Russ

When you see them, bear in mind that Doug is 58 years old... He still looks and performs like he's in his thirties...

Good-sounding bass - big, thick and with the trademark Spector growly mids. Although, as has already been mentioned, rather heavy and the one I tried had a serious tendency for neck dive. Not the most comfortable neck either, alas. In that price range, I'd probably go for the Ibby SR506 or the 6-string Ibby BTB. That's my tastes though. But, if you can, try the Spector - if you're comfortable with it, go for it.

First bass was : An awful "Axe" P-bass copy, in 1991 From : An ad in Loot... had to trek up to Ealing to pick it up. And it came in a tacky transparent gig bag! It cost : £80 Which today is : Last time I saw it, was hanging up on the wall at Rockbottom in Croydon. Back in the day, I customised it a bit in an attempt to make it a bit less crap - added a Seymour Duncan J pickup, sanded all the paint off the neck and headstock, and made my own headstock decal using black paint and Letraset. I had to pick it up and try it since I hadn't seen it in 15 years since I sold it to a schoolgirl who wanted to learn bass, and it was just as awful as it was when I first had it. Neck like a banana, tinny tone, neck dive... I was tempted to buy it back - sentimental value and all that - but they wanted £150 for it! Using that inflation calculator, it works out to be worth £124.80 now...

Dunno what it is about bass players, but most bass players I know who also have a guitar have a Telecaster... strange. I had one for a while. Got an Epiphone Les Paul now though, for all my skinny-string needs.

I hung out with Mark a few years ago at one of the Bass Player Bass Days, over here in NYC. Top bloke. Anyway, enough with the pleasantries... what did they have that was new for NAMM?

[quote name='bubinga5' post='375597' date='Jan 9 2009, 09:06 PM']The Lakland IMHO, is in a different league compared though..Longer scale length of the Laky, may be a deal breaker mind... What about a second hand MIM Jazz? Must try a squire jazz out, heard so many good things about them..[/quote] The 4-string Laklands are 34" scale, only the 5-strings are 35". I'd also recommend trying out something like a Squier VM Jazz - I was pleasantly surprised, and for £250 or so, it was one of the best deals out there.

[quote name='bubinga5' post='375398' date='Jan 9 2009, 05:58 PM']PBY, i would say a great bass to go for is the Lakland 44-01 for sale in the for sale section here. £400.00 from Riddler Awsome bass, and very versatile, Bartolini pick ups..i would say for that money, there is no better...[/quote] +1. For £400 you can't go wrong.

[quote name='waynepunkdude' post='375393' date='Jan 9 2009, 05:57 PM']Is Rockbass to Warwick what Squier is to Fender?[/quote] Pretty much, yeah. Made somewhere in the Far East. Did you notice that the Rockbasses, in addition to the nicer headstock, also have the proper Warwick 2-piece bridge now? Much better.

[quote name='waynepunkdude' post='375353' date='Jan 9 2009, 05:32 PM']TM Stevens Signature Streamer is horrendous.[/quote] It's certainly very "him", and it's going to be a much nicer bass than that Cort thing he was endorsing before. Can't see them selling too many though, since it's basically just a SSI with a custom paint job. I'm actually quite surprised that TM got the Warwick endorsement again - great player, but he hasn't got much of a profile any more. Gone are the days when he backed up James Brown, The Pretenders, Tina Turner, Billy Joel, Steve Vai, etc.

[quote name='Josh' post='375352' date='Jan 9 2009, 05:31 PM']The Stu Zender Sig is a massive dissapointment.[/quote] I quite like it - it's certainly different, and I like the fact that he has a custom design instead of just a tweaked Streamer or Thumb. Not liking the inlays though. Out of all of them, I'd definitely have that P-Nut sig bass. Looks stunning.

[url="http://www.warwick.de/forum/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=9174&start=0"]http://www.warwick.de/forum/phpBB2/viewtop...174&start=0[/url] Enjoy... The new Zender bass has a definite Carl Thompson vibe, not sure about the inlays though. Those new Rockbasses are sweet - they look so much better without that cheap-looking logo all over the headstock.

[quote name='martfitz' post='374536' date='Jan 8 2009, 10:27 PM']They're not to fill the gap left by the OLP and SUB as these new ones aren't budget basses, that gap is going to be filled by something else, allegedly [/quote] From what I understand, they're going to be the EB/MM equivalent of Fender's MIM/MIK basses, made in the Far East somewhere, so they will be a lower price point. Probably more like SUB replacements than OLP ones in terms of quality, though. Probably also a response to G&L's well received Tribute range too.

From my experience, the pre-EB Stingrays (and some of the very early EB ones) have a somewhat different colour to their tone on the 2-band EQ models - the older ones are a little more midrangey and punchy, where the newer ones are brighter with less mids. They both have that typical MM "thwack" to the tone, but, to my ears, the older ones seem to move more air. The newer ones are most definitely better made though, with the 6-bolt neck, body-end truss rod adjustment, etc. Plus, the finishes are far better.

I played a 55-01 with a pair of Nordy Big Singles recently... HUGE Jazz Bass tone. Definitely worth the upgrade - actually sounded way better than its big brother, the 55-02.

Looks like EB/MM are putting out a new range to fill in the gap left by OLP and the SUB range... [url="http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=3FG3ZSiKrYE"]Sterling by Ernie Ball[/url] I'll have the Ray35, please.

