thodrik

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1376746286' post='2178618'] I agree but a lot of crap is spoken about him not using them as much as other basses but even when recording with other basses he always made them sound like stingrays anyway, his most iconic era was filmed with him playing them and that's what counts to most fans of anything. I have seen people suggest that he never played rays until the blood sugar sex magik era, I normally point them to the album cover of the first album from 1984! Which to bring us back to the topic of graphite is actually a cutlass with a modulus neck so he had the modulus connection from day one I like flea and am presumed a fanboy because of my rays but I got into them because of John Deacon actually. Ironically I hear flea records mostly with an SR5 on the last few albums but I have never seen him with one live? [/quote] Pretty much my experience. For the record I love Flea. He has always been chopping and changing basses for records, but he was using the Stingray live quite a lot, and I think in a few videos too, right up until he got the Modulus Flea bass, which aesthetically looks a bit like a Ray anyway. Since Flea used to customise his basses with stickers and custom paint jobs, to the uninitiated it would look like a Stingray anyway. I didn't buy the old album, but I am pretty sure that Stadium Arcadium was all done on 60s Jazz bass. That is the one album where to me the bass doesn't sound like it could be a Stingray. One Hot Minute (Alembic), Blood Sugar (mostly a Wal), Freaky Styley and Mothers Milk (Spectors I think) all sound like they could have been played on a Stingray!

Lots of bubble wrap, a sturdy box, hope for the best. I was sent a Trace Elliot V6 from the Netherlands. Worked perfectly right out of the box. Wrapping the valves individually can help too.

[quote name='mart3442' timestamp='1376703653' post='2178327'] It wasn't a new Bass, it was a 12 month old demo model. [/quote] I know.I meant 'new' as compared to an old Fender. [quote name='Dingus' timestamp='1376675444' post='2177945'] You would have thought that the Flea association would have kept them going , but as I alluded to earlier in this thread , people aspiring to your basses doesn't earn you a penny as a builder . It's only the people who become customers and actually hand over their cash that make any real difference . Legions of teenage slap bass - playing Flea -wannabes who aspire to a Modulus as the ultimate obviously didn't translate into overwhelming sales figures for the brand as a whole . [/quote] My view is that Flea fanboys were never aware that he played a Modulus, as there is has always been an assumption that Flea plays a Stingray. Stingrays are more prevalent in the market, so Flea fans bought Stingrays (I've seen plenty over the years!)

£500 for the head and cab is a good deal. You can always add extra warmth and grit through a pedal or two. I would make an effort to try an Ashdown to see if you prefer it. Personally I prefer Trace Elliot amps but that is just after years of using them. I do like the Ashdowns as well. To be honest you can't go wrong either way.

Great heads. However I think that the Ashdown would give a warmer, deeper sound with potential for a bit of dirt. Trace Elliot, with the pre-set on anyway, is a naturally cleaner sounding amp.

My found that when using a active bass , the bass fuzz I obtained was by using a valve preamp pedal (English Muff'n/EBS Valvedrive/Blackstar Distx) or driving the hell out of a valve amp. That or buy a 'grit' rather than fuzz pedal (Catalinbread SFT, Aguilar Agro) if you don't want to go down the impedance buffer issue. That or just using a passive bass!

When using the 'drop D varient' of any tuning, I just turn my tuner on and tune down. The whole process takes about 10 seconds and is cheaper than an extender, which admittedly I would actually quite like to have!

Play them all. Buy the one you like best. If on the other hand you won't get the opportunity to play them all, here is my take. I bought a Sadowsky Metro and have never regretted it. Some people though don't like them too much. In my experience they tend to have a very clean sound that some people find a bit 'generic' or characterless compared to a bass which may have more character/dead spots/fret buzz. The necks on the Metro models are very plain looking as well (especially the maple fingerboards) and lack the figured detail of some basses at a similar price point. Fit and finish is generally outstanding though and if you like the sound and playability though, any 'issues' disappear. I really like Sandbergs as well. I think that they still have Glockenklang preamps which I find a bit more subtle aand uncoloured than the Sadowsky preamp. I'm not convinced of the 'relic' look of some of the basses, though that is personal taste. I'd love to try a Mayones as the 24 fret models look really nice. I have never personally been convinced by active Fender preamps compared to Sandberg, Sadowsky etc. I still love Fenders though and the new American Vintage series are really lovely looking.

I think that they are just the standard Rotosound roundwound strings like the bottom four strings of a five string set. It would probably need some work on the nut just so the strings could fit. You could also try the DR DDTs, which are 65 85 102 125, though I found them to be just a bit expensive.

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1376412610' post='2173623'] I love my Rays but I also know what a cock SB can be in these situations, I just dont feel the need to defend him like I would if I knew him personally I suppose but then again this is not a tiny scuff or a slightly larger than hoped for neck pocket, it is a pile of donkey poop [/quote] Its funny that my first thought when reading the JC reply was Sterling Ball must have phoned to give JC some friendly advice on how to deal with 'forum stuff'. We can't expect everybody to act live a saint at all times. However online rants, even if they are prompted by overwork, stress or unwarranted attacks, generally won't help a businessman/woman with their business.

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1376411786' post='2173605'] Unfortunatley the Fanbois of products like this get wrapped up on a personal level because understandably they are often run by one guy or a small family business, if those same people had an amp delivered for £3000 and it was faulty they would be on here in a flash if they were refused a refund from a big corporate company. [/quote] I wonder how quickly it would have taken Larry Hartke to solve such a problem...

