mangotango

CAR. Cannot Abide Red. Not even in as part of a 3-tone sunburst. No pillar-box fire engine red for me on any bass, ever, ever, EVER!! Much too garish. Now deep wine red...different kettle of fish. Once had a Shergold Marathon Fretless in that colour; very fine bass. Shouldn't have traded my Jazz for it, but anyway.... Favourite colours? Surf Green. Daphne Blue. Orange is good, as is Aztec Gold. Y'know - them cool colours.

Well you can see in my thread what I have had done; all I can say is that it works brilliantly and has made the instrument properly playable for me. Previously, I was having to support the bass with my left hand whilst trying to play it as well and It really wasn't working, the neck was twisting in my hand all of the time and I couldn't get up any agility in my left hand playing. It was better if I sat down on a stool and was able to rest the bass on my left leg, but then I couldn't get that easily to the E string as my plucking hand would end up close to my body. Now....completely, instantly different and 100% better. Inevitably, I ended up just giving myself a hard time for not having had it done sooner - the only reason that I hadn't was that I didn't know of anyone that I'd trust to do it. And then I needed a repair done, and both my bass and music tutors recommended Jerome. I couldn't argue with a recommendation like that, and he was absolutely the right guy; as I say, I just wish that I'd got round to it sooner. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. It's not a direct replacement for the original, true...but it works very well for me and I think it looks great, the photos don't really do justice to the lovely woodwork that Jerome has crafted on this. I can only encourage you to have someone produce a frame that will work for you, and then...just play the heck out of it.

Exactly this. I'm very lucky to have found an EUB that I love - there's a thread on it here https://www.basschat.co.uk/topic/328425-new-ish-eub-day-and-aria-question/?tab=comments#comment-3634367 - and that makes such a difference. Gotta love a bit of Horace - Song For Me Dad was one of the tunes for the Xmas concert mentioned above, and if you can play the bass part without hearing "Ricky Don't Lose That Number" in your head, you're doing better than I did.....

Well, the weekend before I was sorted out, Mrs. Mango and I went over to Anderton's and tried out matching fretted/fretless Sire Gen 2 P7's. Liked them very much indeed, as it happens. Had the final £'s total up, and all was good until I tried a couple of tunes from the current repertoire and realised that I was running out of frets at the dusty end (current basses have 2-octave necks....). Accordingly, I held fire, despite having almost got to the point of pulling the trigger. So the weekend just gone, we went up to Bass DIrect and consulted with the estimable Mark. I knew that I couldn't manage the Sandbergs that I really wanted, so what was going to be the answer?He told me that within my budget, it was going to be almost impossible to solve the problem..... and then found exactly what I needed within a price that I was going to be able to afford!! Except that I was dithering a bit over the dosh; so when the very lovely Mrs. M said "Well, if you're going to take the step up, you might as well do it properly....", it was all over bar the PIN number and we were out of there in just over an hour. Check out the NBD thread that I will post later, when I can get round to photo's...

