mangotango

Bury is good - not too far from my bit of Essex. Depending on dates, I could be talked into this (probably quite easily in fact).

+1 for almost all of the above, including the IKEA bar stool.

When I started bass again after a couple of decades off, I clocked YouTube for a few freebie lessons and found most resonance with Scott Devine's videos (for bass guitar) and those of Geoff Chalmers (for DB). Clearly, the funk/jazz thing is where I belong, so this was the obvious site to hit. Anyway, I subscribed - lifetime - and I pick through the courses for what I want, rather than trying to do everything. However, sometimes I will find a course that I wasn't looking for but piques my interest anyway, so I will give it a go. Steve Lawson's Fretless course was essential viewing for me, and I watched Phil Mann's slap courses to get myself into that technique, because it was something I'd not done before. But...I also enjoyed courses by Jonathan Maron, Andrew Gouche and Bobby Vega without knowing too much about any of those guys before, so those were nice surprises. And that's why I like the Academy, I'm constantly finding stuff out that I didn't know before. I don't LIVE in the Academy site, but it's really helped me to get back into the swing of this. (Yes, literally.) And...at the first London Bass Guitar Show I attended, I went along to the SBL room and picked up a lot of stuff; though what I enjoyed the most was Scott playing live with Mike Outram and a BRILLIANT Brazilian drummer whose name escapes me (sorry @devinebass, you did tell us but I'm old and I forget.....sorry what was I saying?). I don't mind Scott's occasional "waffle" introduction to a vid - if I do get fed up at any time, hey I know how to use a fast forward. I just like to see the enthusiasm - better than some miserable person trying to lecture me on the intricacies of A Minor Demented Mode and making the whole thing seem too much like hard work. So no, I don't begrudge him anything - clearly he's worked damned hard on this and it's something that fills a need, my need in fact; so why not?

Just recently, Black Dyke Band (formerly, the Black Dyke Mills Brass Band). Absolutely wonderful, excellent musicianship throughout.

I saw Back Door supporting ELP on the Brain Salad Surgery tour - got talked into the gig by some mates. Probably not a good move, because it was the night before my French A level Aural exam, and by the next morning I could hear diddley squat and as a result struggled badly. Turned out ELP weren't for me, but I loved Back Door and spent time trying to work out, even from many rows back, what Mr. Hodgkinson was doing. Went out later on next day and bought both their available albums. Which were, and remain, really good listening.

Hayman 4040, I reckon.

If this had been available a month ago and I'd seen it, I would probably have gone for it as I have a SGC 5-string fretted and wanted a similar fretless to match up. Now I have two very nice Spectors - one fretted, one fretless - and so will now look to offload my own Bass Collection fretted 5'er instead. Funny old thing, life.......

Cheers feller, I can live without a stomping. 😉 And there was no butchery with the de-fret job on my bass; either; it was done by a fine luthier, Jerome Davies, who has a deservedly good reputation. 👍

That'll be me then; had a de-fret done on my Fernandes Gravity 5'er. Because, y'know, I'd played fretless before. But when I came back to playing bass, I decided I wanted to try 5 string. So I bought a cheapie off eBay rather than spend a lot on an experiment. It worked sooooo well that I went after a Bass Collection SB to go with the 4-string that I liked so much. Except now I was playing 5-strings all the time. I didn't sell the cheapie because, for the small amount of money I'd spent on it...why would you? And then I decided I wanted to try fretless again. So rather than spend a lot on another experiment, I had the cheapie 5'er de-fretted. It worked soooooo well that I currently use it with the jazz workshop band with which I play, because the sound is perfect for that. Obviously, that will probably change now that I've acquired my Spectors, but I won't sell it. Don't see that there's an issue.

Well, I ended up having a bit of a moment with these, specifically the Spectorcore. Because I have some noise-sensitive neighbours , I tend to practice at home with a little Ashdown After Eight Combo. It sounds fine with the Bass Collection basses, the Fernandes and even the EUB, after a little judicious knob-twiddling to sort out EQ. Which meant that I had no problems with the idea of using it for running through some tunes on the Spectors ahead of a gig. Except......they didn’t sound all that great, particularly the SpectorCore fretless, which was dull-sounding and lifeless. They barely sounded even “ordinary” on that. So......I waited until things were all quiet on the Neighbour Front, and then set up my “little rig” (GB Streamliner/BF One10). Within a few moments, I was able to obtain great sounds from each bass with a minimum of messing about with controls. The Legend sounded solid as you like, with plenty of Gank when slapped and Thump when plucked. The fretless....just sang. Finding the sweet spot with the Middle control brought it to life. How could I ever have doubted? It just threw me off my stride that there was such a difference with an amp on which I’d previously relied heavily. Quite surprising, really.

I tend to see it as an expression of Testicular Fortitude in a bass sound...failing that I am reduced to using strange noises like "oomph" as an equivalent

You won't be disappointed. My Little Rig is a Genz Streamliner 900 and BF One10 and it sounds phenomenal with 5-string basses and EUB. Most gigs require only one trip from car to venue. I never turn the amp up loud but the BF gets the sound across and can keep up easily with a big band of up to 20, mostly front-line horn players. And the whole lot sits easily on a small space in the back of the car.

