Painy

A '73 P-Bass you say? Send it to live at my house. You won't be able to smell it from there .

Had to sell my Warwick SS1 5er for financial reasons a few years ago. When I bought it new though, it cost about 1/3 of what what it would cost to buy now so not much chance of ever replacing it sadly. Fortunately it allowed we to try a few other (less expensive) things and I'm now actually really loving my budget P, J and Ray basses. It's never nice to have your hands forced but sometimes these things give us the opportunity to broaden our horizons and try new things we'd otherwise never have tried.

+1 for the Hercules stands. Because the bass hangs rather than sits the offset body makes no difference. They're the only stands I'll use and have been for about 8 years now. In fact, I Just got a new triple one for my birthday and my Jazz is sitting on it very happily right now along with my Precision and my Ray.

[quote name='Damonjames' timestamp='1483346277' post='3206300'] An amp head is one thing, but the aggy cabs are heavy!!! Check out something with a neo driver!! [/quote] How about the neo loaded Aguilar SL410x (22.23kg)?

Again good to see you back. Another M80 user here that uses the distortion channel in the same kind of way - gain right down and blend at about 10 o'clock works for me. When I got it I was torn between these two pedals but went with the M80 as I thought it would let me save some space on my pedal board by replacing one of my other drives. Just as well it does work for me like this though because as an actual distortion it's an awful fizzy mess. This review Just makes me want both!!!

[quote name='martthebass' timestamp='1483369981' post='3206589'] I'd agree with above regarding the DI, on occasion I've used the MXR M80 with the Rick, it does give some useful punch if needed. [/quote] I'd suggest the MXR M80 too. My amp is mainly EQ'd for my active Ray so on the few songs where I use my passive jazz with a pick, I use the M80 to fatten it up. If you like a little bit of grit in your sound then the distortion channel on with gain fully down and blend at about 10 o'clock is very punchy but still very full in the lows and sounds great in the mix too.

Never ventured above the fifth fret?

4 basses currently (until I can convince Mrs Painy that I genuinely do NEED a Thunderbird anyway). Just 1 gigging rig though - Aguilar AG500 and a pair of DB112 cabs - but I do have a Behringer BVT4500H head at the back of the cupboard under the stairs as a backup. Other that that just a 10W Hiwatt Hurricane practice amp if that even counts. Money no object then I'd probably have a DB751 and either a 4x12 or an 8x10 cab for bigger gigs (plus a roadie to carry it) but my current set up really does all I need it to anyway.

[quote name='Hobbayne' timestamp='1483205288' post='3205424'] And this is why single men have more basses. [/quote] Tell me about it! I just mentioned to my wife that I was thinking of buying a T-Bird I just spotted locally on Gumtree and she said sure, that's fine ...... If you sell one of your other bases first .

I play in a rock covers band which does have a reputation for being particularly loud but I've never come off stage feeling like my head has been rattled in the way the OP described it (I do suffer from tinnitus but that's been a gradually accumulative thing over the years rather than one explosively loud gig causing it) so I do wonder just how loud exactly this would be to have that effect. If a guitarist I played with couldn't show enough consideration for his bandmates' well-being to just turn down a bit he'd be shown the door or I'd be gone myself. We, as a band set our levels so there's is a good mix out front as we take the view that it's what the punters hear that matters. If one of us can't hear ourselves we look at positioning on stage rather than turn up louder which works most of the time. Singer/rhythm guitarist and myself (I also sing BVs) however have just gone over to IEMs and it makes a huge difference. Still have our backline as the main source of our sound out front but the noise cancelling earphones cut the overall volume a lot but with a nice clear mix too. Seems like a no brainer to me.

I did go lightER-weight at the start of the year but by going for smaller and more compact rather than necessarily 'lightweight' gear I'm hoping I've met a compromise I can stick with. I went from this:- [URL=http://s38.photobucket.com/user/Richard_Pain/media/stuff/IMAG1580_zpsnpazhbe2.jpg.html][IMG]http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e113/Richard_Pain/stuff/IMAG1580_zpsnpazhbe2.jpg[/IMG][/URL] To this:- [URL=http://s38.photobucket.com/user/Richard_Pain/media/stuff/IMAG0528_zps3imwmoq0.jpg.html][IMG]http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e113/Richard_Pain/stuff/IMAG0528_zps3imwmoq0.jpg[/IMG][/URL] The Aguilar rig is much more manageable to carry but sounds every bit as good as my old Ampeg rig if not better. I could have gone for a pair of SL112 cabs instead of the DB112s and a TH500 head instead of the AG500 and saved a fair bit more weight but I suspect I'd have felt there was something missing and ended up going back to a big heavy rig. This feels more like a best of both worlds rig to me personally .

