molan

Mine was a nice shiny new Fender Musicmaster in white bought from the Soho Soundhouse for about £120 in 1980. In those days there wasn't a great deal of choice if you wanted a well made bass at this sort of price. I had always been a bit of a bass freak from my early teenage years listening to Chris Squire & Mike Rutherford in their prog heydays. However a Ricky was way out of my price league, maybe £400 from what I can remember. I was sharing a flat with a, Precision playing, bass guy and used to roadie for his band. He said if I bought a bass he'd teach me some basic patterns so we trudged down to Soho & bought the Musicmaster. At the same time he fell in love with a Ricky & nearly killed himself working over time to earn the money to buy it! First thing he taught me was Lizzy's Dancing in the Moonlight Eventually I bought his P off him for about £150 (it was a mid '70's sunburst - what would that be worth now eh?) but I had a complete aberration & traded it for a bloody Sequential Circuits synth about 2 years later & then didn't own another bass for about 15 years!

I think you will always be up against a diminishing rate or difference if you start with something as good as a Skyline. Are the US basses better? personally I think they are. Are they worth twice the price? Probably not. However, if you can afford a US one and always want the 'best' you can afford then the US model will be great. If not then a Skyline is a fabulous bass and puts many more expensive basses to shame. I have a Skyline DJ4 which is really nice (up for sale as it happens [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=38715&st=0&gopid=397292&#entry397292"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=...mp;#entry397292[/url] - he said with a shameless plug!) and owned a JO until quite recently. Both are/were amazing quality for the money

[quote name='simon1964' post='395844' date='Jan 30 2009, 11:28 PM']Just my opinion, but don't sell the Thumb. First, they sound great. Secondly, Warwicks are going for peanuts on ebay at the moment, and I doubt you would get a sensible price for it. Its a good time to buy Wariwcks, but not to sell them![/quote] I'd definitely agree with this. Warwick prices are shot to hell at the moment whilst Spectors seem to be undergoing a bit of a renaissance. A good looking Euro with a funky flamed maple top ought to be easier to sell. Really depends on which one you like most though. If the Spector is your favourite then I'd hang on to that

There was a really nice Smith 5 in the Gallery recently priced at £1,700. It was listed as a full on BSR5 EG model whis is pretty much top of the range. If it was genuinely an EG model than £1,700 was pretty cheap. Unsurprisingly when I called back a couple of days later to enquire further about it I discovered it was already sold. Really nice to play & I loved the cutting tone it had. Wasn't 100% sure I could use that sound live but didn't get enough time to see how flexible the potential sounds were.

I think they look great (which I know isn't the most important thing!) but wondered what they actually sounded like? All the reviews seem to have been good but I wonder how many magazine reviewers would ahve the nerve to tell Marcus he didn't know what he was doing with regards to tone choices! With that in mind, interesting that he chose a pre only to put his name to and not a full pre/power head. Kinda makes sense to me really

Just traded a bass with John and wanted to say what a thoroughly nice chap he is Lots of friendly dialogue through the period we talked about what both of us might want to do and zero pressure to 'make a deal' quickly etc. Highly recommended if anyone wants to buy from, or trade with, him!

It's the board that does it for me - I love the look of birdseye maple &, irritatingly, the only instrument I have with a birdseye maple neck & board is a bloody 6 string guitar!

Nice one Ash - that's at least 2 x MTD 535's in Oxfordshire then Hope you enjoy it!

[quote name='steve-norris' post='391728' date='Jan 26 2009, 01:36 PM']So did I they were so friendly, back in 91 i developed an unhealthy Jeff Ament fixation so imagine my delight when the bass centre staff let play the hammer 8 and 12 strings they had in stock and put up with my badly fretted renditions of 'jeremy' .That trip brings back a lo of memories as well, my brother and i had traveled up to London with my bass and a wad of cash in my back pocket hopefully to trade up. Unfortunately our mate who we were going to stay with was out so i ended blowing all the cash in the west end, awesome night out!!!!....happy days [/quote] You've just reminded me of another story from sunny Wapping. I bought a GK MB150 from them and it blew the transformer. I strolled in months later carrying the GK and as soon as I walked through the door one of the assistants (I think his name was Chris) looked up and said - "hello Barrie mate, how are you, i've got good news & bad news for you". Bear in mind that I'd only met him once and it was at least 6 months earlier. I said I was amazed he remembered my name and that I didn't see how he could have ANY news for me? He said he pretty much remembered every customer who'd ever been in the shop and that the good news was he had a spare amp to loan me if I needed one for a gig & the bad news was that my GK would take 3-4 weeks to get back from the repair shop. At this point I hadn't even told him anything was wrong with it! He claimed he could tell from my vaguely gloomy face that there was a problem with the amp as I wouldn't have bought it with me if it wasn't broken You don't get service like that every day! Although I was in the Gallery last week & Martin remembered my name (including surname) and I reckon I haven't been there for at least a couple of years

