Sean

Yes, you can pretty much achieve those sounds with the right pickups, placements and pre-amps. You'd need some routing work done for the pickup and also possibly the battery for the pre-amp. It would require a new pickguard too I imagine. 

To do the job well and professionally would cost in my estimation:

£50-100 - pickup

£50-100 - routing

£50-200 - pre-amp 

£50-100 - labour

and then you'd have a Fender P that was no longer a Fender P and its market value and resellability would plummet. 

A used G&L Tribute L2000 at £350-ish would be cheaper, easier and more sellable if things didn't work out. There are low-cost Stingray alternatives out there but I don't know much about that particular style of bass. 

14 hours ago, Pirellithecat said:

Interesting.   What would you say is the main difference between the BF and the LfSys other than volume??

Clarity and the ability to hear yourself when you're close to it in a full band situation. This text from the website sums it up...

"engineered to operate at a low enough frequency to avoid the off-axis midrange suckout found in almost all commercial bass cabs. This midrange "dip" is why  it is often difficult to hear your bass clearly when you're standing above or to the side of your rig. With LFSys, you experience exactly what you're playing, even when standing right beside your cabinet. No need for stands, tilting or boosting the mids – your sound remains consistent wherever you are. Your band members will hear you effortlessly and your audience will hear every nuance of your bass sound."

That is what made the difference for me. It's like a secret weapon. 

I'm committed to Monaco cabs now. 

One is plenty, the second one is for when I'm running the big boxes of bottles without PA support. Rarely. 

Having run a Big Twin 2 for years, there's a big difference between BF and LFSys.  

It's finally gone. @£275. 

11 hours ago, Mrbigstuff said:

Yet sadly I’ve read anecdotes indicating for many years, across many industries, people did. 

Yes, I have loads of experiences in the workplace from the corporate centre of a FTSE100. I spent a lot of time with HR supporting reports and team members on incidents of racism, transphobia, homophobia, sexism, anti-tattoo views, general bullying.  I call it out and fight all the way. One particular director managed to tick all the boxes but was defended because he was Chinese and "it's part of their culture" even though the company policy was that anyone's culture didn't override policy. 

I acknowledge that when you're doing anything for a living, have limited choices and need the remuneration, it influences decisions. Although prolonged exposure to those sort of environments takes an emotional toll.

On 31/08/2025 at 20:31, HeadlessBassist said:

If you're feeling nervous, block the audience out of your mind. Play for you, and play for Nick.

 

I'd like to give Richard a 5* TripAdvisor review here.  He gave me very similar advice, and it worked. I went into a new band earlier this year and got the jitters for the first time in years. I was overly self-conscious, scared of making mistakes, all that stuff.  Following this very simple advice I managed to get into a mindset where it was just me playing along with the songs in the same way I do when practising.

Good luck, cherish the experience and remember that there's so many people channeling good energy your way. 

I wonder how many of the people here who have said that they'd just get on with it and play in the band, letting the other "-ist/-phobic" people have their opinions, tick any of the targets of "-ism/-phobia" boxes themselves?

I cannot imagine that if they were gay, black, trans, or whatever that they would tolerate those bigoted people. For example, if you were gay, there's absolutely no way you're going to tolerate being in a band with a couple of openly homophobic musicians. 

I've been really lucky through the years generally and in my current main band you know you're in safe hands with zero tolerance for any of the -ist nonsense. 

My Aguilar Chorusaurus is used on at least half the songs in the rock covers band I play in. It's set up with quite subtle settings. 

Examples are:

Don't Stop Believing (obviously).

Boys of Summer

Crazy Train

The Power of Love (Huey)

Message in a Bottle (the guitarist doesn't use chorus).

Pour Some Sugar

99 Red Balloons

Dude Looks Like a Lady

Hold the Line

Sometimes I forget to switch it off and no one has complained...

16 hours ago, Beedster said:

There’s a 4024 at Bass Bros, not my ideal finish but you’d be hard pressed to find a better bass at £1500

 

https://bassbros.co.uk/product/yamaha-bb2024/

What happened to that BB2024MX you had? 

On 23/08/2025 at 16:11, Rayman said:

Another crack converters purchase, this thing was in a sorry state, the electrics were goosed, and it was absolutely filthy. The LEDs still worked on the front, but that’s all gone now….

