simisker

Nerdiest bass: any 'coffee table' single-cut bass*. Ultranerd points for when you reel off all the exotic woods involved. 'Cos you sure as hell ain't buying one for the cool rock 'n' roll looks * for the record, I have one**. ** Wenge, Walnut and Flamed Maple.

Yes, it's possible - Alan fitted my ACG Salace with a P-Retro and a battery box. It's a great preamp.

Heh - no, true... because they're aware of the fragility of egos. Or if they aren't, they soon would be made aware Maybe it's because I come from the indie/rock/alternative side of the tracks, but I've interpreted a 'band' as an artistic collaboration between all members [in variable proportions, obviously/famously]. And maybe I'm being presumptuous, but it's this collaborative definition that, I think, is what OP/Beato/Richard Osman et al have all been all been implying when they refer to a 'band'. Beck wasn't a band. CMat isn't a band. Idles ARE a band. At least, that's how I'm interpreting it. Just don't ask me what The Fall were

True, but then you're not a band member, you're a hired hand.

I think that's fair and a level-headed approach. The elephant in the room, as alluded to by the OP, is that bands as we maybe knew them are either dead or hibernating, and us bassists... well, we're supporting band members. With a few remarkable outre exceptions, we kinda need a band. (As much as I'd love the idea of solo bass guitar becoming 'culturally ascendent'! :D)

I'd never thought of it as gravid, but now it's obvious and I'll never be able to unsee it

From the late Chris Cross' collection auction? I was tempted myself, it's an iconic bass - I thought the all grey look was cool AF. Congratulations! Of course, the pressure is now on to also acquire Midge's Ibanez

That's the fella! Right, time for this old dog to learn a new trick. Thank you

Here is just one of the many brilliant tracks from the greatest computer game soundtrack of all time. Yes: in retrospect, I found out it's a Thunderthumbs Johnson homage. But my question is: How is he doing that triplet/rapid-fire staccato percussive thing from approx 2:50 ? ['he' being Arion Salazar from Third Eye Blind, it turns out!]

Well, that was worth the wait 😍 What a sensational* collection you have there, @ziggydolphinboy ! * you won't believe the inner conflict that had to happen in order to stop me from saying "Sei-nsational" or "Sen-sei-tional". Ah, goddammit!

Yeah, I'd say it was a Vantage that has seen enthusiastic sanding. The hexagonal-ish tuners line up, as do the controls on the bloaty body: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8XFw90ns-Y

That would have been me, Ruarl - I was wondering if it would turn up in this thread. This was literally my dream bass - as in the one I first coveted in my copy of Guitarist as a teenager in a small Welsh village in the early 90s. So to have eventually managed to own it many years later was just mind-blowing. I'm really pleased you've still got it and loving it - it still looks a beauty! I can't remember if I ever fitted new strings on it, though, so I'm dodging that one [I think I was in my DR Fat Beams chapter at that point, for what it's worth!] For those that asked about the body shape comparison: I also had a six-string Flamboyant headless fretless [edit: see following image] and of the two shapes, I felt this Original was better ergonomically. Though the Flamboyant arguably looked even cooler/meaner! Also, these two proved beyond any doubt that headless is the way to go if you want to go down the 6-string path. The complete absence of neck dive was an epiphany EDIT: Ah, here you go:

No, sorry, I didn't realise it was a manual. I just assumed it was one human's flight of peril-based fantasy based on pulp sci-fi

"... it will still not be able to physically stop all humans from reaching the power switches".

True! But you'd be able to put "sometimes it's challenging to find new ways to describe the same tuning keys ha ha!" in a review. You'd NEVER see that in LLM AI output.

Epic! Congratulations on achieving one of your dreams

So many words, and not one "I..." . It's the biggest tell. The achilles heel of AI is opinion. The only solution that ASD billionaire techbros will ever be provide to that is an artificial/dangerous/legally vulnerable aggregator. I reckon

To be fair, this could be applied to 90% of boutique luthiers - including many established ones. It's INCREDIBLY difficult to come up with an appealing blend of familiar and novel aesthetic proportions, ergonomic elements, and something which also doesn't attract a Cease & Desist.

If there's anyone I trust to do a worthy sequel, it's these guys. They'd have called a halt if it didn't feel of the highest quality. They have nothing to prove, and - as far as I'm aware - no alimony to pay.

I hope I didn't come across as derogatory in my earlier post, because I think it's a stunner on every level. I'm just thankful I'm fully satisfied at the end of my bass-owning/GAS journey, otherwise I'd be speccing one up as we speak 😍

Interestingly, I'm a User Interface / Experience Designer and I have the opposite opinion, tau! The seemingly industry-standard approach to bass knobs - i.e. unlabelled with no numbers, lines/gradations, and often no pointers - has frustrated the hell out of me for decades. That Pbass-originated piss-poor UI has inexplicably become the norm - even on instruments of expense with complex electronics. I recently bought a Dingwall. £2500, and 5 blank unlabelled knobs. Want to know what the knobs control or what they're set at? Have a twiddle and see if you can figure it out - it's the only way to know. Good luck!* 🤷‍♂️ It's doubly frustrating when you consider that Leo himself got it almost perfect first time with the Stratocaster's knobs. We've gone backwards through laziness, naivety and misguided aesthetics. Having owned a Wal myself, I can say with certainty that they are still my benchmark rotary control. Ian and Pete knew what they were doing. Admittedly, they're not the best looking, but boy, they are a delight to use. Great work, @remizik ! * And don't get me started on unlabelled Active/Passive or Series/Parallel switches!

No way that's a bass. That's a cake. An absolutely mouth-watering tour de force of a cake. What do I win?

I bought a lovely LTD Deluxe bass from Quent. I would buy from him again in an instant. Here's why: Advert: Lots of detailed and honest info and photos. Didn't hide a thing, and highlighted all the things that you'd expect to be highlighted for a used bass. Comms: Quick, detailed, efficient and friendly. Perfect! Condition: the bass was even better in the flesh than described, surprisingly! Quent clearly looks after his instruments. Packaging: Seriously, the best packaged bass I have ever EVER received. double-boxed, everything bubblewrapped, itemised and labelled. He'd even taken off the bottom strap button so that it couldn't cause any transit knocks, and then wrapped it in its own labelled padded baggie, along with the screw which he'd gaffa-taped along its length, so that the thread wouldn't scratch anything. Absolutely superb attention to detail. Overall, Quent is a fantastic example of why this community is so great. So: recommended, then

I can echo what Lemmywinks says here - I've got a Cort that came with Mk1 pickups and a proper Bartolini preamp [HR-5.4AP/918], and the combined output is totally usable. In fact, the sound has even drawn compliments from my guitar tech. The MK1s get a bit of a bad rap because they're usually paired with a cut-price preamp, as Lemmywinks points out. Unless you really need the hi-fi sheen of top-end humbuckers, I wouldn't worry about them - It's the preamp to which you need to pay more attention.