Painy

I have a precision for when I need a P, a jazz for when I need a J (both of which were relatively inexpensive instruments to buy) and my old Warwick has sentimental value relating to my dear departed mum (and is always there under the bed should I ever need something active). My gigging basses are kept tuned down half a step so my Harley Benton is in standard tuning for learning songs and besides cost peanuts anyway. My amp is useful for being heard at gigs as my basses are a touch quiet without it and I'm currently in the process of selling off most of the pedals I don't use at gigs. Most importantly I recently calculated that over the 20 years I've been gigging, my band has earned me somewhere between eighty and one hundred thousand pounds (gross and before expenses) which, given the time it was earned over, is hardly a fortune but I think justifies any expenditure on gear I choose to make.

Someone will no doubt be along shortly to recommend the rubber washers from the tops of Grolsch beer bottles as an inexpensive option. Except of course I seem to have inadvertently just done so myself. Personally I never play without them but I do play in a very animated pub rock band and have been embarrassed by a falling bass on stage enough times in the past to have learnt a lesson. Possibly not needed quite so much for home playing but no harm in taking that bit of care. As the old Grolsch washers are apparently getting harder to come by, the cheap and cheerful Dunlop style plastic straplocks are very cheap, don't require you to change the strap buttons on your bass and should be more than adequate for home use. Looks like I took too long typing all that on my phone and have been beaten to it on all counts!

[quote name='thebrig' timestamp='1462635336' post='3044580'] [attachment=218833:1.jpg] [/quote] So tell me, how do you feel about precisions - are you a fan or not?

Gigged this last night and thought I'd get a picture on the way in from the car this morning as the sun is shining. Absolutely loving the precision through this amp and the Palmer Depressor gives a lovely defined punch. May not be the most sophisticated compressor but works for me.

She seems to be the latest YouTube sensation which is great in as much as its putting bass guitar in the spotlight. Anything which might inspire people to pick up a bass is good in my book. Seems a lot of the interest in her is the whole child prodigy thing but I read online last night that she's actually just turned 19 but just looks younger. Still very talented for any age though. Also quite interesting that she's now endorsing Mayones as in all the videos I've seen of her so far she's been playing a Cort A5.

[quote name='RhysP' timestamp='1462473299' post='3043382'] Maybe he owns the PA & van. [/quote]

My wife was a pharmacy dispenser before our kids were born and served Roger Lloyd-Pack. She had to be told after he'd left that she'd just served Trigger and still had no clue as she's never watched Only Fools and horses! As for me, not quite met as such but once answered the phone at my dad's house to a strangely familiar voice asking to speak to my step mum so I just handed the phone over. My step mum used to manage the Who's official fan club back in the early seventies and still occasionally speaks the man on the phone who was none other than Roger Daltrey!

Well this is my own very humble offering. Squier Vintage Modified Precision V in my favorite sunburst/tort/maple and now sporting a new F decal on the headstock for no reason other than I just love the look of the bendy 70s precision logo. This would be the second cheapest bass I have ever bought new but it's also my all time favorite. It may not have the pedigree of some of the amazing precisions posted in here but instruments are very personal and for me personally this one is perfect!

[quote name='Twincam' timestamp='1462199007' post='3041008'] Hmmm ports have to be deeper than my cab to get to 55hz [/quote] You'll have to make more holes in the back for them to stick out of then

I use a Joyo Roll Boost which is a Chinese built clone of the MXR at nearly half the price (seems to be about £37ish new on eBay at the moment) and gives up to a 38dB of clean boost to the MXRs 26dB.

A few years back my band recorded a CD which was titled Lack of Discipline. A school teacher friend of mine took a copy in to let her class of 9 year olds have a listen and a group of 3 boys decided to form a band right then and there, and again despite never having played an instrument they already had a name for their first song - Lack of Imagination!

I once watched a guy play bass in a punk band by slapping his bass with a 12" black rubber dildo so I don't think using a pick really requires any justification at all to be fair. I played with a pick for the first 6 years mainly because when I first started I found the attack allowed me to be heard more clearly through the very low powered practice amp I was using when playing with friends. Then, after 6 years of playing I decided to have a few lessons after being self taught up until then and with that decided I'd like to try fingerstyle to broaden my horizons. Within a few weeks I'd decided I liked it enough to change over to fingers fully but there are always some songs that just work better or are easier to play with a pick. When playing at home I probably play 50/50 between fingers and pick but in my band it's about 95% fingers these days.

