Paul S

With the added bonus that you could have a entire pool of deps and no-one would be any the wiser.

I'm not a small chap and have fairly large hands but I find short scale basses really comfy to play. One of my current team is a Squier VM Mustang and I'd say if you can find one of these snap it up as they are very nice indeed, as long as you don't mind a fairly narrow neck. A previous owner had swapped the pickup for a Nordstrand NM4 and it sounds absolutely lovely, from a deep thud with the tone rolled off to a biting gnarly sound with the tone full on. So, yes, Mustangs can sound nice and growly. Here is an old clip of the average White Band with Hamish playing a gnarly sounding Mustang. He isn't a small guy either. On Ebay at the moment I noticed there are two Squier Vista Series Musicmasters for sale. One of them over-priced, one pretty reasonable. By Squier standards they aren't cheap but these Vista Series Musicmasters are a one of those jewels in the Squier back catalogue and very nice indeed. They have particularly growly pickups, proper adjustable bridge with a string through option and a wider neck. At one point I had a '79 Fender Musicmaster that I'd modded with a P pickup, one of these Vista series and a Squier VM Mustang, I'd say the Vista was the pick of the bunch. Sold them all, of course, when I moved to 5 string basses, now edging back to 4 string short scale again....

That's quite funny There's nowt wrong with these. As above, I have one of the Black N Gold versions of these and it puts a lot of much more expensive basses I have owned to shame in terms of fit and finish.

This Aria Pro II CSB 300 has just been popped up on eBay: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1983-Aria-Pro-II-CSB-300-Cardinal-Series-Vintage-Bass-Guitar-Japan-Matsumoku/233469993982?hash=item365be563fe%3Ag%3A-BAAAOSwkfReJLfj&LH_ItemCondition=3000

Exactly. All about context. In the 60s Clapton, Hendrix, Peter Green, Jeff Beck, Jimi Page et al started something of a revolution which became the foundation for what we have now. Same with EVH - a lot of folks feel his tapping etc is old hat but, at the time, he was the first to do it in the context of a rock band. If he hadn't done that it is unlikely that Steve Vai/Satch/Ingwe would have moved it along a bit. Anyway, no shredding here either - lovely version with a Hammond in place of the strings 😉

Edging its way forward in my affections is my Frankenstein bass, which is the body of an old cheapo Encore double cutaway married to the neck of a Hondo II H-1015 with a Ki0gon loom and an Entwistle P pickup. It is remarkably good and only 3.1kg. Its just been promoted from home practice and rehearsals to gig back up. I think I may give it a try out next gig, has a different kind of vibe to the Gibson LP Jnr DC.

I've had both and currently have the BF cover on mine. The BF ones have more padding, are stiffer and offer more protection. They also have 'Barefaced' written on the side that covers the grill so you know which way round they go The Roqsolid ones fold down easier and keep the weather off but offer little protection, although you can get one with a pouch that allows a sheet of something stiff to be slid into place to protect the grill. Depends what you want it to do really and whether you have steel or cloth grill? I have the steel grill, which is pretty hard wearing and will take some knocks, so I mainly need a cover to keep the weather off when loading in or out at gigs and was perfectly happy with the Roqsolid ones. It just so happens that my latest acquisitions were secondhand and both came with the BF covers.

Gosh, nit-picking or what! Not much planned for today? How about 'the perfect vintage and gnarly tone in his head' which may be different to the perfect vintage and gnarly tone in your head, and also mine. Does that work for you any better? 😁

I would agree. I bought a Quilter BB800 when they came out and it has been fairly consistently my go-to after using big 'ol Trace Elliots. Recently changed from BF Supercompact to a Two10 - only had it for a short while but I'd say my tone has never been better. For what I am looking for etc. I had the One10 for home practice/smaller gigs and liked the 'colour' with both the Quilter (and also like the sound of it paired with a Tecamp Puma). The Two10 sounds similar but bigger.

You are not alone in that view

Tone is a very subjective thing as we all have different versions of the perfect P bass tone in our heads. What I did while back was use one of my bitsa Precisions as a kind of test bed for different pickups to see which I preferred. I got a Ki0gon solderless loom and then it was easy to keep switching pups. You can usually get them at reasonable cost in the classifieds here and move on again for very little loss.

I like them, too, and for the money they are the best value I have bought. They offer a decent amount of protection and after several years of light use show no signs of wear. One of them has a handle that had the padded bit sewn into the wrong place but that doesn't bother me. I only use gig bags to transport in my car to and from rehearsals or as a dust cover indoors so am reluctant to spend big dollar on anything fancy.

That's the thing, though. This is a discussion forum, not an 'only posts that agree with the OP' forum. And, tbf, if SC wasn't a gold digging tart who blanked the real talent on her push for stardom, the comments wouldn't have been made.

You tease... do tell!

Aria Pro II Cardinal series CSB came in various configurations. Double cutaway 32" scale, passive, mostly 1 pup, some had 2. I have one of the top end of the range 'Black n Gold' models and it is a corker. My second, actually - I was stupid enough to sell the first and lucky enough to find a second.

O B B M

Not a very elegant solution, though, is it. Nor does it do much to cure the slight GAS build up... Maybe get a cheap Bronco and attack it with a saw! 😃

Doing some reading... calling @alyctes you still have both an Alien and a Duke? If you have the time, sir, how would you say they stacked up against each other?

Thanks for this. Looks like the Hohner is a non-starter but I will look more closely at the Alien/Duke basses. Gotta love Basschat!

Marvellous, thank you.

Never played - or even seen in the flesh - a Hondo Alien. Are they any good?

Someone please shoot me down quickly. I quite fancy the idea of a short scale headless bodiless bass a la Hohner B2A. I can see it might be easy to 'just' saw off the neck at approx. the first two frets and put the end thingamebob back on. But what about the truss rod? That I imagine makes it a no go - but does it?