lemmywinks

I've liked every cheap Aria I've had, from the £45 J bass to various Integras. Didn't pay over £99 for any of them either, one which I wish I'd owned was the IGB 68. I had the passive 4 string version with the dark stain though and gigged it for a bit, that cost me £50! I still have an early Samick Integra with Japanese parts and body/headstock shape.

Wow, there's some beautiful instruments for Japanese players isn't there?

Kinda proves what he was saying, they are a long way from being a boutique builder.

That looks great! I really like the shape of those RSBs, reminds me a bit of the Avante bass they did.

That looks completely nuts for £200, good OS compatibility too.

That blue thing looks bloody awful and I'm a fan of that shape, the old standard IGB 68 looked better than that. They used to do the odd limited run of nice looking basses, dunno if they were just for trade shows or if any made it out to shops on a regular basis. Stuff like this: There was the Rosie which was pretty easily available a few years ago: Bit puzzling why they've gone for such a cheap looking bass for their new flagship when they can clearly come up with much better designs. The RSBs look cool, shame the cheaper models don't have the clear pickguards though.

This is a cheaper solution, has Ibanez written on it though. Not tried it myself but it should fit and has 18mm spacing: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/5-String-IB-Electric-Bass-Transbody-Bridge-Chrome-Behind-the-strings-Bridge/32834794882.html?spm=2114.search0104.3.219.3ee0777bXrr8m5&ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_4_10152_10065_10151_10344_10068_10130_10324_10342_10547_10325_10343_10340_10341_10548_10696_10192_10190_10084_10083_10618_10307_10301_10303_5711215_10313_10059_10184_10534_100031_10103_10627_10626_10624_10623_10622_5711315_10621_10620_5722415,searchweb201603_25,ppcSwitch_4&algo_expid=98320dcb-bdd8-4e4f-ad32-ce4cf1089ef2-34&algo_pvid=98320dcb-bdd8-4e4f-ad32-ce4cf1089ef2&priceBeautifyAB=0

The Sires have funny bridges with oversize saddles which can make intonation a bit of a pain when stringing through body as the break angle is very sharp, more an issue on the B string due to how thick and stiff it is. The problem is the saddles extend back quite a bit behind the break point of the string, from memory the 4 string bridge on these was worse. Although it is annoying intonation should be fine. I have a Gotoh bridge on mine, the 404-5 which is £75 and this has much more sensible saddles with a more gentle break angle. Not a cheap solution but as you can see the strings have an easier time going through the body.

Thanks for the offer, I think I'll just go for the 5 knob SBK 3A when I have some Paypal credit (I have very strict gear buying rules I set for myself!). the overall cost is very discouraging when ordering from the USA though. I have a pal who comes over a few times a year so I might see if he can sneak one over for me.

I was looking at that one, I have similarly configured Artec in my backup bass (an old Korean Cort C5P with the piezo bridge removed) but the mid sweep doesn't work and Artec weren't very helpful, in fact I have two like that and only found out they were faulty when I went to install them a year after purchase. Shame as every other Artec pre I've had has been great.

Earthing issue aside he makes that sound great, his style isn't the type I usually go for (that whole Wooten generic gospel funk stuff - give me some Brick any day) but his playing is so full of life. Great personality to have on YouTube. Gonna have a look at those Tone Monster preamps, I've had Artecs in a few basses and you can get startlingly good sounds out of them. I can remember when budget preamps were universally awful things. pretty cool that there's drop in solder free replacements that cost the same as a pack of strings.

I love that guy, he just always seems so excited to be playing bass. or even being in the same room as a bass. I'm pretty sure you could send him an email that just said "bass" and he'd squeal with laughter. He's got another Chinese Fauxdera too, I think he's quite handy at fettling basses though (he did a restoration of an old KS) so he can do any work himself.

Ssshhhh, it's the secret Fodera woodland timber fairies which hand select every piece of wood when it is a mere sapling, then play their magic flute as it grows so it produces the correct timbre when it becomes a body blank. But don't tell anybody, they'll all be doing it then. Besides, Shuker hasn't even got the frets and pickups in straight on that bass, the nitwit.

To be honest I don't care what a Fodera costs new, if they want to charge that and people are prepared to pay it then good on them. People pay many times more for inanimate objects to decorate their homes, at least a Fodera is a functional instrument albeit a bit naff looking (so is that Maruszczyk Sputnik thing IMO). Just don't try and justify it with silly excuses like astronomical rent prices, super secret wood selection processes by magical forest fairies or amazing expertise that no other luthier can offer. They are just one boutique brand turning out high end instruments among many others, with the high profile comes a high price and that's totally fine. If you want one then by all means get the cheque book out, you only live once.

One free with every purchase!

Here's a Shuker which with all the fancy options will likely set you back over £4k, a higher spec and more striking instrument than the £15k Fodera for me:

They aren't doing anything different from basically every other custom builder, all of them have some exceptional wood to choose from and select nice pieces for each individual build. I think you're giving them far too much credit for doing what boutique builders are supposed to do - they get nice blanks of wood from their chosen supplier, there's no special mystic selection process.

I don't think there is any debate that brexit has already had a tremendously negative effect on our economy and it's going to get worse - much worse. Sorry to hear about your job tauzero.

That's not how any of that works.

Warwick > Spector though.........

Hahaha I never noticed that! There's some superficially nice looking basses on AliExpress but you don't know what horrors await when you try and play the thing. Check out this Warwick Infinette knockoff, one F-hole appears to have been lined with newspaper and the other has had loads of old wiring shoved in it:

Yeah I have no doubt it would be awful, they will copy anything though. There's Alembic, Ken Smith, Mayones - even Lemmy's custom Rick with all the engraving!

Yeah sure! https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Top-Quality-Natural-Wood-Color-5-Strings-Bass-Guitar-Golden-Hardware-Guitar-Maple-Fretboard-Free-Shipping/32953570895.html?spm=2114.search0104.3.82.73402147RxgfBl&ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_4_10065_10068_10130_10547_319_317_10548_10696_10192_10190_453_10084_454_10083_10618_431_10307_10820_10301_10821_10303_537_536_10059_10884_10887_100031_321_322_10103,searchweb201603_53,ppcSwitch_0&algo_expid=97731b41-449d-4014-8517-e69771d8e847-13&algo_pvid=97731b41-449d-4014-8517-e69771d8e847

They cost that much because people will pay it, even though they look a bit gash.

With the shop I went it it sounded like they didn't have much choice - either display non-competitive prices and risk customers walking out to buy online or don't display any and risk customers walking out anyway. The manager of this store basically said they had an enforced minimum price to sell items at, it's a very good shop with extremely nice staff too.