Sparky Mark

Thanks Richard.

Yoiks, I missed it too! (Unfortunately that's an indication of my poor timing all round I'm afraid). The whole BC community is here for you Lozz and hoping you continue to enjoy chatting with us as you step back from major gigging. Wishing you a very happy and healthy New Year mate.

Agreed; although I'd happliy gig it if I had roadies to do the lifting. It is actually a few kg lighter than an Ampeg SVT.

I bought a BVV3000 Infinium a while back to scratch my 300 watt all tube itch and still power it up now and again to remind myself what a fantastic amp it is. I don't gig it due to its weight although it's built extremely well as far as I can see and has the advantage of auto bias of the power tubes. I bought a Hotcovers vinyl cover, spare sextet of 6550B tubes and upgraded the spring type tube retainers with the Birtcher style used inside the Ampeg SVT CL Heritage.

^^ Yoiks!!! Them's sure is soft!

Exactly. £799 isn't half price.

Agreed. Plus I can't see the "half price" SR1820 on Andertons site that Silky999 refers to? I'm not sure Andertons has an SR2600 in stock to A/B either? Personally I prefer the finish and black hardware of the SR1700 and would ask about a possible (better) deal there as well.

I can't remember the last time I took an oblong case to a gig. I'd gladly take a discount on an Ibanez with no case that I could invest in a good quality gig bag.

Make sure he uses the correct diameter stainless steel bar and hole centres and you could possibly sell a few discretely (possible copywrite or whatever issue?) to make it worth both your while. $30 plus shipping is a bit steep but I'd definitely take a couple at a more sensible price.

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The Line 6 Studio 110 is about as small a single 10" combo there is/was if you can find one. It has lots of tonal variety and a puncy delivery. Less affordable but a fantastic sounding bigger than it should do option is the GK MB110 combo which only weighs 21 lbs.

I agree totally with the above. Tapewounds will push you way back in the mix. Although good for lovely warm supportive pillowy bass you'll be limiting severely the wider tonal options that roundwounds will give you with the Nordstrands.

I would expect five strings to be heavier plus wenge is very dense. I owned a maple bodied 5 string SR briefly recently and that was relatively heavy. I think that I prefer the SR with mahogany body centres and wenge/jatoba necks. Having spent my youth playing a 10lb slab stingray SRs are a breeze.

Even relatively heavy SR basses are lightweight when compared to most (especially Fender type) other bass designs. The really significant difference between the two basses you are considering is the pickups. If you can't play before buying you'll be wondering about the other. So the standard advice is try to play both first but my gut feeling based on your cutting through tone goal is you'll prefer the Nordstrands.

I've owned both Premium and Prestige SR basses and much prefer the more dynamic Nordstand pickups over the darker sounding Bartolinis. I still own and regularly gig an early Premium 1200 with Nordstrand big singles. The new prices are very high for an Indonesian made guitar but the quality, fit, finish and hardware are as good and better than anything else for the money. If you're going to pay £1200-1300 new I'd even consider buying the 4500 then replacing the barts with Nord B.S. Barts vs Nordstrand big singles is like night vs day in my experience. P.s. I forgot to answer your question; yes, the Nordstrands will cut through the mix much more than the barts if you want them to.

I've bought quite a lot of gear from them over the years. Good prices and no quibble customer services. One problem on my last order was that my EHX bass mono synth was supplied with a european pin power supply as I assume it came from German central warehouse. I had to make several calls in order to receive a physically larger no name UK power supply. Not ideal.

Thomann has been selling these for a few years now. The photos on its site show good detailing such as a set neck, body and neck binding, decent hardware and finishes. For the money they look very good. Obviously the aesthetics have been adjusted to avoid litigation. I've read they don't sound much like a Ricky but for less than a tenth of the price I think they're a stylish alternative to ubiquitous Fender copies.

So this is how you sell a bass without using the Basschat Marketplace; cunning.

I believe that particular amp is a GB Streamliner clone that had blue LEDs that shone through the oval window on the front panel. Unfortunately there were quite a few that stopped lighting up although the amp still worked fine.