Love it. Wish I was back in the UK to try out. Should be back around June/July time, so if you're not sorted by then, give me a shout.

Been on there for years, and have around 1800 posts or so (not that many in the grand scheme of things). It's a great resource for gear-related info, but it is hugely US-centric (even as a Brit who's been in the US for the last 14 months), and many posters' (and mods') attitudes to religion, guns, other countries, etc irritate the hell out of me. I much prefer the vibe here. But the Lobby, and, formerly, Tin Pan Alley were always good for a laugh.

I keep the bass at a height where I can keep both my wrists straight - my wrists never hurt after playing now (I was worried about RSI and carpal tunnel). On me, that works out to be about lower-stomach level, maybe a little lower than the bass sits when I play it on my knee. There's a lot of variables there, such as being able to reach the end of the neck comfortably, the balance of the bass and so on, but I do think the straight wrists thing is pretty important.

[quote name='geoffbassist' post='349259' date='Dec 9 2008, 01:34 AM'] As i was driving home today my boot came open, the bass fell out the car on the motorway and was runover many times in its case (overwater soft case). I had been driving for over an hour so it was a bit of a shock! luckly no one was hurt, except the bass.... Its a real nightmare, im a freelance bassist and this is my only instrument! I think i know someone who can lend me a bass to help over the christmas period but its a real blow, i really loved that bass, best ive ever owned. I think an email to fbass to find out how much a new neck would be is the best way forward as the rest of the bass is ok.... It was really dangerous though and im lucky i didnt cause an accident...[/quote] Ouch. That is not good. Get that bass up to Jon Shuker (he's in Sheffield) or any other decent nearby luthier. Looks like a fairly clean break, so it should be fixable without too many issues, and it's probably cheaper than a new neck. But drop George Furlanetto a line - maybe if you send him the neck, he can sort it out for you. I gather he's a nice guy and very accommodating. Moral of the story - the bass always rides in the passenger seat from now on.

I guess it depends on which direction you want to go in. Undoubtedly, London is the place to be if you want studio/session work or profitable function band gigs. If you're looking for success in a band environment though, the UK has different hotspots where labels go to seek out talent - ie, Manchester still has a huge indie scene, Yorkshire is a hotspot for rock music, Cardiff/South Wales seems to be an up-and-coming area for many different genres, and Scotland (esp. Edinburgh) is well known for having a good range of singer/songwriter gigs. Although, to be honest, London has all these too. You'll have the widest range of opportunities there, although it's not necessarily the be-all and end-all.

[quote name='silverfoxnik' post='340807' date='Nov 29 2008, 10:48 PM']If you mean the original Wal pick ups & electronics, then the answer's no; they've never been available seperately as I understand it. Only once have I ever seen the Wal electronics on another bass and that was made by a luthier called Jeff Finch, so he must have known the guys at Wal to get that to happen.[/quote] I owned a fretless 5-string Sei with the full Wal electronics setup for a while... however, I believe these were actually cannibalised from a Wal, rather than provided separately. That was a lovely bass - it's living in Japan now.

[quote name='Faithless' post='339459' date='Nov 28 2008, 12:50 PM']Why then? [/quote] I'd say it's because that's "his" bass - he's been using it for over 20 years and it's completely comfortable for him. Plus, it sounds fantastic. He's been through his signature series Ibbys, not to mention various other basses, and keeps coming back to the old Spector. I saw him on the Living Colour Collideoscope tour, around the time he had the Ibby endorsement, and he used the Ibbys for maybe two songs - he used the Spector for all the rest.

[quote name='bremen' post='335711' date='Nov 24 2008, 06:32 PM']Heard his stuff with Tackhead? and Keith LeBlanc's solo stuff? Dirty, dirty bass! It's what made me buy a Thumb :-)[/quote] Shame he used his orange Spector on 90% of the stuff he's recorded. I have seen him with a Thumb 6 though. I love Doug... I find his playing to be supremely inspiring. He can groove like a monster, yet he has these amazing solo chops, not to mention the wild sounds he gets out of his pedals... I went to one of his bass clinics, and it was awesome... from deep groove to Jaco-esque harmonics to Jeff Beck-style soloing over loops in one tune. The Little Axe stuff is fantastic from a bass perspective. Funny guy too, lots of great stories from the road and from the many gigs he's done. He does have some unusual techniques though... the technique you're talking about is almost a reverse slap... he "slaps" the strings with his fingertips, and pops the lower strings with his thumb - he can get this technique going pretty bloody fast too. He also has that very strange technique where he hits the strings with a small jam jar... certainly a unique sound!

The new Marshall stuff is pretty decent (although, IMO, Marshall haven't made a truly great bass amp since the DBS series). I say go for it, but put a bit aside afterwards for an extension cab - adding a 15" or a 4x10" is going to make a huge difference, volume-wise.

A bit like the car industry, there's no British mass-market guitar manufacturers any more, but there are a lot of custom shops. Plenty of TVRs and Nobles, but no British Leyland, if you get my drift. I think all the main culprits have been mentioned - GB, Sei, Shuker, GB, Status, Overwater, ACG, Iceni, Gus, Enfield, Jaydee, RIM, Wal, etc. You'll find plenty of examples of all of these in the Bass Pr0n forum.