project_c

i realise this is a broad subject but i'm just interested in a few opinions / ideas from people who know more about the subject than me. i just need to be pointed in the right direction. i've been learning on a yamaha rbx and the more i learn, the more i notice that i'm starting to outgrow it. my 2 main problems are: the tone on the yamaha is weak (strings sound a bit dead even when brand new and the sustain is fairly non existent), and the chunky pickups have thumbrest 'gaps' built into them in a way that makes it awkward to shift my thumb down to the e string. i've learnt the floating anchor technique with this bass but that first shift down is still always annoying. (other rbx users will know what i mean) so now i've started looking around for something new, and will spend a bit of time looking around for new/used deals. things i'm looking for: 4 string with a decent clean tone with a bit of growl and lots of sustain, low action, and a fairly modern sound and look. i'm still learning and can't really justify something amazing and hi-end, i'm happy to look at active/passive, i love the way vintage fender p's sound but i'm not so keen on how they look, but that's just a minor issue, tone and playability are the main issues. is £500 about the right amount? what brands should i look out for / avoid? am i likely to get an amazing deal second hand or do you always get what you pay for? any advice is welcome, thanks in advance.

i only spotted the groove library the other day and thought it was a great idea, but it seems very under-used. i come from a production background and have a lot of beats / loops at my disposal and i'm happy to contribute whatever people need, so i thought i'd ask if there are any requests or if there's anything that might be useful to people here. i noticed that everything there at the moment is loop-based, and i thought it may be a good idea instead to upload 3 or 4 minute long drum tracks instead, for those that don't want to bother with software and just want some beats to play to. would that be useful? i find that old rock and funk breaks are far better for practice than a metronome, not only because there are real drum sounds involved but because they have a very 'human' feel to them, which helps give you a direction when you're writing or just noodling. anyway just thought i'd mention it, i'm happy to upload a mountain of stuff if anyone wants it, let me know.

light it up and roll it out... [attachment=10966:mello.mp3]

this one's a head-nodder.. [attachment=10965:littleone.mp3]

i have a million little things like this lying around, just breaks with simple riffs on top, i can upload a few if anyone's interested. alternatively, would it be useful for anyone if i just uploaded drum tracks without any other stuff on top? i've been programming beats for many years so i have a giant library of homebrew breaks and beats, i find them much better for practice than metronomes. also, would it be more useful if the drum tracks were say 3 minutes long instead? that way you could just grab them and get straight to playing without faffing around with looping etc. i'm happy to share them if you want them. [attachment=10938:roller.mp3]

the bass cellar in denmark street did mine in a couple of hours, if you go early enough in the day and they're not too busy they're pretty fast, so long as you don't need major repair.