ezbass

I’ve always had good results with T-Cut on nitro. Enjoy your new acquisition; will chez Jack be rocking to some Journey tunes in the near future?

Snarky Puppy might float your boat.

I’d go and see my band. It’s music I enjoy, played by quality musicians (we’re assuming I wouldn’t be playing 😂).

That’s where I tried my first Wal, which I liked (as per my post above). Different strokes for different folks.

You are not wrong.

Steven Wilson - To The Bone. It's a bit good (if you like this sort of thing of course).

Best bass I have tried, but never owned? Probably my friend’s Alembic Omega or a Wal I tried in a shop back in the 80s (anyone remember Allbang & Strumit?). To be honest, I don’t remember much about them as it was so long ago, although the hankering for a Wal has never left me.

Full disclosure here. Many, many years later, I tried a 4003s to check if my initial Ric experience still held true, it did not and I bought that one I tried and liked. It is heavy, to be sure, but it was well set up (even better now) and sounded great. It’s weird, had that first one not been so awful, I would have probably never tried one again.

Outside of the nasty, cheap instruments we started out with in the 70s, I'd say the worst bass I've ever tried is a Rickenbacker, many years ago at a guitar show. The action and relief were so high, you could've got your hand, or even arm, underneath without causing any pain to yourself. I didn't even bother to plug it in.

Now, that really is the business, I really like the Classic shape with that Ric-alike top horn. So many basses, so little time.

The natural one for me, although the black one isn’t horrible and I wouldn’t return it if someone gave it to me.

That Basic Ken Taylor is very nice! 😍

+1 I often have to 'ease' pick guards when I've new P/ups. Two sided nail files (coarse and fine) work well, aren't too aggressive and leave a good finish.

Given that you could get down to ACG with not too long a drive and talk face to face with Alan, I’d probably go that way. I’ve had an off the peg Sandberg Basic and I currently have 2 custom Maruszczyk Elwood Ls, all three are very fine instruments and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend them. However, being able to be more ‘hands on’ (or at least eyes on) with a build would swing it for me. The instruments that Alan had at LBGS were stunning, I was there another BCer who has an off the peg Elwood L and a custom headless Maruszczyk Frog and he very nearly bought one of Alan’s creations as he was blown away by the build quality, feel, etc.

No issues with mine except a rough feeling 3 way rotary switch that I wanted and isn’t a standard feature and was sourced beyond their usual stock. After all that, I barely use that switch anyway and leave the pickup in series all the time. The quality of hardware (and build for that matter) seems to better than my Ric.

Great gig last night. It was our first time at this venue and it was packed with enthusiastic punters. Given that it was just round the corner from the school I used to work at, it's fair to say that I had a good sized rent-a-crowd there, although most of them had never seen me play (they seemed genuinely impressed). Very hot and sweaty and some interesting 'hot' notes on stage where the guitarist's and my lower notes were trying to create a sonic weapon (note to self, set up on the other side from his rig next time). Nice venue (just a pub though) in that it was a nice, long, straight room, with no awkward corners or recesses. Really looking forward to playing here again.

Rob Allen’s stuff is genuinely different. Even Mrs Ez, who normally claims all guitars and basses sound the same to her, recognises my MB2 is a different, great sounding beast and has forbidden me from selling it (woe is me ). Congrats on your new purchase: enjoy.

Marvellous, particularly the Fenderbird.

Now we need to some photos of your gear for us to drool over

This was once mine and I parted with it as I’d gone all fivers at the time. If I’d known then I’d be back on four, I might still have it. Great P sound as I recall.

The range of colours in that walnut is stunning. That's what I'd have.

This is exactly what we do.

I formed/joined a Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers tribute last year, a few months before TP passed away. I was all for chucking it in as I didn't want it to appear that we were cashing in on his demise. However, after some soul searching and some positive comments along the lines of, "No, you should still do it, Tom would approve," some of them on this esteemed forum, we decided to keep going. Only two gigs thus far, but we're going into the studio next week to record some promotional material (I'll share here when they're mixed). We don't try to look like TP & The HBs, but we do try to nail the songs correctly, either studio or live performances. We are, wait for it, The Heartfakers.

This thread is a good reminder to take a long hard look at what gear you have now. As with most BC members, I have almost permanent GAS for something, even when I don’t what it is. Just the sound of a good bass or rig (or both together - super dangerous) gets me trawling the internet for info on the kit in question and we know where that leads to, don’t we boys and girls? The most recent example of this is hearing Marc Van Wageningen with Tower of Power on Jools (extended version on Beeb 2 tonight) and then going on to investigate his Fodera and Aguilar gear (fortunately way too expensive to even contemplate). However, I found a video of Joe Osborne talking about his Fodera and how to go about shopping for a new bass. That video plus this thread has had me playing and evaluating my custom Maruszczyks and you know what? I’m pretty much sorted really (bar maybe a pickup replacement) and my GAS is just ennui. I now just have to remember that I’ve made this public and fully expect folks to beat me with my own stick should I stray into any GAS driven purchases.