Bleat

So many to choose from, but here's a small eclectic list of what I consider to be wonderful, moving, powerful and generally awesome tunes: "The Great Escape" and "Go" - Marillion "Ice" and all of "The Snow Goose" album- Camel "Mojave Plan" and "White Eagle"- Tangerine Dream "Never Say Die" and "Hard Road" - Black Sabbath All of "Hergest Ridge" and "Ommadawn Part 2" - Mike Oldfield "Drive" - Cars All of "Parallelograms" album- Linda Perhacs Anything from "Black Cherry" or "7th Tree" albums - Goldfrapp

D'Addario Pro Steels IMO are the brightest, and also nicest feeling round wound strings. Come in various gauges and under £25.00 👍

I joined 2007 so been around a good while 😮 .I don't feel I have a lot to add to most discussions, though I have tried to put more effort in the last 12 months or so! ... I will either give input on stuff if I think it is genuinely helpful to someone, or I will make stupid useless comments in an attempt to be amusing depending on my mood. 🤪

Thanks to the likes of YouTube and seeing how many excellent players there really are out there, most of which have barely learnt not to sh*t in their nappies, I find it depressing how good I should be for someone who has played close to 30 years , but how lacking I actually am in terms of technical ability.... the actual *sound* of me playing?.... well bass to my ears just generally goes boom boom boom , so nah dun really give a feck about that bit.. 🤪

Probably these 3 for me as a "bass player". 2112 showed me how upfront and melodic bass can be, Back In Black taught me the importance of great timing and being a solid part of the rhythm section, Power and The Glory showed me how to combine the 2 things....and IMO not a weak track to be found on any of those albums.

"Tecuciztecatl" is the sound my cat makes when she coughs up furballs….well either that or "maruszczyk" 👌

£500- £1000 + = "laminate construction " £50- £500 = "plywood" 😉

EB-3 is 18mm string spacing and 38mm nut if I remember correctly. I have not had the Epiphone long scale version, but have had the limited edition short scale and a Revelation short scale EB3 copy... for me that's what the EB3 is about....short scale that produces thumpy, fundamental meaty bass tones, with a big dollop of bass, bass errr… and more bass... and the awesome look! The little pickup helps to cut through somewhat, but P bass "clank".....nah.. not really their thing. As mentioned, they can produce their own uniquely aggressive barky sound. The bridge pickup used by itself is not that great IMO, though is that not how Jack Bruce used his Gibson to get "that" sound ?

Korean Epiphone Les Paul Special Bass and Gretsch Junior Jet II.

…. spare groupies in case there's none at the gig or the ones there are found to be faulty.

Thanks Basvarken , I was starting to think it may just be me and a few tumbleweeds in this topic! Some lovely LP basses there, can't decide on the nicest so will say pretty much all of them are awesome. I was hoping to find one of those Revelation RLB's for sale somewhere but gave up waiting in the end. I had their EB-3 copy for a while, loved it but think it was sold on a needs must basis.The RLB certainly looks the part. Can you get a good range of tones from them like with the Gibson? I'll just throw my ex-2005 Les Paul in to pad the topic out a bit!

Not exactly Boris The Spider is it ? While it was easy to pass judgement before as there was only one version to detest... now it seems that another previous version already had the damn nerve to exist...! this now makes it more complicated as there is a choice , so i'll play it safe and say they are both equally awful in their own uninspired way.

