Muzz

I found I never liked the sound of my Ray with my LMIII, I think it's a combination which just didn't work. My other basses sounded much better. Have you tried any other basses through the MB?

It depends on how you'd approach the project: if you'd enjoy doing it, go for it - you may find you'll end up with just what you want, with a personal investment in the process and instrument at the end, which can be very rewarding. I've modded several basses now, and I've found it's addictive: off-the-shelf cookie-cutter basses don't interest me all that much these days. If you're building it to sell, fair enough, you'll never recoup your money, but if you're going to start considering your hourly rate doing something you like, I'd suggest that's massively missing the point. Oh, and if you buy a Gibson, you might want to look at changing the bridge for a much superior Hipshot Supertone...and that's how it starts...

Have you played a Fortress at all Karl? I've got one you could try - different pickups, but you'd get the feel of it.

Nice bass, ropey vocals.

About par for the course at the moment, really - a possibly-seven year old dinged P-Bass with a damaged case. I've bought for less (and more) and sold for a bit more, but every one I've had has been in better nick. There's good Precisions and bad ones, too, and I think people factor that in when buying sight unseen from EBay. You can get a bass of at least equal quality (does that mean 'top table'?) from Warwick for a good chunk less these days, which is even more depressing.

Erm...yes...

Just popped over to Karl's to look at a bass - thorough gent, nice basses, top brew and very special biscuits! Deal with confidence, he's one of the good guys.

[color=#333333]Watching Bowie Night on BBC 4 last night confirmed three things 1. Back in the day, he was untouchable 2. He's done nowt worth mentioning for 25 years now and 3. Gail Ann Dorsey is fantastic.[/color] [color=#333333]Nice to see Jim Bowen getting some work as the Spiders drummer, too...[/color]

I've got mine moved to the end of the body, kind of on the end between the neck plate and the neck itself. I've seen them put on an extra-long neck screw through the neck plate, too.

You can get an official date from the serial number off the Ernie Ball website, plus there's [url="http://www.musicmanbass.org/"]http://www.musicmanbass.org/[/url] which has lots of info on serials, too.

Had a couple, never got on with them, didn't like the necks/spacing/string tension*, I'm more than happy using a Hipshot (got one on all my basses) and IMHO it's just not worth the mither for those 3 extra notes, which I've never needed to play. * The best I've tried were Dingwalls, but even then, well, it was still a 5...

Oooo, good fun! 1. Alembic 2. Yamaha 3. Musicman 4. Wal 5. Fender 6. Goodfellow 7. Ibanez 8. Dingwall 9. Ovation 10. Spector

Another factor is something I've heard several times from punters, which is usually along the lines of "You did quite a good version of <enter song here>, I/my son/daughter can play it on Guitar Hero 100%". Errrrrrr yeeeeah...

Just to extend the metaphor slightly, I've got an ABZ4 (don't like 5s at all, despite owning a couple) and it fixes an issue I hadn't been aware existed much at all, or rather it improved something I'd taken for granted for all my bass-playing life. The multi-scale design benefits string tension across the strings - it plays beautifully, and switching back to my 'traditional' basses, excellent as they are, is a step backward. It's a good job Sheldon doesn't make many maple-boarded 4s, or else my bass GAS, which my ABZ has killed off almost completely, would be back with a vengeance. I'd recommend everyone try one, even a 4, even just the once.

While we're on about tonewoods, I've previously seen on the Warmoth site two P-bodies of the same size and wood (Black Korina IIRC) which were wildly different weights, I'm talking 40% heavier (and therefore denser), not just a bit. Taking the earlier points about good luthiers and wood selection, they'd obviously take this into account, but it does rather kibosh the generalised tonewood descriptions we see so much of.

As far as playing them goes, the first couple of frets are a little further apart, and the top half a dozen frets make chording, erm, a new experience, but everyone who's tried mine (and that's just about everyone who's seen it, it's the ultimate "Can I have a go mate?" bass) has been surprised at how unnoticeable the 'wonky' frets are when you're playing.

Fanned frets allow the 'thicker' strings to have a longer scale length, and therefore better tension. My Dingwall has been a revelation; I love it, in fact my other basses get played much less these days. The E is IIRC, 36.25", while the G is a standard 34". I'd recommend everyone try them, you may or may not get on with them (although they look much more unusual than they are to play), but they're certainly extraordinary. It may have something to do with the banjo frets and compound radius of the fretboard, whatever it is, it works for me.

[quote name='chris_b' timestamp='1339676989' post='1692481'] Michael Tobias states his view very clearly. Break out your biggest megaphone. He can't be shouted down as easily. [/quote] You mean a man whose earnings are in part dependent on him using premium, exotic, allegedly tone-changing woods and charging accordingly? Imagine how many more basses he'd sell if he said "Pick a nice colour and pattern guys, the tone's mostly in the electrics"... Yeah, right: no ulterior motives there...

Maple is a harder wood than rosewood? Really? I know it's Wikipedia, but... [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janka_hardness_test"]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janka_hardness_test[/url] - Rosewood 1780, Hard Maple 1450, Silver Maple 700, Red Maple 950 Makes you wonder about all that "maple is a brighter sounding board" hoohah, too...

Maple all the way. But then I like a maple board on anything.

[quote name='kevin_lindsay' timestamp='1339255815' post='1685985'] Jean-Jacques Burnel from The Stranglers!!!!! I heard that fabulously grungy bass sound and thought "I want to do THAT"!!! [/quote] This, plus a little while earlier me and my mate (we were 13) decided we wanted to form a band, and he said "I want to play guitar, how about you be the bassist?". Yes folks, I was [i]that[/i] close to becoming a guitard...