Delberthot

To me its just wood and metal. I've owned around 70 4, 5, 6, 8 and 12 string fretted, fretless, solid body, semi acoustic and electroacoustic basses. As I mentioned last week I used to gig with about £6000 of basses and now its about £400 and am getting an amazing sound, great playability and much enjoyment from them. They could end up in my Will or they could end up on Ebay next week.

Oh my I would have one of these in a minute. I hate that garish blue colour, If you're going to make a bass, at least bring it out in a colour that you would expect like blonde or 2 tone sunburst.

I'm fortunate to have been able to own and play the vast majority of basses I've ever lusted after. The ones that remain are: 1 - Fender Bass V 2 - Fender Mustang 3 - Gibson Bicentennial Thunderbird 4 - Fender Maple Fretless Precision 5 - Rickenbacker RM1999 aka the Chris Squire Bass

I didn't used to bother with a backup as I only ever had one bass at a time. Both basses get equal use. Whichever one I pick up at the start of the night is the one I gig with for the whole night. I don't remember the last time I broke a string either but itll be pricey if I do cos both basses have Rotosound flats

Couldn't imagine not being able to play Wishing Well by Free with the rock band. Not the hardest of songs but very satisfying to play. Its one of those songs that you can add loads of bits to and vary it each night while still keeping the original feel of it. The best bassline I've learnt that I only play at home would be something like Siberian Khatru by Yes or The Trooper by Iron Maiden. I'll normally play both at some point if I'm having a play about at home

I was looking at getting one of these a while ago as a light weight solution for longer gigs but couldn't find a decent youtube video of them that wasn't demoed using a plectrum

Its the fretted version of the Steve Bailey. I nearly bought the fretless one a couple of years ago for something like £600 Carol Kaye did play a 4 string one although that may have been James Jamerson now you come to mention it

Isn't that Umph?

Depends on whether you want a simple, good sounding, punchy amp or one with more control.

Was it a new Stingray 5? Before the Sterling 5 was introduced, the Stingray 5 was effectively a Sillouette with Sterling electronics. I used my 1999 Stingray 5 for weddings, a rock band and a Black Sabbath tribute band

For the majority of them, its simply a limited edition colour. A kind of lower end version of Rickenbacker's colour of the year if you like. The ones that come to mind that are different are the silverburst Thunderbird which has chrome pickups like the discontinued Les Paul Standard bass, one of the 60s EB-3s which has gold hardware and the Les Paul which has the maple top. I think the Ripper is a limited edition only model.

The found the Corvette $$ 5 string to be one of the fastest playing basses I've ever owned but I've been playing for 24 years and have had about 70 so I find it pretty easy to adjust to a new bass. I used to get the cramping pain when playing a lot of octave bass lines and you have to concentrate on not tensing up. the same when playing something that requires you to play fast with the right hand. Before I discovered he used a plectrum, I learned Parallel Universe by the Chilis using my fingers. That was really difficult to get right without my right hand turning into a claw with cramp If you can consciously learn to relax and build up your stamina, you should be able to play for longer periods without pain.

[quote name='Doddy' post='1168283' date='Mar 19 2011, 02:33 PM']Keeping it to drummers..... Steve Gadd is still the man,and he's in his mid 60's.Players like Louis Bellson and the recently departed Joe Morello were still blowing people away in their 80's. Dave Weckl and Vinnie Colaiuta are in their 50's. Even someone like Jojo Mayer,who has been around for years but has only relatively recently become a massive name,is in his late 40's. As far as electric bass players,guys like Will Lee,Nathan East,Marcus,Stanley,Anthony Jackson and Pino are all in their 50's. Tony Levin is in his 60's. There are great young players,and there are great older players,it makes no difference.[/quote] Ooh, three of my favourite drummers - Gadd, Weckl and Colaiuta. The fourth being Mikkey Dee from Motorhead who is 47: [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlecTBevmzc"]Overkill[/url] My all time favourite, Buddy Rich, played right up until he died at 69 Roger Waters - how many bass players have to wait until they get to be 67 before having a signature bass made?

Didnt Bilbo get a 5 string a couple of months ago?

It really depends on what kind of stuff you're playing as has been mentioned before. The trouble I've found listening to bands with effects is unless you're playing venues with a sound guy and good acoustics, most of the time you don't notice the change from effect on to effect off unless its something very obvious. I've had quite a few multi and single effects over the years but the main reason I don't really bother with them now is that I can't be bothered mucking about with them. I'd rather just turn up, set up, maybe make minor adjustments to the tone/volume controls on the bass and maybe adjust the volume of the amp. I'd rather concentrate on playing the songs. I only use an OC-2 and a Korg DT-10 tuner now. One thing I've discovered is that it possible to get quite a variety of sounds from Epiphone pickups depending on where you play and how hard without having to adjust anything. I've never noticed this on any other bass before. I was going to buy myself a VT Bass but I already get the sound I have I've had in my head for ages without it.

