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For those with a bigger budget I would say look for the Pre Ernie Ball stingrays, very desireable and apparently have a sound of their own. For me the best years are the late 80s 90s rays with the bigger bridge plate, spoke wheel truss rod, contoured bodies and a lot of them also had figured necks as standard. Saying that even the early 2000s rays had some lovely figuring on the necks, just before they all seemed to get the really bland, pale, maple necks and the figuring only came on more expensive models.

That looks perfectly legit to me, it just looks like the owner/seller isn’t fully aware that there was a name change, that is just an American Standard so the same bass essentially. He/she probably just looked up the fender website to check the model name and got it a bit wrong.

I have a very close friend who is a ‘pro’ musician/writer/session musician, and he uses Harley Benton Jazz 60% of the time. Companies need to make money and they will feed off your insecurities and bombard you with cow poop, to make you part with more money. There are times when it may not be appropriate to do a session for someone with a £100 bass (mainly down to other people’s preconceived ideas and ignorance) but using one for other applications doesn’t make you an amateur. Use your ears, if it sounds good it is good.

Placed an order as it was rude not to for £15, that’s a couple of coffees in most places. Happy to wait a few months if need be.

I know that bass and the last time I was in the shop I thought it had almost found a home with a new owner. Sadly I never had a chance to play it, despite the offer to bring it into the shop for me to try. It looks incredible and what a wonderful experience it must have been. It was a big blow to the local music community when it’s owner passed away and it is sad that the shop has come to the end of its days too. I used to spend a lot of time and money in there.

Yup, I used to play a Jazz when I started and was always after thin necks on other basses because I thought they made me play faster. Over the years I have found that I don’t cope well with thin necks, I get bad cramp and feel like my fingers get on top of one another and almost trip over themselves. One of the reasons I struggled with 5 strings was because the spacings on a lot of them were too tight, then I found 5 strings which had ‘normal’ 19mm spacing and I moved to them exclusively for nearly 10 years. I absolutely adore the classic 50s precision necks, which are almost as big as a stingray 5 but width and find them incredibly comfortable. I’m currently on a Stingray which is a nice nut width and not too deep and find that a good fit. I would love a Jazz as they always appealed to me visually, but I would have to build a bitsa or a custom order with a precision neck to make it playable for me. I also keep my eyes peeled for the elusive 2001 Fender PJ Hotrod which I would love.

Well done sir, I nearly started one yesterday but got distracted and forgot. A couple of things caught my eye; The new Fender Bass Preamp designed by Alex Aguilar (the man behind the original Aguilar amps/preamps) The new £600 Ireland made Sheeran acoustics by Lowden Guitars. Can’t say I’m a massive Ed Sheeran fan, but a £600 Irish built Lowden acoustic has to be worth a try.

@EBS_freak that is a tune, and that is also what I call I superb function band. we used to do some artful dodger - moving too fast, ultra nate- free, Estelle - American boy, sub sub - ain’t no love, strike - you sure do. There were a few other 90s dance ones that went down stupidly well but I have forgotten them now, we used to do a 15min medley of dance stuff that was incredible and I don’t like 90s dance music. 😂

This above.....I sadly have done a few comparisons over the years and Elixirs always win out over the course of a year. Depending on the brand I compared with, the savings changed, but against using EB Slinky’s I reckon I saved about £20, and I dread to think what that would be against something like rotosounds which I wouldn’t keep on longer than one practice and a sweaty gig. D’Addario NYXL strings are well worth a look too, they aren’t advertised as long life, but they outlast every other kind of non coated string I have used by a country mile.

I have been in plenty of bands where their idea of smart was as you describe, black suits, shoes and ties, white shirts. Its a bit naff for most occasions. In a few bands we have basically had some rules of what not to wear, so basically: No black, no trainers, no blue stone washed jeans, no wearing just a t-shirt (a smart plain T-shirt with a waistcoat can look ok) and no super bright colours unless it’s a fun occasion or for friends etc. This basically forced people into smart trousers/chinos, of varying colours sometimes, but more often than not grays. Smart tailored shirts with nice patterns or a solid muted colour, and more often than not, brown leather boots/shoes/brogues. Jeans were fine for pub gigs or casual settings but always dark gray, dark blue kind of denim, no ‘dad’ jeans. Obviously you judge the venue, and we did wear suits for occasions, but again always grays or blues etc.

I’m sure I read somewhere that it was there as an alternative position to sit the bass more to the right when playing so that the first few frets felt closer and less of a stretch. Obviously they couldn’t put a regular strap button there, so it seems quite sensible.

I have been eyeing this up on the Gallery website, I love AV Basses, they just look superb and I would love a great PJ. The only thing that put me off slightly was the colour combo, but it looks ok in your pictures. Great bass, enjoy!!

