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This just makes me even more intrigued as to what developments are coming. The site is still down which is just adding to the anticipation, I am sure it wont be that dramatic now. Lets face it, he doesn't need any more business, he already has a huge waiting list. I have a feeling Stenback basses will be the new Celinder.

I have played the 63? USA vintage Precision and thought it was exceptionally good. The guy in the shop quietly admitted to me that most people don't think there is much, if anything in it compared to 'New' (non relic) team built CS basses. In my very humble opinion where the CS stuff comes into its own is the relic stuff. I know most people don't see the point or like them, but for me its all about the necks on those instruments, I have only every played two basses which felt as nice as a CS relic neck, a Sei and a GB Spitfire. The rolled edges and fretwork was amazing on the CS stuff I have played, guitars included. I dont know if the Hurley is a relic or not but if it is the neck is likely to be very good. To be honest, you need to find one in stock somewhere and try a Pino while your there if possible.

I bought one, didn't fit across all of the strings on my fiver, muted so heavily the note was barely even there. I thought it was garbage and just used a chunk of foam after that which had a better level of muting for me, but everyone is different and a lot of people have bought them so I am probably the odd one out. I might have been imagining it but both my fiend an I were convinced the tuning of the string went out if you moved it forwards an backwards from the bridge. As it was so heavily muted it was hard to tell.

There were a few bands/musicians and actual performances that really made me want to pursue bass. One of those performances and moments that still sticks out in my head was seeing Spacehog on TFI Friday playing 'in the meantime'. I saw Royston out front on bass playing such a great melodic groove and that was me sucked in to playing bass and singing in a rock band. They had some great tunes across the albums but some of it was a bit lame. In the meantime still makes the hairs on my neck stand up as it was the soundtrack to some great years growing up.

[quote name='Horizontalste' timestamp='1473255283' post='3128379'] [attachment=227292:DSC_0559.JPG] Haven't decided if I like the white yet....... [/quote] That looks classy if you ask me. I love the white pickup cover on stingrays, it gives it a bit of a custom vintage look. I think tort would work on that blue with the white pickup but then again I love clashing colours on basses. This is seriously not helping my Stingray GAS, I think the Lakland is going up soon, I cant resist.

I use Bass, Apogee Interface, Laptop, Garageband and then I can use the Internet to practice whatever I want to. I tend to use Youtube playlists for cover band rehearsals, incredibly handy.

The only ones I have seen are around £4250, so seriously top end instruments, but if I am not mistaken he makes pretty much everything except tuners, even strap buttons. That's why I am guessing there is a cheaper range coming but I could be way off.

I don't know if there are many followers of Tom Stenback but the site is down and they have announced that you can no longer place orders, the demand is too high, so there will be basses sold on a first come first served basis on the website. He also says there is exciting news so I'm intrigued to see if there is some kind of development in the business plan, perhaps some out-sourcing of some manufacture to produce a cheaper range whilst he works on the top end stuff like Sadowsky? I'm excited anyway, I love what Tom Stenback is doing.

[quote name='Machines' timestamp='1472212140' post='3119478'] I think the 'overpriced' accusation is based around their generally understated looks. [/quote] Yeah fair point I do get that to a certain extent, some of them don't look like 2k worth of bass.

Lakland US basses are very high on my 'to try' list. I have a Lakland Skyline 55-02 which was bought as i needed a solid 5 string active bass after selling some of my more expensive kit. I am not a massive Lakland fanboy by any means, it was bought because it fits teh musical situation at the moment and it was bloody cheap for the spec. I find the Skyline models considerably better than offerings from other companies that cost a lot more. I have been left incredibly underwhelmed by 2k Sadowsky Metros and Fenders and I was desperate to love these instruments when I played them. I still crave a Fender CS, I am definitely a fender fanboy, but cant find a decent one after 5-6 attempts. If the US Laklands are even 10% more refined than the Skylines, then I cant see how anyone would say they are overpriced compared the the stupid amount Fender charge for CS stuff and how much Sadowsky charge for Metro basses. I would take a skyline over a Sadowsky Metro any day, mine is even on a level with my old Overwater basses. Some of the finest bass players talked about on these forums have and still do use Lakland US basses, even though they have other high end endorsements, which must mean something. It just surprises me that a lot of people say how overpriced they are and 'not worth the money' when they have never even played one in the flesh. I tried £3000 worth of secondhand Alleva Coppolo once, I put it down after about 2 minutes, dull as dishwater IMO but I would never have made that assumption without playing one first.

Mine definitely have their places in the house and they are not tolerated for long periods of time in the living room on the sofa for instance. I do usually have a gig bag and kit lying around the dining room (where I usually practice with the laptop) and that is fine, plus I do have my own 'guitar room and an office, so no reason for them to be lying around. My wife has always known me as a musician so she knows its part of the package.

I have to give this a read. My friend is a studio musician and between us we have loads of antics and stories about people and situations that we both desperately want to write down. Most of ours revolve around actually 'being there' and seeing what happened so when we are both old miserable buggers we are going to write a sitcom along the lines of The Detectorists.

Hi all, I gave up on bass magazines a few years ago but does anyone know if any have done any interviews with Pino? I seem to remember Ibass magazine did one at some point but I can't find any reference to it which makes me think I may have imagined it. If anyone knows any back issues that have an interview please reply.

