NancyJohnson

It's just the shape that seems to irk people; I know my association here is generally Thunderbirds, but that's about as traditional as it gets for me, so the shape didn't deter me and probably made me all the more determined to use it. I actually liked that the design irritated/amused people in equal measure and as an additional plus, nobody on the circuit I was gigging in played one. (All these old punk guys with Precisions covered in stickers would be falling over themselves for a noodle and saying how decent it played/sounded.) Ultimately, it's just a bass. They all sound pretty much the same.

Are you inferring because a basswood Sterling (made on a production line in the far east using cheaper labour/hardware) costs £300, that there needs to be some kind of price correction/correlation against a premium product made in the US by Sterling's parent company costing £2,000+, or that basswood isn't any good?

I'm sure you played my one. I know @Hamster had it for a couple of weeks as well.

To the disdain on fellow band members, I used to lump along a lever arch file to rehearsals with basic arrangements, but all of us referred to it. This was 10-15 years ago. We rarely recorded stuff on the fly. I found this in a flightcase about a year ago, I went through it in awe and wonder as to all the scribblings I'd done on the fly during jams. We were doing originals...there were dozens and dozens of pages, hundreds of ideas with just a line under each one, then another. I have no memory of writing down many of these or even if they developed into full songs...scant descriptions ('Fast - A/F#/D/E rptx2 into bridge/bass E over G'), but they were probably very important at the time.

I was thinking about this a few days ago!

Was this the one that was on the marketplace here last year?

Here goes. I had a five string in desert gold/orange. [EDIT: it was a 5HH.] Adored the design, wonderful tight string spacing for a five-string (I've never played a 5 with such a narrow board), comfortable neck, very nicely set up and able to get the action very low. Tonally very pleasing with everything set flat or slightly tweaked for the room. I tended, as is now, to run the bass through a Sansamp or at that point possibly a Line6 BassPod. The only thing I didn't like so much was the power of the preamp; it was waaaay too hot, not that subtle and I found it was very much a case of all or nothing...even little tweaks could wreck the tone and turn things to mush. At one point I posted here questioning whether I could take it passive. I suppose the million dollar question is would I be interested in getting another one. If (if!) I was on the market for another five-string (I'm not) and I had funds available (I don't) and a stealth black one was available, I'd say yes, without question.

I'd concur with all the points here. It's true, people only seem to want to purchase derivitives of three or four shapes. It's been a long time since I've seen a bass and thought, 'What the hell?' The NS Design CR5 gave me a little wobble, likewise the Deimel Firestar.

To be honest, I own an Aria Primary bass from 1978 that from a playability prespective is a country mile nicer that either of the Precisions I've owned. Again, I'll insert a caveat here in that tone it subjective and the same bass can sound differently from player to player, but it's a bit of a bashed up bit of kit, Delano pickup. It suits me if I need something that is more traditiobal in tone/looks.

The Sweet. A playlist of Sweet F*nny Adams, Desolation Boulevard, a clutch of A & B sides, then Strung Up. Maaaaaaarvelous.

They were different drinks though, Coke were trying to make their product taste more like Pepsi (which was the preferred choice in blind tastings). Big mistake to just drop the original at the time. Fooles.

Thing is, people are just too gullible and easily suckered in. They're not buying a piece of history.

This is probably why I'm drawn to smaller luthiers, builders who are trying to innovate rather than making production line Morris Minors. Fender, Gibson (and a plethora of others) are all guilty of this ridiculous reliance on decades-old design. It extends beyond Ps and Js. Stingrays, Thunderbirds, Spector NS models. Slap a different paint job on (and call it something funky), insert a pair of rebranded soaps along with some kind of preamp with a fancy name that slips off the tongue and sounds edgy (*must include the letter X or Z in the name) and boom, it's the 2021 model. I knew I shouldn't have had a second coffee this morning.

With Fender 'new' models are pretty much a case of 'let's see what we can squeeze into a Precision or Jazz body shape'. I'll profess that I'm really not a Fender fanboy, but for the love of god, the schematics for these models are now 60+ years old; the guys in their design department really need come up with something new.

Just from a curiousity perspective, what's the decision-making force at work here? I'd side with @wateroftyne here, there's good ones and bad ones, so choose wisely and play a few before you pull the trigger.

I did a Wolfie about ten years ago. I loved the process and the ultimate reveal. The body was a nasty plywood Jazz thing that someone was selling for about £20, it had these nasty big rough chiselled out routs. I put an MM unit in the neck position and a J in the bridge. I forget the neck, Allparts second/third hand. I remember the E string ferrel for the machinehead had clearly been forced into the hole and was vaguely ovalish and didn't turn properly. It was all just wired together with one volume control on a chrome bell plate. Worked to a fashion, sounded OK when pushed through a dirtbox. Gigged once (see below) and then broken apart for parts.

I've been using M-Audio BX5s for a few years. They go loud enough for the small room I record in (barely 7'x10'). The only thing that narks me design-wise is that the volume controls are on the back and the controls aren't notched, so they can get knocked when powering up.

Van Halen. Roth stuff. Can't bear Hagar.

I don't really like the Sandberg headstock, that said, these VMs dropped into my timeline a few days ago. The reverse headstock works for me...

Out of boredom, just started plugging a few names of ex-bandmates into Google and imagine my surprise to see one guy I co-wrote about 40 songs with up on Spotify. About a third of these are peppered over his whole output. He actually threatened legal action against me (and the drummer I was playing with at the time) against playing any of the material when things ended acrimoniously. Tosser. I don't know what's more alarming, the lack of writing credit, the frankly terrible arrangements or the fact that he's still clinging on to material that was written over 20 years ago. As you were.

While waiting on Lull to quote me on a bass, I felt a little queasy when I saw recently that (Neon Trees) Branden Campbell's oversized non-reverse Lull Thunderbird sold on Reverb about a year ago for a spit over £2k. Maybe purple sparkle isn't my colour, but at least it would bring me a bit of happiness.

Nope...Jake Williams. He does some really interesting videos, but man alive, 'Wasssup guys!' Grrr.

Scott?

I subscribe to a You Tube channel elsewhere, where the narrator just goes, 'Wassup, guys?' at the start and it just makes me want to put my fingers in my ears and go, 'La la la la la.'