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You think Stingrays are over rated but ride a Harley. Hmmmn 😀 Srsly though, I play mine through an Ampeg which is a tonal paradox I know. The punch of the 'Ray combined with the fatness of the Ampeg gives a sweet but fattish tone that cuts through the mix nicely, I love it. It can sound a bit glassy through my Markbass tho.

For me it depends on the musical style. For rock, blues and slap I generally use a 4 string (with a hipshot for drop D). For pop and funk a 5 string is essential as I am often replicating synthesiser basslines in a lower register than a 4-string. I also like a tight 16.5 mm string spacing on a 5 (a Warwick Streamer) for fast fills and licks, although it's a pig to slap. I actually find it much easier to play than a 4. Other benefits - double octave arpeggios across the neck, much easier to transpose songs and a nice handy thumb rest for when I'm not playing the low B! I was nervous at first when I switched, but I had no problems at all. I could play all my 4-string lines straight away, just took a few weeks to realise all the extra benefits.

Bought a beautiful Warwick $$ from Rory. Really well set up, looked after and sorted bass and Rory is a proper gent. Buy with absolute confidence, cheers Rory!

USA 50th anniversary did not have a trussrod plug at the headstock end as far as I know. The MIJ ones did, and the serial would have been at the base of the neck so that checks out. However, the headstock logo looks wrong for a 1996 MIJ 50th anniversary, it should be a speghetti logo I think (and earlier MIJ ones were black and gold transition logo). Those logos with patent numbers only seem to appear on very early basses or fake decals. Not seen an MIM with this type of logo and no heastock serial either. So my take - it's an MIJ with a headstock refin or a faker or has had a replacement neck somewhere along the line.

Rival sons. Have had two bass players and both are great.

Blimey. that's very short scale, I bet the strings are like rubber bands. Wonder if it's a proper scale length and built as a bass or a conversion? E and G strings look too close to the ends of the pickups too.

If done properly it totally works. Look at this little honey (pro built by Landing Basses):

Well if it has to be gender specific, I would say it's a boy's bass not a "Men's" one, I'm sure most women players would be more discerning. It's also priced 1p more expensive than a brand new one.

Sorry I was using this as an example of how it panned out for me, I am (attempting) to finally learn that crazy stuff. My previously badly worded point is, if you want to learn to play a genre, just learn the basslines that already exist from key players. Playing them in your band if you can will give you the impetus to do that. Start with the easier grooves and work your way up and try to learn them by ear if you can. This is how I learned to play bass and learned my chops, I never had a teacher or a book or used TAB, I just played basslines. Obviously the theory of modes, pentatonics and diatonics helps with that, but you can learn that stuff pretty quickly.

Practice is a strange concept for me. As a teenager I moved from 6-string guitar to bass and immediately went out gigging, so practice was learning songs and rehearsing. A few years of rock and metal bands later I went "pro" in a function/party band which was often my only source of income for 5 years. I then did a stint doing original session work on tour for a singer/songwriter who was releasing an album and then went into the tribute band scene. Never learned a Victor Wooton slap line or how to play "Portrait of Tracey" once in that time because frankly, 99.99% of audiences don't want to listen to that sort of stuff and I didn't have the time to learn them to impress my peers or gain personal satisfaction. Now I'm a bit older and I only gig a couple of times a month, learning that sort of intricate technical stuff is what I finally do. Just for myself though, Noone will ever hear it though except my girlfriend who just says "that's nice dear" and my cat, who scarpers whenever I pick up my bass. I might just as well be making a model of HMS Victory out of matchsticks. When I do gig, I'm pretty much still playing stuff at a level I could do perfectly well 20 years ago. So I guess it's horses for courses, you need to focus your efforts on what is needed at the time. If you are a busy gigging covers bassist, learning your set properly to perfomance level is all the practice you need. If you play original stuff, learn your theory and how to put it into practice. If you want to be a virtuoso, grind away but be prepared to never have anyone listen to your perfect Jaco runs and harmonic chords, because nobody really cares.

Weird looking thing with headless tuners. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ALEMBIC-AJ-II-HB-Fretless-ELECTRIC-BASS-GUITAR-Made-in-JAPAN-soft-case-used-F-S/263842014535?hash=item3d6e35a547:g:8WsAAOSw441bW8pu:rk:15:pf:0 Apparently legit too, 50 of them were made under licence by Rokkomann with Alembic electrics. http://alembic.com/club/messages/393/58239.html?1226277523

Alder, swamp ash and mahogany are the most common. They have different weights, workabilities and argaubly, tone. Mahagany can be heavy with a tight grain and a dark tone. Often used with a maple top for figuring and to add brightness. Alder has little grain so is best painted. A good balance of bright and dark tone. Swamp ash has a wide, open grain. Difficult to finish as it needs grain filler for high gloss if that's your sort of thing. but looks good with a clearcoat or oil. Light weight (don't get normal ash as it's heavy). Resonant and used for bright sounding basses. To tonewood deniers, please don't flame me! I'm just offering the general consensus.

Cool. yup would love to have a go

Same here usually, but you know, sometimes it's fun to experiment....

Sounds great, I'll try one, thanks!

Thanks for the heads up! I'll check it out.

I did wonder. The closest I got was octaver and a bit of chorus so far. No probs with the tehcnique, I have the lines and technique off pat, it's just the sound i'm after now. Some people on here advocate an Octaver>Filter>Fuzz chain for a synthy sound, but it's not working for me. Maybe I'm approaching it wrong for this type of sound.

Just after Princess Di got killed, we are playing in a pub in Folkestone (never a good idea). It was a ZZ-Top number from what i recall. Two brothers are right at the front and they start arguing about her death. One of them doesn't give a stinky poo, the other was obviously a fan. Suddenly one of them punches both front teeth out of the other one and the teeth landed at our feet. The now toothless brother gets on his hands and knees looking for them (it was a loud carpet, it was dark and we had a lighting rig so it wasn't so easy). Guitarist sidles up, nudges me and says "just keep playing". We did.