Funkateer

Ooooohhhhh, @buff that's bloody gawjuss! 😎

Cheers peeps! I in love with this bass! Oooh, that mirror pickguard is pretty cool. All this talk of Tort pickguards...😂 I was thinking black actually...And flatwounds.

I'm beside myself with excitement as I had a new (to me) Jazz Bass delivered today. It's a 2012 model, with the Customer Shop '60s pickups and high mass bridge. This is a significant upgrade for me, from my Squier Classic Vibe 60's (which will soon be for sale) and the first American Fender I've owned for over 10 years (I had a USA Std Telecaster 6 string which I instantly regretted selling). It's also the first ever maple necked instrument I've owned and I love it! I've had it less than an hour and it's well...perfect!! Detailed tone, very growly. The neck is absolutely sublime and is set up with a really low action. I'd be tempted to say it "plays like butter" but I've never actually played butter, so I don't know what that's like. It's just a BEAUTIFUL instrument. Picked it up from Bass Brothers, who were great to deal with. That colour as well though 😵

I'm all sorted now; got me an "as new" 90's Trace Elliot Series 6 combo, thanks to the very nice @Sparky Mark of this forum. This thing kills! Sounds great at bedroom volume and has HEFT for days! It'll keep up with my drummer friend, no problem. Very, very happy with this outcome Cheers for all the input dudes.

Cheers all; some good food for thought there. I think i might just stump up some cash for a nice practice amp. A decent tone and feel inspires better playing methinks…

Interesting! I noticed this the other day on my Classic Vibe Jazz. EXL 14-105s. Could be a coincidence and I haven't checked for twists or looked at "witness points" (I'll have to look that up 😕) re: the pickup thing; is it the same kind of thing as "wolf notes" on a Strat, do you think?

Weighing up some options for my practice rig, I thought I'd open it out to the floor... I've got a couple of makeshift practice rigs, which I think might work, and if any of you watch the Five Watt World vids on Youtube (they're very cool), you'll be familiar with the mantra "the most music from the least gear". I don't want to buy too much more gear, if I can help it (aside from a P-Bass with flats) I have a practice space at home, which doubles as an office and we have neighbours that we'd like to keep onside so I'm not able to shake the foundations with my practicing. I'm currently not in a band but might start jamming a bit (probably in a rehearsal studio) with a couple of mates pretty soon. Tones-wise, I'm into that warm, vintage thing for funk/soul/groove music. My current practice rig consists of 2 options, and neither are really ideal: 1. Focusrite Scarlet Solo (an audio recording interface) plugged into my laptop, direct monitored with headphones. I don't like the way this feels. It's all a bit annoying and claustrophobic. 2. My trusty handwired 5F1 4W Tweed Champ clone at low volume so as not to blow the 8" alnico speaker. Obvious limitations and anxiety about speaker health. The tone is pretty decent though, if lacking on bottom end heft. So, the way I see it, I probably have to shell out for 1 more piece of gear and my options are as follows: 1. Buy a pair of studio monitors for the Focusrite and use a plugin like AxeFX to get some toneshaping going 2. Buy a bass cabinet for the Tweed Champ (I quite like this idea, and I think it's been done before) 3. Bite the bullet and buy a dedicated bass practice amp of some sort My budget is going to be limited to around £250-300 Any thoughts or opinons? I'm interested to hear what everyone else is practicing through these days.

Cheers guys! The GAS thing is definitely a problem. I know there's the whole "spending time practicing will make you sound better than trawling the internet for new stuff" thing, but still... I've already seen a couple of P-basses on here that tickle my fancy...😧

Hi there, Chris (42) from Brixham, South Devon checking in. I've been lurking around this forum, like an undesirable, on and off for a couple of years now. I've been playing electric guitars for about 30 years, played in a couple of bands in my teens and into my 20s but then we all grew up, moved and sadly I haven't played music with real people for over 10 years. Anyway, I've always really loved the bass in tunes. I'd say most of my favourite music is really bass driven (isn't all music bass driven?). I'm into all sorts but what really gets me going is old school Funk, Soul and R&B, as well as Afrobeat and Jazz-funk. With the intention of "becoming a bass player now", I bought a cheap bass and I did a good year working through lots of the exercises on Scott's Bass Lessons, only to get a bit "distracted" and start around with my guitars again, neglecting the poor bass in the process. It's a thing, right...? Anyway, I've since picked my bass back up and it feels great so I'm determined to properly FOCUS on it and actually become what some would call a "bass player". I have a couple of good friends keen to start jamming and stuff, so I'm hoping that will help keep me on track! Gear-wise, I'm currently playing a Squier Classic Vibe 60s Jazz Bass, which is nice but I'm GASsing hard for a P-bass of some description. Maybe a late 80s MIJ Fender 57 or 62 Reissue to match my Strat My amp was a TC BQ250 through a TC 2x10 cab but I stupidly sold those to pay for my Strat. I'm now practicing through a hand wired Tweed Champ Replica (on low volume so I don't blow it up). Looking forward to joining in; seems like a great forum