Cato

Right handed, right leg. I'm at home this week so I just grabbed a bass and tried it on the left leg. Maybe it's closer to where it would be if it was hanging on the strap, but I found twisting round that extra bit really uncomfortable. Not to mention that the first fret suddenly feels miles away.

Sitting in a waiting room, Radio playing over the speakers. Paul Simon's Graceland comes on. That's a hell of a fretless bassline.

That's pretty much exactly what I would do.

I live literally about 20 minutes from Bass Direct but I've never been. The stock I'm interested in is the really high end stuff that I can't really afford and I'd feel a bit weird about going in there just to kick tyres. Feel free to PM me though if anyone needs a getaway driver with local knowledge or somewhere nearby to stash the loot until the heat dies down.

I've not done it since I was a skint student, but yes, boiling old roundwounds restores a lot of the zing. I seem to remember it being a fairly short term fix though.

It is a particularly good looking bass.

I can see it being useful for Ed Sheerhan style loop builders. Not sure who else it would appeal to. I'd have thought that most guitarists who need a bass guitar sound for home recording or as part of a band would already have a bass guitar. Most guitar multi FX seem to have a bass sim as standard anyway.

Don't forget the endless stream of novelty/comedy songs that dominated the charts throughout the sixties.

I suspect the real problem is that we're getting older.

I started my bass effects journey with a Zoom B1on which I initially bought purely for silent home practice. The latest equivalent model would be the Zoom B1 four. For around £50 you can try just about every category of effect (chorus/filter/compression etc), try out various preamps and discover which ones, if any, you think will benefit your sound.

I don't know about the used stuff but they seem to be expanding in terms of the brands they stock.

You could both join up and see who gets kicked off first. Tell us how you get on in a 'Ricky and Teebs - adventures on TalkBass' diary thread on here.

Annecdotal evidence I've heard over the years from BC members who've been banned from TB suggests it doesn't take much. I suspect derailing a thread with cheese puns (standard BC practice) would probably do it.

Theres this. Although I have to confess to feeling unexpected violent urges whilst listening to it. Must just be that sort of song.

Isn't every pre WW2 blues song about squeezing plums and trampling on vines?

There's a few on ebay but they all seem to be in the US and none of them are cheap. https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=fender+mustang+bass+neck It might be worth talking to Andertons or Thomann or any of the really big Fender dealers to see if they might be able to order one in.

In the greater scheme of things that people spend vast amounts of money on, bass gear is definitely towards the more harmless end of the spectrum.

Didn't Gibson used to have a policy of destroying slightly damaged guitars rather than allowing them to be sold as B stock? I vaguely recall watching a youtube clip of a guy going through US music store's dumpster and finding a Les Paul that had been smashed beyond repair by the shop because of some slight flaw.

My brother in law has a Harley Benton Jazz. My only criticism of it is that it's pretty heavy. Sounds just like a Jazz bass though.

I have both. I have tried both with basses and skinny stringers and I've never been that impressed with the results of using the G1on for bass or the B1on for guitar. I think the drives/distortions on both units are a bit weak which isn't an issue on bass because I nearly always play clean but for guitar it's more of a problem. For me, personally, whilst still being a perfectly usable and decent unit I don't think G1on is as good for guitar as the B1on is for bass. Since getting a Stomp I don't think I've touched the G1on whereas there are a couple of things on the B1on, such as envelope filters, which I reckon are actually better for bass than the equivalent effects on the Helix.

I was a bit surprised by that as well Marcus generally seems more down to earth than that. I saw a clip of him talking about why he uses the ashtray pickup cover on his basses a few years ago. He started off talking about how it improves his tone by altering the magnetic field from the pickups.....before revealing that he's only joking and the only reason he uses the covers is because it never occurred to him to take them off when he got his first Jazz and he's so used to them now that basses without them feel weird to him.

Basses and most guitars are pretty simple. But I'd quite happily pay for someone to change the strings and do the set up on any guitar with a Floyd Rose style trem/locking nut. It can be a right tedious PITA .

Looking at that reminds me how relatively easy the Helix is to set up.

I think it may have have been a bit of a gateway drug for me. Since playing about with the Stomp reverbs on guitar, I've been having thoughts about a Strymon Blue Sky as well. I'm probably going to end up getting some sort of dedicated bass synth pedal too. Then maybe a really good envelope filter. And possibly a board to put them all on....

The new ZeroAmp Bass DI (Sansamp clone) is hands down the nicest sounding, most usable drive/distortion effect I've ever used on a bass. Makes me want to try a real Sansamp.