 

 

It’s passive, and I’m not arsed about pretty lights on the dials, so out it all came, and in went new CTS pots, oil filled cap and a new barrel jack….

 

 

It’s covered in a rash of scratches, but I can live with that. This thing’s had a life.

 

 Had to use 3 black telecast jack cups in the empty control holes where the LEDs were, so that I could mount the pots. Pretty ingenious if I say so myself, they fit perfectly. 3 Ashdown control knobs from an old ABM500 provide the finishing touch.

 

 

It plays fab, with a freshly oiled fretboard and a new set of Hi Beams. Sounds fantastic too, very pleased with the result, it’ll be gigged asap.

 

 

Brilliant! Nice job. Well done. 

That pink one is lovely. I'd love a 4 with non-X JJ pickups. You know, just to have something different 😉

The next evolution of my Nano Rock Covers pedalboard:

R-L

1. Korg PitchBlack XS Bass Tuner.

2. Microthumpinator v2 (underneath).

3. Grimalkin. It's like a posh fuzz that does so much more. It's very cool. 

4. Origin Effects DCX Bass sparkle box. Makes Spector basses more Spector than is appropriate in most circumstances. 

5. Origin Effects Cali76. A compressor that I actually understand and get to work for me easily. 

6. Aguilar Chorusaurus v2 analogue Bass chorus. It's lovely, so much so it's turned me into a Chorus-whore-us. I can't turn it off. 

Edit to explain signal path: 

• It all runs through a PedalSnake, which keeps it really neat on stage. What you can see in the photo is RHS=guitar cable, Middle = 9v supply to board when not using the PedalSnake (at home), LHS = the PedalSnake tails.
• The power comes down the power connector of the Pedalsnake. It’s a TrueTone OneSpot 1700mA.
• The Chorusaurus goes through the send/return loop connection of the PedalSnake. You can see the red/white connectors on the top.
• The others go straight in the front of the amp via the black PedalSnake connection. 
• Sometimes I go cable straight in to the tuner from the bass and sometimes I use wireless bugs.

1 hour ago, Amando said:

Yeah I’m a bit put off Spector I just tried a used euro bolt 5 but it felt very cheaply made for a 2grand bass, very light wood and cheap black plastic controls for volume etc, it had Aguilar pups which didn’t sound that great although I must admit the low b was pretty good 

This deviates from the Spector recipe a lot IMO. The Bolt with the Aguilar pups is Spector trying to appeal to a wider market. Not my thing. 

It's all about thru-neck and EMGs. 

6 minutes ago, Rayman said:

 but if I was looking now, I’d be after another Spector Euro 5. Absolutely outstanding low B, EMGs, totally fabulous. I personally would start there.

As a Spector fan and Euro LX 5 player, always play one standing up with it on a strap before committing to buy. 

🍿

Fab. I love these sort of threads. It's like asking, "What delicious cake should I buy?".

There'll be those that swoop in with their definitive answer, those that swear scale length is everything, then there's the String Gauge Brigade (I'm an honorary member) who say to use a 145. Roger from New York will be mentioned. I'll be playing my own game of BassChat Bingo. 

Good luck. 

I've got 2 5s. Both fab. Both very very different in construction, electronics, scale, sound. I got there by years of trail and error...

We're going to be doing some J pickup A/B testing at the SE Bash. If anyone wants to bring their Toneriders along that would be fab. Obviously, loaded in a bass 😄

Just now, Phil Starr said:

It's a thought but what we've always tried to do are demos rather than talks. You'd need the right room to do that in and it would be difficult in practice. I'll give it some thought.

 

This year I'm wondering about a proper blind test of something but I'll give it a little thought. I know I wandered into PA last year so I'd like to go back to something more bass related this year

Class D versus big iron?

Valve amps versus not valve amps. 

I've got a GK Fusion 550 and a GK MB Fusion 500, same preamps, different power sections. 

I've got some big boxes of bottles too.

On 18/08/2025 at 18:05, Phil Starr said:

Hi Sean, you'd have had a problem with any speaker in that position. Each surface the speaker is placed against boosts the bass in particular and you had all three surfaces to contend with. Effectively you had placed your speaker at the end of a huge conical horn. That's no criticism of you, I've been stuck many a time in the corner of a tiny performance space like that you really don't have a choice. Using the Monaco may have helped quite a lot but it's a horrible position to be in, literally

 

The only thing you can do in that situation is to wind the  bass right back. I'd use agressive HPF and be prepared to roll the bass eq pretty much right down if I needed too, I'd also be looking to boost the mids. Years ago I posted up the eq I'd ended up with in a particularly difficult hall. I had a Hartke with a graphic and I was stunned how much bass I had to roll off. It might have been better to swap places with the guitarist in this venue as it would be less affected by the corner position.

