Conan

Skipped mine out this afternoon. I never realised that the attachments hang around for so long! Ditched over 50MB of rubbish and old stuff....

In my thirty or so years of playing bass I've only used about three brands of strings. I guess you could say that I've been happy with them, but in truth I haven't tried anything else! I started on Rotosound 66's and when I got my Status (and wanted to sound like Mark King) I moved to Superwound Funkmasters. After a few years with them I got tired of the extra light gauge and wanted more tone. I moved onto Elites Stadium SS roundwounds and have used them ever since on the Status. I tend to use D'addario SS rounds on my other basses. Anyway, yesterday I ordered a set of DR Lo-riders for my P-bass and would have got a set of Newtone Diamonds for my J - but they were sold out. Really looking forward to trying these new brands and seeing the they offer any improvement on what I am used to! Especially as the DRs are quite a bit more expensive than either the Newtone's or the D'addarios.

That Richwood sounds nice! Videos are pretty good! Even "basic" slap is a very difficult thing to get across on a video, so I think you do a good job on that front. You maybe want to position your mic a bit closer to your mouth though, as there is quite a big volume difference between the bass and your voice - especially on the first video. What strings do you use on the Richwood BTW?

If you have a fretted bass that you already like, but maybe don't play it as often as you could; and you want a fretless.... bit of a no-brainer under some circumstances!

[quote name='Maverick' post='1262814' date='Jun 9 2011, 03:35 PM']I'm not saying that he [i]never[/i] talks bollocks, I'm just surprised anyone would pick him out as the worst bollock-talker of the band.[/quote] I'll concede that!

[quote name='Maverick' post='1262505' date='Jun 9 2011, 12:08 PM']Myung talks bollocks?[/quote] Listen to the first 20 seconds of this and tell me he doesn't! [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVJ2zbGmMAI&feature=related"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVJ2zbGmMAI...feature=related[/url]

[quote name='grich154' post='1262557' date='Jun 9 2011, 12:35 PM']i turned the low and high mids up on the amp both times, only helps slightly i find,[/quote] That's strange. I'm not familiar with your amp, but maybe it's to do with where the mid-frequencies are centred? Also, if your bass itself has a kind of "scooped" sound, there may not be many mid frequencies for the amp to boost! It could also be down to a lack of volume I suppose...

[quote name='JTUK' post='1262443' date='Jun 9 2011, 11:13 AM']I don't believe one small light cab does it all.[/quote] Depends on your definition of "small and light" I guess! My vintage could never be called small, but it certainly is light. It definitely does it all. A compact is small and light, and in my experience just about does it all. Never used one at a big gig in a crap room with no PA support though... That's usually where the compromise comes in.

[quote name='DanOwens' post='1261247' date='Jun 8 2011, 02:41 PM']PS. I have a rather successful sound engineer friend who always complained about bassists bringing amps that were too loud (incidentally he suggested anything over 150w was too loud)[/quote] That doesn't make a lot of sense. Apart from the fact that it is difficult to find decent quality amps in the 50 - 150 watt range these days (a gap in the market maybe?), surely a 150W amp running flat out into a 4 ohm 4x10 cab would be significantly louder than a 500W amp (which seems to have become the industry standard now) at low volume settings going into an 8 ohm 1x15 or a pair of 1x12s? How long will the old chestnut that watts = loudness last? For me, a micro head with a BFB compact would seem to be the ideal situation. I've used one for home practice* and it's fine for that. Having said that, I use a BFB Vintage for home practice* and that's fine too! If a new compact is coming in at around £450 (it's been a while since I looked!) then that leaves you around £350 for an amp. By choosing a decent used one from here that really puts you firmly into the "decent" quality bracket... but maybe not quite up to a TC RH450! (* That's as well as full band rehearsals and gigs mind!)

I suspect the thread title says it all - you will never be satisfied! Nice dilemma to have (in a way) though. To be pleased with the tone and playability of your least expensive bass. Maybe that says a lot about the nature of GAS/conspicuous consumption? If we could only see past the label. If you choose option 3, be careful - from what I understand there are a lot of very ordinary 70s Fenders around.

[quote name='algmusic' post='1259277' date='Jun 7 2011, 08:03 AM']Well if you want to sell your sp210, let me know. I might use this till I can afford a midget[/quote] If you combined the Orange and the Midget, you would have an Oompa-Loompa!! Sorry.

[quote name='Machines' post='1257082' date='Jun 5 2011, 08:01 AM']Yeah, but then the Overwater plays so so well, much better than the Status, think that may be string spacing ! I'll admit i'm very torn between the 2.[/quote] Surely that's the key? No point having a great tone available if you don't like playing the bass that has it... A lot of it is what you get used to of course - and both are bespoke, handmade English instruments so where's the downside? Interestingly, I prefer the tones from the Overwater in your two clips! Your Status just doesn't sound like my Status! Could be to do with the recording methods, playback speakers etc - but mine just sounds more "organic" than that one does. Yours just sounds a bit clinical and sterile to me. Also, and I might be reading more into it than is actually there, your playing sounds slightly more "tentative" on the Status, whereas you seem to relax more on the Overwater. If that is indeed the case, surely that's a good enough reason to keep the O?

Wise words from a very clever and talented guy. Having said that, his tendency to constantly re-invent himself (see points 5 and 7 above) can make him a challenging act to support!

The answer is definitely either yes, no or maybe.

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIm87r9lnD0"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIm87r9lnD0[/url]

[quote name='BassBod' post='1248910' date='May 29 2011, 09:10 AM']We've got many more choices and information these days. It used to be a case of, is it loud enough, then season to taste with bass and treble (plus mid if you were technical). Its a lot more complicated now![/quote] I'm not sure it [i]is[/i] any more complicated now. I think the kind of bass players that use forums like this one like to convince ourselves that it is complex - but I think that in reality all most punters and fellow band members care about is that you can be heard, but not too loud. So a tone that cuts through the mix but doesn't dominate would seem to suit everyone! Volume is obviously key to that. If you're not loud enough it doesn't matter what tone you have, but equally, a well-chosen tone will help you to become audible. So maybe it is a little bit complicated after all?! I certainly recall from my early days of playing that the watts war was a big deal. If playing with a loud drummer (as I always seemed to) you needed plenty of power to be heard. The actual tone settings were secondary to that. Often, what the audience hears is totally (and tonally!) different anyway - especially if you are going through a PA. Still, it gives us all something to chat about doesn't it?

[quote name='BigRedX' post='1248931' date='May 29 2011, 09:37 AM']I'm still not convinced about this "your tone" thing. I've had very different tones in most of the bands I've played with. They've been the right tones to work with the other instruments in the band, but they didn't sound at all similar.[/quote] I agree. As a player you may well have "your style", but tone is much more subjective and will vary due to factors like the room you are playing in, the size of the audience (for live performances), the playback speakers (for recordings) and a hundred and one other variables! I've never played an Alembic, don't own a fretless and am a recent convert to five strings - but when I borrowed Chris2112's Fretless Epic 5 and used it at a rehearsal, the band said that it still sounded like me!