Delberthot

I have a Sterling HH but only use the bridge pickup. I only wanted a single humbucker model but this one came up for sale at a good price The best two HH basses I ever played were these. The G&L was stunning and the Warwick almost played itself it was so good

I'd echo the comments above about having it set up, new set of strings etc then play as much as you can. My first bass at age 12 was a Marlin Slammer which was, like yours, a precision copy. I never changed the strings, cleaned it or anything until I got a new bass at 16. All I did was play it as much as I could to the annoyance of the neighbours 😂 Unless the bass is unplayable, don't be in too much of a rush to change it. Just play the hell out of it as much as you can to learn as much as you can. During that time, use the forum to learn as much as you can about playing, bass players to listen out for, what gear is hot and what is not then when the time comes further down the line, by all means treat yourself to something else. At 48 I have had around 160+ basses pass through my hands. the expensive ones aren't always the best and the raved about ones aren't always the best for you either. To illustrate this, I currently have the following: Harley Benton JB75 - for practicing in the house Warmoth / Status Graphite Jazz bass EBMM Stingray HH Sire D5 Squier 40th Anniversary Precision bass The Squier was the cheapest and the Musicman Sterling is worth the most but I happily gig both of them. I am currently looking into getting myself a Sire fretless as well. If your Encore was set up with my choice of strings, I'd happily gig that as well. I think that if most of us were to be honest with ourselves, the main reason we buy more expensive basses is because we can afford to. Lower end / Budget Basses are infinitely better today than they were when I was young - for example, the chrome peeled off the bridge on my Marlin Slammer.

1x Harley Benton HB-50 Cherry Red Availability: Available in 11-14 weeks (so it might take a bit longer than I posted) Harley Benton HB-50 Cherry Red Vintage Series; Semi-Hollow Body Electric Bass; Set-neck construction; Maple body with arched top; C-shape neck made of Canadian maple; Laurel fingerboard with DOT inlays & sidemarks; 22 nickel silver 2.7mm frets; 864mm scale length; 43mm saddle width; ABS groove; Cream Body & Neck Bindings; Double Action Truss; Artec MMC4 Vintage Alnico 5 Humbucker Pickup; Controls: 1-Volume, 1-Tone & 3-Way Switch; DLX Chrome Hardware; BK5 bridge; DLX Die-Cast Tuner, HB 45-105 strings, color: Hi-Gloss Cherry Red; Optional matching case: 263559. 11-14 weeks would take us into January which wouldn't be bad as it's the quiet time for the band and gives me time to do some fettling 🤔

Yes they have blue silks at the headstock end but they're not as "fluffy" as some.

I was trying to think back as to whether I'd owned any blue basses in the past when I realised that I actually own one now. D'oh I think that it's an alder chambered body with mahogany top, EMGs and a Status Jazz neck. It hasn't had much love recently as I've been using my EBMM Sterling 4HH and will be using my new Sire D5 for the next run of gigs but I will get it back out at some point

Love it - I've been after a cheap semi acoustic for a while now and I'm not averse to tinkering with my Harley Bentons so I'll keep my eye out for these becoming available next year

Yes 👍 One I had forgotten about - Desert Gold SR4 with matching headstock. I love Stingrays but always prefer the sound of a Sterling

Thing is that if hip hop and rap were bad then they would have fizzled out. Just because some people don't like it doesn't mean that others feel the same. Personally, the thought of paying good money to have Eminem shout at me for 2 hours doesn't appeal to me Dreary doesn't appeal to me either so you won't find me at an Ed Sheeran, Adele or Coldplay gig either but millions feel otherwise

I've lost count of the number of basses that have passed through my hands. Some great, some good and some absolutely terrible. Thing is that something that didn't agree with me 20 years ago could be something that I'd use now. Don't regret any of it as it was all a huge learning experience (in the case of Rickenbackers I had to buy half a dozen of them over the years before I learned my lesson 😂) plus there's nothing that I can do to change what I've done so chalk it all up to experience

Overrated - everything Underrated everything One man's pot of gold is another man's POS If you buy based only on good reviews then you're setting yourself up to be disappointed. Likewise if you only read about the bad you could be missing out on something that could've worked for you.

