Jean-Luc Pickguard

There' s no such thing as a best bass - everyone has different taste. Make sure you get one which looks so cool that you can't walk past it without taking it off its stand/off the wall & having a noodle. You can get a fantastic bass for under £300. If you can buy it from somewhere that specialises in basses and has on-site expertise for setting it up - or take it somewhere for a setup. Then learn how to do setups. Nothing worse for a beginner than to have an expensive bass that plays like arse just because the shop that sold it have no idea how to do a bass setup. - I should know - I had owned my first fender for nearly 20 years before I had the courage to take a screwdriver to the truss rod.

I have a few short scales. the Korean reissue Danelectro longhorn is great fun to play - especially when fitted with the flatwound strings LaBella make specifically for it. my '71 fender musicmaster - & my daughters one are fun for something with a vintage vibe, but the second hand price of these is just daft. I used to have a squier vista musicmaster. it was fun but weighed a lot ore than it should have and the neck was rather chunky. my CIJ fender Mustang is my go-to bass. it sounds like a precision - but more so. I got mine when the going rate was £300 secondhand. I've tried a squier Jaguar SS in candy red a while ago and loved it. I wouldn't be too bothered about the weak jazz pickup as the precision pickup sounds so good on its own. The neck was shaped just like my mustang - fast slim & easy to play, but with a fast satin finish rather than the gloss of the mustang. at £166 with the current rebate offer, I'd say this is the best shortie bass value at the moment. the only possible disadvantage I can see is that the top loader bbot means that my favourite thomastic TI JF 324 strings will be too long whereas they are perfect on the mustang.

Whilst my kids were watching it I blocked it out with Brian Eno's 'Taking tiger mountain' & 'here come the warm jets' going into my ears from my DT-150s

The experts on 'rays are on the EBMM forum. Perhaps you might want to ask your question there?

Looking at the suggestions already posted, I'm wondering whether taking the rubber bung off the endpin spike and harpooning a tennis ball with it might be worth trying? Perhaps along with plugging the f-holes

A secondhand one.

I want a candy apple red squier jaguar short scale bass. at £166 delivered it would almost be rude not to, but I've run out of hiding places and I think the missus is onto me. Also I don't have any money.

Daisy Rocks are great, although my stardust elite bass is [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Daisy-Rock-Elite-Bass-/270861119091?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item3f1094ae73"]on ebay[/url] at the moment as I have too many basses and not enough room or money. I'm kind of hoping it won't sell though. My daughters also have three daisy rocks between them - another bass the same as mine a pink daisy electric and a lilac wildwood acoustic guitar.

A Gripmaster may or may not help with left hand technique - I don't know, but that's not what I used mine for. It did help me with my right hand technique. I used to run out of steam halfway through a fast song we used to play at the end of the set and would get severe cramp in the hand. After using a gripmaster these problems went away as my fingers felt a lot stronger and I could play a lot faster and not run out of steam.

I have a CR5M - my tuners are of the fiddly variety - not very different to the ones on my thunderbird

Thomann do the gigbags - this one looks identical to the one which came with my CR5M http://www.thomann.de/gb/ns_design_bass_gig_bag.htm

If a seller's asking too much, they may get more realistic offers from a potential buyer and possibly realise they misjudged the original price. However if other with no interest in buying the item, but know (or think they know) the price of everything so reckon the asking price is too high, they should keep it to themselves. The seller will eventually realise that asking too much was a waste TIM.

It looks like it has a tight radius on the fingerboard which is carried over to those lovely chunky pickups, so I wonder whether is has some kind of eub capability - or is maybe designed to be bowable. I love the Bo Diddley / ZZ Top vibe it has

I don't think I've ever played a well set up bass in a shop. I can usually tell whether a bass will be to my liking once I have set it up though.

Think some people may have voted with their numb left hands

[quote name='RhysP' timestamp='1321810826' post='1443316'] Honestly, that wasn't me who negged you. [/quote] hey no worries Rhys - I would have negged me for that, so you showed great restraint Perhaps everyone could neg this post so that I can neg everyone back with a clear conscience.

[quote name='RhysP' timestamp='1321810582' post='1443311'] You nasty f***er! [/quote] I was feeling guilty, so I voted up one of your previous posts & then I see you've taken your revenge already. This could get messy.

Sorry Rhys - nothing personal, couldn't resist voting that one down

Good point snicks. The simple 'like' option seemed to be good for people who would have responded to a post they agreed with by posing a quote followed by +1 without any new content to add. Keeping a total score for someone's account and rating the person, not their individual posts does seem less useful and possible counter-productive.

BC members should be allowed to like their own posts as long as they click using their left hand after making it numb by sitting on it.

I 'liked' the previous like system, but I thought it was about liking a post, not the person posting it. I might disagree with someone - for example on a flatwound/woundwound, slapping/non-slapping or pick/fingers discussion, but that doesn't mean I think any less of the person. When the 'like' option was replaced with the up/down arrows I thought it was a step backwards - especially if it keeps running total across all posts

Here's my mini rig [attachment=93369:pringlerig.jpg]

The keyboard player is not defining what problem he's trying to solve by suggesting that a totally different right hand technique is used. He could say "I think it needs more definition" or "More treble" or "don't do any right hand muting. Its like when a website designer shows a mockup and the client says something like "make the buttons blue" - why do they think they need the buttons blue? Is it to make them stand out more? Make them fit in with the colour scheme of a parent company's website? He's a Chelsea supporter? Or fan of the boyband ''blue? By communicating what result he hopes to achieve by suggesting a pick is used, there could be alternative and better solutions. For example if the problem is that the bass is not cutting through the mush, a better solution might be for the guitar &/or keys to adjust their sounds make a bit of space in the midrange for the bass's mids.

If a keyboard player suggested I use a pick I'd suggest he wore mittens. Blummin' cheek. Tell him to 'eff off.

She was with me when I sold my flying V in Croydon & bought my MIJ tele thinline in Pimlico on the same day, so that was proudly on display - as was the 'empty' case.