Played a birthday party gig last night for my keyboard player. Quite a sw***y hotel venue which gave me the major bonus of being able to stay overnight & not worry about driving Gig went well and I got to do the sound check for the other band (as their bass player couldn't make it in time for sound checking) who are much rockier than my gang and I played Van Halen's Jump with them. Not that hard to pick up but a great laugh to 'rock out' for a change. Used my new(ish) Epifani/Bergantino rig live for the first time and also my MTD 535. Took a little time getting the live sound just right as I was stuck in a corner with walls on two sides and the lower bass register was a bit boomy. Had to cut bass & low mids & then boost treble to get a sound I was happy with on stage. Also had to whack the tweeters up full on both cabs and I usually have them turned right off. Ended up with a sound that I could hear but nothing like how I normally hear myself so that was a bit strange. However, to the best of my knowledge I didn't fluff a single note all evening so that was good

[quote name='PJ Phillips' post='390380' date='Jan 24 2009, 02:05 PM']If a good bass player came in for a coffee and bit of show boating, everyone would stop and gather around and ask questions.[/quote] Happened to me once there - I was trying out an Octave pedal and was playing Wherever I Lay my Hat. Just basic sing structure stuff & then I heard someone soloing over the top of me on a proper fretless & thought, bloody hell, he's a bit good. Stood up to look over the stack of amps in the shop & it was Pino Palladino! He gave me a little smile & a wave and I completely lost my place in the song and went all over the place, lol. He strolled over to say hello & to look at the amp I was using as he was quite impressed with how it sounded (obviously not by my playing one of 'his' songs of course!). It was a first edition Trace BLX 80w. He then proceeded to play through it & sounded brilliant. It sounded so good that, once he'd left the shop, I promptly bought one - never again sounded the way it did when he was playing through it though [quote name='Golchen' post='390247' date='Jan 24 2009, 10:34 AM']I always feel really conspicuous in shops so I tend to play with headphones on. I take my old pandora to plug into and also take a mini mp3 player that I plug in as well so that I can play along to a bunch of my favourite tracks.[/quote] What a great idea - I've never thought of doing that!

[quote name='Ray' post='390308' date='Jan 24 2009, 12:11 PM']How was my gig last night? INCREDIBLE!!! We were at the Jazz Cafe in Camden supporting The Godfathers Of Groove. Stage setup was a little odd with 2 drum kits on stage. We had to set up around the Godfather's gear. Anyway, we were playing our last number and I saw someone coming down the stairs onto the stage and sit behind the other drum kit. This guy started playing drums with us!! You should have seen our drummers face when he looked round to see who it was. He nearly sh*t himself. It was only BERNARD PURDIE playing drums with us!!!!!!! He's one of my favourite drummers of all time and our drummers ultimate hero. After the show Bernard came into our dressing room and said that he loved what we were doing and was feeling the groove so much he couldn't resist joining us onstage. We're doing the same show tonight. Hopefully he'll feel the urge to join us onstage again. I still can't believe I played with Bernard Purdie last night![/quote] That is absolutely amazing - Bernard Purdie is proper full on legend! Must have been brilliant. Better watch out that Chuck Rainey doesn't appear tonight to jam along on bass

[quote name='Josh' post='389974' date='Jan 23 2009, 08:51 PM']Envy is a sickening condition. One for which I struggle to be pardoned.[/quote] Blackmail someone with a car to drive up - tickets are about £32 a pop but it's a good venue &, based on the '08 live album, the band sound great

He wrote back to me! He is MD again & will be over here soon. I'm really excited about seeing both her live and the wonderful Mr Gouche in the flesh. I've bought standing tickets & will be as close to the front as I can get

[quote name='Josh' post='389705' date='Jan 23 2009, 03:50 PM']It's a good chance it's still Gouche, if so it's even more of a reason to go.[/quote] Just checked his schedule & it looks like he's free after Jan 20th so could well be him. I've tried writing to him via MySpace - be interesting to see if he replies If he does I'll try not to gush with praise about how wonderful he is, lol.