chris_b

There are lots of mod's that can be added to a bass but, as 5 string players are always posting and 4 string players are constantly failing to understand, a 5 string bass is not just about the lower notes. The main benefits also include the flexibility to play different lines, in different positions and in keys which are sometimes more appropriate to the song. A 5 string bass is not a 4 string bass with an extra string. It is an instrument in its own right with different possibilities and techniques. Adding gadgets to get a lower note and thinking that is a substitute for a 5 string bass is to completely miss the point. It's on a par with the misconception that EQing the neck pickup can make a Jazz sound anything like a P bass and that an electric bass can sound like a double bass if you fiddle around with the EQ enough.

Where is this going? After 4 pages the answer to the question do the "best" pro players mainly playing 4 string basses is still yes/no/maybe. The answer after 444 pages will be exactly the same. Like the rest of us, they'll use the bass that they want to use. Some wouldn't touch a 5 string bass with a barge pole. Their choice, but I wouldn't see that as any endorsement for 4 string basses over any other, just their preference.

I'd suggest that whatever Fender heard when they were making the first string-through designs has been superseded by the amazing pickup and electrics available on all basses these days.

You have so few gigs with the old band. Doesn't look like you'd have many diary clashes. I'd stay and be in both bands.

If D'Addario say you can string through the body and you want to use D'Addario strings, what's the problem? Did you see D'Addario confirming this or was it on the "internet"? Drop them an email and get the facts. Personally I've strung through body and through bridge and I don't hear enough of a difference between the two to make me string through the body.

Off topic, a bit, but I know someone with Bart pickups and an East Uni-pre in an Overwater J and they don't sound "polite", "clean" or even "sterile" at all. They get a well defined, full in your face, punchy tone. I'm not keen on modding basses but I would if I could guarantee getting that tone.

Like all these things if something is different it could catch out players with a bad technique but as far as Dingwall and fanned frets are concerned, I found them easy to play. You've got to try one first. You might be able to adapt with no trouble but you might not like something else about it, like the sound or feel etc.

This should be progressing according to the script. Fender are digging themselves out of the financial hole they are in. To do that they have to draw a line under the "old" Fender product lines and start anew. These basses are supposed to be "better" than the old ones. I assume that means they have taken notice what customers have been saying and addressed any QC and build issues and looked around and finally seen what the competition are doing and are incorporating the best and most useful bits into their basses. Of course this means they will be more expensive. The market place will decide if the extra cost is covered by the "improvements" being made to the instruments. Bass players moaning and thinking that cheaper instruments was the was to go was what got Fender into this mess in the first place. I'm hoping Fender makes it.

Lindy Fralin are supposed to make good vintage pickups. https://www.fralinpickups.com/product/jazz-bass/

To the OP, your attempts to start a band always fail. . . . you always use the same guys! There's your problem. And you've been trying for 20 years??? You've got 19 years more patience the I have. If you want to do things with your mates, play golf, go down the pub, have BBQ's but don't start a band. That's the easiest way to fall out with mates.

Willie Weeks on Donny Hathaway's Voices Inside is a favourite, as is Dexter Redding playing The Awakening.

Why do you want to change? Are you unhappy with your sound or is there a problem with the amp? If you want a clean sound (headroom and all that) I think you should stay with a 500 watt amp. It's difficult to advise. Watts are cheap, so the lowest powered amp I'll use is 500 watts because I find it's the most practical size and flexible enough to work well with any of the bands I play with.

I went to see a Victor Wooten bass clinic and he was asked about his basses. He said he would always use his 4 string bass at clinics because he's most comfortable doing the "show off" stuff on a 4, but he uses 5, 6 and fretless on other gigs. Unsurprisingly he'll use what ever is appropriate for the gig. Ian King posted a video on BC of him playing on Hamilton. He's using electric, bass, double bass and bass keyboards. The "best pro players" don't seem to have the hang-ups that so many semi pro players do.

The best bass players (pro or otherwise) are the guys playing the best bass lines. Who cares what instrument they used. Do what the best pro players do. . . make your own decisions and resist following the herd.

My basses don't seem to be affected by the heat. All I've done is tune them the normal number of times, ie at the start of each set and a quick check in the middle, usually before the first slow number.

I've seen the Kodo Drummers. A total assault on your senses.

Love these guys . . .

Change one thing at a time.

I did too, but the image I had was all about fire wood!

+1 and that's a percentage of every thing you earn from music, even earnings unconnected to the program ie if you write or have written songs etc. These contracts are every bit a strangle hold as those of Alan Klein, Don Arden, Tony Defries, Bert Berns and Norman Petty etc etc

I knew a guy who played a Mark King 810 combo. IMO it didn't sound very good, the band thought is sounded like crap and so no one would help him carry it. According to the bass Centre, my Mesa Road Ready 210 EV was part of the rig MK used in the 90's. It didn't make me sound like Mark King at all!!

Hipshot make tuners with different sized barrels, 1/2" and 3/8". Do you know which size you need? Then again, why do you need to change the tuners at all?

Sounds like you're looking for an amp that goes higher. GK amps do that. The Mesa D800+ and Aguilar AG700 do too. I run an AG700, which I like a lot, but if you have tried the Orange and like it that much, why would you want anything else. That's what you should get.