Al Krow

Oki doki. Were you using the same rig otherwise ie was it a fair A/B comparison? Did you have a hangover when playing through the LM2/3? Any other variables? 😄

Be v interesting to hear why you "far preferred" them over the LM2/3s. Was it mainly down to the better EQ centre points, or was there other stuff going on as well?

Ooooh now you're talking. They were certainly a head turner when I was a lad! That would be a BB 3000 then.

Drop the guy a line. You should tell him that bass playing is a LOT of fun and that you might be prepared to chuck in a couple of pedals with your 1024x? Meet the Owner - Sean Puckle and his Ford Cortina Ghia MK.IV | Lancaster Insurance

Nah, we'll just cut to the chase and just ask if you might be interested in one of these? 😁

Exactly this. If neck profile is particularly important for you then definitely see if you can try before you buy, although that might be easier said than done unless you have a local 1024 you can get your hands on. The neck profile on the 5s is quite different to the 4s: the 5s' necks are relatively shallow / flat and very comfortable to play. I can't comment on the 4s as I've never had a 4 string BB. But I come back to the key tonal difference between the 424 and 1024 is 90% down to the pups with the 1024 having an "upgrade", but plenty of folk prefer the cheaper pups on the 424 anyway.

I think you've got a handle on all of the main differences. Neck through: for me wins hands down on looks pretty much all the time. General consensus is that a neck through will have slightly more sustain than a bolt on. A lot of the older top-of-the-range Yamahas have neck through; none of the modern ones, other than their flagship BB NE2, do. The BB1200 will likely be around 30 years older than the 1024, but given you have a 50's P that's clearly not going to faze you!

Today's teenagers would probably love it. Provided it has a vegan menu.

Moving on my first 425 (the one in the pic in my post earlier) was my first experience of seller's regret with a bass! Interestingly much less so with my second 425 , 12 months later. I guess the difference in reaction was almost certainly down to having got hold of and very familiar with a 1025 in the meantime. So it all boils down to personal choice and preference: Ford Mustang or Jaguar XFR (used of course!)...only one way to find out!

Definitely two distinct camps on this thread: those that prefer the 424 over the 1024 and those that don't! For me the biggest and key difference is tone: the 424 is a flatter thump; the 1024 more harmonically rich and tonally complex. I've had the 5 string version of them both and rate them both highly. I've seen quite a few basses come and go over the past few years, in fact all 4 that were in the first pic have departed. The 1025, however, has been a constant with me for several years. I love it!

Just seen the FS post, my queries answered

I know I'm a glass half full guy...but I can't see people losing their love for live music, or a good Friday / Saturday night out with a paid (hehe) covers band.

I guess that's kinda positive that venues haven't lost their appetite for hosting live music.

Yup that's fair enough - we all have different attitudes to risk (as was very clear from the "spare amps" and "spare basses" threads; although to my shame I've since buckled and spent £200 on a spare amp now! But it still won't be making its way to gigs as a "spare" other than possibly distant weddings...)

Great you're rehearsing, but why turn down gigs from your regular venues before year end if they came calling? A couple of our BC mates are already hard at it (e.g. @bassfan , @walshy etc) - not in a Matt Hancock way, I hasten to add...

Completely with you on that tegs. Zero need for bullying, personal insults etc on BC. We're better than that.

Not everyone who plays live is relying on gig income to pay the rent. That's just a fact of life that struggling "pro" musicians need to deal with in terms of competition for gigs and pricing. A lot of hobby musicians love playing live because doing so is its own reward. Surely that's totally cool, if that's how they want to spend their free time? And it doesn't mean that bands willing to play for free will be crap either, although you would hope that musicians who are getting paid are bringing something extra to the party compared to those who are playing for free in terms of musicianship and professionalism, but that won't always be the case. I know it must come as an unpleasant shock to some, but making music isn't just about the money for many musicians...did someone say we're going round in circles?

That's actually an unexpected surprise to hear Stew. I always thought that the FI and C4 trumped the SY-1 in terms of quality of synth sounds, but the SY-1 had the advantage of outstanding tracking and immediacy of dials (oh and, of course, being a chunk cheaper!). Out of interest what setting were you using the SY-1 on and what tracks were you playing along to?

Unless of course you damage the boards on moving them back and forth! Not something I would want to risk, but hey that's just me. And adding £30 for a smaller box, £35 for a usb cable (Panda's own offering is euros 169!!), it does all start to add up...

+1 ^^ The LM3 head, which I still have in my CMD 121H combo, has a massive gap between upper mids at 800Hz and treble at 10kHz, which is an unusably high centre point. A 3.5kHz to 5kHz for treble centre would have been much better, IMO, for the treble centre. The bass EQ in the LM3 is centred at 40Hz - which is at the boomy low end and could do with being centred at 65Hz to 80Hz instead. The Marcus Miller head has dealt with each and every one of those issues. Having said that, a LOT of folk really like the warm MB sound that the LM2/3s deliver, so horses for courses.

A bit of a specialist topic, but in case it's of interest... The Roland UM-One Mk2 is the quality benchmark, but costs a hefty £35, or so, new. Came across this today on Amazon for 1/3 the price of the Roland: I've not used, but I suspect at that price will be tempted to give it a go (e.g. particularly if some of us end up with a replacement FI now that @Quatschmacher has completely rejigged the PC Editor and Manual!). A couple of points to note: There is no driver or cd installation for it, just plug in, the computer automatically adds it as a new device and you are ready to go, however: plug midi cable "IN" to midi device's “OUT” slot, midi cable "OUT" to midi device's “IN” slot. Which is both the seller's advice and backed up by user experience: "Works very well on my zoom gfx 8 effect pedal. Only one issue was I plugged the cables as labelled in and out to in and out sockets. But the program on my laptop I'm using for this could not detect the effect pedal, so I reversed it out cable wen into in and out cable went into out, and finally it was detected and now I'm able to modify my effect pedal." If any of you have tried this or alternative Midi to USB then please share your positive / negative experiences - be good to get some alternatives to the Roland.

But that is a solution which both devalues the resale price and costs an additional £30. No thanks. I'll live with the big ugly original box. But I don't understand why Andras is clueless on the importance of form factor in making a product attractive? I mean those boys at Apple also started in a garage, too, right?

Ah not just me, who feels this then!