A little while back, in November, I was taking my Aria EUB to try out with the jazz quartet in an afternoon rehearsal/recording session. However, in the morning, I had a practice for the Xmas concert by the jazz workshop band with which I also play, and I was going straight from one session to the other. I wasn't going to leave the EUB in the car, and so I decided that just maybe I felt brave enough to give it a try-out on a tune or two. Just something slow, nothing too demanding, to dip my toe in the water. I set everything up, and got a few looks of interest from the many horn players in the band. First number up, Charles Mingus' tune "Boogie Stop Shuffle", an up-tempo Bb minor blues. Thought I'd give it a go - nothing too worrying there, right? Except the MD counted it off at a ferocious pace and it was way too late to jump back onto the bass guitar. But as they say - what doesn't kill us......doesn't kill us. And the reaction from the massed ranks of saxophonists, even mid-tune, was to turn around to me with a "Whoooooaaa!!! What is that?" expression on their faces, accompanied by many thumbs up. At the break, everyone was asking about it and saying that I should use it for the gig. Well........ So I survived that, though my left hand and arm were feeling the burn! I went on to do about 4 or 5 numbers on EUB in that rehearsal - mostly bluesy Hank Mobley tunes, or Latin pieces. "With a bit of work, maybe I might just take that to the gig", I thought. 3 weeks later and it's the Xmas gig. 18 tunes in all - well, one was done twice, second time as the encore at breakneck speed! - and I played 11 numbers on the upright. People loved it. I loved playing it. It's a real visceral feeling, a different connection to the instrument and the music. Much as I'd love a real DB (I have owned and played one before, and it was great), I have neither the money to spare for a decent one, nor the storage capacity for it. The EUB tucks away nicely in both car and house and it does a good job. And don't discount the "listening with their eyes" factor - so many punters see an instrument that's upright, rather than being worn like a guitar, and instantly for them it adds a touch of authenticity to your jazz/rockabilly/Americana or whatever. I used to play a duo jazz gig on guitar, with @Stingray5 playing a Dean Pace; and for the audience, it was totally credible despite the lack of "organic wooden box"... Of course, his top quality playing might have had something to do with it

Thanks, but for some reason I've never really got on well with Musicman basses. Just not my cuppa, nothing wrong with them at all; in the hands of others, notably me old mate @Stingray5, they clearly make very fine noises indeed.

Well, almost inevitably...and at the instigation of Mrs. Mango (yes I know, I couldn't believe it either!).... Posting to follow soon in NB(s)D format.....

I can see why you might so that! Remembering those with a shudder....

Except, as per my second post, it doesn't deal with with mid-song or mid-set adjustments (volume or tone) to one bass that then need to be reflected in the other...

...and that's exactly why I struggled with all of the Ibanez 5'er basses that I tried, even when they looked like a good bet, I just struggled to play them. Clearly my fault rather than that of the bass, but I guess their fine instruments are destined not to be a good match with my fat little sausage fingers

Ah, now that looks a bit more like it! Had seen other Radial products but for some reason didn't know this one, or if I did, (from the Bass/EUB thread), I didn't think of it. However, now that I see it, it may be exactly what I'm looking for, if I decide that I can live with the current fretless. Thanks, will investigate further!!

Truthfully......probably a bit of both. If I find that I just need, say, to turn down the fretted bass mid-gig, then because it's active and thus a lot louder than the passive, by the time I get to the next tune where I use the fretless, it's a really tricky job to match up the levels; and of course fiddling with the relative levels on a Jazz Bass-style two volume control system can be a little trickier than I would like to have to deal with in a gig situation. And if I'm honest...the Fernandes doesn't have the range or dynamic response of the active SGC Nanyo - I can't get the same upper range without then having to go back to my amp. Which means that the fretted bass sound is then wrong two songs later, the next time I change back. Pre-amps - I thought about a Radial Bassbone (or whichever model it is) to be able to preset the volume lift, but if the bass needs changing.....I'd still rather have the control at my fingertips, so to speak. A Carl Martin Hydra clean boost is exactly what I tried, but even with the gain rolled right back, the bass tone still sounded a bit harsh to me when boosted enough to get a similar level to that of the active bass.

Thanks for making the effort to contact this forum - much appreciated. What will the situation be as regards rooms for performances by name artists, the SBL Academy, etc.? Also, would you be able to dedicate a room/an area for lower-level/acoustic instrument manufacturers?