I found Nathan East Signature Elites which they don't seem to do anymore were the best on my Stingray

I had one of the bleeding midnight blue ones. turned the binding on the neck pale blue. Luckily I bought it brand new and was able to return it. There's been talk on the rickresource about a new bridge for years now with nothing to show for it yet. I guess if they can have an 18+ month backlog on basses with a sh*te bridge, questionable paintwork, a stereo output that most people don't use, a double truss rod that most people are afraid to touch and a pickup suround that doubles as a cheese grater and get away with it then why should they change anything?

Yip. My first ever bass when i was 12 was a Marlin Slammer in red with maple fretboard after seeing john Deacon use one that looked identical to me at least on the One Vision video. Later on finding out what it really was First expensive bass was a 5 string black Stingray after seeing Flea use one playing Funky Monks on the Funky Monks video. Modulus Flea for the same reason, Rickenbacker 4003 because of Chris Squire and a Shine 12 string semi acoustic bass cos it was the closest I could find to Tom's Waterstone. gallien krueger 800RB because of flea as well If you listen to someone like Chris Squier, he tends to sound the same regardless of what he is playing. the long and the short of it is that unless you're really lucky you're going to sound damn all like them, even if you use identical gear. The closest I got to a Chris Squire sound was with a Stingray and the closest I got to a Stingray sound was with an Epiphone Thunderbird with DR Red Devil strings.

How about a pickup surround and raised bezel from Pickguardian? That's what I had on this bass

I always thought they were one off colours but I also see Blueboy and turqoise on the website as well. Blueboy:

[quote name='Ancient Mariner' post='1168124' date='Mar 19 2011, 12:15 PM']Most people mellow after 2 or 3 decades of playing, and bands that are lively and exciting at first very often become more refined and less 'fun'. There are exceptions, but I find sometimes that I miss the reckless energy and raw performance from a mature band's performance: for me, refinement and subtle technique are no substitute.[/quote] must be 3 decades for me then. I'm playing with more energy and improvisation than I ever have. I've been playing for 24 years and I am fortunate in that I am still improving and enjoying it every bit as much as i did when I first picked up a bass when I was 12 One band I was very impressed with a couple of years ago were The Eagles. For a band that have been about as long as they have, they still had a genuine love for the music and entertaining the crowd. Moreso Cheap trick. They only used the house lights as far as I could tell but they were absolutely brilliant. And lets not forget that Flea is going to be 50 next year and Lemmy is going to be 65 this year

I completely agree as far as amplification is concerned with a few exceptions. You pay peanuts you get monkeys. I've never bought cheap amps or cabs cos there's more that can go wrong with inferior components and you never want to muck around with anything involving electricity. As far as bass goes I'm all for gigging anything as long as it can be adjusted to be playable. Its only a couple of pieces of wood and some metal after all.

I was going to suggest a 4 to 5 string conversion but there's nowhere that you could locate the 5th tuner without it looking messy - a bridge with adjustable string spacing is probably your best bet

Read this earlier today - very interesting: [url="http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f8/scrap-lumber-bass-vs-alder-bass-can-you-tell-difference-743932/"]Scrap bass V Alder Jazz Bass[/url] I've had expensive and cheap basses and no longer feel that it is necessary to spend more than £200 on a gigging bass given the quality of the lower end stuff. The last time I played the venue I'm at tomorrow I had a Warwick Thumb NT5 and a Modulus Flea bass which have a combined new cost of around £5000. Tomorrow I will be gigging an Epiphone Gothic Thunderbird and one of the slightly older Saein made Epiphone Les Paul basses with the mahogany body and carved top which would've set me back about £400 if I'd bought them new. I've not gigged the les Paul yet so cannot comment on that but so far have had the Thunderbird much longer than I had either of the other basses and am much happier than i ever was the others. There will, however, always be a place for everything from the Sue Ryder basses of the world to the coffee table snake oil ones (my personal opinion) as everyone is different and for some, only a bass made from 25000 year old lumber pulled from a swamp in the everglades and hand carved by Scooby Doo will do. do (heh heh - do do)

You'd have to add some wood to the neck pocket of whatever body you went with. These necks don't taper as much as Fender ones so are several mm narrower at the body end. but yes, I had thought about doing something myself like that but went and bought an Epiphone les Paul Standard bass instead