Chris2112

Actually, I think this 2001 Basslab L-Bow was the only music gear I bought this year, but even in any other year it would surely have come first as it has one of the finest and most entertaining basses I've ever played.

This thread is about a triple-course 12 string. If you want individual strings for 11 or 12 string basses you probably need to source them from SIT or somewhere like that.

https://www.stringsdirect.co.uk/strings-c1/string-sets-c865/bass-guitar-c34/12-string-t949

The only 12 string bass sets I can see for sale in the UK are D'Addarios at £65 a set. They must take ages to fit too.

In which case, get a spell checker or get someone to proofread it. I'll admit that my typing on a phone keyboard with autocorrect is worse than ever but I'm not trying to prevent a professional business. However I'll cut Bass Direct some slack. I've heard of people turning up wanting to buy a P bass and Mark has tried to steer them towards something better, so he earns a pass for that in my books.

That bass is absolutely lovely. I love the slimmer body, it looks quite wieldy and elegant.

I wish they had never moved away from the two piece bridges and the cricket bat. The earlier models with the full size cricket bat middle section were just dreamy.

Fodera have been offering this for years. I remember one of their staff/dealers commenting to the effect that they couldn't conclusively state if it made a difference or not but they'd build it like that if you wanted it. Fair enough, I think. I'm not convinced.

I'm sure if he made a few quid off it he wouldn't be bothered.

Absolutely mint bass. I've wanted one for years but never got round to buying one. Gary is a mint player too, I wish we heard more of him.

I loved the fretless F Bass that Alain Caron used in the late 80's and early 90's. Looked amazing and sounded great.

Such a fantastic player.

Same here. 'Road Trippin'' isn't far off though.

This blew me away on the website. Look at the quality of that woodworking and the gloss in the finish.

Given how slowly parcels are moving across the UK it will probably spend longer in a depot waiting to leave the country than it will crossing the entire continent to arrive in Croatia.

Yep, in person I think it really makes the slabby original Stingray design look like something from the stone age. It photographs well enough and is highly distinctive but the curves and the light basswood body make it even better to hold and play. I really liked it for the fact that it showed that EBMM weren't content to be a company that just rakes over the coals of their past glories.

You don't have to tell me about the link between the NS-2 and the Streamer, I know the story well and FWIW I much prefer the Spector. Spector are without a doubt my favourite wooden basses and if you told me that was all I could play for the rest of my days. Also, I don't think (nor was it stated as a prerequisite for mention in this thread) that the iconic bass of an era had to be made then. My choice of Warwick basses was due to their popularity around the turn of the Millennium and the first few years going forward. The Thumb and Streamer Stage II both date back to the 80's and yet they found themselves suddenly in very prominent positions in the nu metal scene and thus they were probably the most visible basses in the whole rock world for a period of time. It helped that as they came to be known as the brand of choice for nu metal they had a huge marketing push and they were well supported by their US distributor, Dana B. Goods, giving them a big sales boost and putting those instruments into stores. Prior to that point, Spector had undoubtedly been the top boutique choice for rock bassists in the US and Warwick managed to steal that crown for a few years. You literally couldn't turn on the TV or open a rock mag without seeing or hearing Warwick basses, and then perhaps to even more indelibly leave their mark on that era, the buzz died out as the music world moved on. Along those same lines do I mention boutique basses, as with the Talkbass crowd at the time there was a huge buzz about brands like Pedulla, Ken Smith, Fodera etc. All basses that had lineage going back two decades or more at that point but having found prominence with a significant group of players talking about basses on the internet and generating a buzz about them.

One bass above all others that defines that era for me, on consideration, is Jeff Berlin's Dean signature model. Jeff was known (and remains to be known) as a guy who travels light when it comes to basses. He says he never owned more than a couple at a time and he just kept around what he needed to make the music (I think he owns just three basses right now). After leaving Peavey, and with the sad collapse of Peavey's American guitar manufacturing by business, Jeff was approached by Dean guitars. Jeff was living and working in Clearwater and Dean were based in Tampa (effectively one and the same place as far as we might be concerned). Thus, it was a deal of geographic convenience that they should work together. The amber colour Jeff Berlin model that Jeff was playing non-stop in this days remains seared in my mind. It was effectively the same spec as his Peavey Palaedium model (except for the pickups). But this was the bass that Jeff was playing when I first discovered his music. He was in a different mindframe and attitude as a player there. He hadn't mellowed (some would say he was at his most combative then) and though his music was dynamic and full of inflection as he sought to legitimise the bass as a solo instrument in jazz, he could absolutely blow over changes when he wanted to. Some of the performances of that era were downright fearsome in their virtuosity. Looking back, his reinvention as a jazz musician was complete and he has broken new ground with the electric bass. Consider below a performance from that era. Stunning, masterful stuff. His legato was never as slick or never-ending as it was in those days. Jeff told me he had actually drawn back on the style and techniques he favoured in that era because he didn't want that sound to become cliché. My preference is actually for his earlier rock fusion sound from 'Champion' and 'Pump It' but Jeff's jazz phase was a stunning realisation of a musical vision and it was all channeled through a very distinctive bass guitar.

Yes, I agree that the early days of the 00's were a great time for boutique basses. Talkbass at the time was a very frequented by some very affluent users with great taste in high end basses. Obviously internet use was nowhere near as universal then (remember all the threads that said '56k stay away' to warn of high resolution images within). There was a real buzz about amazing handmade basses then. The plague of vintage tat wasn't quite widespread then. I like Basslab instruments but I think they're maybe too niche to be considered an iconic instrument of the age. Certainly, they do appeal to me as the next step in evolution of the art over simply using carbon fibre. That isn't to take anything away from them, I own a 2001 L-Bow and it is one of the best basses I've ever played and it's the bass I play most these days along with my Spector NS-5CR.

Yeah, I was just talking to my brother about a really nice Streamer LX that I played on GuitarGuitar back when they had their shop in the Newgate Centre in Newcastle. Nearly mint condition and with a wenge neck, it was for sale (used) for £650. Wouldn't see it going for less than £1500 now, I don't think they're worth quite that amount. As for the iconic bass of the 00's, the Thumb and the Streamer Stage II are definitely the ones I'd choose. They absolutely dominated rock music around the turn of the millennium. Warwick were a really popular brand back then, even things like the Corvette Standard were popular for letting you get a bit of that 'sound of wood' vibe.

Warwick's prices at retail have always been bonkers but never moreso than now. They used to be an outlier in terms of catastrophic depreciation (and probably still are). I have often wondered who buys all these new Warwick basses. They're a great used buy, once the asking price has halved.

I'm guessing they were trying to find a better tone by putting it closer to the bridge. It should be fairly cohesive given the small move towards the bridge.