80Hz

Lots of interesting tidbits in here... I'm looking forward to seeing your L-1000 and Z7 in particular.. oh and that awesome Greco!! Also looking forward to hearing a Lace Alumatone and some Entwistle neos in the wild! At the moment I'll be bringing - Paulman P - a nice copy of a 1960 Precision, formerly of our very own For Sale forum (edit: has a Monty's P pickup) G&L JB (the silver heavy flake one) Fender Player Jazz Might also bring my '94 Ibanez Soundgear, although it's currently half way through a pickup swap with a Wilde (Bill Lawrence) PJ set and needs some additional setup. Might be an opportunity for curious ears to hear those pickups in action.

Ticket duly purchased for the Bradford gig 😄🤘

This is about the best rendition I've found of said finishes (TW: not a bass) https://www.langleyguitarcentre.co.uk/products/fender-limited-edition-player-ii-stratocaster®-rosewood-fingerboard-sparkle-3-color-sunburst-coming-march-2025 It's more subtle than the heavy flake finishes but I still like it. With that said, Sire might be doing the best production instrument sparkle finishes at the moment with the V7 red burst...

I fully support this! They don't seem to photograph very well though.

Definitely agree on that point and I would venture that piano-based arrangements were the norm then, and that affected the sense of what was an appropriate range for the bass to be in (upright or not). I wasn't around then but I doubt bass gear in the 60s and 70s would have struggled to reproduce one semitone lower than standard tuning.

That'll give a nice juicy B flat on the E string, so I can appreciate why that would be a preferred "voicing". Maybe I'm wrong, I've just found certain tracks made more sense to me to tune down. I also say this as a four string player - with a five I'd probably stay in standard tuning.

Very cool. I was thinking about the Rithmic a couple of days ago after watching the Scott's Bass Lessons interview with Jeff Berlin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GFV7fKNDjQ&pp=ygUVamVmZiBiZXJsaW4gaW50ZXJ2aWV3

One additional observation - a lot of wind instruments, trumpets, saxophones, etc are tuned to flat keys, so it can make sense for the bass to be tuned to E flat so everyone can play in a relatively straightforward key signature. You will find some parts will sit "under the fingers" more easily that way, especially horn-heavy genres such as soul and RnB. I tend to keep one bass tuned to E flat for this reason.

Welcome! Good luck with your musical endeavours - I enjoy veering off into less-well-known (to me) styles. Always something new to learn. Nice Warwick too!

Yes I've been eyeing some of this chap's stuff for a while. He has a nice G&L Tribute L-2000 in tobacco burst with colour matched headstock. Would need to be 20-25% less for me to inquire, but maybe he's factoring in some haggling. I guess if you can afford that number of basses, you can afford to have them around until they sell for the price you want. I can also relate to being on a mission to try a wide range of basses... +1 for get him on Basschat 😆

Everything is obvious until you're sitting there by yourself trying to figure it out!!

Male XLR is output, female is input. The outputs on the MG mixer are the male XLRs on the top right. Or you can use the 1/4" TRS outputs and go TRS-TRS.

There was also an L-2500 that sold yesterday, listed at £1,250 (wonder what the final sale price was). So G&L buyers are out there for the right price! I don't sweat a moderate loss on gear I sell, to me that is the price of the hobby (I acknowledge a big difference in attitude there to a pro).

I think it's a matter for taste. Looking at the 60s Precisions on Andy Baxter (different to 70s guards?? I dunno), there seems to be a redder, more diffuse look to those guards - more presence of orange and yellow. It almost looks more "molten" whereas modern tort skews brown and more textured. Personally I'm not sure I would want a real celluloid guard - I'd prefer not to have a combustible material on my bass! Some of these look good to my eye: https://www.pickfordguards.co.uk/gallery Edit: just to add that there seem to be a bit of "drama" around this maker - I'll let you do your own Googling. I have no experience either way!

Absolutely. The market is flooded with "very good for the money" instruments and players like Sire, Jet etc are eager to gnaw away at Squier's market share. So whatever we used to call mid-range, maybe Fender Player, some of the Japanese and Korean made instruments, either have had to become higher end, or their price has to come down. I think we see that in evidence with the "new" Fender Standard series, and Japanese brands becoming more boutiquey. I would go as far as to say that "low end" is being redefined as <£200, with the "new" mid range being £300-400. Above this the market hasn't quite adjusted yet. I think this is where brands such as G&L are suffering - the Tributes used to be a keen competitor to upper end Squiers, but I'd question where something like this SB-2 [https://www.andertons.co.uk/g-l-tribute-sb-2-bass-black-frost-rosewood-fretboard/] fits into the new landscape at £499.

Interesting data. It's a little difficult to generalise from, but it does show neatly how most of listings are above the consensus on where used prices "should" be, and shocker, the one which did has sold. Date of build doesn't seem to make much difference, condition seems to be more important. Sounds logical enough. Your point on listing quality is a good one. Anything with an AI auto-generated description is a pass for me - it screams low effort. So price, condition, and listing quality may have to align for a successful sale, unless it's something unique.

Agree, that tone is off the hook.

Thanks everyone for weighing in. It's good to balance out YouTube unboxing hot takes with opinions after you've settled in for a while with a new bass. I find I can rarely form an opinion of something until I've lived with it for a while, so it's good to see that people are enjoying them a few months in.

Yep, was just watching this yesterday!

Yeah, I mean thinking of the Exotic, a grand for a hot-rodded precision with premium pickups etc is within boundaries of what I expect. But 2k for an undistinctive PJ, nope.

I think there's a general call here for Schecter owners to bring them to bass bashes! We need to put hands on them! I see Peach Guitars have a handful in stock. As do Rich Tone. The Exotics are pretty for sure.

Yeah this is a salient point. I think the "club" idea is also part of wider brand recognition irrespective of artist roster, which is always churning. And with apologies to Sean for the derail onto G&L, I'd say this applies to Schecter. Not being embedded in metal much these days, there's plenty of names I recognise on their artist page, but not so much that (currently) aligns with my tastes (which are always changing!), or more importantly what I like to play. It's interesting to put that in contrast with Sire's strategy of getting two widely recognised names on board right at the start. Well, not sure how well known Larry Carlton is to the kids, but you get my point - it brought them instant eyeballs from a wide range of players, even if they are really a copycat brand, albeit doing it well. Interesting thread though, perceptions are important because we seem to agree that the instruments themselves are technically excellent. I will now add Schecter back in to my "basses to check out if the opportunity presents" list!

Is that because of depreciation? Or there's just more exciting things out there?

They just don't seem to be that well known in the UK. Where would you go to put hands on one or get a sense for the range? I think you'd be on a bit of a mission. I played a 7 string Schecter guitar once which was really excellent, it gave any Ibanez or ESP/LTD a run for its money. I dig the FreeZesicle by the way. Am I the only one?

Thanks @neepheid - all sounds very positive and even more so at the price point. As you say pickup heights will no doubt be important. I would always expect to tweak these things out of the box. I think Philip McKnight is the only YouTuber I watch who is fair with this, most use it as a stick to beat affordable instruments. Good to hear about the side by side noise cancelling neck pickup too. Also appreciate the observation re: string length although I'm a happy top loader 😀 One observation I'll make is that the Z series apparently sells like hot cakes but you don't see too many coming up on the used market. Hopefully suggests that they're keepers for most people.