matski

I have a pair of FatBeams on my StingRay 5 - I put them on in January 2009 They still sound a bit too zingy...

I've found you can achieve a similar sound by repeatedly sliding the straw in and out of a half empty large size fizzy beverage paper cup with plastic lid from a fast food chain.

I had a similar issue with DHL once. A bass was sent from the UK to me here in Poland, but I was tracking it pretty much constantly - when it arrived at the DHL depot, I went and picked it up myself. Luckily I did really, as the street name was correct but the house number was totally wrong and didn't even exist.

God knows how much they cost nowadays, but I still have mine which I bought brand new in 1983 for the princely sum of £250...

Using a pair of Beyer Dynamic DT770s, I could hear from 20 Hz to about 15 kHz - I'm 50 years old and haven't really used much ear protection over the course of my bass career.

I read that as a Westone Scrotum II. Judging by your description it was a load of bollocks, to be fair...

Red Hot Chili Peppers. Admittedly the first 2 albums were a little iffy, but the 3rd album "The Uplift Mofo Party Plan" album with the 'original' lineup of Anthony Kiedis, Flea, Hillel Slovak & Jack Irons was quintessential RHCPs - funky, psychedelic mayhem. Then of course Hillel croaked and Jack left and in came John Frusciante. The next album "Mothers Milk" was IMO a bit of a stop-gap and then along came "Blood Sugar Sex Magik" which made them megastars. And then they were crap.

Yep, I remember it. I attended the music school upstairs for a couple of months in a fruitless attempt to learn to read music back in about 1991ish. Had more fun lurking around the Bass Centre tbh. The Bass Centre was where I bought my MusicMan Cutlass I and where I got my Aria B&G modded out with a Bartolini active circuit and extra pup. Still have both basses, btw

The Fender PB555 'Boxer'

Ever thought of checking on eBay for some of those old weird Soviet era basses such as Jolana? You could probably pick up something for a couple of hundred quid max.

It has never happened so far....

When I first moved to Warsaw I only knew a couple of musicians, so asked them to put me in touch with anyone who they heard might need a bass player. So, a week or so later I get a call and ask if I want to go and rehearse with a band. Sure! I arrive at the given address and it turns out to be a semi-derelict factory. Okay. There's a youngish bloke waiting outside for me and he helps me lug my amp out of the car and inside - it looks like a squat. After wending our way through a veritable labyrinth of dark corridors I find myself in a darkened room with a surly looking, multi-pierced person behind a 1000 piece drumkit and another guy with a BC Rich guitar and a full-on Marshall stack. This is gonna get loud, methinks. First up, they ask me to detune my 5 string down to a low G. Alarm bells! Then they give me a quick rendition of one of their 'songs': a 600bpm deathcore number, with the chap who helped me load in jumping around shouting "WOOOOOOOOAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!" into his microphone. Hmmmmm. I think I'm at the wrong gig here, but hey whatever I should be able to keep up with them. We thrash around for 5 minutes or so and they ask me what I think, to which I reply that I don't really think I'm the right man for the job. Shouty bloke assures me that I should hang around as their second vocalist will be along shortly and he is a much better singer. OK. Second vocalist arrives, we start another 'song', now there are 2 variations on the "WOOOOOOOOAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!" theme. Enough is enough for me, so I start to make my excuses and leave. On the way out, they ask if I'd like to join them for their next rehearsal - I politely decline, but being British say that whenever they are planning to gig let me know and I'll come along (as if). I enquire as to the name of their ensemble to which I get a reply of indecipherable Polish. How does that translate into English, I enquire, 'Nun's C*nt' they reply.

I remember seeing some buskers in Amsterdam and one bloke was playing one of these - they're feckin huge!

I use a Comfort Strapp with Schallers fitted Been using Schallers since about 1984 and never had any problems with 'em. Yeah, sometimes the nuts get a little loose but that's hardly a big deal.

I could say the same about the Fender Jazz bass (runs off and hides from incoming abuse)....

Yes, but this is a 4003S. That S makes a big difference as the top edge of the bass is rounded off just where your right forearm rests when playing. Therefore your skin is not flayed from your arm whilst playing. I have a 4003S and found that once I had adjusted my strap length correctly the bass sits very nicely and my right forearm is very comfortable.

On a P bass I tend to have the tone knob at about half open/half closed.

Sorry to be pedantic, but Aria are hardly 'little-known'... They were massively popular back in the early 80s. I still have one from 1983.

Heh heh! I had the first unlined fretless Thunder 2A in the UK. It was my birthday present back in 1981. I'd asked for a bass for my previous birthday and my parents bought me a Hondo Rickenbacker copy and my dad told me if I learnt to play he would buy me a better bass for my next birthday. I actually wanted an Aria SB1000 fretless but my dad went to check them out and they were too expensive, so he ordered the Thunder instead. It had to be specially made and shipped over from Japan. The Thunder 2A was a pretty versatile bass but it was heavy. In a fit of nostalgia 10 years later, I bought a Thunder 1 fretless brand new and it was utter rubbish, so I would say stick to the early 80s Thunders if you fancy one.

When I were a young 'un and just getting into bass, I kept hearing a particular bass sound that I really liked so would wait until Top of the Pops was on and keep my fingers crossed that I would see one of the bands I liked playing and be able to ID the bass guitar to find out what it was... And the winner was..... *drum roll, badum-tish!* ....the MusicMan Stingray!

Me too, but I've always found it a slightly strange experience - a bit like seeing your ex-girlfriend with a new bloke.

I fully expect to be either hung, drawn and quartered or possibly banned from Basschat for life for saying this, but for me it was the Wal Custom bass: really heavy, very peculiar neck profile, mystifying control pots that I couldn't get to grips with at all. This was back in the days when there was a shop called Allbang & Strummit at the Seven Dials in Covent Garden in London where one could find a quite literal 'wall of Wals'. (Runs away and hides)....

I was once in a goth band called Striptease. We used to play around Brighton quite often in the mid 80s and occasionally would get a dirty-raincoat-wearing punter standing at the back looking bemused and a tad disappointed. One band name that will forever stick in my mind from the days of checking out the gig listings in Melody Maker is.... BUM GRAVY. Not one of mine, I hasten to add!