Is this plus Stevie's post, the seed of a Bass Bash talk? There's a lot of quick win handy hints for the gigging bassist. 

Bang for buck, I highly recommend Toltec pickups https://www.laverackguitars.com/toltec-pickups You can phone up and have a proper conversation with Lee Laverack about pickups and all things techy. He handwinds pretty much whatever you want. He's done a few for me. He's very reasonaly priced too considering the quality of the parts and workmanship. He also covers the pickups for life. He's based near Leeds and is a gem. I reckon £110 for a pair of J pups done to your exact spec/liking. 

I've got a set knocking about here if you'd like to try them out. Not for sale but happy to let you borrow to try.

5 minutes ago, Paulhauser said:

Thanks Gary! 🙂

I have to say that though a great looking Spector it is, yours (and the 5er) wins with the paintjob / color selection, the maple board and the matching inlays.  If I were to have an ebony boarded CST (which I'm seriously contemplating) it would be a red one. 

I'm bringing my ebony board 4 to the SE Bash if you want try it. The ebony makes it even more gritty and zingy. 

21 minutes ago, cetera said:

Spector EURO 5 CST LIMITED - BLUE BURST GLOSS https://reverb.com/item/91685498?utm_source=android-app&utm_medium=android-share&utm_campaign=listing&utm_content=91685498

Gorgeous. I've dropped similar wedge on something else with EMGs, otherwise I'd be booking a ferry ticket! 😀

3 hours ago, stevie said:

I agree with Phil on this. I'd never recommend having a bass cab in a corner. In this scenario, assuming the cab's 30cm from both the back and side wall, you'll get something like a 15dB boost between 40 and 100Hz, which is too much boom. I usually recommend positioning the Monaco between 15 to 30cm from the back wall to reinforce the very low frequencies (depending on taste). Lifting the cab isn't going to deal with this, as you will get cancellation, but at a higher frequency than you need. If you lift the cab 30cm, for example, and it's positioned 30cm from the back and side walls, you'll get boom plus a nasty suckout at 300Hz, which will be audible. So, you have to be careful (although the low ceiling won't have much effect on the frequency response).

 

My advice would be to keep the cab on the floor, position it 12" from the back wall and well away from the side wall. As @Phil Starr says, put it where the guitar amp is. Then, if necessary, cut between 40 and 100Hz on your amp. Also, try not to have the cab directly behind any object that blocks the sound because that can reduce the level of higher frequencies reaching the audience. Good luck!

It was behind the PA tower, band members, monitors and had a wall 12ft in front. 

This is all really useful. I'm making notes and putting them in my gig notebook. 

Thanks chaps. 

3 hours ago, Phil Starr said:

It might have been better to swap places with the guitarist in this venue as it would be less affected by the corner position.

Great insight. Thank you,  Phil. I was asked to swap sides with guitarist on the night. I'm always stage left, high-hat side but was swapped on the night. My cab was placed for me, although saying that, there wasn't much choice with position. 

First Gig Report

We knew it would be challenging. It was a pub gig at The Monument in Newbury just in case any of you know it. A really tight space, even for a 4-piece. Full PA (tops, bass bins, monitors) plus backline. Ceilings between 6'4" to 6'6". Heavily damped pub, curtains, carpets, packed full of raceday punters enjoying the "refreshments".

The Monaco was placed in a corner against two walls. I've tried to represent it with the sketch and photo below. 

The sound was much better than I expected but I'd like to understand more about how this placement against the walls and the low ceiling affects it. I could hear myself well and never once felt like I was "driving blind", like I have in the past but it wasn't like Monday's rehearsal. Obviously environment and placement play a part. 

The sound was exacerbated by the "dancers" knocking the cables out of the front monitors and us losing those a few times during the set. 

Would raising the cab have helped? I didn't take my platform as I had such a good experience on a Monday, I didn't think I'd need it. 

What insights have we got? Any advice, folks? 

Maiden voyage for this setup tonight. It's a tight space with low ceilings.