Skybone

Local Gumtee, loca Facebook musicians pages, adverts in local Music Shops. Oh, and lots of perserverance.

For me it's about the sound. My first few basses were passive. They sounded alright at the time, but I traded up. My first active, a Westone Thunder 1a, really did sound good and played really well (weighed a ton though!). So I started working my way through numerous active basses, including a couple of StingRay's. The last 3 or 4 active's I owned played really well, looked great, [i]but[/i], try as I might, I couldn't get a sound I liked out of them. I played with the EQ's, changed strings, tweaked pre-amp settings etc., etc. I could not find a sound I was happy with. They sounded OK in the shop when I tried them out, but were a massive let down when I got them home. After getting more frustrated, I tried someone's passive bass. Loved it, got a great sound out of it with my gear, so, went out to the local music shop, tried a number of different basses out, cam away with an MIM Jazz. Kept that for a few years until I got my hands on a 4003. I don't think I'll be in a hurry to go back to active's.

A very nice looking bass indeed. The grain of the fretboard is seriously nice. Not jealous, nope, not one jot...

Pots can be cleaned (Servisol is your friend here), but it sounds like you will need to spend a fair amount of time just doing maintenance on it to get it into a usable state. Offer £250-£300, if he accepts, buy it, clean it up, set it up, and sell it on. If he wants more, tell him you're not interested because of the condition and the time you'd have to spend on it to get it into a playable condition.

Thomann do a decent bag, it's the same size as the HD500(x), X3 and xt Live. Try using the HIWatt DR103 amp model, used that a lot on my old PODxt for bass.

The HD500x wasn't designed to be "off", so true bypass is kind of irrelevant. If you just want to use the effects, then the HD500 not the right unit for you. Though if you did use it for just effects, then it's still rather good without true bypass. Don't know much about the Firehawk.

If it sounds good, use it.

Before I started playing bass, I wanted a 4001. It took me another 20 years before I finally bought myself a 4003, and was gutted when I had to sell it on.

I managed to pick one up in those exact circumstances. Just keep an eye on eBay, the right one will come up. The guitar amp sims are pretty darn good too if you dabble with 6 strings. The effects are really good too.

AFAIK, the Line6 M9 & M13 are very good options, don't think they're using the HD model's, but they get very good reviews.

I'm using one as my main rig, I think it's a great piece of kit, and will certainly give you lots of options for home practice & home recording. The Bass Model pack is essential, and also very good. Good headphones are a good investment, either good quality Hi-Fi, or Pro Music headphones, I'm using a pair of Sennheiser HD200's and they're pretty good, I also plug it into my home stereo. For band use, I plug it into the rehearsal room's amp setup, using the Power Amp In or Effect Return, bypassing the amp's pre-amp. I got mine second hand, and you can get a nearly new, well looked after example with the original boxes for £250-300. Money well spent IMO.

A lot depends on whether you want modelling or not. The B3 is a great unit, but limited to 'only' 3 effects at once. I'm currently using a Pod HD 500x, I do use the modelling, but the effects are great as well. You can pick up one second hand for around £250. Factor in buying the bass amp models (it is well worth it!). It's a really good piece of kit. There's the Boss GT6 or 10B which are supposed to be better effects units, never tried either, so can't comment on them. The newer units like the Axe-fx, Kemper or Helix are big bucks, you'd have to be serious about multi-fx and modelling to go with any of them.

They used to, the BT 5 IIRC (or was it the BT6?)

Minor longshot, but try putting a couple of those sachets of silicon that you get with electronics in the case. They absorb moisture, so if there's any moisture in there causing iffy whiffs, then it should help. Maybe after a liberal dosing of Febreze and airing it out...

Play with the EQ & push the mids. Try a pre-amp pedal. Transition some parts to the middle of the neck. Turn it up.

Kay P copy Westone Raider Aria Pro ii SB Special II Dreadful Encore Strat Westone Thunder 1A Washburn Mercury Tobias Toby 4 EBMM Stingray 2EQ Aria Pro ii SB 1000 EBMM Stingray 2EQ Fender Jazz MIM Rickenbacker 4003 Fender Modern Player Jazz MIC Rockinbetter (still have) Chinabacker (awful) G&L L2000 Tribute Rockinbetter (still have)

I'm GASing for a Ric, or at least another Rockinbetter faker.

Yup, tinnitus is for life, not just for Christmas. Like most, I started using earplugs too late, the damage was already done.

Isn't it a B3 Ripper?

ACS ER20S

I keep toying with the idea of picking a cheap P/J and adding a neck pickup. Haven't found a likely candidate yet.

After my last copy of Cubase LE went belly up after an OS upgrade, I had a good look at DAW packages around. Ended up buying a copy of Studio One Artist. Only used it a few times, but very impressed with it.

Apologies Billy