Muzz

Well, I've got a oldish (ebony board) fretless Corvette I've had for a while, which was bought on a whim as a tester for fretless. Same thing - I love its quality and it's the most woody-sounding fretless I've ever played (which is what I was looking for in a fretless), but again it's no looker (IMO). I saw Soulboy's Fortress, and remembered I'd played one ages ago which I thought was a great-playing bass, and again it's the wenge neck, the build quality, and the passive P/Js which I wanted. Took me a lot of looking at the photos to decide to buy it, but I went for it. It takes some admitting, but I'm sure we've all stood in front of a mirror with the bass on to see what we look like, and to be frank I think I look like a bit of a dick with this one. Just wanted to know I wasn't the only one... It might just be good enough to get over the looks, tho, but Lord, it's gonna take some doing. Everything else I've kept long-term is black with a maple board. Anyone got any sugggestions for a bass which plays like this but isn't a Warwick? (now there's a long shot)

Let's not forget they also sell 'cheap and nasty' basses, which no-one will ever gig. Or so we've been told by someone who should know better. Come back to this thread in a year's time and Oh, I can't be bothered.

So I've recently got my hands on a nice Warwick (cheers Soulboy!) and after a bit of fettling and a fret dress, it's playing very very nicely. On the strap, it balances well, the wenge neck's great, and the sound's more or less there*. Eyes closed, it's near enough the nicest, easiest bass I've played, and positively addictive. All sounds dandy, the only problem is...how it looks. I've never seen a Warwick on wall or in a brochure and thought "Wow, that looks great", but up close, the details are great, the quality's great, the neck profile's great. I'm just struggling to love this one, and it's all aesthetic. Anyone else as shallow as me? * Well, near enough for live situations with the band - it might not be the sound in my head, but I've realised that sound doesn't actually work with a band anyway. This one does.

[quote name='drewm' post='1133596' date='Feb 19 2011, 05:04 PM']I've just shimmed the neck on my Low Ryder, dropped the saddles and little and tightened the truss rod a smidge. It's playing nicely.[/quote] No, I'm afraid it isn't mate. It's cheap and nasty. You've been told. Mine's cheap and nasty, too, and I'll never gig it. Apart from last night...

Very, very bored with the minority of people on here insisting over and over they can't be any good, they're not as good as XYZ, we should leave them for 'the kids', oooh, there'll be loads for sale in a bit when we all see sense. Ok, they're no good, we've all bought the wrong thing, no-one's happy with them, and you were right all along. Move on. Happy now?

[quote name='Phil-osopher10' post='1132264' date='Feb 18 2011, 02:26 PM']Oh no, my, admittedly weak bank balance is going to hate me baaad! I think I'm starting to get a gas attack for a dirty blonde warwick thumb. Does anyone have one?[/quote] I'm the same. Except for the 'warwick thumb' bit...

As someone who modded a $109 SX (all the way up to about £200) and ended up selling his USA Ps on the strength of it, the Ryder P makes great sense. My Ryder has a three piece solid body with a really nice translucent finish, through stringing and decent bridge, and the pickup sounds like a P. I really, really cannot understand people's problem with this for £60. As is, it's pretty good, but with a better neck, they'll give a lot of much more expensive kit a run for its money. I've gigged the SX many times, and even taken it into the studio. I'll do the same with the Ryder when its finished. Yep, bought one, spent some time on modding it, and then...gigged it, played it, gigged it some more. By the same token, you've bought a Fender/Lakland/Smith/Fodera for £ks...then what? Don't understand that question - it's a bass, not a cure for cancer. As for us terrible folk taking basses from deserving kids...what a strange extrapolation. Why are people looking so hard for downsides? They may not be the best bass in the world, but I'd like to see a definition of 'best' before I could comment fully on that...for example, I'm selling my Overwater, but keeping my SX. Which is 'best'?

Copperhead Road. Two notes. I've got it wrong before now, though, but mostly due to boredom.

Well, I was using a couple of different sounds on my (Programmable) BDDI for different basses (I use a passive P/J and an active Ray), so they naturally translated into presets (the input gain can be preset on the RH, which I find very handy - you really don't want to get that wrong on a busy stage). Less faffing with the controls - 1 is Passive P, 2 is Ray, 3 is for the 'softer' setting for our more acoustic numbers. I am a simple creature, and I can cope with numbers which light up. As long as there's only 3... The downside of the always-on tuner is that if you play a bum note, the guitard can see what you've done...

