BigRedX

For monitors, if you've got the funds you can't go far wrong with [url="http://www.pmc-speakers.com/"]PMC[/url]

That's what I was wondering. I've made enquiries about a couple of the basses they've had for sale but never actually bought anything from them. I was going to buy my Traben from them but I managed to get a perfect condition used one for even less from another seller.

I'm in the processes of trying to buy a used bass from Ishibashi's U-Box section (sad to say that the Atlansia was already sold, ped). You need to email them with the Order Code (that's the number immediately under the bass name on the detail page) and someone from Ishibashi will eventually get back to you with more details about the condition of the bass in question and a shipping price. Unfortunately as I've discovered twice now the time zone differences don't do us any favours when trying to buy a sought-after instrument.

For those of you who missed the thread last time this bass was discussed it's from [url="http://www.mikeyguitar.com/index.asp"]Mikey Guitar[/url].

An interesting idea but I can't help thinking that the fretless conversion works the wrong way round. Instead of lowering the frets it should really raise the fingerboard otherwise the fretless action will be too high.

Cool! I do like that particular finish. Did you get this one off eBay from one of the US dealers that advertises them, or more locally?

Here's another bass builder I discovered through the Schroeder site; [url="http://www.alfonsoiturra.com"]Alfonso Iturra[/url]





A 6-string with triple Bartolini pickups and Aguilar pre-amp. I really like the way the top wood has been shaped to resemble a pick-guard.





A 6-string fretless with a single magnetic pickup and piezo. And an interesting take on through-body stringing with simple bridge.



And finally the Mini Bass - 17" scale 'single cut'

Lots of interesting ideas and plenty of well-thought out details - take a look at the knobs on the fretted 6-string.

The site's had a major redesign in the last 12 months and now doesn't take quite so long to display the images. It's still not all that bandwidth-friendly for those with slower connections though.

A quick update:

I just spoke to Martin and the wood shaping is almost finished on my bass!

He said to give him a call in a week or so time and arrange to check the feel of the neck.

I was planning to be in London mid-March but I may have to try and arrange something even sooner now.

Getting dizzy with anticipation!

Check out his other items for sale...

As they say in the other place: "no pics, no bass"

The one time I didn't take a back-up bass to a gig I broke a string on the opening number. Luckily I was able to borrow the support band's bass. Unfortunately it was nothing like in mine in either feel or sound and I struggled for the whole gig. Lesson learned - always take a back-up!

Also do at least one rehearsal every other month or so using only your spare bass just so you're still used to playing it.

Or maybe something by [url="http://www.dipintoguitars.com/index.html"]Dipinto[/url]?

For me in an ideal situation, my back-up basses would be the same as my main ones except maybe a different colour.

Live I play fretted and fretless basses - all my fretted basses are 5 string and all my fretless are 4. Because my playing style on each is very different the difference in string numbers doesn't bother me. However occasionally we do short showcase sets and for those I try to take only the one bass. Playing numbers I would normally do on a 4 string on a 5 string bass requires for me a lot of concentration, so if your main bass has 5 strings, then really it's backup should also have 5.

I'm now the proud owner of John's Tech Soundsystems Black Cat amp.

Dead easy transaction and a super-fast delivery. He even chucked me in a 2U case!

As others have said: Top bloke!

He is preferring collection for the bass so maybe it's genuine...

I don't know there's something about the Alembic as designed by Roger Dean look that appeals to me...

And before I forget there's a RH version of that scary RPB on eBay at the moment!

[url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=320214668229&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=011"]A John Birch[/url] - wonder if it'll last the distance or get pulled?

Time for another new bass. These are from [url="http://www.mikecurryguitars.com/"]Mike Curry[/url]





Not much information on the rather poorly designed website unfortunately...

However, I really the like sculpted 3-D shapes and finishes of these basses. The styling takes it's cues from several well-known makes but the overall effect is sufficiently new to be worth showing here I think. I also like the ramp/thumb rest on the fretted bass.

Agree about the Parker bass. One of the best necks I've ever played but definitely the most uncomfortable body shape ever. It's as though they never built any prototypes, simply scaled up the guitar and went straight into production...

Personally I think the headstock goes better with the design of the instrument than the standard Parker Fly one. At least they haven't simply imposed the generic company designed headstock whatever the rest of the design of the instrument unlike another manufacturer I can think of.

If it just your wrist positions you're worried about, you could look at getting [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=5525&view=findpost&p=65622"]one of these[/url] or even [url="http://www.bas-extravaganza.nl/?page=bassen&BassenID=27"]this[/url]

Cool!

He's had some interesting stuff for sale recently. I missed out on a 5-string Vaccaro bass the other week because I forgot about the end time of the auction. I'll be following this one too...

[quote name='Bass_In_Yer_Face' post='132522' date='Feb 2 2008, 12:30 PM']Good shout on The Dragons track...I like it. Hope Ian Curtis & Dave Gahan's lawyers aren't watching mind. Remind me a bit of late Jesus & Marychain[/quote]

The whole of the album is as if someone discovered some unreleased JD tracks and decided to mix them with a slightly more modern production. Derivative but damn good fun!

You may also enjoy [url="http://www.cut-city.com/"]Cut City[/url]

I've a whole load of rack stuff and some floor controllers but no 'stand alone' pedals.

+1 on the Bass Pod.

I have 2. On XT Pro Rack which lives in my Rack and is part of my main rig. I also have the 'pod-shaped' one loaded with exactly the same presets. When I'm doing a gig where I know I'll be using a supplied bass amp I just take this, plug it into the bass amp and switch off the amp EQ. Simply brilliant. As the others have said most of the presets need work to make them really shine (although I do like the "sub-dub" straight out of the box!).

Time for some new basses:

Here's three from [url="http://petrounov.com/index.html"]Petrounov[/url]







I first saw one of these on eBay and was intrigued, but couldn't find any more information about them. That's because the website is brand new as of November last year and still very much under construction. From what is there they seem to do both guitars and basses in this unusual shape which I think works much better for the basses (the guitars look kind of blobby...) The strange body shape is supposed to accentuate 'pure' tones according what little information is on the website, and I'm not entirely sure about the positioning of the G tuner on the 5-string models. They do appear to have impressed the speaker cab manufacturer Schroeder who are selling them in their on-line store.