I have touched upon the strap subject elsewhere regards heavy basses, there is the physicality of our build to take into account also with supporting our heavyweight friends. As I'm a lightweight with leaning forward shoulders and not the most of amount of meat on the bone, I have come to the conclusion that a strap that is always going to displace all the weight onto the left shoulder area only, even with loads of padding and width will not eliminate the problem for me personally. Fortunately I have never suffered back problems so that aspect certainly isn't an issue. Having had the Gibson Fatboy , which is similar to the Switchblade, it is an amazingly well built and padded bit of kit, certainly I think they are worthy of the price tag, though it is quite heavy within itself....their big straps are really more for guitarists imo, as the minimum setting of the strap sits around stomach level, which is ok if that's where you have a bass strapped (or lower)... you certainly won't find Mark King using one anytime soon. If I was a well built person with a stand upright, stomach in, chest out thing going on, then I think it would have drastically reduced the shoulder issues... it didn't for me. Going back to the heavy bass= more *weighty* sound.... hmm no I don't really think that is the case at all. IMO the weighty sound will be dependant on the pickup type, how many ,positioning on body, active controls etc etc Personally I guess I may just mentally *associate* the physical heavy weight of an instrument with low, heavy, grounding frequencies that *any* bass produces, the weight maybe just physically reinforces that idea. … or something … or not. 🎸

Sounds like a Gibson Switchblade strap Edit: Ok Gibson always has their name on the strap … ignore me.

I have always liked weighty instruments for no particular reason , having owned an Ibanez ATK, Gibson Les Paul, Washburn Scavenger, Washburn Idol, and other misc plywood bodied p basses. Sadly none of them seemed to like my left shoulder 😒. Obviously to remedy this situation I now own a *nearly-as-heavy-as-the-Gibson* Tokai Love Rock instead.... currently looking at double strap options to deal with my now apparent weight-a-holic issues.

Errr am I missing something here? How can this be considered "cheating" when they guy has been upfront and asked for opinions , thoughts and feelings about them playing with others outside the current band? Not consulting, discussing, or putting the idea forward openly etc..... just simply going off to do other stuff with no consideration which could cause issues down the line is what I would consider "cheating".

How could you call musicians utter moronic wasters when the truth is that not only are musicians utter moronic wasters, but also pretty much every non-musician too. 🤨

The Slinger has to be bought from the US, so though not a cheap option, it looks like it will meet my needs. It would have been nice to get a little padding in the strap for the money. I had looked at the Gruvgear strap which looks to be made to fit round a top horn which I don't have on my bass and looking at some of the reviews, it seems to be a bit of a faff plus extra expense to get it to fit a LP shape guitar. Either way I will provide an update as to what I get and when ! 🎸

All part of the cunning "hide it all in plain sight" plan... look like a guitarist, get all the chicks, AND conveniently absolve myself of any responsibility for being the crap bass player... 👌

Hello much-more-knowledgable-than-me-about-basses-n-stuff-chatters, After yet another acquisition of a padded wide strap, this time a Comfort Strapp to help spread weight of a heavy bass, I am now quickly realising that no matter what I get, I still seem to be feeling it a bit in my shoulder after 20mins of playing. Previously having owned a few big straps, including a Gibson Fat Boy, the biggest, fattest, thickest, lushest strap I have ever owned, that still only reduced the issue to a small degree... The weight is still only being displaced across a fairly small area. As I cannot do much about my build and slightly forward leaning shoulders, I have been thinking that a little discomfort is just going to be the trade off for playing the style of bass I love. As strap collecting is starting to become an unintended... and expensive side hobby, and not fully addressing the issue, I have decided I need a different style of strap altogether, hence the discovery of Slinger Straps, based in the US. They have 3 different styles: A strap-belt with no shoulder strap at all, but involves adding a strap pin to bottom of guitar for attachment to the belt strap which I'm not prepared to do. A strap belt with one shoulder strap attached where it allows you to swap the shoulder strap from your left to right shoulder, 2"or 3" versions. A double strap version which is the one I guess may be the most effective at weight displacement (and the most expensive). 2" or 3" versions. Does anyone have any experience with these straps? They seem to get good reviews, but you have to get them from the US, and do seem a little on the pricey side for non padded straps.... probably looking in the region of 70 quid to get hold of a 3" one. Are there any other options out there that I could consider ?