Yep, I can completely see why there might be just too much on the thing for some - I'm a bit like that with basses - more than 1 pickup is pretty much wasted on me: it took me a loooong time to get on with my P/J setup. I could honestly live with a bass with one pickup and an on/off switch* - actually, I wouldn't need that, because the RH450 has a mute on its floorboard. * As long as the sound was there, natch...

Simon, I think it'd be better if you'd actually used the RH450 controls before commenting in such (incorrect) detail - the shift key doesn't need to be held down, once it's pressed, the para EQ mode is on, press again, it's off. You can then play a note and turn a knob. I'd consider it an advanced feature - the normal EQ works just fine, too. The input gain is the main function of that particular knob (its default), the other is the compressor, which is so effective I've found it to be pretty much 'set and forget'. All details, and really neither here nor there. Yes, it is all subjective, but to be honest, you need to use one for, ooh, five minutes before it (might) become apparent that the controls are actually pretty intuitive. Perhaps the manual doesn't read very well - I couldn't comment, I've never read it.

Can't see the RH450 as "off the scale bad", despite having got a lot of features into a small box. The 'shifted' features (which I'm presuming you mean by the multifuntion controls) are really fine tuning stuff, like the semi-para EQ and the compression, the rest is straightforward - the presets can help there. Want to add compression? Press Shift (it lights up), turn the knob. Want to increase the input gain? Press Shift (the light goes out), turn the same knob. The head's about as hard to use as a car stereo once you give it 5 minutes, and pretty intuitive. Having said that, there's a lot of folk who can't work their car stereo - my Mrs included Horses for courses, but then I know people who've no idea what VPF and VLE are, either If you've only got one amp, then unless you're DIing, you're stuffed if it goes down, whether it's got lots of features or none. By your 'single box' reasoning, I guess you'd have a power amp and a pre, then?

TC definitely isn't emperors new clothes, it's simply another amp option which may or may not suit individuals. Just like Markbass stuff. Most of us don't have don't have easy access to anywhere we can A-B all the options these days, so buying without playing is common, and specs and others opinions don't tell the full story. Even stuff tried extensively in music shops can behave very differently in a band context, so it's natural kit flies around secondhand for all sorts of reasons - and I haven't even touched on GAS yet...

Our vocalist makes his living from music - he has a wedding/function band, can go out solo (he's a great guitarist, too) or in a duo, so he's very flexible (and cost-efficient, too), but he's usually skint: getting gigs week in, week out, coping with cancellations, agent fees, illness - seems like most things that happen impact on his earnings directly. For example, if you've calculated £500 per week is what you need, a couple of £150 weeks mean you'd need to pull a couple of £850 weeks just to break even. What I'm saying is it seems (from looking at my vocalist's example, anyway) that it's far, far easier for the money to falter than it is to crank it right up again. He's divorced and his kids are grown up now, so he's renting a flat, and has a very understanding girlfriend. Even with this lack of other commitment in his life, he tells the rest of us it's very hard some weeks, and I can see it makes him very weary around music sometimes, and as has been said earlier, making your hobby your job mostly removes a hobby from your life. He also says there's no way the lifestyle is compatible with a happy family life, which is I guess what's behind the 'young/single/not-a-family man's game' concept expressed earlier. If you've no ties, plenty of drive and energy and you really want to do it, then go for it, but it's not a decision to be taken lightly. Even if I could manage the lack of money and family time, I'd be wary simply for the fact that it'd reduce my enjoyment of playing music - I've been in computers for 25+ years now, and I can't begin to tell you how bored with technology I am... Am I jealous of him? Sometimes, when he's on a good roll of gigs. Would I swap? Not a chance.

First Bass Owned: Satellite Short-scale Sunburst thing 'Go To' Bass: Modified SX/MM Precision 'Your' Bass: Modified SX/MM Precision

Having gone from LMIII - Classic 450 - RH450, I'm bound to say yes, it's a worthwhile upgrade, but I'd try the Classic 450 (or RH450) first to make sure that's the sound you're after. The core sound of the Classic 450 is the same as the RH450. I loved the LMIII, but found I was using a Sansamp BDDI permanently on it, and in a OCD-based drive to reduce kit to the minimum possible, I sourced and tried a Classic 450, which, with the Tubetone, I found I could get that valve-y Ampeg-y sound I was after (and a lot more besides). Once I'd used the Classic for a short while in a band situation, I was convinced enough to want to add the functionality of the RH450 (Tuner, adjustable EQ, programmable presets, greater connectivity on the back panel), so I part-exchanged the Classic for a RH450 on here. Because I did both moves with good people on BC for secondhand gear, the steps weren't half as painful as going straight from a LMIII to a RH450. If you're not bothered about the differences between the Classic and the RH450, then it's not worth the extra. If you are, it is. Mark at Bass Direct has lots of amps in (including the Genz stuff) so you can A-B (and -C and _D) them to your heart's content. Edit: just seen your location. That'd be a big day out, then...

