Maude

It depends on the bass but I am sucker for vintage white/cream. I don't like natural wood yet I wouldn't want my 4005 in anything else. I don't particularly like sunburst yet my Bex4, which I love the look of) is tobacco burst and I have a matching P and J in 3TSB. I don't really like black, it doesn't stand out on stage, yet I bought a Club bass in black as it looked so much better than the classic Hofner burst. I do really like retro pastel shades yet don't any. Basically I have preferences but if it suits the bass then I like it.

Totally. It's all to easy to get some subs and suddenly have this amazing bottom end and get carried away. I'm sure the trend for too much bottom end (that bass drum overpowering everything) is because it was always the thing everyone chased and is now relatively easily attainable. In home hi-fi, car stereo, personal walkmans 😉, band equipment, etc the cheap stuff always had plenty of mid and high frequencies but the bass was always the stuff of expensive equipment, but not any more. I think this has lead to systems suddenly having all this bass available and over using it. Reign it in and subs are amazing, overdo it and they'll ruin your sound completely.

If you want to buy new then Thomann have an excellent return policy, will be able to buy a few of the ones you mention and return the ones you don't like. But I have found that using a bass for a decent amount of time is the only true test, sometimes a bass I didn't like with a little adjustment here and there and a different type of string will become my 'go to' bass. If at all possible, second hand would be your best bet, even if buying blind, as you can use it for few months and if it's really not doing it for you then you can shift it on with no loss, and if you buy wisely you could even make a profit.

Nobody seems to ever mention them but I really like the Fender 9120m black tapewounds. Really bright for tapes, more like rounds with the tone rolled back slightly rather than thumpy flats territory, almost feel slippery with the glossy tape and you should be able to pick them up for around £25. On one bass I swapped them for D'Addario half rounds as the Fender tapes were too bright, I've had LaBella white nylons on the same bass and they had less top end than the D'Addario half rounds.

Totally, but some are more right than others 😉 I agree it's personal preference, if you want fretlines then have them although I personally don't see any advantage of them over just having side dots in the fret positions, and I like the look of a clean board, but each to their own. But who in their right mind wants side dots in the same position as a fretted neck, it's just all kinds of wrong

House Of Tone Pickups are in Chester, they were very helpful when I had to contact them about pickups they wound that I bought second hand. https://www.houseoftonepickups.com/

The raven has flown. Rendezvous point B at 18:00hrs. I repeat, point B.

Don't do it. I was caught out this way but I was returning an item. My son bought something from a company abroad. It needed returning and they gave me the address of their UK warehouse so the postage fees were less. It was tracked, it arrived and was signed for, and then they denied it ever arrived. PayPal wouldn't refund me as it wasn't the address registered with them. Lost the item, my payment and the postage cost.

@Donnyboy That one looks lovely and I bet it plays and sounds as good as some more expensive ones. I realise I sound like Harley Benton fanboi but I haven't come across a bad one yet.

I really the Mono GS1 Betty. It's wide, soft and well padded but the bit I like the best, but makes me odd as everyone else seems to want the opposite, is that it's not grippy at all. I hate a grippy strap that ends up dragging your shirt up your back and bunching it up on your shoulder. I like to play my bass in different positions, sometimes it's horizontal, other times it's angled up high and others down low, I like slippery 😀 It's also meat free!

My on stage sound (always use a monitor, no amp behind me) is always very light on bass frequencies, if it means anything my controls on the monitor are set, bass 9 o'clock, mid 1 o'clock and treble 12 o'clock. The drummer's monitor is set the same. I can turn the volume up louder without causing problems front of house by using these settings as there's little low end booming around to upset the FOH mix. It's a very clear sound and far less tiring than a wall of noise behind me. Any missing bass frequencies in my monitor is supplied by the FOH subs anyway.

