thisnameistaken

Personally I wouldn't declare it. But if they do decide to tax you then I suppose you'll just have to tell them the price you paid, and if they dispute the value then... well, they've got guns and you presumably haven't.

Hartke LH500. 500W into 4 ohms, very simple EQ (but decent), mine has been reliable - not a single hiccup in 18 months of gigs and rehearsals, they are £300 new.

[quote name='Matty' post='954239' date='Sep 12 2010, 11:57 PM']how about a boss LS-2. volume control over both basses, simple stompbox format, dead cheap.[/quote] I'm surprised it took this long for anyone to mention the swiss army LS-2. You can pick them up used for about £40 usually, they are useful for tonnes of stuff, anywhere you can imagine needing an A/B loop/switch or a simple 2-channel mixer.

[quote name='Lfalex v1.1' post='954206' date='Sep 12 2010, 11:21 PM']Gold hardware is no good for me- Sweat will turn it green in a month's worth of gigging. And it's too [b]bling[/b] for my taste.[/quote] Yeah it's stuff like gold hardware and figured tops and especially - my pet hate - translucent teal finishes over figured maple with gold hardware, they are all a bit "new money".

What happened to your Blowtorch?

Tight, really? I thought they were supple, you should come and play the Evahs on my bass! My strings are quite low (G is about 4mm at the end of the board) but they need to be, they are so stiff. If it's too loud to practice at home maybe look at getting a rubber practice mute, the internets do them for under a tenner. I haven't tried them myself but apparently they make a big difference. Glad to hear your bass is shaping up well, it was obvious it would improve 1000x with just a little work and with all the bits Jonah bundled in it was a bargain IMO. The buzzy A string sounds like you might have a little unwanted blip somewhere along your fingerboard. The sort of thing a professional could sort out if it's problematic.

[quote name='BigRedX' post='953192' date='Sep 11 2010, 09:51 PM']I don't expect everyone to suddenly go out and buy a Gus. What I would like to see is an awareness of basses that haven't been designed by Leo Fender. One of the reasons why I got into music in the first place was as a way of expressing my individuality. Being a musician in the 70s meant that you weren't like everybody else.[/quote] So if everybody did suddenly go out and buy a Gus, what basses would you have to start playing?

£35,000? For that money I'd want a nut that had been fitted by Fodera.

[quote name='BurritoBass' post='953213' date='Sep 11 2010, 10:20 PM']I'm probably not the best with words but when I think of the pickups I like they have names like "trad" or "reissue" in the title. I've found that coupled with flatwound strings gets a tone similar to the music I like on the records I play. Sometimes it's an almost double bass like sound. Think Motown, think rockabilly, a lot of old country music.[/quote] That makes sense, but I would imagine the major contributor to that sound is the strings and maybe amp rather than the pickups? Although I'm sure if you had active pups it might sound too modern and compressed, but I expect any old crappy passive pickups would do. Indeed I am currently gigging a Squier with La Bella flats on it, stock pickups which I would've replaced if I wasn't so skint/lazy because they sound pretty bad, but in context they actually sound great. Wedge some foam under the bridge and it sounds like a '60s soul or reggae record.

[quote name='Mikeg' post='953180' date='Sep 11 2010, 09:35 PM']Well i want a strong punchy tone.[/quote] Get a compressor?

[quote name='BurritoBass' post='953162' date='Sep 11 2010, 09:19 PM']Personally I like vintage / classic tones[/quote] What does that mean? I'm not even being facetious, I never know what people mean when they say that. Do you mean a sound like a particular record or year or genre or what? What are the sonic characteristics of "vintageness"? Now I am going to be a bit glib because I can't resist: Is it warmth or growl or something? If so, return to my first question and substitute vintage for warmth/growl and answer the question again please.

Squier CV? Squier CV and use the spare £700 on custom pickups?