If you're after a low-profile way of getting an amp, Vox do a small headphone amp for Bass which I've used before for bedroom practising. You need headphones, but you can also plug your mp3 player in and learn by playing along to your favourite tracks (I'm guessing from your username it'll be Peaches or Hanging Around ). You won't sound like JJB yet, but you'll be amplified, at least. Here's a link: [url="http://www.dv247.com/guitars/vox-amplug-bass-guitar-headphone-amp--57462"]http://www.dv247.com/guitars/vox-amplug-ba...hone-amp--57462[/url]

Aaah, but for the same money (which is what the OP was stating), you can put a MM neck and a better bridge on there, and [i]then[/i] there'll be a ruckus... Seriously, that SX I bought from you, once modded, is better than any CV I've ever tried (and I've tried a few). Having said that, once you've changed the neck and the bridge, that's the essentials of a good bass right there - a decent bit of Ash (or Alder) with a good pocket fit is hard to improve on, unless you want to look at luvvery woodgrain. And Chinese electrics are, I'd suggest, very similar... Modding isn't for everyone, tho, so I suppose if we only count out of the box basses, the CVs are better. But they're three times the price. Sue Ryder, anyone?

[quote name='lonestar' post='1120008' date='Feb 8 2011, 12:55 PM']I've had active basses and back to basics is the way forward IMHO. Having become very attached to my souped up SX Precision, recently purchased from WHUFC on here, over the last few months I'm starting to think that 2 pickups and 3 knobs on my beloved US Jazz bass is a bit more complicated than required. Given the cash I'd get a US standard P like yours any day. Nice ![/quote] Weeeelll, yes and no - I've just moved t'other way, P/J'd my souped-up SX and I'm finding it's nice to have an option. After all, you can turn the bridge pickup off and you're back to a V/T P-Bass. Back OT, was playing one of these exact puppies in PMT earlier today - very nice indeed. Gotta be maple for me, but I've played several of the new ones now, and they've been consistently great.

Well, I've been around the block a few times on this, thinking such and such a bass was 'a keeper', but most have them have gone/are going, even the BB3000A I've had since new in 87. The only thing I'd say is a keeper is the SX/MM FrankenP I've got, mostly for the reason it stands me at £200, I'd probably get half that secondhand (unless someone played it first), and it's far, far too good to sell for that money. There's a great satisfaction for me in such an ideal instrument (for me, I suspect other people's opinions might well be different) costing so little, and as a result it has a personal value to me greater than the £s. Having used it in the studio to such great effect, where I thought its weaknesses would be exposed, has only reinforced this. With such a low financial cost, it'll probably survive the ups and downs of my cashflows - I can't imagine a situation where I'd need £100 THAT badly... Having said that, I did replace the body and pickups to convert it to a P/J just before Xmas (and I'm currently pondering Wizards for it), so it's more of a philosopher's hammer, I guess...

Actually, if you read post no.7, it includes a 'go to a shop' comment...

[quote name='Bilbo' post='1113956' date='Feb 3 2011, 03:06 PM']My kid brother owns a Harley shop in Chepstow and tells me that the motorcycle world is very similar. Most of the people who can afford an 'off the peg' Harley are middle aged 'mid-life crisis' cases who are attracted to the glamour of the brand. Is it the same for top end basses?[/quote] Yep, it's the same with biking, and not just with Harleys - last time I was at the TT a couple of years ago the place was full of middle-aged guys in the full replica leathers toodling around on brand new £10k sportsbikes with every possible bit of carbon-fibred extra. Up over the mountain, on the fast bits, the same blokes were still toodling along - I couldn't believe how many I went past on my big old daily-transport Honda, complete with topbox containing a packed lunch...now I've nothing against toodling along, but some of them were riding so poorly at speed they were actually a liability...

P-Bass FTW. As previous posters have noted, there are options MIA, CIJ, etc, but with your budget you'll be able to pick a nice one. You have an appointment at your nearest well-stocked music shop, as you know guitars you'll be able to choose a good instrument of the quality you need.

[quote name='dannybuoy' post='1113334' date='Feb 3 2011, 01:00 AM']Natural plywood wouldn't look too hot though.[/quote] Mine's solid - is yours plywood?

Have to say there's nothing there I like. That's a relief...