OliverBlackman

Depends on what you want to achieve and the music you play. My fretless will sustain for days but I can also successfully play staccato finger funk on it no problem..... It’s all in the fingers.

Yeh looks right: https://reverb.com/item/14713379-fender-precision-bass-special-2002-black These seem to be passive but the ones I remember were active.

Pretty sure these were part of the catalogue when I got my 60th anniversary model in 2006. They were available in black but I’m pretty sure it was gloss.

Teal blue/ green Trans finish on a quilted maple body. Can’t find pics though but definitely seen them about

Probably my biggest influence of all, was lucky to see him play twice. Absolute monster way ahead in the funk game.

Exactly. I used to quite like being first in as I could warm up with some scales or go through song ideas.

One thing I learned when I dipped my toes into the music industry, you’ve got to be easy going and just accept the traits of others. Those that were easy going have generally had a better career IME.

There was a period 8 or 9 years ago when you couldn’t go to a jam night in London without seeing a pile of Mono Vertigo gigbags in a corner. I’ve had mine for that long too 😁

Not fair for me, I’d be looking at a used special for that price. Stingray 5s were £6-800 when I had mine though and now are £8-1100 so it makes sense that prices would go up a bit for the anniversary models but not that much. It depends how much you like it though, they don’t come up very often.

Funny that you say to avoid metal on metal yet MarkBass package the strings wrapped around each other. Following your theory just getting them out the packet would damage the coating. Mine sounded very underwhelming acoustically but do sound brighter through headphones. I put them on a standard 4 string jazz and I think the G string needs to be longer to get more windings. Will see how long they last. I understand there should be less wear on the board with coated nickels.

Did they do lefty versions of the USA SUB bass? They are still incredible value for money.

Yes definitely. Played a HS version at a trade show and it was significantly better than the 4 string I had at the time. The neck was much more comfortable and it had a lot more balls. However, IMO the 30th anniversary is a much bigger leap and the new specials aren’t far off that.

My Sire V7 was the heaviest bass I have owned, very close to a 70’s Jazz. I wouldn’t discount them as they are certainly not thin sounding in active mode.

I was going to say, if Gibson did relicing they would need to snap the headstock off and glue it back on. if Warwick did it then the input jack socket wouldn’t work.

Happy to try these as I enjoyed the normal nickels on my fretless. Shame the medium gauge vintage are OOS otherwise I would have tried them too, but i did order some steels to try.

It makes sense to do it because not many budget instruments offer that, it just doesn’t suit me

Yeh, like the Warwick thumb. The E string is closer to the bridge because it moves a lot more than the other strings and therefore has less movement nearer the bridge

Only things that put me off are 1) the 35” scale length and 2) the colours choices aren’t too my taste

I thought it was this one.

If I had Scott Devine’s money though, I’d probably have one just for something different.

Played a BN5 at either the bass gallery or bass gear - could have been ex Paul Turner. Love the looks, felt a bit big, and the tone was just not for me.

I went through a phase of just buying and selling in order to find out what I like, especially with 5 strings. I managed to trade my way up to having an Overwater J5 and a Warwick thumb NT fretless 5, but had to sell them for financial reasons and from then on decided to stick with four strings. I’ll go back to a 5 but it has to be the perfect bass as I don’t really need it.

Vintage Fenders, fancy woods, fretless basses, those music man roasted figured maple necks.... everything I can’t afford!

This is lake placid blue for me. The Sire lake placid blue is way off too