New Bass errr… Month. 🤪 While this isn't exactly meant to be an in depth review , I thought I would share some opinions, observations and some pics. Having recovered from recent bills and the sadness of selling on the weighty beast of a Gibson Les Paul a while ago, I recently picked up a 32" scale Korean made Tokai Love Rock LP Bass in the classic and rather nice Cherry Burst finish. The headstock is very Gibson in shape and style and has Tokai written across the top, with "Love Rock Model" written in gold across the middle. It has a carved top with cream binding with what I would guess is a veneer rather than a thick maple cap. Either way it looks lovely. After a good clean of all parts, lowering of string action to just above frets, intonation set, light gauge medium scale strings added, I am more than impressed with the playability of this for what I paid out, and in some ways I actually prefer it to the Gibson. It is still a fairly heavy animal, something like the equivalent of a baby elephant as opposed to the baby elephant's slightly older fat brother .It's not quite shoulder destroying, and the recent addition of a not-really-very pretty- but functional-slightly over priced-Comfort Strapp helps spread the weight. Seeing as I would make Mr. Bean look like Arnie, I don't exactly have copious amounts of meat on the bone, so really my choice is either fall in love with much lighter instruments, or accept that I just have to put up with a little bit of discomfort to continue playing this style of bass. The Tokai seems to fall just short of causing too much issue. Though I only currently play at home I like to swap between standing while playing and sitting down when I really can't be arsed to stand! The nut width is 40mm which feels just right, and though I loved the chunky baseball bat feel of the Gibson, the slightly less deep neck on the Tokai is still nice and comfortable in the hand. The Love Rock has a set neck, with rosewood fretboard, dot inlays as opposed to the usual trapezoid blocks, and has a "standard" style Hi mass bridge which is sat in a shallow rout in the body. Perfect front to back, though a little of the rout can be seen either side of the bridge, which I suspect is done like this to allow correct positioning of the bridge when fitted. As the neck is not angled back it allows the use of a more standard style bridge as opposed to a tune-o-matic 2 piece or 3 point Gibson style. I am not sure what woods have been used, very possibly mahogany, and you can certainly feel the resonance of the wood against the body. Sustain is not quite on par with the Gibson but I guess could just be to do with the shorter scale length. Sound wise it is very similar, with 2 chrome covered humbuckers providing a good solid low end and decent clarity with a nice bite to the top end. All very typical LP bass. As mentioned this is a medium scale bass at 32", though due to the general design and shunting the bridge up the body somewhat, there is a barely noticeable difference between this and a 34", though enough to feel "just right". The only issue I have found is that when it comes to strings, there is very little in the way of choice with dedicated medium scale sets. Picato at the moment, though there is an equivalent gauge of D'adarrio that I will probably go for next. The components currently in it are *ok* with decent tidy wiring, though it has small sized pots. The 3 way switch feels fairly solid, though I'm not so keen on the switch and 2 vol 2 tone setup, so I have all the gubbins for a rewire on order. The plan is to do away with the 3 way switch and install 4 CTS 500K pots vol-vol-tone-tone for a more traditional look. No doubt I will have to widen the holes to fit these. I will be using 0.022 Orange caps and wiring in a 50' style. I will add a Switchcraft socket, amber bell knobs and some knob pointers to complete the look. Knowing me I will just turn everything up to 10 anyway as I usually do , but it's nice to know that robust and reliable components are fitted inside. So far I have replaced the cheap black plastic nut with a nice off-white bone nut. When finances allow I will be adding a Hipshot bass xtender as I did with my Gibson. Overall, I'm really happy with Tokai, and for the price you can get them used, I would happily recommend to anyone who might be considering trying out the Les Paul style.

https://www.wdmusic.co.uk/hardware-parts-c1/bridges-tailpieces-c2/bass-c96/kluson-high-mass-4-string-bass-bridge-zinc-p13545 or with brass saddles https://www.wdmusic.co.uk/hardware-parts-c1/bridges-tailpieces-c2/bass-c96/kluson-high-mass-4-string-bass-bridge-zinc-p13545