Jonesy

The bridge looks like it's had about 30 years of touring sweat corroding it

It sounds like you're doing the right thing and already have another band on the go that will potentially be more driven towards gigging. If that all works out then I'd end up knocking the problematic band on the head, or at least having an open chat with them first saying you want to gig regularly and finding out what page they're on. If you have the chat and they're all up for gigging then I'd also suggest booking a gig for as soon as is realistic. Just book one, even if the set isn't finished yet. Having a date to aim for is pretty motivating and could make him practice more. Have you thought about putting an ad out for another guitarist to play lead? It sounds like your current guy is happy playing rhythm so another guitarist could be needed anyway? It could also help him become a better player. From what it sounds like though, your guitarist would annoy me loads. Rehearsal rooms cost money and it's a waste of time and money if a member of the band constantly has no idea what they're doing. I don't really enjoy sitting down while another member of the band spends 30mins figuring out what they should have learnt at home and I reckon it's disrespectful to act like that. It doesn't have to be spot on, but they should turn up ready to play something.

Ta for the extra info. I ended up thinking about it for a bit too long and it sold 😭 Serves me right for thinking about buying a new bass instead of just buying one!

I'd def agree with Lozz's point about not being able to use your own head all of the time and it's one of the reasons I use a separate preamp pedal. Another reason is that I'm in multiple bands and I want a completely different tone for each one. Ones a blues band that I want a warm, slightly overdriven, tube tone for. The other is more grunge/noise that I want a really horrible metallic aggy tone for. It's easier for me to bung my quilter head and small board in a back pack for a gig than have 2 big heads kicking around. If money was no object then having different heads would be an option, but a small class D head and a few preamp pedals works out cheaper too👍

Ah, I was just going to create a topic on this, so it's good to see it's not just mine and other people's necks have decided to go for a wander. Mine are on a wall and I've had the curtains drawn during the day, most are pretty stable but my MIJ PBass has bowed quite a bit. I'll leave it a few days for the weather to settle then have a tinker.

This is what I would do too. I've used the BDDI in the past like this and currently use the VTDI this way. If you're after that Sansamp tone, it's the surest way to get there.

Hello! Have you got any examples of what tone you're after? It's a funny thing describing sound with words, one person's zing is another person's thump! What strings are you using and how old are they? New strings have a brighter tone to them, so that'd probably be the first place I'd look. Something like rotosound swing bass will do the trick as they're up there with the brightest sounding strings. Make sure you're using a pick and dig in. All of that with the BDDI (what settings are you using too?) should get you fairly metallic sounding.

Has anyone got any info on the Aria Pro 2 Magna fretless? Any good or bad points about them? Ones come up for sale not too far away and is pretty tempting......

Yup, the second 70 comes down to the cost, which is why you get a 62-70US. No idea why that doesn't change with time as the price increases though?!?

I think they're about £200ish for the P and £250ish for the PJ. However, they've been waiting for a shipment for months apparently so are a bit hard to find now. I spoke to them a few weeks back and I think they're due in August, so hopefully not too long to wait. The red P is being discontinued though and replaced with a white model

Bang on. This is definitely something for me to have a go at rather than play in a band with (maybe one day I will though?) and I think the way you've put it about unlined forcing you to listen more is what I what unlined for too. I think the only options for unlined at the bottom end are..... The 2 Revelations...... https://www.revelationguitars.co.uk/guitar/rpb-65-fretless/ https://www.revelationguitars.co.uk/guitar/rpj-77-fretless/ DiMavery.....although I have no idea what it'll be like https://www.ltt-versand.de/en/sound/musical-instruments/basses/34627/dimavery-mm-501-e-bass-fretless-nature?gclid=CjwKCAjwoMSWBhAdEiwAVJ2ndrAH0Bjks_No6ISjnQpGNsFee1MCAfe_N3qoQcydblywEdcI1S9oqhoC51UQAvD_BwE Stagg BC300FL Vintage V940FL And that's pretty much it unless we're looking second hand and can pick up some sort of Aria or Westone. I think Warwick made a Rock bass fretless too. Out of those I think I'm leaning toward a 2nd hand Westone (or similar, if one turns up) or a Revelation.