[quote name='Funky Dunky' timestamp='1462020005' post='3039656'] What is heft, though? Depth? Oomph? Weightiness of sound? [/quote] My favorite description of heft is Discreet 's from a previous thread: "It's like having a very large, heavy, sinister rubber ball bouncing on the stage behind you in time to the music. That's heft."

Ummmmmm. I joined my current band in 1996 so.......

[quote name='FretNoMore' timestamp='1461854121' post='3038238'] Building a new big pedalboard, strictly for fun and experiments at home (too heavy for me to carry around, and with effects I wouldn't really use for blues and classic rock ) The board has a PT Pro footprint, and fully loaded it is stupidly heavy, but as I don't intend to carry it outside the house I can live with it. Still missing cables which I have to solder over the coming days, something I don't look forward to. [/quote] Couldn't let that pass without comment, wow! That looks like a lot of fun

[quote name='fryer' timestamp='1461565398' post='3035621'] [sup]Do you use all those ? Are they all different ?[/sup] [/quote] If you mean everything in my signature then no I don't use it all and a fair few are left at home to play around with there. My main board is the Morley volume pedal into the tuner. From there it goes into the Palmer deepressor which is just a compressor for smoothing and to add punch. Then it's into the palmer ubertrieber overdrive which is an aggressive, mids forward pedal that I use on ace of spades. Next the bass soul food for some light drive and vintage warmth and then the big muff is used for any Muse covers. Next is the octaver which sounds cool on uptown funk but also works well with the Big muff to get a synth sound and finaly the roll boost just to boost volume when needed. The second smaller board actually sits on top of my amp with the aural xciter and the VT Bass on it as these are always on as part of my core tone along with the amps own eq.

[quote name='AustinArto' timestamp='1461490336' post='3034993'] If you're anything like me, one more than will fit on your board. [/quote] This is why I have overflowed onto a second smaller board alongside my main one!

I picked up a cheap and cheerful EHX Nano Clone off here a couple of weeks ago just to see if chorus could work for me in my band. Gonna give it another go at next weeks gig before I make up my mind but if I do decide to stick with it, I really fancy the Tech21 Bass Boost Chorus!

I know what you mean about the transparency of the Aguilar. I use the AG500 (the 2 channel version) and it has a great tone but for me it needed a little something extra. I'm now running through an Aphex Aural Xciter and a Tech21 into the AG500 and it sounds immense. Maybe trying a pre-amp pedal in front of the Aguilar could be something to try as a less expensive option than replacing the whole amp?

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1461364191' post='3034147'] Ah, the 'brown note'. [/quote] Well I'd have said more mustard than brown to be honest.....

Forgive me for quoting myself here but this is an extract from my review of my AG500 head into 2 DB112 cabs: "Our lead player's fears that such a small rig might not deliver enough low end were soon allayed when I punched in the deep switch and he pooed himself a little bit."

At 1 minute in if there's a way to get rid of the drone in the background. Obviously depends how authentic you want it to sound though.... http://youtu.be/nPmF3dBBXZw

Hohner B2A cricket bat. Bought for me by my best mate who'd just gotten a drum kit and wanted to start a band. Cost £60 out of the Diamond Free-Adds paper in 1995. With hindsight I reckon it was probably a pretty decent bass but I never got to hear it at its best as I was playing it through the same mate's Goodmans twin cassette home karaoke machine. That and the dodgy looks meant I soon traded it in against a new Aria Pro II Magna series and a second hand Laney Linebacker 30.

[quote name='xgsjx' timestamp='1461221060' post='3032498'] I think turning your amp's "bass" dial 1 notch from right down would give you a meatier bottom end! As brilliant an album as that is, I think Matt Wallace used a pair of PA subs to master it on. [/quote] Yeah I guess I could actual have just said "like Billy Gould's tone but with some bottom end". I actually had a listen to some of the isolated bass tracks on YouTube recently expecting to hear all the low end that I assumed was buried in the mix somewhere but no, there just isn't any!!

That Thunderbird though does in all fairness offer the chance to own an instrument played and owned by one of the true legends of the bass guitar. A player who has inspired generations of bass players and completely redefined the boundaries of where bass playing could be taken. Not to mention that we will never have the opportunity to see this great man grace the stages of the world again. I mean, it's Guigsy from Oasis for goodness sake!!!