There are some pretty good contenders here: http://basschat.co.uk/topic/297427-december-cover-song-challenge-voting/ Not that I have an entry myself this month or anything

[quote name='Shawman' timestamp='1482952954' post='3203743'] But seriously, this Sandberg that's just gone up. I let out an audible gasp at my work http://basschat.co.uk/topic/297566-sandberg-tm5/page__pid__3203631#entry3203631 [/quote] Ooooo, that's pretty!!!

[quote name='bazztard' timestamp='1482811245' post='3202853'] keep the ABY you already have. Buy a boost pedal like the Mooer Pure Boost Use the Boost pedal when you switch to the quieter bass. If you've set it right, both basses will be at the same volume. Less than $100 [/quote] Basically this -although my specific recommendation would be the Joyo Roll Boost peday because it's what I use myself, it's cheap as chips and it works perfectly as a transparent boost.

This would tick all the boxes for me. I had to scroll through a lot of much more expensive basses to find it but this would be the one. That slab P is definitely very cool though. http://basschat.co.uk/topic/296566-sandberg-california-vm5/page__pid__3199956#entry3199956

'Best' 5er I've owned would definitely be my old Warwick SS1. A genuinely beautifully made instrument, as you would expect from an instrument costing several thousand pounds, and the low B just sounded and felt like the next string along from the E - no floppiness or flabbiness at all just tight and focussed. Funnily enough it wouldn't be my favorite though. That distinction actually goes to my humble Squier VM P5. That's ultimately because there are a lot of factors that make a good 5 string other than that 5th string itself - looks, playability and the overall sound all combined into a complete package. Just like a 4 string really. In fact I've never really made any distinction between a 4 or 5 when deciding if I like it or not - ultimately it's either a good instrument for you or it isn't.

I started playing just over 21 years ago and got my first 5 about 2 years later. I kept my old 4 as a backup for about 6 months before it got replaced with another 5. I've not taken a 4 string bass to a gig since. There's nothing a 4 can do for me that a 5 can't (even for drop D you can still just de-tune the E and ignore the B ) and after all this time I'm far more comfortable on a 5 anyway so don't see the point in switching for me personally. I think if you have a really good 4 that you really love and it sounds and feels amazing then also having a 5 available just for when you need it might make sense. If however the 5 sounds and feels every bit as good to you and you love it just as much.......?

[quote name='Skol303' timestamp='1482587242' post='3201624'] It might be a faff for some folks to skip ahead as instructed, but that's no big deal. [/quote] Well they're more than welcome to listen to the rest of it too if their ears will take it.

I've been feeling fairly GAS free for a couple of months now to the point where I've actually found myself actively seeking out something to GAS for because it feels a bit weird. I even tried Gassing for a T-Bird for a bit but my heart wasn't really in it. My amp and cabs are as compact and lightweight as I need them to be while keeping a big sound. My pedal board does everything I need it to and I'm happy with every pedal on it. I now have a P a J and a Ray so feel I'm pretty well covered there for tones. The only thing I guess you could say I have GAS for now is a triple Hercules guitar stand to replace the double I have currently so I can have the P, J and Ray all on one stand on stage. I have reason to believe my wife has bought me one for my birthday in January though so that doesn't leave me much. If anyone has and GAS suggestions for me I'd be happy to hear them .

I can't say as I've tried too many different 112 cabs to compare to but I can say that my Aguilar DB112s do sound very nice indeed. Played a gig in one of the larger pubs that we play at last week - just backline. Filled the room with big, fat, weighty bass but crystal clear, tight and defined. There may be much better cabs out there but these sound plenty good enough to me that I feel no need whatsoever to go looking for them.

My personal choice would be number 2 - a bit more aggressive sounding to my ears than 1 - which I like. I'd be more than happy to use either of those two tones though. Number 3 definitely sounds more like the odd one out and not just because of the flats either. Kinda like it could be any 2 pickup bass with the neck pickup solo'd, not necessarily even a split coil specifically in the P position. That said I was listening on my phone so they could have all been acoustic mandolins and not even basses for all I know!

Hope this is permissible. This clip actually contains a few songs but I don't have any way to edit it down to just the one song as it's a facebook live video taken by the club owner where my band was playing last month (please also forgive the camera phone quality recording). My submission though, if it is okay, is our version of Boys of Summer which starts at 7:19. If it's not okay in this format though I'll happily withdraw. https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10154649100138698&id=641458697

[quote name='fretmeister' timestamp='1482487918' post='3200932'] I might be making this up - but isn't Jon Myung's 6 string bongo actually put together with a 5 string neck for really narrow spacing? I'm sure I read that somewhere at some point, [/quote] It's true. I saw it on his Rig Rundown video on that yoo toob.

I love a happy ending Really glad you're liking it - I'd have felt pretty bad if you'd been disappointed after me bigging it up . Congrats and enjoy!