FinnDave

This is so blatantly anti five & six string bass that I have reported it to the irrelevant authorities, from whom you can expect a summons at any time where you will be expected to list every possible combination of tuning or 4, 5, 6 & 7 string basses.

If futile discussions were banned on this forum, it would have very few posts!

More choice means more sales - there are people out there who will cheerfully buy one of each, as they cannot stay the thought of their 'collection' being incomplete. I have met a few such people. They are inevitably very poor players. But Fender (and all other guitar makers) don't care how often or how well you play, so long as you keep chucking money at them!

I start with the E string then A, then B, then D, G & C. And I always tune it in the position I am intending to play it - so tune sitting down if playing seated, on a strap and standing if I am going to play that way.

Happy to take the blame for that!

I think the same experience had the opposite effect on me - I discovered all sorts of music I never knew I disliked!

I like to think of it not as recreating the past but rather being a continuation of that which we knew and loved.

It shouldn't be sad, it is only natural. Each generation finds its own style and heroes.

Too true, we're the last of the old guard, when our generation passes, the music will pass with us. Everything changes, that's the nature of life.

Well, Blue, if it helps, I agree with your agreeing with me - for some of us, the music that was around at a certain stage of our lives continues to resonate with us - maybe we just haven't done any of that 'growing up' stuff. I'm neither proud nor apologetic about that fact that I like what I like. My musical tastes have never been 'mainstream' - I listen to stuff I enjoy listening to, and I am stuck in the past. It's not a crime. I play in a band which recreates the music and atmosphere of the past, and so know many people who suffer from the same illness as I do. Its not really nostalgia, for some if us, the music and ideals of the 60s and 70s has never gone away, it's just that the focus of the mainstream has moved on, as it has, driven as it is by commercial interests which demand there is always something 'new' and 'improved' to spend our money on. I'm afraid that I I simply don't subscribe to that view.

I can't remember the last time I listened to anything by anyone except the Grateful Dead. All my non-Dead CDs are boxed away in the loft, I have a few of their studio albums, which I listened to once and never played again. The gold is in the live work, and there is a vast number of CDs of their shows over the 30 years they played together.

You're missing out, though, I just put down my SR 506 (£540 brand new a few months ago) to use the computer, and it is one of the most comfortable and versatile basses I have played - quite honestly, makes my Fenders, Gibsons look bit sad, to be honest, so I have sold a few and bought more Ibanezes. I even sold my Alembic recently to fund this madness!

I wouldn't completely dismiss Ibanez, my last three purchases have all been Ibby six string basses and I've never slapped a note in my life - always played fingerstyle and recently diversified into plectrums because some of the stuff I play needs that extra attack.

I was about to say that Vintage and Modern sometimes have some interesting basses in stock, but best to phone and see what they have before driving over. Oxford PMT is usually well stocked with basses, including Sandbergs. Personally, I've never found the drive to Bass Direct to be wasted, even if I am half an hour closer to it than the OP. Unrivalled selection of basses.

Not quite - my dad was into Glenn Miller and Sibelius. I do enjoy a bit of Sibelius, but am never in the mood for Glenn Miller.

I see no reason why I should, I am perfectly happy with the music I play and listen to, I don't feel the need to 'keep up'.

I'm so far out of touch that I've given up asking who people are on threads like the ones referenced above. I reckon I've never heard of at least 90% of the performers discussed on this forum.

I only recognise Richard Thompson from the first post, but then I don't think I have ever been 'in touch'. Even as a teenager, I thought NME wasn't even worth being used in the smallest room.

Good bass, the 1206. I have three Ibby sixers, and the 1206 is my favourite. PM'd you about Sunday.

I have bought absolutely nothing bass related this year at all! Is it too soon to celebrate?

I thought they'd gone years ago!