Sean

Me too.

They're punchy and cut through a mix. A pair of Js is scooped by nature but these are bright and sparkly. I was so happy with them that I got Lee to make me a pair of splittable J humbuckers for another bass so that I could effectively have the same j pair available on a push-pull pot. He also did me P+J set that is brighter and less nasal than typical. They have longer bobbins. I've had three sets of pickupsfrom him and he's nailed what I wanted each time. He changes the recipe to capture what you need.

I've only had excellent experiences with Lee Laverack, he's magic at understanding pickup requirements. I have a set of bright overwound J pickups here that are fantastic.

You can also muck about with weighing and taping coins to the headstock to get an idea of balance of lighter tuners. On such a long neck (distance from the strap hanger to the end of the headstock) small weights can make a big difference.

Some years back Spector introduced bridges that weigh around 180g compared to the older bridges that weighed 500-600g. It was a quick way to drop almost a pound from the overall weight of the instruments and I've seen no discernible change to tone. I posted about this a couple of times in the big Spector Fans thread. The consequences of this on a light bass is that it's going to make it neck/headstock heavy. I have an early Euro 5LX that is /was quite a heavy beast and when I replaced the bridge with a new light one, it did change the balance but it's a heavy enough pair of wings that it doesn't dive. Newer instruments tend to be lighter and some are "weight relieved". If neck-dive is the problem, we either need to lighten the headstock or get some ballast loaded on to the body. There are other options like moving strap-locks or adding extensions but that tends to be anathema to the Spectorati and it affects resale. Solutions to either cure or reduce neck-dive: Using a wide strap that has a suede/raw leather inside surface so it increases the friction Lightweight tuners - make sure you compare the weights of what you're proposing to change out with what you're going to put in. If the new ones weigh 50% of what's coming out, see how the bass balances with two of the old ones removed so you get an understanding of how it'll balance before you commit to buying the new light ones. Get an old bridge. This is obviously going to add at least 400g to the overall weight of the bass.

I bought a Vintage guitar from GAK about 6 years ago, it was absolutely shocking, the routing, the neck joints, fretwork etc. Everything that could have been wrong was wrong. It went back to GAK and Dennis Drumm from JHS (the brand boss) was in touch to apologise and they put it right within days, sending out a replacement that had been set up with my choice of strings and some extra goodies thrown in. The replacement guitar was really outstanding, and JHS stands by its products 100%. I've also dealt with JHS and Dennis over one of the Vintage ProShop guitars. Now, they are very good indeed, that one is a keeper.

That's quite the endorsement. Do you use the floating trem? From what I've seen/heard this is one of the features of the instrument that makes it what it is and something that's completely lacking in some of the quality competitors' instruments like the Schecter Hellcat VI.

I just voted Vintera. I love it when there's a loophole and you can vote for the outcome that's already been decided. Makes me feel like a winner. Enjoy the Vintera. I've always fancied a Bass VI but have no idea what I'd use it for other than noodling at home.

Question: What about joint purchases for bands made out of band funds? Upgrading lights, new monitors, a new backdrop. My contribution is 20% and it's deducted from the band slush fund.

@Mike Brooks was joined by Matt Gleason of Monty's at the South East Bass Bash last month and we had a demo of Monty's bass pickups. The P Retrowind was a stand out and one of the nicest P pickups many of us have heard. They are just gorgeous, UK made and although they're not cheap, as soon as we heard it you knew it was special. https://www.montysguitars.com/collections/bass-pickups/products/retro-wind-p-bass-pickup I know @cetera @NancyJohnson and too many others to mention were there but I came away decided that the next P pickup I was going to buy would be one of those. And that is coming from someone who is a dyed-in-the-wool Toltec pickups fanboy. Toltec would be an excellent alternative. Either ay you're getting a UK handcrafted product with excellent support from a small friendly business run and owned by their GenX founders.

Hypothetically, where would I place this Synth pedal in my signal chain?

Going back a while, over a year ago, I was looking to do some work on mine and googled the price of valves etc. While searching, 3 NoS ones came up being sold by Laney through eBay for £599 collected only. They sold all on the same day, I was stunned. All 3 then resurfaced on eBay from a seller in W-s-M at £749. This was 50% of what the last retail price was IIRC. Now, this was when sellers paid a fee on that listing, (nothing has changed in reality, it's just easier to remember prices from before the change) so if we do the maths, someone was prepared to "invest" £1797 up front, drive the 200 mile round trip from W-s-M to a Halesowen, put them into storage while waiting for them to sell for £2247 minus eBay fees, collection cost, etc. Really!? It's a lot of outlay, effort and messing about to pocket £200-300 if you're lucky. But it shows that there are people out there...