Russ

Agreed. Just making the point that that's how the SimS pickups were sold - that one pickup could do the job of three. There are many other pickup manufacturers who offer switchable humbucker/single coil/split coil pickups, but, for the most part, they don't sell them as a "these can do it all" sort of solution. The original Enfield Cannon bass, with the huge single Super 8 pickup, was actually a much better solution than the later models with the two separate pickups.

I remember playing a few back when they first came out. Gorgeous looking things, but, despite the promises, the pickups couldn’t really nail P, J or MM in a way that was satisfying or particularly authentic. They had their own great sound, but the big selling point - that they could ape all those other sounds - just didn’t ring true for me. YMMV, but I wasn’t convinced. To get an authentic MM sound, you need the active electronics to work on specific frequencies, which are different to the frequencies you’d use on an active Jazz for that Marcus tone, or the frequencies you’d want to use to bring the bark out of a P pickup (all mids, and the basses had no midrange control).

There were two tricks with his recorded sound. First was that the Ibanez he plays, an old SR1305 (which his K5 was based on), had the old Ibanez Vari-Mid circuit, with a parametric midrange EQ control - he set the frequency towards the upper mids, and dialled it all out, leaving the low end and that “clack” that he’s famous for. The earlier versions of the K5 - the version with the mahogany body/padauk top combo - also had this circuit. Not sure the newer versions do though. Secondly, he recorded through a big Hughes & Kettner rig, taking a direct sound and a miked sound, but the mic was pointed directly at the tweeters in the cab.

I’m considering a 5-string as a project bass - would be a good platform for a Turner/Lusithand electronics setup, tuned EADGC. The pickups look like standard-sized MM humbuckers so it should be easy.

Used Bongos are quite rare, and not cheap. The people who like them REALLY like them and tend not to part with them. I sold two of mine for the same money I paid for them. This new SBMM version is probably down to the Bongo having somewhat higher visibility in recent times, with the likes of all-bass Australian prog outfit The Omnific using them.

As a bit of a Bongo aficionado, I'm definitely interested in seeing what these are like. I do like a bit of Firemist Purple - I used to have a fretless Bongo 5 in that colour. My big wish is for MM to add the Bongo to their customisation tool. They make far less of them than they do Stingrays, so surely offering them in custom colours should be much easier?

Envelope filter. Lots of two-handed slap (ie, using the fretting hand to make percussive ghost notes in between the thumb slaps, a la Mark King). Mark (TalkingBass) tells you all about it here:

https://www.basscentre.com.au/ - brilliant shop on the south bank. Loads of stock, and a lot of lovely high-end stuff too. As an added bonus, if you like acoustic guitars, the upstairs of the shop has loads of lovely stuff. I am partial to an Australian Maton acoustic...

I've never bought something that I hated outright, but I have had basses that I've loved when playing them by myself, or in the shop, but then I got them into a band environment and they just didn't work in context. A bit of an expensive lesson, but every time this has happened, it was definitely a learning experience for what I look for in basses. I'm a lot better informed and better prepared these days.

Alembic make Wal look cheap. But they probably have slightly better lead times. They are absolutely stunning instruments though, and sound like nothing else. But I have yet to play one (with the possible exception of the little Stanley Clarke model, which isn't particularly heavy but balances awfully) that wasn't a complete boat anchor in terms of weight. It's all that brass and maple.

What a stunning collection you have there, @ziggydolphinboy. I've never had more than two Seis at a time.

No - the bass was actually pretty light. The body was swamp ash, and I think it weighed about 8.5lbs altogether. The amboyna is just a top.

It'd be easy to blame the ICEpower Class D power modules, since they're something most Class D heads have in common, but it's never the power amps that go. It's always something in the preamps. The rehearsal room I go to has several Darkglass AO900s, and they seem to stand up pretty well to the rigours of rehearsal room life. If you don't kick on the distortion mode, but use the "bite" and "growl" controls, it can actually get quite SVT-ish (although the Microtubes does a better job, I think).