LeftyJ

My old band (female-fronted metal) had a singer that always had a tendency to sing at a very high pitch, but we really wanted to get away from the classic gothic metal flow and adopt a more poppy and modern approach, so we wanted her to sing an octave lower. It turned out not to match her range very well in standard tuning. One of our guitarists already played a 7-string, and both the previous bass player and me played a 5-string bass, and playing at a lower pitch really helped getting the whole band to sound more like we had in mind. It wasn't long before our other guitarist also bought his first 7-string, and it worked wonders for our sound as a whole.

These are made by Ellio Martina, a Dutch luthier of Italian origin. I have a bass of his that's great. He is notoriously hard to reach, but I think the Bass Connection (a bass store here in the Netherlands) is more or less his distributor. www.connectionbult.com

Mustn't... make... darkroom... pun... Seriously though, that looks great and they match the colour of the body really well!

These, and the Marcus Miller Jazz, appear to be THE signature basses out there that appeal to a wide host of bass players whether they're fans of the artists or not. Really cool basses!

Yes, you can drop in any other Jazz-style control plate. Keep in mind a traditional Jazz Bass setup has 3 knobs and a plate-mounted jack, so when going passive VVT you'd have one hole too many because of the sidejack on the Sires. I've tried an Audere JZ3D in my Jazz Bass (not a Sire) once. They offer various configurations, but mine had volume, 3-way impedance switch, stacked pickup pan / mids, stacked bass / treble and a passive tone knob. I liked the versatility, but couldn't stop fidgeting with it and eventually switched mine back to passive, but with a rotary bass boost switch in the 4th position.

If you like the Stingray tone and the looks, MM also has the Sterling and the SLO Special. The Sterling is basically a slimmed-down Ray with a ceramic pickup instead of alnico and a J-style neck profile. The SLO Special is your regular Stingray, but with a Sterling neck.

Generally it is said a power supply doesn't have fully isolated outputs if the power supply has an external adaptor instead of a mains lead. The types with an external adaptor will often still have a common ground.

The One Spot is a switching power supply, and various types of pedals (mostly time-based effects) may respond badly to it. I have a TC Polytune 3, EBS MultiComp, Darkglass B7K and EBS UniChorus hooked up to one with a daisy chain, and have zero issues - until I raise the gain on the compressor past 8 o' clock. Then it quickly gets noisy, especially with the drive on.

These are so cool! Haters will say it's not a true Steinberger ...but while the neck and the body wings may indeed be made of wood, the neck does have a carbon graphite U-shaped profile which the truss rod runs through and a phenolic fingerboard which add a touch of the rigidity, evenness and clarity the original composite Steinbergers are famed for. They're cool basses, and the range of tones of the EMG DC and the piezo bridge is huge, if mostly modern.

I'm in this WhatsApp group that was initiated by a few members of leftybassist.com, called "Lefty Bassists United", and if I thought that forum was bad for my GAS, that WhatsApp group is all kinds of worse! Turns out a few of these guys are buying and selling a LOT more than they show on the forum, and it's incredibly GAS-inducing on many ocassions. I've been able to withstand it so far, but this one guy who I've started calling Paulo the Enabler reached out to me privately last Saturday to tell me "I remember you saying there's this one bass you've been fancying for a while. I've got one that I've owned for maybe 3 months, but I keep playing my homemade shortscale more. Fancy a trade?" So naturally I did the right thing and quickly regained my composure, did not stray from the Holy Path of Gear Abstinence and definitely and defiantly did NOT succumb to temptation, and under no circumstances will there be a NBD thread in my near future. Nope.

As a lefty, I have frequently had to resort to buying a bass based on looks alone, simply because I had no way of trying it first Usually I did have some kind of expectation, and sometimes I had experience with the brand prior to buying. There have been two basses that stand out, and that I bought solely because I thought they looked stunning: In 2009 I ordered a brand new Rickenbacker 4003 in Mapleglo when the Pound was at a low. Of course I had an idea of what a Ric should sound like, based on listening to a lot of Yes, Spock's Beard, old Deep Purple and the Beatles, but I had no idea of I would get on with one. Short answer: I didn't. I loved the tone, absolutely adored the looks, but hated the ergonomics and playability. The neck on mine was somewhat square, and I didn't like the sharp angular sides of the body that dug into my lower arm. I played it for a while in a Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds-esque band, but sold it when I needed money to replace my totalled car and haven't looked back. The second one was my first Status S2 Classic: I fell in love with the bright white body, paired to the beautiful woven-graphite neck with the contrasting, extremely black phenolic fingerboard and roman numeral inlays. I had never laid hands on one or heard one up close. I emailed the seller (I think it was @whynot) but sadly got a reply that it had already been shipped to the US. It kept haunting me though, so I couldn't believe my luck when it popped up 11 years later in Israel. This time I got lucky, and a few weeks later it was delivered to my door, and I love it! I've been deeply impressed with the construction, the excellent playability and the huge range of tones. So much so, that I traded my Stingray 5 for @Bonin-in-the boneyard's 5-string shortly after. That one has been my main bass ever since.