I'm in a situation whereby in my main band, I use fretted and fretless 5-string basses, about a fifty-fifty split of tunes on the current set list. In the Workshop Jazz band with which I also play, it's fretless or EUB. So I do need both types of bass guitar. Problem is that I have a real disparity between my fretted and fretless basses. The fretted is a Bass Collection SB-315 (I think that's the model number?) - Active electronics; 2-octave neck; 2 jazz-style p/ups; vol/pan/treb/bass controls The fretless is a Fernandes Gravity that I had de-fretted - Passive; 2-octave lined neck; 2 jazz-style p/ups; vol/vol/tone controls So obviously they're completely different. Certainly enough to cause a bit of a headache at gigs - I'm constantly fiddling with controls to try to moderate levels for the sake of some kind of consistency, which takes away my focus from playing. The best thing, as Steve Lawson said in a recent SBL Academy course, would be if I could match up my fretted and fretless basses. The Fernandes was my "test-bed" bass - first of all to see if I could play 5 string, then to see if I could play fretless again after 35 years off. Both worked well, in the end, but now I'm in a situation where I need to pick one set of specs that would work better for me, and it really doesn't cut the mustard by comparison. I prefer the sound and range of the active bass, so at once that leads me in that direction. I'm lucky enough to be in a position where I can upgrade either, or possibly both, but if the latter, then I don't have a massive budget for two mid-priced basses that are similar. The obvious answer would be to find another Bass Collection 5'er and have it de-fretted. Which is a good solution in itself, but if I could find two versions of the same bass that I really like even more than the BC, except that one of them would be fretless, then that would be perfect. However, it turns out that 5-string fretless is a bit of a rarer breed than you might think - so it's been a bit of a search thus far. I'm hoping for some sensible suggestions. A friend thought I should add a pre-amp on my board and just use that to ramp up the levels for the Passive Fretless to match the active Fretted. Tried it, really not very happy with the result. Would love to go the route of 2 Sandbergs, but THAT's not going to happen any time soon. Or, absent a lottery win.....Ever. Have considered Ibanez (hmmmm....), Sire (better), Yamaha, but open to Cort, maybe ESP, Schechter, Spector....but mostly I'm open to suggestions and would appreciate people's thoughts? Aaaannnd......GO!!

£4k? Which means that most of us don't have to play it either.

Shez Raja, Pizza Express Soho in November. The debut of his new Fodera/Aguilar set-up - bloomin' good it sounded too! New tunes from a forthcoming album. Fantastic stuff all round.

Except it's not an "Ohm" sign. It is the sign for "Om" (or "Aum"), which as you say is a sacred syllable in Hinduism and Buddhism. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Om The symbol for "Ohm", however, is Ω - which is the Greek letter Omega. "Ohm" is the SI-derived unit of electrical resistance. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohm Sorry to appear a fussy git.

Each to their own. I'm very happy using my Compact 1 x 10 with my EUB.

Or Dragonglass.

Ah, I saw that on the website and thought "nice bass, not sure about that colour...." However, in your piccie, it looks a whole lot nicer than on the website. Wish you well to play it.

I can't bear people talking on the radio, it drives me mad. The best radio service I ever heard was the Test Transmissions for the original Jazz FM; jazz, soul, blues, African, jazz-influenced pop (Sting, Van Morrison, Steely Dan & the like), roots and Americana.....and no introductions or irrelevant waffling on of any kind. True, I could have done with knowing what the tracks were (and in many cases, who played on them), but that was close to perfect for me. The worst thing for me is phone-ins. I could not care less what Tina in Peterborough thinks about the latest Governmental crisis......

I agree, watching that would put me off. Take yourselves seriously, Ibanez, and your products too. Anyway, I already have a passive P/J which is perfectly good. I just originally liked the look of this...

Those are great amps - I use mine with my Big Gig Rig (with a GenzBenz 2x12) and my Little Jazz Rig (with a Barefaced Compact 1x10). It effortlessly gives great sounds with my fretted and fretless 5-string basses, fretted 4-string and EUB. Best bass sound I've ever had. Another great recommendation by Scoop....

I think we should all give your wife the phone numbers for our own wives, so that Mrs. Deanol can tell them how it's done.....

How do you play it? Loud and Proud. Only way to go.