The joy of plucking properly is that when your forefinger is blistered you can still play electric bass with the unblistered part in the normal way 🙂

I'll happily give him a couple of quid to buy some sidecutters and cut those bloody strings, grrrrrrrrrr 🤬 😂

It looks like he has now removed the decal as well as stating what it really is so clearly not trying to fool anyone. But I know what you're saying 🙂

Do you ever take more than one out the house? Ha ha, I've got more than one that have never made it into the house 😄 I'm in two bands, one acoustic (ish) and one electric. In the acoustic band it's doublebass all night long but I usually take a uke bass or fretless acoustic just in case the worst happens, it never has. In the electric band I used to use my Variax exclusively with a Yamaha Bex4 just in case and now it's my 4005 exclusively with the Bex4 in case, and yes the worst has happened, twice in the last five years I've broken a string but I do get quite physical when I'm playing and I play with a heavy touch as well, I've tried to reign it in lately but the heat of battle and all that. The rest just get used at home and rehearsal as and when I fancy. They're also brilliant for just looking at. I've never found any joy in looking at numbers on a bank account and if the need ever arises I can just sell them.

Some people love bronze strings on an acoustic, others hate them. I hate them, all finger noise and clatter, but they are loud, no doubt why they all put them on. I've got Fender tapewounds on mine and really like the tone, especially amplified.

I have a Harley Benton that I got as a deko. It's one of the ones that are a step up from their basic ones (I have a basic fretless one to compare to). It's actually a very nice acoustic bass, nice shaped and inlaid headstock, pin string holders in bridge, Fishman pre-amp, nicely finished and bound, satin body and neck and it's a 32" scale so doesn't feel too long. https://m.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_clb_10sce_nt.htm?o=27&search=1567103103 Edit: mine is satin but the linked one is gloss.

Now I have raised my head I'll take this opportunity to say how much I enjoy all of your builds Andy. I like your ingenuity and approach to your builds and enjoy learning from them, keep up the good work 👍

I can imagine slotting an unslotted bridge with the correct angle to get the bridge square and the intonation spot on would be a pig of a job.

I'm usually quietly but keenly watching these threads. I don't normally like to air my inquisitive mind for fear of sounding like I'm criticising, which I wouldn't do. But, I totally understand the jig you've made which puts the saddle in the correct place but that now puts the bridge out of alignment by the looks of it. I know the saddle position is more important than the bridge alignment but that would play havoc with me. Are all precut bridges supplied with the saddle slot cut to a generic angle or are there angles you can choose from?

Rubber gimp suit keeps all the sweat inside. Dry hands and looking good to boot!

We use our own pa on most gigs and have good monitors and our own easily adjusted monitor mixes using the xAir app, I never use an amp when gigging like this and much prefer it, just bass into my Line6 X3 Live then into FOH. But when having to use an in house PA with a sound engineer I always end up taking my amp. I've lost count of the amount of times I've been told, "Oh yeah, you can put your bass through the monitor", and then find their monitors will only handle a bit of bass before the engineer gets tetchy, and I'm happy to cut the bass and boost the mids in the monitor just to be clearly audible and not fussed about having it pounding. It's just quicker and easier to take an amp and look after my self.

Nope, I love it 😎 There's another thread currently complaining about the heat as well.

I adopt a different persona onstage anyway to help me 'perform', different clothes than I'd normally wear helps me be someone else. I'd imagine the same would work in front of a camera. For instance, this chap from @NancyJohnson's band pretends to be Mark Radcliffe 🙂

A weekend of two halves for me. Friday night my Mod band played a pub in Plymouth's Barbican. While putting the lights up, our guitarist left the stands at half mast until all connections had been made. Two girls were sat at a table just in front of the lights and one of them complained to him as they were blocking her view and she had only come to see the bass player. So people do notice us! We had a good gig, packed the place out and plenty of dancing. Saturday my other band had a wedding booked. We got to the venue to find we were in one room with the bar, seating and buffet next door. There were double bi-fold doors opened between the two which let enough noise through that very few left the bar area, it was also very hot so a lot were sat outside. Nevermind, the few that did come through for a dance enjoyed it and we were paid handsomely.