Marvin

I've had 2 Squier Precisions. A late 80's Korean, which was lovely. The neck looked like flame maple, it sounded great and looked great...so obviously I sold it. And currently I have a Vintage Modified. That's great as well, so I obviously put a different neck on it (I've still got the original neck). They're good basses. I shoudn't like the VM, it's the wrong colour, but I love it...well, I did when I was playing, before my band split up, I hate singers, did I mention I hate singers?

From what I can remember the SR and SRX ranges are quite different in some respects. The body of the SR is a lot slimmer and contoured than the SRX. The SRX is a more traditional slab with contour cuts. And I think the neck on the SRX is 'chunkier' than the SR range. They look sort of similar but are actually quite different. If it was a case of going from an SR300 to a SR500 than that is a direct step up, but this is more of a step across to something a bit different.

I think he's rather good. When I started playing bass PM was someone who stood out for me.

Basschat is fairly unique though, it is quite active. In comparison, I've just joined an angling forum...it's slower than a day with no bites.

Is it? To be honest I never frequent the place...but that's because i can't play guitar so there's little point.

He's not as good as Mark King. 😶 Old joke, couldn't resist. As you were.

Sire are moving a million miles from what it's original selling pitch was. The price of the V7 is now £130+ more than what I paid for mine when they first came out. Even taking into account all the usual's, that's still a big hike IMO. The V7 used to be competitive with a Squier. The V3s are now approaching the price at what the V7s started at. I think it's a little disappointing that Sire seem to be creating ever more expensive basses. I also think the V10 looks awful 😛

I got that wrong, it wasn't the neck profile that was changed, it was the fretboard radius. I like the version 1 radius a lot (7.25in). It's a minor thing but the radius is now flatter I believe.

I've never developed even hard skin on the finger tips of my 'plucking' hand. Even on my fretting hand though I only get slightly hardened finger tips. I must play quite light and could probably get away with a lower action. I set my basses up acoustically and to have not rattles or buzzes when plucking the strings quite hard. Don't know why I do this 😳😊

There’s an Ashdown MAG 15combo at the jam night I used to go to. There’s nothing about it I like, nothing. It’s part of the reason I don’t go to that jam night anymore because I dislike using it that much. I used my own gear in the same pub and it simply reaffirmed my negativity towards that combo. I had an Ashdown ABM500 a few years ago that had a fault. I didn’t find Ashdown very helpful when I contacted them tbh. They didn’t even point me in the direction of an authorised tech in my area.

Peavey. I’ve played through both and the Peavey was a much better amp. I didn’t like the Ashdown at all.

0-0-0-0 and that's the way it'll stay for a long time. Last band. 5-1-0-0 I didn't really dislike anyone in my last band, but I did find a couple of them deeply irritating a lot of the time.

I'll go against the grain. I thought too much time was devoted to effects pedals rather than the artists, or the instrument itself. It bypassed punk and grunge as if they hadn't existed and where the guitarist's role wasn't that of someone playing infinitely long solos.

I'd have thought @obbm would be able to sort you out. He makes great quality leads and as long as your want them. Here's his web page. http://www.rock-wire.co.uk/

The StringBusters web page seems to have disappeared into the ether. I used to walk past the office they were based in. A little place on the 1st floor of building on the edge of a church yard in Barnstaple in North Devon. All a bit odd from the sounds of things. Didn't know who ran the business...no one does it seems now.

All 3 of my basses I currently own were made in Indonesia (one of them being a Squier VM Precision) and they're all great instruments, so I'd reserve judgement on build quality etc until I'd get my hands on one. That said, for the money, these are getting close to second hand MIM Fenders. I saw a very nice MIM Precision for sale yesterday on Facebook for £350. If I were in the market for a Jazz, then I'd probably go for a Sire V3, which are about £70 cheaper and great quality.

This is still on iPlayer. I watched it yesterday. I’m not a Jeff Beck fan at all but it’s a great programme. I admire and respect what he does, I love his approach, I’m just not that keen on what he plays. But a brilliant programme, I’d recommend watching it to anyone

It was watchable, to a point. The production and research staff clearly couldn't be bothered to do their job properly. Basics like the fact the electric bass had been around before the 60's and the Fender P bass was almost 10 years old by 1960. It wasn't as good as Steward Copeland's film about drums. From the description of the guitar film it's seems to be more about effects pedals than the guitar itself. Fairly standard for what passes as TV these days, chopping and changing and a lack of attention to detail and facts.

I was a late starter. My first gig was June 2011, so I was in my 30s. It was at pub in the middle of nowhere called The Pig On The Hill. It was a truly awful gig. The guitarist was a gear maniac and we had a massive PA which unfortunately he didn't know how to set up properly. Hence everything was going through the bass bin speakers and no one could hear the vocals. We ended up turning the monitors around to face the audience so they could hear something. The guitarist also made a howler of a mistake. He had a detuning pedal. The idiot forgot to switch it off for a song and it predictably sounded dreadful. I thought my bass had gone out of tune. The band split 6 months later.

Great combo. I still can't quite remember why I sold mine

Well, as shown I was fully prepared to not join in. However, I've hit a snag. My band seems to have gone into hibernation and as such buying gear, even to treat myself, would be a waste of time, because it simply wouldn't get used. I could end up buying nothing all year by default. 😮

Chromes are very bright. I replaced a very old set of rounds on a jazz bass (probably over 3 yrs old those strings) and the Chromes were amazingly bright in comparison...but nicely so. 😀

I made sure I bought a bass that was in tune when I bought it... Seriously though. I always tune E to G, but I'm beginning to think I should go G to E. Or, E to G then G to E to double check?

So, it's a MiKro bass with a pickguard and active eq. Looks pretty good.