Russ

I hate this sort of discussion. Charles Berthoud is an incredibly talented musician (who can most definitely play 'regular' bass), and him and his ilk aren't out to steal your gig. If that's not what you want to do, fair enough, you do you, but don't knock others who do enjoy that sort of thing, and who have put in the practice to be able to pull it off well. Remember, as a member of a band, you're the entertainment - lots of people like slap and find it entertaining. Like anything musical, don't over-egg the pudding, but don't discount it just because you can't do it!

Not everyone hates them. I have three.

That's the one. I also recall seeing a picture of him playing a black fretless one, with a single pickup, like the one that Tony Franklin used to play in his Firm days.

Didn't Jaco have, or at least, play a Jaydee too at one point? Vaguely recall seeing pictures of him with a fretless one (only a 4-string though!).

I'm sure they still have the router templates, etc to make them and could if they wanted. But I guess they're overstretched with what they've already got on their plates (all MK-style Supernatural 4-strings apparently, based on this thread. )

I also disliked the headstock on the Sadowsky Metro Express basses, but not because of the shape, because of the tacky decal. Looked like a 12-year-old had made it with a sheet of Letraset. But they're fixing that. I'm quite sensitive to headstock shapes and details!

The top horn on those was very short, they didn't look like they would balance well. Probably designed to be played up at armpit level, a la Mark King. As I said earlier in this thread, it's a shame they haven't really continued to evolve the designs. Since J-type basses are kinda the thing right now, a new and updated Celeste (better balance, lightweight design, etc) would have seemed a pretty sensible move for them. I guess they have enough work making their classic designs (as this thread proves) but it'd be nice to see them "widen their remit" again.

Nice upgrades. But I wish they'd revise that headstock. It's always been fugly and isn't getting any less fugly with age.

He was rocking the Status Matrix 5 in that video. I think he’s currently using the Jaydees for Level 42 but he still plays the Statuses regularly. He was using the Status Kingbass when he did the Taylor Hawkins tribute show in LA a couple of weeks back.

Best Jazz sound I ever heard was a USA Jazz with Delano pickups (the ones with the big, MM-style polepieces) and a series/parallel switch, set to series. Sounded somewhere between a Precision and a MM and was absolutely thunderous.

Look how many times people have said that about Jaco. Hasn't stopped his son playing Fodera 6-strings. Even MK plays a 5 sometimes! EDIT: Video evidence.

They're not big on 5- and 6-strings anymore though - it's the GA24 or nothing if you want a 5, and I'm not sure they even make the Calibas anymore if you want a 6. Maybe they still make then to order? I miss the Celeste basses - they were great, they should start those up again.

Mark King was on BBC South East Today last week, and he had his white Jaydee with him. Guess he's fully back on board with them now!

There's definitely a balance to be struck with the compressor between the input stage and compressor. Then again, I quite like heavy compression and I tend towards that Tony Levin tone, so I have the compressor at about 1 o'clock for both bands. One of the few things I don't like about it is there's no overload light on the input stage. It'd be nice if they could make the ring around the input knob flash red when it's overloading in the next revision. You kinda have to do it by ear. That's something the old Traces got right.

Surprisingly not... happy to be an occasional freight forwarder though. I miss Bass Bashes. Last one I was at was, like, 10 years ago.

Dupe, sorry....

I had a SVT-7 about 10 years ago. Great tone, super-loud, and very, very Ampeg (ie, a little bit crunchy and hairy at all volumes). However, it was massively unreliable. Crapped out during the first song at a gig once (had to play the rest of the show playing through the PA). Got it fixed, sold it, and immediately bought the RM-800. I had a tour coming up and needed something that would go the distance (thankfully, the RM did!). Supposedly Ampeg have now resolved the design defect that made them so unreliable, but once bitten, twice shy. Not sure I'm going to ever trust Ampeg again.

Gear4Music took them over and are keeping the brand alive. The range hasn't changed in years though. It's still just the WT, E and Terra Nova series and their associated cabs. I was hoping when Marshall divested itself from Eden that we might see some new actual Marshall bass gear, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

Get the Eden Nemesis. Massively underrated gear. Probably the first attempt at building good, lightweight bass gear, and they did a great job. The amp is 100% Eden, with all the punch you might expect. All it's missing compared to its more expensive gold siblings is the valve preamp. Hartke make decent, workmanlike gear, but their reliability is a bit suspect, and, as far as I know, they currently have no UK service centre if things go wrong. Those aluminium speakers are prone to tearing, especially if you have a cab from the cheaper Transporter range (the XL range are decent though). Eden made a Nemesis 8x10 combo at one point, and it was stupid light. I remember playing through one at Andertons once, but I didn't buy one because I never had a car with a big enough boot to cart it around!

Hi Stuart. The RM-800 sounds like an Ashdown - a little more vintage in character than most Class D amps, slightly darker and rounder. Very loud. Lots of built-in gizmos (compressor, distortion, octaver). One of the best all-rounders I've owned, if I'm honest. Tempted to get another one (the newer Evo II version). The Mesa WD-800 is modelled after the Walkabout head from 10 years ago or so, with the same EQ section. It's got a very nice valve preamp which adds some tasty richness and a little bit of additional harmonic complexity to the tone (although it can add a lot of additional hair if you turn the input gain up high enough). Very versatile EQ with sweepable frequencies, and a great low-pass filter that helps all that power actually make it out of your speakers by rolling off the very lowest frequencies that your speakers might not be able to reproduce. Loud, but the RM-800 seems louder (despite both technically having the same output) - it clips out a little when turned right up. I think there's more usable volume with the Ashdown. I like the Mesa for the tone - very detailed and flexible. I like the Ashdown for the punch (it has lots, especially if you use the compressor). Compared to the new Trace, the Trace is cleaner, louder (1200W) and, well, sounds like a Trace, with that big wide open midrange. It's also got the dual-band compressor, which is great - turn it up high on the lows and down on the highs and you've got that Tony Levin tone right there. Maybe a bit less detailed than the Mesa, with a less versatile EQ, but if you want that Trace tone, it's got it in spades. Going to give the new Gallien-Krueger Fusion 1200S a test drive soon and see how that stacks up against the others.

She uses little teardrop jazz plectrums. She sent me some about 20-odd years back, when she was offering lesson materials by post over TBL (the mailing list). She just palm-mutes a lot. +1 on using thin picks. I'm a big fan of Dava Control picks, they're thick in the centre and thin at the edge, and they're flexible and bend a bit in the middle. You get the pick "click" then it rounds off nicely.

The Special is the current "regular" Stingray, with the new lightweight hardware and updated electronics. Shame they're only offering two finishes right now though. Maybe they're trying to push buyers down to the Sterling range, which offers more colours and finishes, and, thanks to recent updates, actually sound the part now.

Nobody's going to stop you if you are travelling with a guitar or bass. Lots of people do that all the time with no hassle. There might be some questions if you have amps, pedals, merch, etc though.

Wow. Wondering how he does the little tapping part? Let's not forget Bill Clements, who shows us how it's done with only one arm!

I'd say, if you can get your head around it, try the left-handed approach. I knew a guy who had lost his little finger in an accident, and, in addition to having lost the finger, the damage and subsequent amputation meant the ligaments and tendons around his ring finger were no longer as flexible as they had been, and the scar tissue on the side of his hand where the finger used to be was tough and limited the mobility of his remaining fingers. If you go the left-handed route, your fretting hand won't have any of those issues, and you'll only be using two fingers on your other hand (or just your index finger and thumb if you play pickstyle).