If anyone's interested he did buy the gumtree bass, I gave him a ride over to look at it and it does need a bit of setup work (strings way too high, bridge on wrong way round! endpin is garbage) but other than that I thought it was a decent student bass with what felt like a decent set of strings on it although I don't know what they were (pale blue windings on the ball ends). I think he paid £300 for it in the end, so with his budget being around £500 he should be able to get it set up nice. Turned out I knew the seller too from gigging around York, so it was nice to catch up with him.

1) Study really hard. 2) Be nice to everyone you meet. 3) Have some good fortune. 4) Be willing to play absolutely anything and smile while doing it. I failed on all four counts.

[quote name='Stu-khag' post='951363' date='Sep 10 2010, 12:51 AM']'And you will know us by the trail of dead' were notorious for trashing their kit. I asked the drummer from mogwai if he'd ever leant them stuff on tour- he did but it didnt stop them from trying to trash it! one of their album dvd extras shows their tour manager pleading with them to not do any more damage as they couldn't afford to go on, alas they carried on the same. saw them at reading a few times, the last time was in the radio 1 tent, they trashed a load of the kit and threw all the drums and hardware and pedals into the crowd. cue the security rushing in to get it all back as it was all hired![/quote] Hahaha. I like the idea that nothing can stop them from destroying their gear, that's commitment. It sounds less like a tired attempt at spectacle and more like sheer bloody-mindedness. Good stuff.

[quote name='Chris2112' post='951971' date='Sep 10 2010, 04:23 PM']I'll add to the list anything which has been sloppily modded or made to look "punk". This includes stickers, garish paint jobs, dodgy scratch plates along with the woeful playing associated with these types of instrument. And hollowbodies, yuck.[/quote] That'll teach Wayne to pick on Kubickis? I would like to see your Sabre though (SABRE BASS! YOU ARE ALL FILTHY!), sounds interesting.

[quote name='Bassassin' post='951954' date='Sep 10 2010, 04:07 PM']There's no great technical virtuosity to what Hooky does, but stylistically he's an innovator. I think that makes him good. Jon.[/quote] He's also pretty unique-sounding, which can't be said for most virtuoso bass players.

Hooky would still be able to play.

[quote name='bassix' post='951574' date='Sep 10 2010, 10:15 AM']I've heard good things about the Bass Terror, it certainly fits the size category I just wonder if it'd do the punk job well?[/quote] A guy in a local band uses one, it very much sounds the part with his picked Musicman SUB through it. Not cheap though.

Mine's not hissy at all, never heard a peep out of it. I suppose the obvious gripe is that it doesn't have many tone shaping options, but that's potentially a plus - it's easier to get a good sound out of it than an amp with a graphic and parametric mids and bright/deep switches/levers/etc..

It's just like buying a Bentley or a Rolex though isn't it really? Although in some ways less ostentatious because most people won't know how expensive it was, and you're unlikely to ever take it out of the house. So maybe the furniture analogy fits better.

[quote name='bassix' post='951379' date='Sep 10 2010, 01:45 AM']I was considering the Tech 21 Bass Character pedal which emulates the svt. Any suggestions?[/quote] The Catalinbread SFT currently in the for sale section for £100. If you want good grit that would be hard to beat. TBH I would suggest you just do that and keep your current Hartke 2500 into a 4x10 cab rig. Any particular reason (other than dirt) why that rig isn't working out for you?

[quote name='dood' post='951320' date='Sep 10 2010, 12:04 AM']Headless Basses, Singlecuts, Silly multicolour paint jobs, aircraft landing strip sized fretboards and ones with too many strings [/quote] You forgot fingerboard LEDs.

[quote name='gjones' post='951251' date='Sep 9 2010, 11:04 PM']Guess which one of these basses I dislike the most [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1g9LcZTTJk&feature=related"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1g9LcZTTJk...feature=related[/url][/quote] It's funny that he's got more strings and frets than all the other bassists put together and yet he sounds like complete arse.

[quote name='hoiho' post='951218' date='Sep 9 2010, 10:32 PM']Single-cuts.[/quote] Look like dugongs.