[quote name='Dingus' timestamp='1376408925' post='2173533'] Well , as the saying goes , you pay your money and you takes your choice . If it had been me who had bought the bass , I wouldn't have taken to a public forum to air my grievances , so I'm not so sure the buyer "had " to do any such thing . He did , he got what he wanted , and JC got a good kicking , but I'm not sure that justice has really been served , and that is what I find distasteful . [/quote] I understand your point to a certain extent. Some people are happy to business under those conditions. I certainly wouldn't. However the buyer had apparently attempted to contact JC to get a resolution to the issue but to no avail. Only then did he post anything on a public forum, which he did without making any scandalous accusations towards AC or JC personally. What other recourse did he reasonably have, other than contact him again and again? Although some Talkbass posters went way too far in their criticisms, JC still had an opportunity to resolve the situation. Instead he delivered a poorly worded, accusatory response. Any 'kicking' that JC then received was pretty much of his own doing.

[quote name='Dingus' timestamp='1376407419' post='2173509'] If I fancied an AC bass , this saga wouldn't deter me from ordering one in the slightest . [/quote] It would deter me. There are plenty of other boutique Fender bass makers. None of them are particularly unique in terms of design, so if I am going to spend loads of money on an instrument that I haven't seen or played, then brilliant customer service and the option of returning the bass if it was a dud would be pretty significant factors in determining my choice. Having to resort to an ugly public forum mudslinging match in order to reach a resolution to any problem hardly inspires much confidence, no matter how brilliant the majority of the basses are.

[quote name='EBS_freak' timestamp='1376385045' post='2172997'] Wow. Interesting response from JC! Kinda with molan on this too.. alot of people ready to pitchfork when they have no experience of AC basses. Certainly, the pics which are on show on TB are not in keeping with the quality of AC that I have seen. Can't really say much more but I am still surprised by the response of JC. For me, it's kinda up there with the people that say, "my bass is better than a Fodera... or finished better than a Fodera... etc." when these people making such claims have never seen one, yet alone played one, in the flesh so to speak. Were the people that say, JC never going to have a penny from me, ever going to buy an AC anyway? It's all kind of sad. [/quote] I don't think that it is necessary to have played an AC bass to realise that something is seriously wrong here. Alleva Coppolo are considered as one of the premier US 'boutique Fender-designed basses' alongside Sadowsky, Nordstrand, Mike Lull etc. It is not necessary to have played an AC bass to recognise that the bass in question is not of the quality expected from such a brand. The most shocking thing is not so much that a substandard bass has managed to escape from the workshop (it happens), but rather the response of the luthier to the problem, in addition to the lengths that the purchaser had to go in order to have the problem resolved. Something may well have happened to the bass between it leaving the shop and it being delivered to the purchaser, however for Mr Coppolo pretty much accuse the the purchaser of trying to engineer the situation with underhand graphic design and photography skills is about as poor as you can get in terms of customer relations. After that, my immediate impression is that I don't particularly feel that I need to play an Alleva Coppolo bass, even if the basses are usually exceptional or if Mr Coppolo is a seriously nice guy in real life and this situation is not a fair reflection of his reputation. It is a real shame.

[quote name='Lew-Bass' timestamp='1376353754' post='2172819'] Jimmy's reply: [url="http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f8/my-horrible-alleva-coppolo-experience-1006426/index36.html#post14719935"]http://www.talkbass....ml#post14719935[/url] [/quote] That is quite the reply: passive aggressive, accusatory, condescending, poor paragraph structure. I understand that there are two sides to every story, but Mr Coppolo isn't exactly helping himself here.

[quote name='wateroftyne' timestamp='1376307455' post='2171873'] To be fair, it's the worst $5000 bass I've ever seen. [/quote] It certainly doesn't look great for a new bass. On an early Fender though it would probably be considered 'mojo'.

That thread shows the good and bad of Talkbass. +. Identifying a shoddy workmanship and poor customer relations and making other people aware of it. - Completely over the top responses along the lines 'this is the worst thing I have ever seen'.

Ooh, very nice!

I would echo EBS_freak's comments. Both are great heads. I can't speak for the older Fafner, but I have had a blue stripe Fafner for about 5 years or so and have not had any reliability issues whatsoever.

My 1974 Gibson EB3 has the same problem, there is barely any gap between the ball end of the string and the saddle. Adding that the to the three point design it is like the perfect storm of bad bridge designs. Poor design though is almost a 'quirk' that gives Gibson basses their character.

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1375565125' post='2163056'] Rickenbacker already make the 4004 bass which pretty much answers all of those criticisms, but relatively few are sold because it doesn't look exactly like the classic 4001 and 4003 basses. [/quote] The Vigier Excess is apparently somewhat based on a Rick, hence the Roger Glover connection. From owning an Excess for 8-9 years though I can't say that I really see it though, or even hear it unless I am playing it through a very loud all-valve rig.

A good Fender bass will always hold its value reasonably well. Older Fender basses will continue to be more valuable, simply because they will become even older over time. Buy one you like and enjoy it.

Not sure if this is a 'wow, listen to that tone' video, but Ed Friedland does a fairly decent demo of the new line of TE amps. [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVyBjX_qkFI"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVyBjX_qkFI[/url]

Play them both and keep the one you like more.