personal dedication from Jeff. We waited at the back of the autograph and photo queue so as not to hold everyone up. Jeff and my brother, Chris have corresponded via the net for some time and Chris has been a vocal supporter of Jeff, or as Jeff put it "The most vocal and upstanding supporter" of his. It was like seeing friends meeting again after a time apart and was great to see. Chris got his Cort Rithimic signed and I couldn't resist taking my Ken Smith BT5 along just to get it in the photos. Jeff spent some time talking to use and we got some photos with him, make no mistake that he is one of the warmest and kindest guys I've met, a true gentleman. It's remarkable to see someone who has such an incredible voice on the instrument backed up by virtually unmatched technical ability be so humble. He wants so much for bassists to improve as musicians and get more from their playing. All in all it was a fantastic night, especially to see my brother finally meet Jeff. It was worth it for that alone. I also kind of have a hankering for a Cort Rithmic of my own now too!

For me it was not so much an album as it was the dvds. Back in the early 00s my brother had Victor Wooten's Bass Day 98 and Bass Extremes Live, I absolutely loved both of those - even Steve Bailey's questionable intonation didn't put me off. Other important stuff for me was Billy Sheehan on Steve Vai's Live at the Astoria and Stuart Hamm on Joe Satriani's Live in San Francisco. Bill Dickens dvd has some amazing playing on it too. Those guys defined the style that I love the most. Technically accomplished and serving the song with incredible groove, except the songs aren't just plodding along playing root notes all night. The bass tones and overall mixes are great too.

Congratulations, lovely bass. I've never been a big Flea fan but I've always loved these basses. The sig models he's had since are rather different and imo not a patch on the Modulus. Anyone that wants a new one can get one from Modulus, just $4199 before you add options, shipping fees, import tax... It's great to get an instrument you've wanted for a long time. I was learning Dream Theater's Erotomania on my Yamaha Attitude LTD II today, having wanted one since about 2003, it was a year to the day yesterday since mine arrived in the post from Germany.

My favourite practice tone is my favourite everything tone, my Ken Smith BT5 into my Markbass Ninja 1000 and matching Ninja 2x12 and a MB Traveller 2x10. No pedals, just pure Ken Smith sound.

I've been wanting to play a PJB amp for some time now. I find the idea of lots of small speakers interesting, but I've been quite put off by Phil Jones' business practices. Not that long ago, he was posting from his personal Facebook account on discussions on some of the big Facebook bass groups. When people would ask for amp recommendations he was posting that only his stuff is worth using, all other manufacturers make crap amps with crap parts and don't know how to design amps or speakers and that bass players will keep buying other brands because they haven't got a clue of what good tone and sound projection are. It's really not a marketing style that works for me. Everyone has different needs, if someone doesn't buy a particular (and niche) brand, then it doesn't make them an idiot or mean they have no idea what they are doing. His holier than thou attitude really soured me. A manufacturer calling their competitors products crappy junk is unnecessary. A good product should speak for itself. I still enjoy the cheeky car industry advertising of the 80s and early 90s, where Vauxhall would do a full page ad saying their new Astra GSI was faster than a Golf GTi and it was factually correct (although banned now as you're no longer allowed to say that fast cars are fast in motor advertising now, thanks to the ASA nannies), but the advert didn't say "The Golf GTI is crap", because it didn't have to. Phil Jones really got it wrong with this one. I haven't seen him posting in those groups for a few months since it happened so I think maybe he got banned.

Why does quitting the band mean selling the gear? If you like playing bass, just play and record at home. Unless you're bit fussed about the instrument and only see it as means to perform live of course, in which case if you've lost the love for being in a band and you don't love the instrument then by all means, sell the gear, I suppose.

With all due respect, if you don't like or don't understand jazz solos, why would you offer advice on soloing? The OP has already stated he is going to give Donna Lee a go, so you can probably guess he's above the level of a Smells like Teen Spirit-esque "play the melody an octave higher" kind of thing.

My first bass, still got it and no intention to sell but it currently has a set of La Bella Deep Talkin' Bass rounds on it and they are crap, the B is like a rubber band. This bass definitely needs a stiffer set on it next. My first rig was a Markbass Little Mark III and a Markbass Traveller 2x10, I quickly upgraded to Markbass Ninja 1000 Richard Bona sig amp and added the Richard Bona NYC 2x12 cab to my setup.

Glad your stuff turned up. Queer coincidence abut your neighbour being the guy that found your stuff. Of all the people, funny how these things turn out.

I can't believe I missed "Leo got it right first time" from my cliche list! I particularly enjoy that P bass trope since his "first time" bass wasn't even a P bass.

The P bass is definitely having something of a renaissance these last few years. These threads are like bingo. "Sits in the mix" "P with flats" "A P bass is a you need" "A Jazz sounds better at home, a P sounds better with a band" We're nearly at a full house!

I never understood why they did that blood-spattered version, I don't think I've ever seen Alex play it. He uses his his plain black ones live and his purple five string a lot in the studio.