rasher80

37 minutes ago, WD1 said:

Battery Issues! So the battery is empty after 3 weeks, using it only once. Just remove the battery when not in use. I do it on my acoustic.2 years, same battery. I will be testing 1-3 hours use of preamp/day while removing it when at rest or send it back if the problem still occurs.

That's odd, although there have been reports of the battery discharging due to contact with something inside the bass?

I put a Duracell in mine when it arrived and it's fine almost 7 weeks later, which is as you'd expect I guess.

Just now, kodiakblair said:

Not a slab body nor particularly heavy.

 

Owned 6 of them, none over 9.5 lb. 

Got to stay away from Thomann at all costs!!!

17 minutes ago, oldslapper said:

Just put one in my “shopping basket”. Can’t do any harm there can it? It’s not like I’ve bought one or anything? Just in the basket, sitting there safe and sound from slappy’s grasp 😌

Go on do it!! Do it NOW! 😁

32 minutes ago, oldslapper said:

Ooh just had a look at those.

Not slabbed body from the pics?

I like chunky necks, and weight not an issue for home use. Ideal for “modding” too. 

Ahhh now that's interesting - assumed they would have been, I hold my hands up and admit I didn't look too closely.

Worth a punt @oldslapper ?

Harley Benton PB50.

For under a ton it's prob a no brainer and I really want to try it but I know it would do my head in.

- Slab body 

- Baseball bat neck

- Weight

11 hours ago, 3below said:

Other basses that might figure: Gibson SG (at the right price), Chowny, Ibanez - Artcore, Talmann - bonkers cheap for the quality.

 

Unfortunately, the 30" Talman isn't made for left handers, just the 34".

I'm pretty sure @pineweasel has a lefty Harley Benton 30" P for sale, or at least he did.

Might be worth considering for the OP perhaps? Might be an easy way into seeing whether SS basses are for you, and then pick up the Sire if it ticks your boxes?

The long scale Sires are well regarded around here so it's likely that the short scale models would be decent too. I'd buy one without hesitation. 

You've also got the choice of Hofner, Schecter, the Sire, Harley Benton, There are others.

As for the Ibanez, I'm not sure how much they're worth.

Your 3rd question depends on who you ask and is dependent on your bass... if it was me I'd buy a short scale set but I'm lazy 😉

Oh and welcome to the lefty bit of the forum

21 minutes ago, JottoSW1 said:

There's a really nice looking G&L Tribute 4 str on evilbay at the moment btw

Really liked everything about mine apart from the weight. It's a decent price that.

Just wish the default options for most lefty basses weren't burst/black/natural.

Obvs Fender and Sire are pretty good with this but other manufacturers should diversify just a touch. Come on!

Saw this on Eastwood's site... every time I look at it I love and hate it in equal measure🤔

https://eastwoodguitars.com/collections/bass/products/eastwood-newport-bass-lh

Good luck with it!

I always wanted one of these but as I'm strictly a home player these days I can't justify it.

GAS is strong on this one though!

I saw a long forgotten mid-table indie band called Rialto at a festival in the late 90s who had 2 drummers. It looked like they were playing exactly the same thing which I couldn't get my head around

Its showing availability to order through GAK but I'm not sure that's confirmation of anything really 😁

Any Irish members of the forum will surely be familiar with this..

There was a rumour which turned out to be false (obviously)that Guy Pratt had played on it.

19 hours ago, stewblack said:

I also read this. But cannot agree. Nothing wrong with it at all. However I am a passive bass kind of guy so if the preamp made it too hot or zingy I would have disliked it. 

Don't be fooled by talk if starter or back up basses. Harley Bentons are only cheap in one area. The price tag. 

Couldn't agree with this more.

The preamp in my old G&L L2000 was super hot,  I found it hard to tame so just played the bass in passive mode.

The HB preamp is much more mellow and I actually enjoy it more. I was tempted to drop a Glockenklang in it but once it got here and played it there's really no need

1 hour ago, WD1 said:

Well..this thread made me buy the 5 string lefty. The only physical default on mine is a wiggly plastic cover in the back. Does not sound bad too for 159€. Can’t complain.

+1 to this.

I got mine from here for not much money at all, reasoning if its a bit pants or I can't get used to the 5th string it hasn't cost me much more than a packet of decent strings. 

Lefty 5ers more than double in price (new) from this instrument upwards, so I didn't want to drop a load of money on a bass I can't get on with.

Glad to say after a few days with my local tech and a string change, it plays really nicely, has a really usable sound and it's dead good fun to play.

I can't compare it to any other 5 strings as it's the first one I've played but I absolutely can't fault it.

👏👏

Well done @pepsi-abi 

You've really put the hours in and it shows - I was still plunking away on the bottom string after 3 months.

Keep at it, if you can pick that up after a few months you'll be hot on Julia's heels before long. Take a bow!!

I learned on a Squier P Special which has the J neck so it's what I gravitate towards normally.

Tried a J but couldn't get on with the sound, P necks were ok but quite variable depending on the P - the last one I had was quite baseball bat like.

I really shouldn't have got rid of that Squier but I detested the awful antique burst and cheap tort it came with. 

1 hour ago, uk_lefty said:

 

A Stingray and my fretless are really all the bass I could ever, ever need. 

A Stingray's the one itch (lefty wise) I'm still yet to scratch.

I came close with a G&L L2000 Trib, sound was monster but the baseball bat neck and the weight drove me to part with it.

I must admit even though I love my 32" P, my go to at the moment is a deko Harley Benton 5 that I picked up from the forum for 40 quid. It's so much fun to play, and having to engage my brain to do it is keeping me coming back to it.

I wonder if a nice compromise might be the 5 string Sterling SUB that's just been released? 

If I ever went back to gigging I reckon I could cope with just the one, I wouldn't be nervous about gigging it without a backup but I'd always have one to hand.

As it stands, I've 3 - A Maruszczyk Jake 32" which is my forever bass, a Hofner Icon strung with flats cause I always wanted one and thought it could come in handy for something and a deko 5er I've just got because I've never played one before so it's a good learning curve.

The kind of music I'd be inclined to play (indie stuff), the Jake can do it all with ease. If I got into difficulty the Hofner would be able to hold its own I reckon in a backup situ.

On 21/11/2015 at 13:23, cytania said:

One of Oasis's secrets is that the bass parts are often played by Noel Gallagher in the studio. This is clearly so he can stamp the simplistic no-frills basslines he wants onto the recording leaving the Oasis bass player of the moment to follow on.

This is a strange one; Owen Morris who engineered their first few albums said that NG re-recorded a lot of the bass parts due to poor playing in the studio by Guigs.

I wondered how bad it could be given that by his own admission Guigs only played root notes and never strayed from the bottom two strings.

Owen Morris said they ran the bass through a mini Moog and used it to remove all the top end. It's not as if it's very audible on the finished recording anyway.

Blur smashed the bass battle there hands down 

I enjoy the bass line to Chemical World amongst many others, AJ was definitely a formative influence on me picking up the bass

Vintage do one

Must....not......look 🙈

1 hour ago, wateroftyne said:

FWIW the Green Valley Metallic they used for my Jake (the first one in that colour, I believe) is a Fiat colour 😄

The idea was to mimic the old tobacco-stained LPB. 

I really like the valley green, although with hindsight I probably should have tried to ask Adrian if it could be a bit more green, like this