Linus27

I tend to agree, I felt the song was being murdered somewhat, it certainly lacked finesse and subtlety.

I've not really used pedals in my 35 years of playing, only a chorus now and again. The last few years I have been playing fretless exclusively and the band I play in allows and requires me to take a more lead role. So to enhance my tone and add some personality into the bass parts, I decided to experiment with some pedals. I started out with a Behringer Octave, Behringer Chorus, Behringer Reverb and Behringer BD121. They were all about £20 each and apart from the Reverb, they were all superb and I got a lot of great feedback about my tone and playing. The Chorus and Octave especially were very very good and I even considered keeping the Octave pedal as it does a slightly different thing to the now Boss OC-5 that I have. The BD121 was also pretty good but I found I had no use for it and never really used it. I have now replaced them all with a Boss OC-5 Octave, a TC Electronic Corona Chorus and added a TC Electronic Flanger. The main differences are the quality of the output. The sounds are just a lot cleaner, sharper and polished. The Octave tracks a lot better as well but overall, there really isn't a huge difference and for £20 per Behringer pedal, they are excellent quality. They never let me down in the years or so I used them.

I don't actually mind or care what other people are playing because at the end of the day, if they are out playing music and being creative and if that's all they can afford or it works for them or they are happy playing it then crack on. However, similar to Lozz196's comment on Page 1, I do have my own standards that I set myself. I've played for 35 years, had quite a bit of success and got to a standard of musicianship that I feel justifies me spending a certain amount of money or at least, treating myself to certain grade of instrument. Plus, having been pro, semi pro and a weekend warrior, I'm out there using the instrument rather than it sitting in my house looking pretty. I don't like expensive boutique basses and there is a limit on what I will spend but if I am going to buy a bass, then chances are its a Fender Jazz or Precision so it will be a US model or a US signature/re-issue. If its a Stingray then it will be a US model, a Warwick will be a German model. Saying that, a lot of my good basses I've bought second hand, be it my AVRI 75 Jazz bass, US Standard Precision and Jazz and all my Stingrays. My current good bass, a Stingray SR4 fretless was also secondhand. I also prefer Japanese Fender's and would sooner play one of them over a dearer US Fender. So I have my own personal standard that I feel I can justify owning but what others play then I couldn't care less.

I hope they start making the custom necks again soon, I really fancy a fretless neck for my Jazz or possibly Stingray.

Too late now but I have a Warwick Gnome and been perfectly happy with it. Even used it as my main amp a few times. Not sure if it's the best but it does the job very well and it's very loud.

Currently listening to one of my favourite albums ever, Marillion's Clutching At Straws.

I've been doing same today as well

Thank you

Ok thank you, so if you were to play the A on the E string (5th fret), do you play on the dot or on the line? Do you have a price in mind for if you sell yours?

I'm considering getting an Ibanez SRF700 fretless and have noticed that the top of the neck has dots and small lines. To those who own or have owned one of these basses, is this bass technically a lined fretless and you play on the lines or is it still an unlined fretless and you play where the dots are? Many thanks for your help.

Considering getting myself a new amp and quite like the idea of giving a MarkBass a go. I play clean melodic bass lines through a Barefaced Two10 on my fretless Stingray SR4 with a little chorus or Octave. Just think your typical 80's fretless tone. I've used a MarkBass combo about 10 years ago and quite like the VLE and VPF filters. I also had a go on the Little Marcus once and was quite impressed with the tone from it. So my question is, what are the real difference between all of their heads? Is the Vintage or Tube heads actually different to say the Little Mark heads or are they just gimmicks? Is one head considered the best of the bunch, for example the Little Marcus or is the Vintage V2 the premier unit? I'm after something that will be clean, fairly punchy and will suit my fretless Stingray.

That was awesome, it was like Gypsy Jazz meets Rock. Loved it.

I noticed what my favourite bass players were using but not necessarily copy them as I was learning. Plus it was also a co-incidence that the basses I liked, my favourite bassists played to some degree.

Ah you have to do it, as long as you don't try and sound like Jaco in the old guy rock band then it will be fine. Especially in a rock band situation, a lot of people probably won't notice its fretless. When I used my fretless Jazz in the 50's Rock N Roll band, nobody really noticed as most of that stuff is walking bass lines but stuff like Stand By Me or My Girl actually really enhanced it with a bit of the fretless tone. I'd say do it, it will probably be great to be fair.

I have played lots of different stuff as I've been playing for 35 years. So started out playing the 80's stadium rock stuff so a bit U2, Simple Minds, The Alarm, Echo and The Bunnymen etc. Then Indie Guitar punk pop and part of the post Britpop scene. Q Magazine gave our album 4 out of 5 and said we were a mix of The Wonder Stuff, Green Day, Ash and Radiohead. Then a folky indie sort of band after that. After that was a sort of acoustic Motown Soul thing. Then 50's and 60's Rock n Roll playing stuff by Elvis, Little Richard, The Beatles, Chuck Berry etc. I now play in a band which is singer acoustic guitar who uses a vocal harmoniser, drummer who is very percussive and myself of fretless playing a lot of melodic or cello like parts. A sort of mix of Sigor Ross meets Damien Rice I guess. I've also done some electric music projects.

Nope. Bass for home and rehearsals is a Fender Precision with a high gloss maple fretless neck. Gigging bass is a Musicman Stingray SR4 with fretless Pau Ferro neck and my back up and other gigging bass if I fancy a change is a Fender Jazz with fretless ebony board and Barts. Recording bass is which ever one sounds the best but usually one of the Fender's. I can happily switch between all three for rehearsals and gigging as they all feel the same to me but I tend to lean towards the Stingray as the neck is the nicest.

I think a lot would agree that an old school class A/B amp tend to give the best bass sound, we all loved the sound of our big old bass rigs. However, times have moved on and lugging these big old rigs around is not so enjoyable, especially the older we get. I do agree the Ashdown ABM is a great option and for me my personal favourite is the Hartke HA5500. I've owned a lot of Class D amps over the years and the two that I really like and have settled on are the Ampeg PF500/800 and the Ashdown MiBass550. I have both but tend to use the Ashdown purely as it's small. Other Class D amps have sounded thin, clinical or run out of puff but the Ampeg and Ashdown have both always sounded amazing and why I kept them.

The Spectracomp is the second pedal on my list after the Cali76. I've constantly read great things about it along with the Cali76 but its a hell of a lot cheaper so I may go for it instead.

My chain is Tuner, then Compressor, then Octave and then Chorus as the final pedal in my chain so the same as you suggest.

I should add that I play fretless Stingray with an acoustic guitarist/singer and drummer who does a lot of percussion. So its just to tighten up my sound as well as bring balance between the high and low notes as I play a hell of a lot of melodies, lead parts and cello like runs.