Gonna Stomp all night?

Nico Moffa. https://thenorthamericanguitar.com/products/moffa-maryan-archtop-guitar-pre-owned

Taking time off bass? Yep, done that, though to be fair I was playing guitar instead, in a variety of bands & styles. Stopped bass and sold all the bass gear around the middle of 1983. Started again Feb. 2017, though to be fair, when my son started trying out bass in 2007, I had a noodle around with it then, especially when he stopped after just one gig. And then at one point between then and now, I bought a Dean Pace because I'd always wanted to play walking bass upright-style. (Actually it was October 2012 because I bought it from @davehux on here). Except I didn't really get around to it too quickly and it's only in the last 18 months or so that I've managed to get that working. Slow learner, me; mostly down to indolence. Oh, and lack of talent as well; mustn't forget that. And here I am back again. Can't stay away from it. Lots of people who hear me playing bass wonder why I'm still playing guitar - "you sound so much more natural on bass", they say. (Lots of people who hear me playing guitar also wonder why I'm still playing guitar, but anyway...) But, when I was in-between bands...I never stopped playing something. So if you're going to keep playing...then that's the answer, whatever the instrument. Don't lose touch with it. When you can feel your fingers start to twitch when you hear a killer bass riff...you'll know that it's time. You'll know.

I did a gig last Summer where as with the OP, an old TE combo was provided as the backline, . It made me sound like everyone else who played and everyone that I've ever heard playing through Trace, irrespective of the bass that they used. And no matter how much I messed with the EQ and gain, I still had this gritty, mids-heavy "crunch" sound. Maybe the speaker was past its best....but trust me, no clean sound was available that day. I do agree that bassists will usually sound pretty much like themselves, irrespective of the rig involved. For me, (having just spent a lot on two basses that will do what I want), it's about how good I feel about the sound I'm making, and that helps me to create music. I play better when I'm happy with what I'm doing, and being happy depends on how much I like playing the instrument and also the sound that I'm getting. Without any disrespect to an audience, I totally get that they will rarely appreciate any variation in the sound; but they might appreciate the improvement in my playing that comes directly from feeling good about my gear.

Thanks feller - Mr. @Stingray5 said you might be in touch........☺️

They really are, but they travel in pairs...

Need to say a big thankyou to @Dood for this video - it had a big influence on my decision to seek out and eventually to buy one of these basses.

There's a great and very thorough video review in this thread by @Dood which was very influential on my eventual purchase - haven't thanked him yet!!

I have exactly that rig for rehearsals and small gigs - Streamliner 900 and BF Compact 110. Never needed to take the master volume past 9 o'clock, and that includes work with a big band featuring at least a dozen horns. Haven't ever had any issues with volume; but then I don't play with rock guitarists.

Cheers feller. That's a shame about your Bass Direct experience - maybe I was just lucky. Or I had limited options. I didn't (couldn't!) go in there with a big budget and I was pretty specific about what I was looking for. It would have been a long journey for little result if these two hadn't been there. But...I rang Mark up beforehand to discuss what I wanted, and was not distracted by all the big-ticket items on the walls. Well.....only in passing. And not for all that long. Of course, having Mrs. Mango with me helped on that front

EMG, which pretty much matches up with the pups on the Legend, which in turn gets me closer to the "different basses but same feel & response/levels" concept. I think that what helped was being handed the Spectorcore to try first. Even before plugging it in, it felt resonant and responsive and had that singing fretless sound, and the neck is honestly the best of any 5'er that I've played. I guess that the chambered body helps - my guitars are semi-acoustic, so this suits me fine. Love that light, "airy" feeling to the sound.

Well, as forecast in the original "Two Bass Hit" thread it's a double-NBD thread. When I got to the point whereby I'd decided that a Radial 'Bone pedal of whatever variety wasn't going to solve the problem, as I tend to go wireless, so didn't have two inputs between which to select (and that still didn't solve the issue of two basses with entirely different feel), then it was time to consider my options. So as I said, Mrs. Mango and I went hunting for basses and ended up in Bass Direct...and after a brief consultation walked away with these beauties..... Spector Legend 5 Custom (Fretted) and Spectorcore Fretless 5. I spent a while swapping back and forth between these two to be sure that I was happy with the comparative volume levels and feel of the two basses. Mark ran me through a Genzler rig that was the closest thing possible to my Genz Benz Streamliner head. I then proceeded in my usual way to murder several once-recognisable jazz and fusion bass-lines, just trying to be sure that these basses would sound the way that I wanted....and they do. They feel marvellous - and they look great. As you may have guessed, I'm rather happy with the result of all that searching. Thanks to all who contributed to the original thread. And a huge shout out to Mark at Bass Direct - I was very impressed by the care and effort put into sorting me out.

Well, even though I'm in a jazz quartet, I'll warm up with I Want You Back or Sir Duke...but the one I love is On Green Dolphin Street.