Frank Blank

I play a fretless acoustic bass but had similar requirements as you. I try to get the fretless sounding as much like a double bass as possible. Both my fretted and fretless basses have piezo pickups so, again, I was in a very similar position to you. This depends on how much tone shaping you require. I have owned the Fishman Platinum Pro twice, it was lovely. The on-board compressor was particularly useful. If you want a cheap, reasonable pre then the Fishman PP is a good choice. Noticeably inferior unit to the Fishman PP IMHO I used the Fishman with several types of amp and it was fine with all of them. Unfortunately I was trying to avoid the baked in 'colour' of the amps EQ. In the end I went for a QSC K12.2, an FRFR powered speaker cabinet which was perfect for me. The last trad amp I used before going FRFR was an AER Basic Performer. I've just seen one on reverb for £599, I know it's a bit above your budget but if you can find one and afford it, it's the perfect set up. Once I bought one I noticed loads of double bassists using them at small and large gigs. Both the QSC and the AER coped with the piezo basses going straight in without a pre. I would say the advantage of an FRFR powered speaker is that you don't need a pre. Playing a double bass through any amp will colour the sound so you never really know what the uncoloured sound of the bass really is. When I plugged my fretless acoustic into the QSC at the shop to try out I was blown away. The QSC has a 'bass amp' EQ preset but I just leave it on 'Default'. If I had to play just plugged into the QSC I'd be perfectly happy, in all honesty I just go through a Grace Design Felix because I'm a tart.

Hmmmm, a 2025 gas list... Xenon Krypton Oganesson (headless) ...and maybe a nice Radon with a tort scratchplate

Well put that away and choose a bass 🙄

Jug.

You say flanger, I say flanjer You say flanjer and I say flanger Flanger, flanjer, flanger, flanjer Let's call the whole thing (a poncy phaser) off...

There's something wrong with mine (pics in post).

Gandhi made my top ten flautists, Ghandi, however, was arrested for impersonating G. Handi the infamous puppet thruster.

Ludovic Kennedy Lord Lucan Betty Boothroyd Shep the dog Timmy Mallett That bloke off Daktari Kirsty Wark Ben Kingsley Arthur Negus Roobarb

Nobby Stiles, I mean he didn't play drums or 'owt but... you know... Nobby Stiles.

Come With Me - Dennis Bovell & Dennis Curtis.

Bloody hell, Soul Coughing. The only band (IMHO) who released three albums without a duff track amongst them. I had no idea they'd reformed, good job I suppose as it saved me a flight to the US. I am praying they'll put out another album 🙏

And yet another excuse for...

You must have been in the bog... when he talked about Doctor and the Medics.

Despite having played a (borrowed) Stingray a few times, in a thrash metal band years ago, I know nothing about these basses. All I remember (I may have been a little refreshed at the time) was the biting tone which fitted perfectly with my style of playing in such a band. For a few years now I've played in an acoustic duo and I have two beautiful short scale basses built by our very own @Jabba_the_gut that are perfect for this endeavour. However, I have, for years now, had a hankering for a solid bodied electric bass. I've been through a few but, for some reason, I've mostly avoided the bigger names. My first 'serious' bass, bought thirty five years ago at The Bass Centre, was a black Jaydee Supernatural and the last was a Fender JMJ Mustang, but, apart from the borrowed Stingray, I have never really had the (sober) Stingray experience. So... I need some help from all the Stingray experts. If you were going to buy a Stingray, what would you go for? New? Used? Are there particular years to look out for? I think I've read about there being a pre and post period of some sort? Just to give you a starting point, I quite fancy the look of this 2022 Ernie Ball Music Man Stingray Special 4 currently on sale at Bass Bros, but that's purely on looks, if you had 2K (or 4K for that matter) to spend on a Stingray what would you go for and why?

Cheers Sir!

Sorry to awaken this old thread. I've been looking at Lindo basses lately but I hadn't seen a thin body version. Got a link Reg?

This is an excellent idea, he could certainly run such a thing at a Bass Bash.

It's a big cask but I think I'm up to it, I'm a Brut. Judging by the sommelier this thread has gone right off.

I too was baffled by compression. I was also baffled by the singer/guitarist in my duo (an experienced FOH/sound tech) missing compression in our sound, applying that compression and being satisfied when I couldn't hear the difference. "If you can hear a difference in tone then it's too much compression," she would say, I couldn't get my head around that. Thankfully I am acquainted with the excellent @Osiris, who spent a day demonstrating and educating me in the subtleties of compression, that lead to me understanding the subject a lot more and, eventually, to acquiring an optical compressor, much more suited to the type of music we play. Now I can't do without it, I notice when it isn't on and yet I'd still struggle, really struggle, to explain exactly what it's doing. I use a very expensive preamp and the Effectrode PC-2A Compressor, given the choice between the two I'd keep the compressor, the preamp is tech, that compressor has some kind of juju I can't do without.