I gigged and rehearsed with one full time for just over a year and it was incredibly well made and an absolute pleasure to play. Clarity wise, I would say it was fine, it had that big round P bass sound, the B was never going to be that clear with just a P pickup but I found it incredibly useful for all of the soul I was playing at the time. We used to change keys on everything so I was using the B string in every song and it worked well. Mine sustained well especially with Elixirs on but I also have a fairly high action which I believe gives the string more room to move. Tension was good with Elixirs, I guess it depends on your normal strings. I certainly wouldnt have wanted anything lower in tension so wouldn't have gone near some flat wound brands. It is a really really good bass, great soul tones and great with a pic, its not going to have bell-like clarity as its P bass with 34" scale at the end of the day but I loved mine to pieces. I only sold it as I moved back to playing more funk/dance/electronic music and wanted something with a bridge pickup.

Oh dear lord, I might need to find some money from somewhere very quickly!! That is basically everything I would want in a Jazz bass and I already know the quality of the other road worn stuff.......I think my wife might be getting very angry with me soon.

Some people like relics, some don't, it makes life interesting when we don't all like the same things.............next subject.

Watching Squeeze and although I am not a huge fan, all I can say is, that's how its done!! Great bass sound too, she's a great player.

I watched 4 acts this morning and the bass sounded fecking awful on all of them, Verdine White's bass sounded horrendous to me but the band were amazing as always. Then I watched The 1975, guitars drums etc sounded great, bass was a clanky distorted mess from the P-Bass, then I watched CHVRCHES, ok an electronic band predominantly but again a clanky horrible distorted mess, Precision again and then Finally Reef, you guessed it, clanky horrible distorted mess and you guessed it, a Precision again.......do I see a trend emerging.... yet to watch any more, I may have just picked the only 4 acts with an awful bass sound. I am presuming it is not the bands and more the way the bass has been recorded.

I'm not really a Flea fan anymore (I was obsessed in my teens) but that bass represents most of the things I love in a jazz bass that can only normally be found on Fender CS or other boutique/custom builders. Custom colour, relic, tort plate, stacked pots....well done fender! If it had lollipop tuners which I am obsessed with, it would be perfect for me, but that is easily remedied. I know the quality of the road worn instruments so this should be great. Off topic slightly, my friend had a RW strat and had it set up and some new pickups put in it (fender vintage reissue jobbies) and he swears it is better than his two CS strats now, much to his dismay.

So fender are making a Mexican road worn version of Fleas 61 jazz in shell pink with stacked pots. Looks amazing too, I want one! Andertons have them on their site but I can't find anything else so far apart from a picture from NAMM on Instagram.

I am sure I have commented on Bass Direct before having done a few commission sales with them and bought some amps and general bits and bobs. The last time I was in the shop it was only Mark working there and I found him challenging but in a very enjoyable way. Let me explain, I guess most of us go into shops with pre-conceived ideas of what we want, basically whatever is causing us GAS at that moment in time. I would guess that a lot of the time we are basing these desires on images and hype rather than physically playing the bass/amp/cab. Look how much stuff gets churned around on the for sale thread here. I was in Marks shop trying things I thought I would like and ended up very underwhelmed, Mark grabbed a load of basses, sat me down and made me play stuff I wouldn't look at normally. It worked, I needed up being blown away by and Elrick and a Roscoe and a Nordy at the time and was on the verge of buying the Nordy. It was also fairly early days for Dingwall in the UK and the one I played was incredibly good too. While chatting to Mark at that time, he told me how he has guys coming back over and over again buying and selling the kit they so desperately wanted a few weeks earlier. They didnt listen to any advice from someone who spends their life around the gear and a lot of these people ended up not happy with the purchase. Yes it was probably good for business but he was more interested in finding the right bass/amp for me and customers in general than have people trading in and swapping gear all the time. Yes he has some heavy preferences on gear, Bergs and Roscoe at the time, but that is (I'm guessing) based on experience and probably a result of him seeing those instruments come back for trade-ins and re-sale less than a lot of other brands. Its simple, if you don't like the way he does things, go somewhere else, but I liked what he had to say. My final example of something simple Mark said to me. At the time I had a 5 string and a 4 string bass, and was swapping between for some reason, I think I felt like I had to have a 4 string. In conversation he just said "why have you got a 4 string and a 5" I honestly couldn't give him a sensible reason. He smiled and said that you can do everything you need on a 5 but not the other way round (for my particular playing situation) so I basically gave up 4 string after that.

[quote name='wateroftyne' timestamp='1466421133' post='3075623'] My PJ has a chunky neck. And they would have made it even bigger if I'd asked... far cheaper than a CS or Lull, too. [/quote] I wasn't very clear sorry, by custom build I meant custom spec from other builders not just the Fender CS. I know Lull make a big neck as 'standard' but I am not sure where Lull fit, are they custom built? I suppose they are custom spec'd by some shops. It all depends on whether you want Fender on the headstock I guess. There are some good cheaper options to get a P neck on a PJ if you look elsewhere. On a budget I would probably go secondhand Lakland Bob Glaub and get a pickup installed. Saying that, the Jake above is a bloody good option too!

I was looking for PJ with a big old P neck for a while and there are limited options from Fender, basically all I found was the old late 90's Hot Rod Precision and now the new Vintage Hot Rod 60's precision. I love the massive 50's Precision neck that you get on the road worn but you wont get a neck that big unless you modify a standard model, get a custom build or look at a Mike Lull.

That looks tasty!! I have to say I have become a Lakland convert after getting my 55-02 and I really don't need the temptation to get a 5 string Jazz. They do it with Tort pickguard as well.