Shaggy

As I recall, Bob Dylan booked DS as his support act after hearing their debut album, so he must have liked it too. l've always preferred early DS to the later more commercial stuff - "Making movies" my favourite album. The late '70's seems to mainly rembered for punk, but the British music scene was an amazing melting pot at that time - punk, emerging new wave, pub rock, funk, disco, "new" heavy metal, and many of the old rockers (Stones etc) still doing their stuff.

To paraphrase Mick "Crocodile" Dundee: "That's not a circuit board.......THIS is a circuit board...." (late '70's Moog wackiness in a Gibson RD Artist below) Back on OP - have to say I've never tried a Pro IIe, although my '82 MK 1 Custom is so early it has a PB serial number. Just curious; what's the difference in tone / playbility between the 2 models?

Lovely Paul Weller-esque Ric 330 there, you can't beat a Ric semi in the cool stakes. I used to have a jetglo Ric 360/12 - it was a bit of a one-trick pony, but stuck through the Voc AC30 I had at the time; boy what a tone......... Traded for a '73 4001

Some fabulous skinny-stringers on this thread........ As with basses, I'm a sucker for a vintage Gibson; my 1972 LP Custom and 1974 SG Standard pictured below (guess which one is literally around a quarter of the weight of the other......). Also an oddball semi - an early '60's Broadway (I think) with dual Fenton-Weil pickups, found in a poor state in a junk shop and restored by me a few years back. Until recently I had a 1954 ES-175, but traded it with a great BC-er against a Wal MK 1. However, my pride and joy are my two late '60's / early '70's MG Contreras flamenco guitars, which I play more even than my basses - the one on the right was my Dads and I'll keep it until the day I can no longer play, and then pass onto my eldest son (who's also in a band, and a way better guitarist than me).

A thing of beauty........enjoy

They're absolutely fantastic; as good as LED's (which I've had) but a bit more understated, and no batteries or wiring . You can get the little UV torches that charge them up in seconds for a fiver or so on eBay, but your bass being a posh one will probably come supplied with its own!

Just to add to the apparent concencus - wenge. I've used every usual neck wood there is, plus carbon and aluminium; and the wenge neck (wax finish) on my Warwick Streamer has the nicest feel of any of them. The other benefit is I fitted 3mm "blue" luminlay dots on the side as the old eyes are going a bit, and they really stand out in any lighting conditions against the dark wood (which they would on a rosewood board too I know, but being larger than standard side dots they overlap into the neck).

Liking the little thumb-rest!

A mate of mine living in New Zealand came over last year to build his own super-Strat guitar at Crinson guitars - he couldn't speak highly enough of Ben and the folks there. Not cheap for the 2 week course plus hotel mind........

This often gets cited in "worst headstock", but to me it's perfectly functional, minimalist, and sculptural

Bought a set of La Bella strings from this most excellent Basschatter; smooth easy deal, great communications, and the strings sent across to me pronto. Deal with in complete confidence. Thanks fella!

Lots of sage advice above! Trouble is; when you set your heart on a bass, it's an itch that has to be scratched. It took me over 20 years to afford the fretless Wal MK 1 I wanted at the start of my bass playing career; when I finally got one I realised that I actually preferred the old Ovation Magnum 1 fretless that I already had (and had cost me peanuts) As we all know, GAS is an unreasonable mistress.......

......push you Close to the Edge, surely? All the best Bassman Sam, you can see the whole of BC is with you

This being BC, you should get both, of course...... If you're set on a combo, it really has to be Ashdown (as I think you've already decided) - as The Greek points out; Trace ones are seriously heavy. I use both - "compact" rig is an Ashdown MK500 with 4x8 and 1x15 mini-cabs, "big rig" is Trace AHSMX600 with 2x10 and 1x15 cabs. Unsurprisingly the bigger Trace cabs have the edge, but if I had to pick one of the heads it'd be the Ashdown.

I'm pretty sure Kramer used to offer a half-fretted option on their '70's alu-necked basses

When I was 16 I gave up playing classical violin after 4 years of intensive training as I knew I'd never be Yehudi Menuhin. The same year ('77) I saw the Stranglers live at Cambridge Corn Exchange and knew with total certainty that I wanted to do, and could do, what JJB was doing on bass - was gigging one month later. I've never looked at anything on YouTube, but I suspect much of it is the same self-indulgent w@nkery that punk rock was about breaking away from. It doesn't matter how good you are, as long as you're enjoying what you're doing, and doing it from the heart.

I had one of the 5 strings a while back - I think it was the Tony Levin one. Didn't keep it long enough to upgrade, but I thought the pickup really weak - I'd certainly have changed it for an SD or similar. Nice looking and light weight bass though

Some great replies on this: for me the Gibson Thunderbird, Ric 4001, and Alembic S1 / S2 are iconic and stunningly beautiful. Here's one not mentioned so far I've always liked with its minimalist body outline and funky F-hole. A beach to play finger style though, with that skinny neck and narrow string spacing,

Another great and smooth deal with Mick - bought a Gibson buckle off him, usual friendly chat, buckle arrived next post. A true Basschat legend..........

Likewise. Blew out the speakers in my Dad's old radiogram