Bassman68

It's been my bread & butter for 16 years now & I can only echo the sentiments of everyone else's replies.. I enjoy the diversity of the music so much more than gigging pubs, which round my way on the 'Pub rock/covers' circuit seems to have come to the point of interchangeable faces/line ups yet the sets/playlists remain remarkably similar? (Foos,Chillis,Muse anyone?)

Pino played on their early albums but Graham Edwards played Bass as part of their early touring band, They've also had Chris Childs as well as Jaz, Saw them a couple of times about 10yrs a go when they had Greg Harewood on bass with a lovely sounding Fodera..

Sorry, to me a Musicman Cutlass will always be a graphite necked Stingray or a 2 p/u Sabre. Could've come up with an original name?

I seem to recall Wilkes doing a half fretted/half fretless back in the 80's, where the E & A strings were fretted & the D & G were fretless? I imagine the 'Cronos' idea being a bit 'clankey' to play if your playing style isn't clean, besides the intonation issues, probably why I don't like soloing much on fretless basses..

Felt I needed some 80's nostalgia at a function before christmas..

Elites still make double ball end strings as well @ £18 a set last time I got some.

Man who sold the world, Boys keep swinging, Scary monsters, Heroes.....Too many choices!

Was that a Trace head I spied atop his Aguilar rig? Had the 'green glow' but couldn't make out the graphic..

I've used a Warwick Rockcase double gigbag for the past 5 years that's holding up very well. The shoulder straps aren't the most comfortable but for transportation from the car to the stage with amp flightcase & lead bag in hands, it's just about ok (I normally carry the gigbag by its handle, over any distance). Seems reasonably well padded & all the zips are still working, I personally think I'd have to spend a lot more money to get anything much better..

Does anyone else think that the string length (behind the nut) alters the tone slightly? i.e an E string (played open) sounds different on a five compared to a four? I think there is a difference, Maybe only slight, but 'going to town' on an open E sounds different to me when I change between my Stingray 4 & 5's, Same with my Warwicks. Slightly different with tensions on the higher strings much the same as the difference between 4 aside to 2 over 2/ 3 over 2 etc..

Here's Cynthia, a Squier affinity that I got purely for the Burgundy mist colour. It's now one of my 'essentials' basses for my covers band as we all have 'Purple' guitars (sounds a bit 'naff' but it works for us!). Replacement pick-guard, Gotoh bridge & a set of Entwistle pick-ups & it sounds great. Just contemplating an East retro circuit next?

At a pub gig on the Kilburn high road, packing up after a gig, A one armed Irishman asked me "Do you need a hand wit anyting fella?"... At an 'Opened-just-for-the-night-pub' in Stratford our 6 piece function band were asked "Do you play any Bhangra?" (excuse spelling). Was asked mid song at a posh Golf club gig to "Stop playing heavy metal" - We were doing a fair cover of "Suddenly I see" by Katie Tunstall.... Later on at the same gig I was asked "Do you know the Gay Gordons?"..... I asked "What table are they sitting at?"

I had one of these when they first come out. The Multi-stack range. They were introduced as a budget cab for the AH150 head, hence only having a 100 watt handling, Other cabs in the range consisted of a 2 x 10'', 1 x 15'' & a 1 x 18'', all with a 200 watt handling, as well as the little 'Brightbox'. They were introduced late in the series V 'era' circa '88, with the idea for use as either stage monitor or backline stack.

It's probably a very 80's cliche & my back twinges just remembering it all but my favourite rig was a Status 2000 5 string through a Trace GP12 pre into a RA500 power amp feeding 1048 & 1518 cabs. The Racked up amp/flightcase weighed 6 stone & the cabs not-a-lot less but boy did I smile when I played it all. Very happy with my MarkBass gear these days.

Streamer std's were @£600+ when they were launched in the late '90's. Apart from the chunky Necks & the quiet output, they were proper,German built, bolt on necked Warwicks. My 2 x p/up, active Streamer std that I bought off of here a few years back is a great little 'workhorse' which I'm glad I snapped up for £250 & made a worthy addition to my 3 other 'wicks. Your find seems overpriced, especially with the wear & tear but if you can negotiate a better price? [sharedmedia=core:attachments:150353]

The cabs are series 6 by the looks of the grilles, Mk V's had the black pressed steel 'Fire guard' grill. The 1518 has a Fane 15" which pre-dates the change over to PD's & before the Celestion Kevlar impreg. jobs, so I'd put that cab at @1989? All in all, a nice tidy 'Classic' Trace stack. Hope you've got a sack barrow to cart in all around? ;-)

I bought one back in early '88 & that was passive. Just 2 x EMG select humbuckers & V,V,T controls. Still sounded great.

The bass intro reminds me of the intro to 'Edge of heaven' by Wham with that Bass,vocal & low piano "Dow, doh" etc?

Think the main differences were the HA3500 had twin valve & transistor pre-amp gains & a switchable 10 band graphic eq, whereas the other head was a solid state transistor head with rotary tone controls?

Can anyone point me in the right direction for a black pearloid scratchplate for my Stingray 5. I've looked on the Ernieball/Musicman web pages but they don't list them.. Someone must make copies? Thanks in advance Steve

As has already been said, I think the amp has very little to do with it. It's all about a Stingray & dead roundwounds in my opinion. If you're on a budget,You could probably get close with a Sterling Sub & some 'played-in' nickel roundwounds & a touch of compression, through an amp set fairly 'flat' with perhaps a bit of low-mid but keep the treble on the guitar fairly flat with the bass control boosted? The rest is all down to fingers & technique..

Brings back memories of Henry Thomas on 'Rockschool', Probably plenty of clips on Youtube?

Would have thought the best thing to do would be to ask over on the Warwick forum?

Sorry for the dull answer but I think the original Fortress had a P/J configuration & the Fortress one had twin J's stacked in a humbucker config. Both originally being active with 2 band, treble & bass controls but I think the Rockbasses were passive? There was also a German built Fortress Flashback that had a pearloid scratchplate & 'Lipstick' tube covered p/ups....