Al Krow

Great job!

I think the thrust of what you're saying is right. My experience is that you can get a better sound and improved playability if you're prepared to pay more (obviously not always), but it's usually a law of diminishing returns. Cabs are where I've found the biggest correlation between improved sound and spending more. After a certain point, though, pretty much all the improvement in how good a bass player you are and your sound is going to be down to you and time spent on the fretboard and playing with other good musicians. It's the old story - a great bass player will sound great with whatever gear he or she has to hand, but a poor bass player is not going to sound like a pro even if he or she has a £20k set up. But, let's face it, gear is a lot of fun! And if it brings us enjoyment and we can comfortably afford what we're buying, then why not?

Runaway Baby - Bruno Mars. Great with pick.

You're not helping...again 😁

Just wondering if I get a couple of pedals as Christmas and milestone prezzies to myself now, with an ulterior motive of having a clear run at bassfan's gear abstinence next year, whether that will actually mean I am already out before I am even in? 😄

Yeah me too! Although I guess I can console myself that didn't plumb the sordid depths of guitar gear 😁

I stand corrected, that's definitely the better general rule! Good, glad we've managed to get that one finally sorted. Been distracting me from playing bass for a couple of days... 😄

Oh, and in relation to the thread "how many basses are too many?" After much extensive research and deep thought on the matter, I've worked out that the right answer, no question, is: "One more than cetera has."

"Definitely my first choice in a zombie apocalypse". What a great line!! 😄 Neck through too! Shame (wallet relief?) they're not going to be available in a 5 string.

Most of us lose the ability to hear much past 14kHz as we get older. The higher end range 5kHz to 10Khz is nice to have if you're after a bit of high end 'zing' e.g. on slap bass. Quite a few cabs will do the job for you e.g. the BF Super Compact and ST have a "usable frequency range" topping out at 4kHz - too 'flat' me for personally hence my switching to the the BB2, but plenty of SC / ST fans on here. Some amps make a thing of providing the option of a more vintage tone with a tailored LPF e.g. the VLE dial on Markbass amps (and which can simultaneously. deal with annoying tweeter hiss present on some MB cabs).

Awww come on Woody I did include or "really want" right next to "need", as well, Which covers every known form of GAS, surely? 😁

I get where you're coming from. But there are definitely less hassle investments to be bought, although a 100% return is never to be sniffed at! (IF you can get it, and over a reasonable period). Must admit I don't think of any of my bass gear as investments - much more things that give me a huge amount of pleasure from playing (and the neck dive you mentioned would make the Attitude a non starter for me). I'm just very grateful that I've managed to broadly break even on gear purchases and sales so far, so I'm not too much out of pocket!

My only caveat would be that I know we all get excited about one of us getting a quality bass for a great price but it's easy to lose sight of why we're getting the bass e.g. do we need / really want the model in question? Definitely be worth trying before you buy unless you already know you're going to love the bass - your tastes may well have evolved since you bought your first bass: mine certainly have over the past 8 years. The only time I played an Attitude was in store when it was up against an NE2 and the NE2 won hands down for me.

Aha. So that word "Special" was devised by the Yamaha marketing team who clearly had the right attitude! But much better than "Basic" though, used by a former goto brand of mine, right? 😁

Wow, that's a pretty bloomin' impressive first bass!! Mine was a used Aria Pro which had previously belonged to my missus and been in a cupboard for 15 years...😁 I still managed to fall in love with all things bass.

Blimey if it's in vgc, and with all the candy like you said, don't merely snatch. Bite their hands off!!! You'll have probably snagged one of the bargains of the year!

I was half tempted by a Rebop recently, too, but got talked out of it by those "in the know" - apparently they suffer from a bit of neck dive, which won't bother some but I know would really annoy me so I steered clear. Totally loving my Euro 5LX, though. And I know young master Lee has rediscovered the joys of Spector too and Monsieur Le Greek has had the odd Spector fetish in his day! I posted a while back on this thread about the BB NE2 taking quite a few design cues from Spectors, which for me it has much more in common with than with my BB 1025. Have you got your eye on a particular model?

