OutToPlayJazz

Bass5, that is the one MM bass I still lust after! Congrats - It's an amazing looker & if the Ed Friedland review of these is anything to go by, it's possibly the most versatile sounding bass around, too.

BONGO-tastic, Duarte!

The last MTD 535 I played was sublime. Possibly the best wooden bass I've ever played. As a direct comparison, I think you'll find your Spector a little harsh and clanky in comparison - Not that they're not both good basses, mind. The MTD is just in a different league altogether

I've looked at these a few times & they seem really good for the money! Go for it

Dave Ryan at Electro Music in Doncaster will do you a good deal on one. Tell him Rich sent you!

I use my GB Shuttle 6.0/12" NEOX Cab with a d.bass & the fishman pickup. Excellent sound and great portability. Only thing is I find I have to kill almost all the treble on the amp in order to eliminate fingerboard noise, but the sound is very very good.

Most of my jobs are reading jobs, so yes I do drop the occasional gaff here and there, but they're thankfully very rare. I was out last Friday with the Nick Ross Orchestra (an awesome big band formed from the founding members of the Sid Lawrence Band) and I was in full sight reading mode, pulling off fully notated pieces at up to 200+ bpm that I'd never seen before. There was one little solo passage that no one had warned me about and I had to do a twenty second "flailing around roughly in the key", but thankfully that was it. On the plus side, the band members are still going on about how awesome the "new" bass player is and how I drive the band's swing like nothing else, so it's all good. This week I'm doing "Fiddler on the Roof" at the Lyceum, so it's an easier job and the challenge there is not to drift off. There are a lot of time changes going on, but the music is thankfully easy. The next challenge is this coming weekend I'm with the Jeff Hooper Band on the Strictly Come Dancing tour for the first time. More sight reading, but it should be easier than last week! At the end of the day, we all drop the odd musical gaff, but what people really notice is the overall musicality of the whole. We're only human after all! Rich.

I've been on the quest you're on several times. I've lost count of how many Fenders (and other brands) I've bought and sold in the last few years. And my conclusion? There's nothing like a Status. You can buy a cheaper new Fender or a hideously expensive "vintage" one at any time, but my advice is that if you've got a good Status that you like, hang onto it for grim death. There's really nothing like them. Of course, it's all down to personal preference, but now having done it and owned most other basses (a lot of Fenders included!), I wouldn't trade my Status basses for anything.

Nice setup, Chris. When did you get the '64? Nice colour, btw

Precisions are definitely growing on me again at the moment. I'm definitely moving towards a thicker sound with my wooden basses since the Stingray arrived - I don't listen to a lot of popular music at all, but I love the Precision sound on this... I bought the "Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears" album on iTunes and it's fantastic. Bill Stevenson's sound is amazing!

Also, you might want to try playing very measured bows (similar length bows for all crotchets and the same again for quavers.) Play dotted rhythms double dotted with a breath or slight spacing between the long and short notes. Use a stylistically pronounced contrast between motor rhythm notes (very smooth quaver passages) and more detached/accented crotchets. This is basically due to the fact that baroque music is written "vertically" from the bass upwards & it pays to give separation to the crotchets where the chords change. Listen to someone playing to the Bach cello suites and you'll spot this very quickly. You may also like to leave a breath or space between the penultimate and last notes of sections. This shows the audience that you are finishing the section and that we're either ending the piece or something different is about to happen. As mentioned earlier, you'll not find any vibrato in baroque music and not much in the way of dynamics - Contrasts were created via articulation in the bowing & with ornamentation on repeated sections, such as trills (starting on the upper note in this period), turns, appogiaturas, acciccaturas & mordents. Have fun. There's a lot to learn in the Baroque period

I almost bought that bass from detune jazz a while ago. It's a lovely instrument, especially with the decorative binding around the edge of the body. I only decided against it due to the slab body edges. Lovely instrument! Nice score

That's a lovely looking instrument - Congrats on a fine score!

In the baroque era the bass didn't actually exist and the violone (bass viol) would have been the instrument in use at the time. Obviously in this period they couldn't manufacture metal screw threads, so there was no tensioner on the bow. The bow (narrow like a french style bow) would have had little tension of the hair, so would have been held in a German style about a third of the way up the stick, using the fingers to tension the hair. If you use a German bow there's not a lot you can do as the bow is so thick, but a French bow can do this if the hair is set relatively slack. I've not heard of people using this technique except with gambas and violones. Have a look at this...

I love a glossed maple neck, but rosewood always seems to help with a fuller and richer, more balanced sound.

Hi Steve, you're really only going to be able to try a Streamline at the Status factory in Colchester (by appointment) or finding a friendly basschatter closer to you who has one. Try putting an ad on Statii.com entitled something like, "Can I have a go on your Streamline, Mister?" There are quite a few around now and someone must have one closer to you. But then again, a trip to the factory in Colchester is a nice day out Make sure you're only carrying enough money to buy/order one bass, though. Too much temptation there! Yes, I can't see why it wouldn't be good for reggae. The two band pre is a bit darker sounding than the three band on the S2's, so you'd be able to get the sound you're after, I'm sure. As for the weight, yes you're not going to have any problems with a Streamline. They only weigh six pounds on average.

[quote name='Schnozzalee' post='763446' date='Mar 3 2010, 10:32 PM']I like the one in your avatar, the steinberger/streamline/nobby meidl/v4 style small bodied basses with graphite neck sound superb. I can see myself playing one of them when I have the funds, although it would have to be five string though for cover song purposes. Anything unusual really catches my eye vigiers,kubickis,bongos (the big al is fantastic)etc just because they stand out lookswise, but I have real trouble selling them on. I guess thats another point towards fender - playable good in the mix and holds the (reasonable) price. I'm not sure passive models cut through enough for me though, I don't like being in the background. I think bass should be as loud as the guitar always...[/quote] The one in the avatar is the Streamline. It's a serious little bass, that one. My favourite 4-stringer. Serious punch and sounds like nothing else

As usual for me, a Status S2-Classic is the original do-anything bass. They've got me through every musical situation I've ever asked of them & still have a few more tricks up their graphite/headless necks. Utterly brilliant

The two custom basses (both KingBasses) I had made, I ended up selling, whereas the stock basses I actually tried first have all been keepers. I guess that's the only thing with customs - There's no chance to try before you buy, otherwise you're quite often left with a hyper expensive bass that you don't really get on with.

Yes, I do some orchestral work still these days - Mainly operas, shows & big band jobs for DB, though. I'd save a little more and get the fully carved 44 model if I were you. It looks really good value. I'll order the Hora in a few weeks and we'll see how it shapes up to the mighty Archer...

The Thomann DB I was mentioning is the fully carved Romanian one. Search under "Thomann Kontrabass 44 4/4."

Gareth, have you ever played one of these? The last T-Bass I played at the factory blew away two of Mark King's KingBass Mk-II's. The T-Bass is a stunner

My other bass is a very large full size and I've been using it orchestrally for the last twenty years or so. Playing a bigger bass is no problem for me. Basically I wanted to try the Hora bass to see if it's significantly better than the Archer. If it's not, it can be returned to Thomann easily enough.