Bohemian Rhapsody, Queen - "He's just a poor boy from a poor family, Spare him his life from his pork sausages" "Beelzebub had a devil for a sideboard" Dazed & Confused, Led Zeppelin "I've been Dazed and confused for so long it's not true, a one legged woman never bargained for you"

Having just taken delivery of my Sire D5 I was keen to fit a set of flats to it. I checked out my usual D'addario Chromes and a few others but ended up stumbling on the Ernie Ball Group flats. I've been using Hybrid Slinkies for the past couple of years, having found them to be fuller sounding with more bite than the D'addario EXL165s I had been using previously. As we all know trying out different flats can be an expensive business but I was surprised when I came across Ernie Ball Group V flats for £24.95 on Amazon. These are the 45, 65, 80, 100 group III set with a 130 B string. However, the Group 3 set was still coming in at £46.80! It was a no brainer - buy the 5 string set and keep the B in it's packet to either sell on in the future or until such time I have a suitable 5 string. I've just fitted them and they sound and feel amazing. I won't be using a Hipshot Xtender on this bass so I didn't need the slightly heavier 105. They're very smooth, I would say even more so than Chromes, and very bright. Time will tell what they'll be like when they settle down but from reading online reviews they should mellow out nicely while still retaining the mid-range grunt. Anyway, I've just ordered a second set to keep in my spares drawer for either another bass or when I change these in about 100 years

Apart from the odd one-off set here and there, since I was about 16 my strings have been: Rotosound Nexus (the black coating came off the strings) Elites Nickel (Nathan East Signature set on 5vers) Ernie Ball Slinkies D'addario Chromes D'addario EXL165 Ernie Ball Hybrid Slinkies

I think I had my Righton vegan strap on my one last weekend and as someone who tends to play with my bass at a 45 degree angle I never noticed and neck dive which was surprising

I got mine on Friday lunch time. Took it out of the box, tuned it, put it in a gig bag and gigged with it on Friday night. First time I have ever had a bass set perfectly for me straight out of the box. Only issue I had were frets 4 & 5 had popped out slightly so there was a good deal of buzz but only on the E string so I had to avoid playing Ab all night. It was easy enough to tap them back in on Saturday morning and then gig it again on Saturday night. I had planned to make it a backup to my Sire D5 but since that still hadn't arrived, I decided just gig with it instead. The Sire arrives today 😁

My long gone gold flake Warmoth '54 with all gold hardware and gold frets. Even the pickup screws were gold

Over the past 35 years I've played 4, 5, 6, 8, 12 string basses. Sometimes to suit the material I was playing at the time, others just because I wanted to. When I was in my Nathan East phase I was playing a 6, during my Chilis phase which has lasted on and off for the past 32 years I've played a Modulus Flea, Musicman SR5, various Stingrays and a Sterling, 2 12 strings in my Cheap Trick phase and an 8 after hearing Abe Laboriel play with Lee Ritenour. Right now I have only 4 string basses, some with Hipshot Xtenders, some without. I think in my ramblings I mean, play whatever you want - keep the 5 and get a 4, maybe a HIpshot with a double stop so that you can have two alternate tunings for your E.

Before we switched to using in-ears I used to use something like these. I'm very sensitive to high frequencies, especially our drummer's china cymbal! and these tamed those high frequencies for me while still being able to hear most things. They're not ideal and in-ears are definitely a lot better for me but at least I could still hear on the way home from a gig

Could this be what Shane MacGowan is singing about?

I am also in the process of returning something to them. A bass ordered on 15th August and received on 23rd. The bridge was wonky so I immediately asked for a return. After a week and a half of failed collections it was eventually collected on 4th September. They don't have it so I raised a PayPal claim against them as I want my refund. They responded today by trying to tell me that it was still with UK customs 14 days after it was collected so I have asked them to prove that this is the case

Just when I think that I am sorted for gear, something comes along that I really want (not need) To be honest I flit between bass gear and watches but unlike basses, the watches get kept until next thing I know I have over 40

I was looking to do something similar in the past and this is the preamp I was going to use: https://retrovibe.co.uk/product/retrovibe-stinger-77-classic-mm-stingray-bass-eq-pre-amp-2-band-pre-eb-circuit/ Assuming that there is enough room in the control cavity for the preamp and a battery

I've got a red one coming and having previously owned a Vintera with the anodised sandpaper scratchplate, does anyone know what scratchplate will fit these? It looks like a US MIM one should fit.

On 13th July 1985 I had heard Queen for the very first time so on this day in 1985 I would have been getting on the bus with my mum and heading to the record shop to buy the next Queen album on my list. My first album was Greatest Hits which I bought for £7.01 from Woolworths on my 10th birthday in 1985 before heading to the cinema. I can't remember what it was. I'm sure it was A View To A Kill but I could be wrong. Then after that I worked my way through their back catalogue from Queen all the way up to The Works which was the newest release at the time. They were £3.95 each if I remember rightly. At the time I was getting £11 a week doing a paper round so I bought an album and a copy of the Beano every week. I still have them all but didn't look after them so I ended up having to buy the whole lot again a few years ago

Finally succumbed and ordered a dakota red P plus a set of HB flats and a gig bag. Dakota red and Daphne blue are my two favourite Fender colours so it was an easy choice between the red and the blonde