lemmywinks

Just grabbed the Ibanez EHB1505-PLF they had at £767, PMT's usual price was already a couple of hundred less than everywhere else as well - they're normally up at around £1.3k. The discounts on the Ashdown pedals are sub half price: https://www.pmtonline.co.uk/ashdown-type-23-dynamic-filter https://www.pmtonline.co.uk/ashdown-studio-compressor

Had decided a while ago to upgrade my current main bass, been liking a more modern 2 x humbucker approach and will be looking to use the opportunity to get something a bit lighter than the 11.6lb Sire I currently use, hopefully around 8lbs. Needs to be a 5 string with 18-19mm spacing. Had basically set my heart on waiting for a used MTD KZ5 to turn up within grabbing distance and set aside a bit of money for a pickup upgrade (Nordstrand/Barts) at some point, probably around £800ish total spend, however the Ibanez EHB1505 with the Nordstrand Big Splits is currently on sale as a silly price so I've been considering that. I can remember the Ibanez had a lot of QC issues with these basses, is there any still being shipped like this? Also is the low B just good for a cheaper bass or is it genuinely up there with more expensive stuff? I've always liked Cort factory low Bs but tbh my current Sire does it better than all the 5 string Corts I've owned. It's the standard 34" version of the Ibanez I'm looking at, not the multiscale.

They're quite easy to open up though so might be worth having a look first.

Have this amp and it's quiet in operation, no odd noises or anything. I'd just send it back, they're very cheap amps and you can pick them up for next to nothing - one on Facebook now for £110 with the footswitch.

A pal of mine was looking for a LP recently, money was no object (mortgage free/high earner) and he eventually went with an Epi Joe Bonamassa sig as it was the best one he picked up regardless of brand/price.

It's actually impressive how consistently bad Gibsons are, shambolic company turning out hilarious tat. Must take some balls to send that out the door though, like they just don't care as long as some schmuck coughs up the dough for it.

I think it was returned and they said it was within spec.

Also just about everybody listening to RatM or Dream Theater knows the name of the bass player and what he looks like. Like you said - that's how a signature instrument happens.

A lot of people seriously overestimating how well known Tony Levin is and as a result how well a sig model would sell.

Same situation here, I can see it from the other side that unless a pub is independent they will need monstrous takings to cover band fees however that doesn't mean it's ok to expect people work for slave wages. This year we've had more than the usual quota of one off events with very demanding requirements (last one wanted two 3hr sets), the old caveat of limited budget mentioned right at the end and the promise to cover our costs. Presumably that meant fuel for one vehicle and a service station sandwich between the five of us. Still some great gigs out there but everybody is definitely feeling the pinch, just a shame musicians expected to take the brunt before anybody else has to.

I think they're 100% trolling, after all originally Stratton made Sterling Ball produce a pricey clone of his cheapo Carlo Robelli bass which was itself a knockoff Musicman. Top grade clowning going on here I think.

Larry Hartke went through a stage of randomly sticking basses on his BBQ and posting the photos on Facebook. Tbh most of them looked better than this one.

Pretty much no band scene here, back when I was young and playing originals we had a fair few venues who would do band nights, that's gone now. A lot are struggling, a few friends of mine went to see the guy from Gomez not so long ago and aside from them there was about a dozen people there, this was for a heavily advertised local gig with dirt cheap entry fee and a recognisable name. The only types of venues where people will actively go to watch bands are pubs that do punk nights and one pub that trades almost exclusively in dad-rock covers bands. Must be horrible for young musicians starting out looking to gig, I had loads of opportunities on my doorstep when I was that age.

Just grab a decent quality speakon-jack lead with proper Neutrik ends and good quality cable. I have a stash of obbm ones (no longer in production) and also one from designacable, will do you for your entire bass playing life. One of my obbm cables is about 14yrs old I think and still gets used every rehearsal.

I never saw the point in a budget 8x10, they're just there for show IMO. If a cab is built down to a keen price I'd rather have the limited spec budget go towards 1 or 2 decent drivers than 8 complete pish ones. FWIW I owned the VX215 and the VX1508, neither were great and got completely blown away by the XL cabs that replaced them which cost used about what I'd paid for the VX cabs.

Is this like the bass version of a copycat killer?

Mine is earlier than that, I bought it used well before Gen 2 was announced so maybe they did start sourcing better ones. They work, just not as well as good quality tuners and there's a bit of play in the tuning key. I wonder if the Gen 2 all have the nicer ones.

Here's what was fitted to my Sire V7 Gen1, different tuners

Nice one cheers! Have a planned bass purchase coming up and I'm still undecided about keeping the Sire as a backup or not. Originally intended to put all the stock parts back on and sell the lot but then I played it for a bit and had second thoughts, as you do.

In fact @Rich do you have a pic with yours installed?

If I hang on to my Sire I'll 100% be getting those string retainers, the bar thing annoys the hell out of me!

Tuners on mine (Gen1 V7 Alder) were very cheap feeling and didn't hold their tuning all that well, functional up to a point but definitely felt like some corners had been cut. Dunno if the newer ones are any better, tbh if I wanted to upgrade a Sire on a budget now I'd probably just import a Guyker/Jin Ho set for £20-£25. RE bridges some people had issues with the through body holes being too close to the intonation points of the saddles, particularly on the early standard V7 4 string (the 5er had a slightly different style of bridge) and the vintage (threaded saddle) 5er. I think they may have had issues with bridge/through hole placement on the early vintage V7, look at this one from a different thread: On my regular V7 5 string it was fine if a little bit too close to vertical on the B string for my liking due to the saddles being overly long behind the break point of the string. There were also a couple of people who had the intonation screws break in the early runs of the V7, assume this was sorted quickly as I haven't heard of it since.

I replaced the standard bridge with a Gotoh 404BO which is great, also solved the issue of the original saddles being overly long and creating a sharp angle on the string thru holes. They have 19mm on the 4 and 18mm for the 5 and the string through holes match, you'll need to drill new screw holes though. Looks like the Gotoh design has changed slightly since then and they now use longer saddles so YMMV. A good budget bridge upgade for Sires would be to just get better saddles and intonation screws. For tuners I put a set of Schallers on mine (they were cheap second hand) although Ultralites might be a good option for weight saving. Realistically the tuners are the only thing that really need upgrading unless you have a mechanical issue with the bridge, this was more common on the early ones IIRC.

Don't see these all that often, beautiful basses and this one looks to be underpriced by a decent wedge: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/175354614117?hash=item28d3f31165:g:tQYAAOSwbG5iijkt

Yeah you'd just get the Spector Rex. Reminds me a little bit of when Dean and Gibson released posthumous John Entwistle and Hendrix sigs respectively via deals with their estates, at least this time Gibson are cashing in while the guy is still alive! Saw a review of the new Gibson Mustaine V, got absolutely shredded and not in a good way.