Cato

Has th e EQ on the amp in that top picture been set like that for tone purposes or just to make the whole stack look like a smiling happy robot?

I like the naturally scooped tone of a Jazz or PJ with both pickups on full. I might even boost the bas and treble a bit on an active onboard preamp to accentuate that tone, but I pretty much always run the amps with as neutral an EQ or tone shaping section as possible. As others have said we almost have too many tone shaping options in the chain these days. If I find a tone I like on the bass I'm not going to improve on it by fiddling with the amp as well.

'It's that old warehouse of Skank's again' is now in my head, sung to this tune...

I reckon the best tone I've got out of my Deluxe Special is when it's DI'd straight into my Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 interface with both pickups on full and the EQ on the bass flat. I'm fairly sure the Focusrite is supposed to be completely clean, with no influence on the sound coming into it so I think the only thing I'm hearing in that scenario is the natural tone of the bass and it's onboard preamp.

There's going to be an element of personal opinion about this, but I suspect that a lot of people are thinking of a very particular type of humbucker when they hear 'MM', specifically the kind you'd find in a Stingray.

I've always been a fan of the sound of 2 J pickups with all the controls maxed, but in the last couple of years my main bass has been an active PJ which not not only does a ballsier version of the JJ, but also has a couple of my other favourite core tones included in the package as well. i've never tried it but I suspect I'd be impressed with a P/MM combination for the same reasons.

Apart from Fender Custom shop or maybe top end Musicman stuff there's not that many places in the UK where you can try out basses in that price bracket. I suppose if you don't live near the Gallery or Bass Direct and you want to buy something boutique the only option is to buy blind online.

In the end I went with a 350 watt Hartke Head and a 4x10 Carlsboro cab. Which may actually have weighed slightly less than the Trace Combo.

Probably not much help but I remember trying out a Trace Elliot combo with an aluminium necked split headstock Kramer during the early 90s. I couldn't tell you the actual model though. I remember I was impressed with the bass, it certainly wasn't uncomfortable to play in any way. I seem to recall that it was probably the heaviest bass I'd ever used up to that point and I was a bit surprised by the weight, but it wasn't back breaking, at least not to 18 year old me. I reckon I've played much heavier basses since.

I definitely prefer the aesthetics.of laurel to the Pau Ferro Fender initially used as their Rosewood replacement. Although I thought I read somewhere that the CITES rules might be about to get tweaked and that Rosewood might be making a comeback. Edit: Found this https://www.guitarplayer.com/gear/rosewood-may-return-to-low-cost-guitars-in-2019 If it happens maybe the last couple of years worth of Pau Ferro boarded instruments will become collectables...

I suppose it depends on how much you think wood affects tone once you're plugged in. Personally I think pickup placement and pickup type affect plugged in tone far more than what wood the instrument is made of or what shape the body is.

I use mine pretty much every day for both guitar and bass. I'm starting to get really into home recording and the Helix provides an almost infinitely bigger pallette of different sounds and tones than I could ever afford or even fit in the house if each part of the digital chain was using a separate pedal or amp/cab. For my purposes it's perfect.

If it's happening (and I'm not ruling it out) it's happening very slowly. Top tip, Jazz basses need to be propped up in a corner. If you just leave them against a wall they will fall over eventually, possibly many hours after you last touched them. Don't ask me how many times I heard the ominous thud from upstairs before I worked this out.

All 4 of mine are permanently propped against the wall in the music room (spare bedroom). It doesn't seem to hurt them.

It's not a bad way to spend a birthday. Have a good one.

Nice one. I've always fancied an ASAT or one of their Comanche guitars.

I don't think G&L import many US made instruments into the UK although Andertons seem to have had a fairly large delivery of US skinny stringers recently so maybe they'll get some of the basses in at some point.

For a classic 80s pop fretless tone I'd go for chorus with a bit of reverb. Finding specifically which chorus and which reverb you like best may take some time. That's one of the only problems with the Stomp, there are almost too many options. It's a very nice problem to have though.

Lets face it, none of them sounded bad. The stand outs for me were the Ken Smiths and the MTDs which is a bit surprising as I consider myself to be more of a Jazz/PJ type guy. I must be developing expensive tastes.

Make sure your'e sitting down when you read the reply....

The guy is clearly some kind of evil genius. I found this clip of another of his creations. It gets interesting at about 50 seconds in.

I'd be surprised if the Fender pickups weren't different sizes for the neck and bridge. It's standard on a Fender Jazz that the bridge pickup is slightly wider than the neck.

The Pure Blues guitar strings are made from pure nickel wraps whereas I'm 90% sure the bass versions are made from a nickel alloy, so they might not have the same 'high tension' feel as the skinny version. Only one way to find out...

I've never tried the Pure Blues on a bass, but I put a set of my usual 10s on a skinny stringer Tele and had to take them off after a couple of weeks. They sounded great, but the tension on them felt like the guitar was strung with strings a couple of gauges higher, to the point where I was struggling to complete string bends that I normally don't even think about.

What about Jackson 5 songs from when MJ was a kid himself and presumably hadn't started down his later path?