Rich

That's brilliant!

Rat's the Way (I Like It) - KC and the Sunshine Band

Ring Ring - Abba

For the punkier numbers in my ska band's set -- Rancid etc -- I get a great tone from the neck pickup on my Jazz-ish bass (it's a massively hot Schaller pickup, something like 13K..!), played with a pick and using a cranked SVT model on my Zoom multistomp. A really hard, aggressive tone with an edge of dirt. It's become my go-to tone for anything nasty.

...and I can hide it

Cum On Feel The Noize - Slade

Utterly bonkers Spanish beating-up of Walk On The Wild Side. Some gorgeous bass on this.

For me, this alone would be reason enough to experiment with upgrades rather than buying a whole new bass. The sky is the limit when it comes to replacement pickups and guts, and the available tonal variety is pretty big. What are you looking for in terms of a core tone? Do you like a clean uncoloured hi-fi sound, or something a bit warmer, or grittier? When you say you want 'tonal variety', does that mean that you'd like to be able to coil tapping options from your new pickups? Single/series/parallel switching? Do you want a 3 band eq again, maybe with sweepable mids?

Oh good choice sir. We used to play several of his tunes in my old fusion trio a few years back. Check out some John Scofield tunes too, maybe some Brand X as well.

Be Young, Be Foolish, Be Happy - The Sensational Epics

ZOMBIE THREAD! : I heard Heaven Knows on the radio earlier. That lovely bassline is still mesmerising after all these years. Shame the song is spoiled by the whining sanctimonious knob, errm I mean vocals. Are there instrumental versions of Smiths tunes available anywhere?

Sideways - Santana

But this is precisely the point -- I want a different sound, EQ etc for some songs, that's why I use both. For me, there's no option for sticking to just one or the other.

Yeah? well I saw her before she was signed and when nobody had heard of her, so there.

Tear gas should do it.

Another recent thread has given me an idea for next year... how about a blind J bass shootout? Anything with JJ pickups.

Drops of Jupiter - Train

Oh yes it is.

Are you insane? Pastry reflects sound like an absolute bastid. It would be a total echo chamber. Madness. Madness, I tell you.

I've said it before and I'll say it again...

When you say coated, do you mean the nylon covered ones? If so, I agree.

My fretless Ray is wearing a set of old Elixirs that came off my main fretted bass. For me, they're perfect. I have never used flats on a fretless bass and never will.