uk_lefty

So true! Not having time to practice much and no gigs until 2020 my bass fix is coming from BC, No Treble and ebay. I've placed offers on two great value second hand basses I have no real need for... But I do want my old MiM jazz back, listening to old recordings it sounded the nuts, just a slight cut above the Sire 5 string I also regret selling! However I did buy a brand new USA Stingray last year and that is, for me, the ultimate gigging bass it does everything with big brass bullocks. I don't really need anything else. But I want a few more in the stable!

Mine would be: Effects-wise the Boss LMB-3. Dead cheap second hand, probably because they can be quite hard to get a good compression out of but they work wonders on a Fretless when you use the enhance function. Caline power supply thingy for peanuts off ebay, powers loads of pedals and never let me down. Second hand might be cheating a hit but I picked up a Boss Gt10-B for a bargain, it does a billion things more than I ever need, a very sophisticated multi fx, looper, recording interface... The works. It's old tech so I guess someone was upgrading to something smaller, lighter and with a better pc interface but it's a very, very serious bit of kit that I can see lasting forever. Bass-wise... I bang on enough about my Fretless Kramer but it really was a steal at 250 quid brand new in 2002.

A vajazzle would be a hidden gem? I don't have one.

If I had never read this thread I wouldn't have been on The Ashdown site wondering what colour my cabs would be best in... Cream? Red?

I see your point. I expect they can't undercut their retailers otherwise those retailers wouldn't stock the product any more. The retailers probably use far more shipping of individual items than Ashdown and can get better pricing and processes to do that, I would guess. If there is something extra you get from buying direct, like the colour options, then maybe that is what draws people to buy direct?

I still don't quite get it, as in the vid the player bumps in to the ramp every now and then. I can see its use as a practice tool to encourage consistent and lighter playing but I don't think I'd want one on my basses. Then again I dig in like I'm rebuilding the channel tunnel so I don't think I'm the target market!!

My drummer has a tendency to speed up and slow down, and if the lead guitarist counts us in then half the time the tempo will be wrong. We are quite well rehearsed as a unit so we can rescue a lot of songs by either changing the feel or finding a point to kick up or down a gear without having to give nods and winks but sometimes it is just too much to recover from. We have at gigs had to stop and start again which is really, really crappy. We also in rehearsal agree who counts us in for each song. It's admirable that the guitarist wants to eliminate dead time and get us from song to sing quickly but he shouldn't be counting in some of the songs at all and we have made that known. The drummer wants us to play to a click track but I don't. I like the feeling that it could all fall apart any minute, I like having to listen to what's going on and react, I've never played to a click but I'm concerned it could take the raw edge off things for my band at least and I don't want to have to have in-ears, mainly due to cost. I'm probably completely wrong, there's nothing wrong with just playing at a constant tempo per song, but there's something about it I'm just not sold on... Yet. But you don't know if you've never tried, I guess.

That looks beautiful. Well done!

I couldn't find if the top gentleman Mr Basskitcase already has a feedback thread so please merge if he does... Bought a Blackstar Beam from him at a decent price and was very well informed about when it would be posted and arriving, etc. Very happy indeed. You can buy from him in full confidence, top man.

It would be a confusing enigma that just doesn't quite get there. A bit like me playing an improvised bass line. Or just a Fender jazz with Barolinis.

I've seen an eBay seller of sports equipment with loads of good feedback and just one negative "don't buy its a fake". Sure enough I bought something cheaper than market price and it was a... Fake! Basic wood sprayed with the factory stencils to look like the real deal carbon fibre item. So lots of people put there looking for a bargain really don't know what they're looking at once it's in their hands!!

Last wedding I played there was a guy shouting "Rammstein!!! Disturbed!!!" which tickled the singer and I, so you never know!! We stuck to our usual not that heavy set though and he seemed happy enough that we knew who he was talking about.

Sounding as good as it looks!

I can see what they're trying to do but it's not working for me.

I once forgot to confirm with a venue so ran down the road and found a spare venue!! "as long as you don't want paying" was the Yes we needed. My guitarists mum had travelled some distance to see us so the show had to go on somehow.

Does a Sire count? Had a Sire vintage V7, Ash body maple board. My MIJ Precision has a very chunky neck, its a 1970 reissue, and it arrived with a Steve Harris signature pickup which I very much like and it combines beautifully with his signature strings which are almost as thick as the bass neck itself!

We get sick of "can my mate sing the next song?" etc especially as we have a rather good singer!! At a wedding this summer a lady was very keen to be playing some instrument, eventually the singer, on particularly good form gave her a tambourine and took it back off her mid song. In the break she was drunkenly moaning a bit about it. Over the PA monitors I could just hear a matter of a fact tone: "no, you can't play it in time, you've had your chance" which made me laugh! Also in the summer there's a pub we play where one guy gets hammered and dances along to everything. He also shouts AC DCCCCCCCC! After every song. Without planning at all our guitarist plays the opening few bars of back in black then the three of us all with mics simultaneously "nah we don't know it". His face was a picture. And he never asked again. Always prefer that over telling them to foxtrot Oscar. Haven't had to do that so often fortunately.

Gear4 do sell a lot of damaged stock so I can understand someone repairing and selling on but why, why, why make a 12 string in to a six so badly?? I just doubt get it. But surely nobody buys these? Even the least knowledgeable would compare prices and realise he's having a whole herd of giraffes?

I agree on the 15, 30 and 60 watt versions they look very basic but the 150 was giggable and had potential to be really great. It weighed a stupid amount but it had complex tone shaping and should have had enough oomph. I used mine without PA support in a three piece with a top quality drummer playing through a custom made kit (can't remember the brand but they made Phil Collins drums) and a guitarist playing through a 200w Marshall head. And mine had suffered from previous owners abuse and didn't have the volume it should have. However, I don't know how much of my view is clouded by nostalgia, it was near 20 years ago!

I am still eating all my veg in the hope I reach 6ft. I'm in my mid 30's.

A UPVC double glazed window with a trickle vent that I've only just opened today. Now that I've got all the essentials in the room I don't think I'll have space to have guitars out of cases sadly. Will just need to be neatly in cases in here unless being used. I think I'll be leaving the electro acoustic in the house somewhere if I can.

I see this so often on ebay from loads of different sellers. I just don't get it.

Wouldn't a Tokai or other Japanese copy of good repute be worth more than an Epiphone? So he or she would have been best to keep his suspicions to himself and get a Tokai for the price of an Epiphone then laugh like a supervillain every time he or she plays it??

Interesting for me as I'm bidding on an EA on ebay right now! Off the top of my head with budget no restriction I'd have said go Mark Bass for the punchiness you get, which could help with an EA, but I didn't think about loss of its acoustic qualities. I have a Boss GT10-B pedal board, it's old tech but has good amp sims and lots of ability to tweak so maybe you could go for either the powered PA speaker route or a bass amp that doesn't colour sound too much and have pre sets on a pedal so that you know what you're getting? I have an Ashdown amp that can can have the EQ disengaged and for a while I used to use it just to make stuff louder with the pedal running amp sims that I wanted and I changed this when changing basses or changing feel, so my active jazz went through a "super flat" amp type whereas my passive and more tonally sophisticated jazz would go through other amp sims to bring out its qualities. With the new kit like the Helix stuff km sure someone somewhere has created some very good EA bass patches.

I would. Looks great. Separate vol and tone could be interesting too.