Oooh, you really are getting some fancy Yamaha basses aren't you? First a PH and now an Attitude! What's given you this sudden high-end bug?

Wouldn't surprise me. It seems to be a regular secret mistress of a few of us Yammy lovers! (Oh and I'd best start doing some marketing 101 courses, apparently, so I can get hired by them...but I'd have thought the fact that a fellow BC'er has literally over 30 Spectors would be 'nuff said about how good they are?)

Jeez...it took literally 15 seconds to confirm and, I didn't have anything more pressing to do with those 15 seconds. Besides, it was a useful check to make sure it was the battery and not some other fault.

Nope! Have an AO drive on my DG AO 900 with comp and EQ all on tap...ok it lacks the presets that TC have been offering on their RH450 and RH750 for the past decade and the Berg BiAmp has been doing for a few years, and that this pedal is now also offering. But I'll probs be able to muddle along for a while yet. Be interesting to see if they integrate the presets tech into their next series of amps. And, nope, I won't be upgrading then either! 😉

I'm due to win the lottery soon, then! I've just had to change the battery on one of my active basses a couple of days ago. Measured the voltage on it and it was as dead as a dodo...I'd best pop out and buy a ticket 🙂

Hey matey, I went for the more budget option of a Glock 3 band EQ, partly based on the recommendations of another Carvin BB owner who had trodden the same path before me and really liked the upgrade. Very glad I did: it's made a massive positive difference replacing a very tired stock Carvin preamp with the Glock - the bass has really come alive. And having found a superb lovely tech, relatively local to me (our very own @gary mac, whom I'm really happy to give a plug to as he is too modest to do so himself), I'm much more open to thinking about similar improvements to basses I know that will be keepers. Appreciate that you can spend £150 to £200 on parts and labour on this stuff, which you may well not recoup on a resale - fortunately the Carvin upgrade was actually "pre-paid" in the sense that the seller recognised the sorry state of the existing preamp and adjusted his price down to take account of it. But if you're going to be holding onto the bass for a while, then that changes the cost / benefit perspective entirely.

Haha - very true and mostly correct! And yup, I know that's my line / stuck record / petard! 😁 However... Currently I have the NE mid-cut set on by-pass so it's pretty much pointless being on there - be nice to have a full 3 band EQ like the NE2 had and, being able to give the mids a boost occasionally can be quite a useful feature to have on tap, live. Would essentially mean replacing the pre-amp, but again not necessarily a bad thing in 17 y/o bass - the electronics are not entirely immune to w&t and folk do speak very highly of John East's preamps. If I'm getting that done, then may as well think about changing the NE switch to an active / passive one - always nice to have the "emergency" option of switching to passive if the battery cuts out mid-set; in which case I may as well, at the same time, look into changing the volume pot (as per DocJ's suggestion above) to a push / pull parallel / series set-up for the pups. The latter two would be "nice to haves" that my NE2 didn't feature. The BB2005 is already one of my all time favourite basses, despite having cost me a lot less than many others. In addition to its sound and build quality, I particularly love the way it's beautifully balanced with zero neck dive which makes it so comfortable to wear. With these electronic upgrades / tweaks, I may just end up with something I actually like more than my old NE2, but for less than half the used price.

Just had a little catch up with Max and he's pointed out that he's had the spec for the Thumpinator up for the past 12 months or so: Cut-off frequency: ~25Hz Slope: 36 dB/oct Good to finally put the record straight on that. That's pretty steep and explains why it's such an effective tool for eliminating low end crud! He also confirmed that the only the layout had changed between the Mk1 and Mk2 versions i.e. the slope and cut/off remained the same. He was also interested to hear about this little offering from Zorg, which he'd not come across previously.