uk_lefty

I use one of these and carry it around in a laptop bag. I'm not an Ampeg lover myself, having got rid of my P Bass, but the Ashdown RM amp is great for flexibility. Decent amp on its own, you can add in the valve simulated drive, or you can switch off its EQ and use pedals to simulate amp and cab combos. I even had a while switching off its EQ and using the inboard EQ on a Sire bass then sometimes bringing in different amp simulation effects from a Boss multi FX pedal. These days my Stingray and jazz often go straight to the amp with no pedal in between at all. There are "better" amps out there but if you want a lightweight, not too expensive, single box to do 80 percent of what you could ever need then I don't think you'd find many better. Ml

Not sure on the specifics but I used Eurosender, the firm that gives a BC discount to send and retrieve two different basses. They outsourced to a courier company, possibly DPD, but their pricing was way better and they insure musical instruments. Their customer service was good when I made a mistake in one of the orders so I'd recommend getting in touch with them.

I think that would help offset the whole issue of reach to the neck being deceptive, the "thinking you're two frets away from where you really are" I mentioned in my earlier post. I don't know about drop tuners but what's often said of these type of basses is that they rarely go out of tune.

Of course! Basses, strings, amps, fx... I am so busy with work and family life my bass adventures live mainly in my idle imagination so I dream up changes I think I want and if something appears second hand I'll buy it if I want to or if my "i will bid low, probably won't win..." goes wrong. But may I raise you this, changing stuff for reasons that don't even fool myself? Buying gear for the band I'm never actually going to start, or because "all pro's need a..." when I am far from ever being there. Why did i need £155 worth of wireless kit? Why do I have a Badass bridge lying unused in my spares box... Why do I even have a spares box??!!!!

Nah if they made a bass version I'd have it Right, can't unsee this now. I don't want one anymore.

YES!!

Love the IT analogy. As someone who spent a lot of years writing IT contracts (after trying to drag the spec out of people, negotiate with the suppliers... Yawn) and now works in a company where Agile and SCRUM are used almost everywhere I think this is such a clear parallel, clear to me anyways. Just wonder if you could build a bass using Agile...

Looks like an incredible instrument! Love the easy selection of the sounds.

I contacted a builder a few years back and offered to go to the workshop with all my basses and talk through what I like or don't like about them and give them a link to clips of my playing. Seemed like the best way to get somewhere rather than me send a drawing or make an unrealistic or unworkable shopping list of stuff. He was open to the idea but finances prevented it from going further than a few emails, sadly.

Yeah I think they use pre made parts and they route, assemble and relic to order, helps keep the costs sensible. I could go to Nash or someone but I don't want to pay in body parts. Always drooled over Warmoth, currency conversion and taxes don't make it viable at the moment though.

I've often considered a custom but the problem for me is the sheer number of options. I'd like a really nice fretless, but then again I asked a company who makes Fender relic type things if they'd do me a Telecaster bass, 70s style, luckily for my wallet they don't do lefties. The other day I even thought "well, I should get an 8 string really!" because you can't buy them anywhere so why not have an 8 string (octaves) bass? Then I realised, I'll never use it except for messing about for five minutes at a time at home. I'm still tempted to have a nice fretless built though...

Beautiful! Would be interested in our advice... I hack around on guitar, have played at acoustic nights and so on and 9months ago picked up an electric for messing about recording, though I never expect to play ripping lead like Hendrix. I don't really want both guitars and considered something like this as a good single instrument to cover both... Is that realistic or are these more of an acoustic than a 50/50 between acoustic and electric?

Thank you both. I'm looking at what I can pick up for a good deal on fleabay, my vocal work has improved a lot in the last few years by backing a decent singer, a lot of it down to maturity and knowing my range, so in the past when someone said "let's do an Aerosmith song" I should have just said No. Does the mic mechanic help with pitch correction? That's the bit I'm looking for as I have half an idea to front a three piece while playing bass, that's where I'd need it most. For BVs it could help but I'm happy enough with most of what I'm doing now.

Not sure if this is the right place... I'm tempted by a TC Helicon vocal pedal. Either a voice tone or a mic mechanic, but open to ideas. Basically I can sing a bit but I can easily run out of steam or lapse here and there when playing bass. I'd like to see if a box of tricks could help me cheat the system a bit. Any advice gratefully received!

Hi everyone. How has anyone's new bands, or new projects, been going at the moment? Anyone started anything new or joined a going concern? I love my band, great guys, but we aren't doing enough for my liking. I need another project, something very different... I've looked in the usual places and the "established" bands that are looking for bassists are not my cup of tea either from description or from recorded songs. I have thought of contacting singer song writer types and saying "hey! Want a bass player?" but I'd rather have a bit more say in everything. Is anyone managing to form something new or get good slots in interesting bands? Where is best to look these days? While I look I might write some songs and record the guitar, bass and vocal parts, and hope i can attract a drummist and guitarer who would buy in to it...

Not sure when you compare it to the Warwick Star Bass, rockbass version, it seems OK. There aren't many lefty semi hollows out there.

They're made in Japan but with US pickups was my understanding... Though that rings a bell... Either way, they're decent.

I had an MIJ PB70 and sold it to fund a CIJ JB75-US. Coincidentally both are "US" versions so had Alder bodies and US hardware. Excellent, excellent basses. The PB was great and I was reluctant to sell, but other basses were doing its job and I'm more of a jazz bass man at heart. My CIJ Jazz is unreal. The quality of build is flawless, you can see woodgrain through the butterscotch paint, everything is fitted perfectly, the neck feels great and could only be better with a more satin finish, but the gloss is the best gloss neck I've played. It looks, feels and sounds stunning. And second hand it was around half the price of a new USA jazz bass. The only change I may consider is to add ashtrays and a thumb rest. The pickguard is pre drilled for them but the body isn't.

One of our last gigs we kept hearing "PLAY AC DC!!!" At the end of each song. So the guitars plays the opening riff of back in black, hecklers get excited and without any prior rehearsal the three of us with mics all said "nah, we don't know it" couldn't have done it better if we tried. Never got asked for it again.

I rarely tell people I work with that I play music. Because it's usually followed by: Snorts of derision at doing anything creative "I played in a band at school..." followed by some bull story about being really good but not having x, y, z and then giving up. Turns out they had a my first guitar book and gave up after a week. I know someone in a band, they play all the Oasis songs... Yawn, boring story about someone you don't know and will never meet being in a band. We should have a Finance Department/ Marketing Department/ whatever department band at the end of year do, it will be great! (it won't) Did you play this weekend?! With excited mouth open expression followed by air guitar action, very loud so the entire office can hear and thinks you and the lunatic are rock music buddies.

How does it handle active and passive basses? I've had a go with lesser pedals that were great for passive basses but unusable for active.

Decent price... No lefties though, I expect.

Was it sold as new or from their B stock clearance?

Passive

This pickup is a brand new Kent Armstrong replica of the original Aria, should be fine