M@23

Love the look of these.

I’ve been thinking about this lately. I barely played during lockdown 1.0. I was pretty annoyed at the whole situation and had the worry of losing my main source of income; whilst accepting it was necessary of course. I did a few weird socially distanced gigs and some live streams last year and was still kind of disillusioned with it. It’s only been the past couple of months that I’ve started playing regularly again and I’m enjoying it more than I have for a while. Doing some remote stuff for people and learning music that I enjoy and find challenging to play has been a nice change. I found it really difficult to get motivated to play, and the break did me good as now I’m excited to get the bass out again every evening.

It’s close to me too! Which hardly ever happens.

Interests sake, the config I made up earlier of my old VM5 Supreme, here they are side by side. I think I prefer the new shape looks wise. Playability, agree with you ^ the newer shape is lighter, comfier and fits better. Credit where it’s due, taking that classic shape and making it subtlety your own isn’t easy!

The configurator seems much less clunky than the old one. Way better to use from a mobile. Just spec’d up a VM5 in the same finish as my old Supreme. Such classy looking basses! Think my mk1 made its way to the US.

They’re active on FB still, advertising stock, so it certainly looks like it.

Oh wow, that’s a shame! That’s a great price! I’ve hardly put mine down. It’s got all of the P bass vibes, but mini!

As long as the basses are the same price as other retailers, what’s not to like 😂 I’ve spent significantly more than 1k on a bass and not even been able to get a spare set of strings out of some!

I’m eyeing up the green/red P5 for a new gig next year. They’ve got “dirty country grooves” written all over them!

It’s tricky! Make sure your picking is consistent, in that you alternate or rake across the strings the same way every time you play it. Pay attention to which finger your start picking with and stay with that. Also, maybe drop down a few bpm, to 70 or 72 or so and play at that speed for a while, double checking that your technique is consistent and then slowly crank it back up. You’ll get there!

It’d be a beautiful creation. Someone should tip Yamaha off! Give us some crazy colours. Or at least vintage white/creme with a matching headstock?! Hell, if they did that I’d just put up with it weighing 10.5lbs, just take a couple of ibuprofen and be happy 😂

Ah man, that’s the one isn’t it 🥰 good work!

Let me know how you find the Gator. I did write mine off too soon, I’m sure. But I was looking for max protection at the time. I’d sacrifice a touch of that now for a better interior - for which the Gator did beat the Hiscox.

It’s an ongoing headache for me. The Gator that you have on order, I sent mine straight back. Positives were: the lining was nice and fluffy, handles are great too, but it was quite flimsy. Not that it’s the litmus test, but there is NO WAY it would take being stood on, or a 4x12 falling on it in the van. That aside, for every day use it’s probably great. Just, a bit disconcerting that I could quite easily manipulate it by pressing down on the closed lid. I often wonder if I should have persevered and thought about getting one of the LED ones when they were on an introductory offer. The comparison and standard set here was Hiscox. I (briefly, again) owned one of their standard cases. This one was returned because it was about 2cm too short to house a 5 string jazz. Negatives were, that it just needed to be a tiny bit bigger and the internals were no where near as soft and cosy as the Gator. Also, the latches, whilst I’m sure are bomb proof, aren’t as nice as the Gator. Hiscox’s recommendation on the sizing was to crush the internals a touch with a ball hammer... but the padding isn’t exactly generous to begin with so I’d rather not. A combination of The two would be ideal! I like the SKB 44, the rectangular one. It’s big and bulky, but with all the Fenders I’ve had where it’s come supplied, I’ve never had an issue. Which bass is the case for? As ultimately, that seems to be a limiting factor. I’d still really like a good case for my Sandberg, but being made of a softer body wood (paulowina), I don’t want something it’ll rattle around in, or something that offers zero padding.

If we’re going LEDs I think I’ll take a blue sparkle one, with blue LEDs, please 😁 I’d go big for an 8.5lb one, sub 8 would be incredible, but I don’t want to seem greedy.

If Yamaha could make a shell pink BBP35, with matching headstock, that weighed under 9lbs, I’d find a good chunk of cash to hand over.

Really? For what sort of gig? I’ve used more Ampeg 8x10s than Barefaced, but I find that hard to believe. That wall of sound you get from an 8x10 surely can’t be replicated by a 2x12?

Yep, saw it on IG. It’s my 35th this year too... I’d love to mark the occasion with one of these! They look really good. Chambered bodies as well I think.

I’d highly recommend it! I didn’t really know what to expect, but it is certainly a proper bass! Plays great, sounds like a P and is an inspiring little thing to pick up. My 5 y/o is rather taken by it too!

Got my first less-than-34”-scale Bass last week. A Squier Mini Precision, it’s a 28.5” scale and is proving to be great fun. I’ve played Musicmasters and Mustangs, but never a bass less than 30”. I think it’s the cheapest bass I’ve bought new before too, but I have to say, I got a good one. It came well set up and ready to go. It sounds like a P bass, funnily enough. Roll the tone back and it grooves! I bought it to have about the house, something easy to grab and do something productive with, but it’ll definitely get gigged; when we’re allowed.

True, I guess what I really meant was, you’re far less likely to see a certain percentage return on the Ibanez than compared to other $6.5k basses, should the time come to shift it. Maybe not, but a Fodera of equal value new is surely easier to $5k back from.

It looks fantastic. I’m sure as a high end bass, it’s great. But, as an investment, not so much. Is that unfair to Ibanez?