Misdee

To each their own!🙂

Master built Warwick Vampyre 5 and Peavey amps? That is really quite esoteric taste in gear you have, if I might say so. Nothing wrong with Warwick basses (or Peavey amps) but a Vampyre? Are you sure?

Thanks, that's very reassuring to hear, and I know how well you know Spector basses! . Especially considering that, generally speaking, I tend to leave conventional boost and cut active EQ circuits flat anyway, I will probably go for another Euro, maybe a Doug Wimbish. That has got a rosewood board, maple body and different pickups to the CST, so might be audibly different in tone. I'll have a think about that.

Nowadays the bass market is flooded with active Jazz-style basses. Back in the mid-1990's when the T-Bass came out that certainly wasn't the case here in the UK. An boutique Jazz Bass with a preamp in it was quite a novelty and highly desirable for British bass players who didn't have easy access to brands like Sadowsky who had popularised that style of bass. The T-Bass was aimed at that niche, but in retrospect maybe it was just a touch too innovative to have a wide enough appeal to most bass players. I think the angled tuners probably put more people off than they won over.

That's very interesting to know. I've recently got myself a CST with an ebony board. I've had very little chance to play it yet for one reason or another, but enough to know that I definitely want another Spector, just with a significantly different sound to the CST. The big question is whether I get another Euro, albeit a slightly different one, or USA-made bass. It's a long time since had my hands on a USA Spector but I remember them as being pretty amazing but financially out of my reach at the time. Thirty odd-years later now I can afford one but then again nowadays there's the Euro option with the new Legacy preamp ect. There's a decision to be made factoring in diminishing returns and whether a Euro is a "proper" Spector. What I can say is that my new CST is a meticulously-made bass and very good value for money in the current new bass market considering it costs substantially less than something like a new Stingray Special or a German-made Sadowsky Metroline ect..

It's so ridiculous that it has to be true. Presumably he didn't understand how to use an allen key.

I've got a Z3 4 string and I would say that for £400 it's pretty stunning value for money. Plays like a proper bass, sounds like a genuine old Stingray. The only things to note are that the neck is more like a P Bass than a conventional Stingray profile, and that ultimately the price probably puts limitations of the long-term durability of some electronic componants and controls. For £400-ish though it's a great proposition. Were it not for the complicated situation with my haemorrhoids keeping me at home nowadays I would definitely gig my Z3 down the Dog And Duck in preference to my more valuable basses. Sounds just as good as an expensive bass and eliminates any worries about getting damaged or stolen. Mine weighs 9 pound 3oz, so decent managable weight for a Stingray-style bass, too. A very useful and enjoyable instrument.

That bass is so beautiful I actually find it quite upsetting.

I'd be a liar if I said that purple/black colour scheme was my cup of tea, but I'm sure to be in minority (probably of one) on that, and may you both enjoy your new Spectors a lot. More's to the point, I'd be very interested in the fullness of time to hear about any perceived differences in sound and overall feel between these new S.E versions and previous offering with the Caribbean Burst and maple board.

I've got three Yamaha basses, a BB2024X, a BB2024 and a BB2025. On balance, I would say that they are my favourite basses that I have ever bought in forty-odd years of playing bass and owning a lots (lots and lots) of high-end and vintage basses in that time. Those 20 Series basses really were something special, with a unique tone that you can't get from any other Yamaha bass, new or old, or indeed any other bass from another brand. I've played and owned much more expensive basses I didn't like half as much. Those particular Yamahas have got a unique sonic personality that sets them apart. When I got my BB2024X not long after they came out I was shocked not just by how good it was but also how much it confounded my expectations. Despite having all the grunt and growl of a good Fender, the sound was surpisingly unlike a Fender and had all the richness and depth of a high quality active bass. I don't like polite-sounding basses, and my Yamahas always sound big and asseritive. Needless to say with Japanese-made Yamaha instruments, the build quality is top-notch. I had the brainwave of trying flats on one of my Yamahas after seeing Jah Wobble playing his BB2024x, and with a set of Thomatiks on it that bass takes on a whole new dimension of interesting possibilities. Excels at reggae, hip hop ect (and probably a lot more besides) with those strings on. If Yamaha did a proper authentic reissue of the BB3000 I'd definitely be up for getting one of those, too. I had a BB P34 for a while but, despite being beautifully constructed with a nice slim neck, it just didn't do it for me like my other Yamahas. Not a criticism more an observation, but I found the sound of the P34 to be a bit on the lean side. Maybe that leaness can be attributed to the maple laminate in the core of the body. What's for certain is that it sounds much more like a conventional PJ than the 2024x et al, which makes sense if you consider that it's the first BB to use conventional Fender-style pickups.

I am delighted to see that you have rediscovered the joy of bass with your much-missed Suhr. They're top quality instruments, and an active Jazz Bass like that really can do it all. May you get much pleasure from playing it. That said, may I offer some well-meant but unsolicited life advice without causing offence? It's just that now your financial and domestic situation has eased a bit I would strongly recommend putting some thought and planning into how to improve things even more in that respect going forwards. That might mean holding off a bit before putting financial resources into buying many more basses. Take it from me my friend, there isn't a bass in the world that is more important than a stable and happy home for you and yours. I am speaking from personal experience when I say that we all need a safe haven in this world, and no bass, however nice, will provide that for you. I know it's none of my business, but there, I've said it anyway.🙂

From the the golden age of Japanese-made instruments.Yamaha basses from this era are a combination of bulletproof construction and top-class design. Well-worth trying to resurrect.

At my local liquor store the Korean owner would routinely spray the very stinky homeless people who made up a large part of his customer base with Febreze and an air freshener called Ozium and it seemed to work pretty well. They kept coming back, anyway. I doubt any Pedulla case, however well-travelled, has seen the same levels of poor personal sanitation that those poor wretched souls were subjecting themselves to. Might well be worth giving that combo a try.

Leave it closed with a fair few of those silca gel sachets inside, as well airing it and spraying it ect.

Sweden is ,however, a society which tolerates one of the highest levels of taxation in the world. Myself, I would be happy to live in such a country. Convincing the wider British public to submit to such a system would be pretty much an impossibility. The whole of the developed world is moving away from that kind of a social model. Public spending is something to be restricted and cut back, not expanded to include people who think they have a right and a need to express themselves. The Swedish system has its roots in progressive liberal ideas that flourished in the 1960's and 1970's. The reality is that in countries like Britain and the USA we are heading back to the 1920's where ordinary working people were kept in a state of anxious uncertainty as a way of keeping them more useful, more profitable and less troublesome to their employers. More work, less pay, less rights.