Just another example of how little people in general value any kind of creative industry. The issue is not just this person/venue though, I know and have know, a lot of bands and musicians that would play the opening of a cupboard door for a free drink and a pat on the back. I don’t want to criticise them too much, because for a lot of people it’s a hobby and they are just happy to play and have fun and don’t need or want to make money. I have found the same through talking to other kinds of creative people, photographers, web designers, illustrators, they all come across people who do the same work but will do it for very little or nothing just to get experience and build a portfolio.

For anyone interested, I gave up on lemon oil about 2 years ago as I found it wasn’t really nourishing the rosewood boards on my guitars. I have used it for years and it never seemed to properly condition the wood, it just soaked in and the board looked fine for a week and then dried out. I did some google research and found a lot of luthiers and guitar companies in general moving away from it and using Music Nomad F-One oil. I bought a bottle and tried it and for me and my guitars it works so much better than lemon oil and has lasted and really seems to ‘feed’ the wood and make it look and feel superb. I’m converted and think it is well worth it (a bottle will last a few guitars for years).

Here’s a few things: country of origin, location of business, rent, staff costs, production methods, cost of materials, heritage, reputation, experience. I’m sure there are hundreds more. One is made by a very small team of luthiers in New York/Brooklyn? Where they have to pay staff enough to live in that area as well. By all accounts they hand pick all of their timbers and pay top dollar etc and they have the reputation as one of the finest bunch of luthiers in the world. It’s more about their outgoings as a business not just what physically went into it as an instrument. They need to pay for everything’s and everyone involved in the business and then make a profit. I have no doubt their reputation gives them the luxury to charge a good amount of money for the product so why not charge what people are willing to pay?

I shouldn’t like it, my brain tells me it’s everything I don’t want in a bass, but I really like them 😬. I especially like the Prog version, will be interesting to see the pricing on these.

I’ve been approaching this the wrong way all along.

This thread just got me thinking how long it had been since I bought any new gear, so I decided to delve into emails and photos to check. 2nd of March 2017 was the last time I bought anything, and that includes strings, cables, even spare batteries for basses and tuner. I’m stunned! that has to be a record for me, amazing how kids can distract you from this kind of nonsense. 😂

I have OBBM cables and also Design-a-cable. My only slight leaning towards design-a-cable is the wide variety of colours available. I always buy a range of strange colours so mine don’t get ‘lost’ or swept up in other people’s gig bags and flightcases. I have been using the same speaker and guitar leads for the past 7 years, one of each from the two companies mentioned above. Top notch kit.

Why does any ‘luxury’ item cost a premium, because people naturally want something better/more expensive/rarer/fancier than the next person and will pay for that. There will also always be people in the world who don’t consider 4K a lot of money to put into their hobby/career. In Fenders case there are a lot of building to keep running, staff to pay, artists to give free stuff to, marketing to pay for and as someone said the pound is weak which doesn’t help us. They also want to make a profit and so do distributors etc so it all adds up for the customer. Its a dramatically different business to say someone like Overwater or Sei who are small operations selling direct to customer with much lower overheads. It may well be snake oil and ridiculous to some people and that is fine, but to someone else it may be the greatest most expressive and inspirational instrument they ever play and they may go on to make great music because of it and not play another bass ever again. I bet there are more that a few folks on here who have lost a few grand buying basses and other kit and selling it on at a loss because of GAS or hype. I have played crap 3k basses and superb £300 basses and visa versa, just find an instrument you love and can’t live without, that inspires you and buy it if you are fortunate enough to be able to. Then go make some great music and enjoy and stop worrying about why some basses cost a lot of money 😉

I use my laptop with a interface and headphones through GarageBand for a bit of compression and sound sculpting. Then I normally drag the track up on YouTube and play along. The best thing about YouTube is that you can slow the music down and really hear sections and play along to fast sections and build up. There isn’t a huge range of speeds but it’s enough for me. Next stage for me will be something like a Phil Jones big head with headphones and my phone for portability.

I have had gig hangovers, or ‘gig-itis’ as my wife calls it now, ever since I started playing when I was 16. I think initially it was down to alcohol, two lots of loading and unloading all in the same day, and getting very excited and physical onstage. Now I have removed the alcohol, but it is still very physical and a lot more kit to move with my last band, so I now get more aches and stiffness the day after. I have never been one for really late nights either so I think getting home late, combined with the time it takes me to get over the adrenaline and buzz, makes me pretty tired and grumpy the day after most gigs. The only band I felt fine every time after a gig, was a large soul band where I didn’t have to do anything other than plug my kit in and play.

Back in the late 90s a big music shop i visited to but my first real Fender, happily swapped the necks on two precisions so I had the configuration I wanted. It could be the distributor or the shop swapped necks for the customer rather than order a whole new bass in the right combination of colours and woods.

Can’t go wrong with some early morning acoustic-mandolin-funk courtesy of Vulfpeck and the immensely talented Chris Thile...

Totally agree, I can’t stop listening to Hard Work by Theo, great tune.