I think in an ideal world it'd be unlined, but I'm not completely against lined. More like 80% against it 😆 From what little experience I've had playing fretless (which is only about 45mins, so very little!), it just felt like having lines was a bit like having stabilisers on. I don't look at my left hand lots when playing, but I kind of want to remove the safety net and I reckon unlined would be more of a challenge. The other reason probably has something to do with Jaco. A lot of basses in the budget fretless world are Jaco clones and I'd rather not have a lined sunburst jazz without a scratch plate.

My budget is about £400 max, but I'd be happier picking up something for nearer £200 to be honest. Has anyone played an Aria Magna fretless? There's an unlined one come up near me for pretty cheap. I found a thread with people talking about the fretted version and it seems the post MIJ Aria stuff is ok, nothing to write home about but decent enough if it's the right price?

The volume of reviews could be the issue here rather than Google purposely hiding them. Their algorithms will remove anything they think is spam, so a business getting 150 odd reviews in the last few hours is getting logged as suspicious and probably banked for review to make sure they're legit. They might come back. I thought some of the reviews were harsh though tbf. It's a crappy thing that they've done, but some of the reviews were written by people saying they were just going to go for a look at the venue and they've cancelled because they found out about the charge. They hadn't actually used the barn, but reviewed it anyway. It'd be a bit like giving a bass a bad review because of an issue you heard about, without actually playing it.

A referral scheme makes sense and isn't a bad idea in principal, plenty of businesses use them. It sounds like they've just thrown that out there as a way of trying to deal with all of the negative backlash though. 'Oh stinky poo, we've made a bad decision. What can we say to get out of it' There's no way that original email was written with the intention of introducing a sort of loyalty scheme with preferred suppliers.

And the classic pro before them, that's the only bass I genuinely regret selling. They're dirt cheap, feel great and sound monsterous!! I tried a classic pro and the full fat Gibson at the time and thought the Epiphone sounded much bigger. Little things like the machine heads were better on the Gibson, but the Epi ones were still decent

They're whaaaaaaat? I thought they we're in the £1.5k-ish territory - just looked and must have been thinking about the non reverse models. £300 extra for all of the upgrades def doesn't seem too bad then.

I'm just listening to 'Call on me/That's the way love is' and, although the 70s albums are good, I'm much preferring his earlier stuff. Spotify seems to have some pretty huge gaps in his discography, but I'll get through what they have and check out the rest on YT.

I hadn't much outside of 'Ain't no love.....' so gave 'Dreamer' & 'His California Album' a listen this morning. I really liked them, but sometimes when he sings he sounds like he's coughing up a loogie! 🤢

It costs a lot and might not be anything that new......but look at it! It's very easy on the eye. I guess either way you look at it, it's mostly aimed at collectors rather than players, but they've addressed quite a few niggles with the bridge and eq options with this.

So, hot on the heels of the Gene Simmons T'bird, Gibson release.....another signature T'bird! OK, so it's not a Grabber/Ripper reissue that I'd love to see, but this one makes a lot more sense to me though. I mean look at it. PHWOAR! https://www.peachguitars.com/gibson-rex-brown-thunderbird.htm

It's been a while, so have some great slow blues from Johnny Winter....

Good point! I was thinking that the only body I'd be happy to put a fretless neck on would be the Harley Benton PJ. However, I do have a G&L SB2 Tribute that I could see if I could find a fretless neck for..... The only unlined neck I could see on allparts was a finished PBass one for £407. I'll do some measuring and see if it'd fit. My only drawback is that I think I could get a decent fretless bass outright by the time I factor in the cost of fitting a decent neck. The G&L tribute Kiloton fretless is tempting (despite being sunburst and lined) at just over £480. It'd be nice to try one before ordering one in though.

Ah, what a gorgeous bass! I used to have one and it was the P bass that turned me back on to P basses. This model has the US pups and upgraded hardware, they're lovely basses and have amazing necks. Enjoy your new purchase!!!

I'm going to sound extremely fickle here.......but I'd rather not another sunburst bass. Otherwise the revelation PJ would be my go to choice. In an ideal world I'd have an unlined PJ in lake placid blue......but without the £2.3k price tag the Tony Franklin comes with. However, I think revelation are the way forward. I spoke to them the other day and they should have the unlined P in the UK in the next month or so....but in white now as the red is discontinued. The Dimavery MM is an interesting choice though. From what I hear they're up there with Harley Benton in terms of quality and equally cheap.