I couldn't resist. It's happening, I'm trading my Ibanez Musician for this. I'm looking forward to it a LOT! It's going to take a little while, and going through Customs is going to cost me dearly, but I'm very eager to get my hands on it!

Anyone remember (or have any experience with) these unusual Yamaha's? I've often seen these (and the guitar version) nicknamed the iPOD bass It's the RBX5A2, and supposedly ultralight because of the unusual body construction: they're a sandwich of two hardwood panels, connected with "sound tubes", with very light center material inbetween. I've always been intrigued by the concept, but I haven't a clue if they're any good!

Same here, I've never seen one in the flesh. But I've had severe shortscale GAS for over a year now, and it's right up my alley. I love the Mustang-like looks and it's a shortscale with 16,5 mm string spacing at the bridge, but that's where the similarities end: it's a modern, Jazz Bass-like sounding active bass (but can be switched to passive with the bridge volume push/pull pot). If it was the version with the reverse P pickup I would have made my mind up already, but I'm in doubt now because I don't really need a mini Jazz. It looks like so much fun though! Edit: pics or it didn't happen.

I just got offered an Atelier Z Baby Z JJ in a trade for my 1981 Ibanez MC924 . It's in the USA though, so I need to think about it. I will be hit with a 21% VAT and up to 4% import duties, so it's not "just" a trade. But man, am I tempted! It's a natural ash model with a plexi pickguard and maple fingerboard with white block inlays and it looks like so much fun!

I share this obsession, and aside from backup purposes I also like to own both a 4 and a 5 string version of the same bass. My "twins" are / were: Ibanez MC924: I have both a 1981 and a 1983 model. Technically not twins, because other than their model designation they are very different; Ibanez ATK: I only have my ATK305 left, but I also used to own two ATK300's at the same time; Yamaha TRB5II: I had both an amber and a transparent blue one. Lovely basses, very sturdy workhorses and pretty too; Warwick: I have a Streamer LX and an LX5, both in a beautiful gloss finish; Status Graphite: I have both a 4-string and a 5-string S2 Classic bolt-on headless; Squier MIJ Stratocaster: I have both an E-series (1984-1987) and a Silver Series (1991) that feel and sound very similar.

They have it in more finishes though, just not in that Anniversary Edition. The model has been around since at least 2020 already, and there have been several finishes. There was a FSR (factory special run) in Satin Black, Midnight Satin, Burgundy Satin and Olive Satin that was promoted in the US as a "Sweetwater exclusive" run, but I've seen them pop up at European stores too and they can still be found brand new in several online stores. Personally I like the Pearl White and Shoreline Gold finishes best, but I've only seen those on the 4-string. The Olive Satin is the next best thing I guess, looks quite cool and also a bit gold-like.

Nice to see them collaborating with Elrick again. Earlier, they did a Josh Paul signature model (JP5, later named RB5) which was also a licensed Elrick copy. I'm not a huge fan of the new GB shape, I liked the previous model better.

I love the finish, but I hate the non-reversed look and the Strat-style jack!

Point taken, I assume. I would personally always try to get a deal outside of Reverb or via the seller's own shop (but only if they're a business, it could be unsafe to do this with a private seller). Reverb sell rates are very high, and you can easily save 10% or more when buying from the seller directly. This Aria is an exception though, it is listed at their own site at exactly the same price: https://www.gasstationguitars.com/product-page/aria-diamond-series-dmb-380-bass-scarce-hot-pink-finish

Seems they're rescaled, and all are clipped at the 12th fret. Except for the Wal, which has no frets 😉

Maruszczyk = Mensinger The Cazpar is a shortscale bass, maybe their shortscale strings come from a different supplier? I see they sell both longscale and shortscale strings under their own brand, but who knows where they're made.

That looks incredible! I love your choice of woods, and the contrasting layers between the core and the top really make it pop. Beautiful!

This can mean different things to different people, but here's what I would consider: I would go very basic, and go for passive Jazz Bass pickups and a simple 2-band EQ plus a passive tone control to roll off sharp highs. I would look closely at the center frequencies of the EQ controls though. Something like an Aguilar OBP-1 has the bass pot centered at 40 Hz and I hate it, because it only boosts the sub lows and adds low-end rumble but also a lot of mud. I have an OBP-3 in a custom 5-string and it's a great pre, but I rarely touch the bass control for that reason. I quite like the MEC preamp in my Warwicks because the bass control is centered at 100 Hz with a fairly broad range, and also adds a slight bit of low mids and punch. It works well to add warmth and punch for a great slap tone. That bass boost plus a treble roll off gives a huge range of tones, and will get you all the traditional Jazz Bass tones plus a modern active slap tone and everything in between. I have owned two TRB5II's by the way, so I know these basses well and they are indeed very good! I loved the neck profile, the tones and the looks, but I didn't love the feel of a 35" scale. The stock preamp was good and flexible, but the EQ controls were fairly subtle to my ear.

Why? What is it that you don't like about the tone that makes you want to change the pickups and electronics? What type of tone are you looking for? From your post, I gather you don't really seem to know yet.