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Fretless, flats & finger style but I pluck over the fretboard around the 20th fret(less). Plucking at that point gives a very mellow sound so I tend to boost the mids to compensate and introduce a bit of definition. I could just pluck nearer the bridge but I prefer the feel of playing at that point on the strings as it's much more 'elastic'. I've got into the habit of letting my fingers play into the fingerboard so if I did play further back towards the bridge I'd have to add a finger ramp for it to be comfortable now.

I may be able to help - I've run an Aguilar Tone Hammer 500 and a Markbass AG1000 on rotation in my wedding band this year, over around 50 gigs. I've played them both through my TC RS112 cabs, RS210 cab, and Markbass Ninja 2x12 cabs in a variety of settings. They both do a great job of making your bass sound good live, but you can feel the different DNA when you use them. The Aguilar is very smooth, with EQ points that are more in line with vintage or valve amps. The treble control doesn't get 'spiky' until you're nearly at 100%, and the bass doesn't get boomy until 80% or so. The bass EQ point carried with it some extra mids, so when you boosted the lows you felt a bit more girth to the sound as well as bottom end. The mid controls were something and nothing for me - sweepable mid frequency didn't really get me any extra mileage playing live with PA support, but in a studio setting I imagine it would be a lot more useful for dialling in a sound. In all, it's a very flattering EQ. Volume wise, it had plenty of poke, but the Markbass' supposed 1000 watts felt bigger and had more headroom. The Aguilar also had a better DI in my opinion - more airy and natural sounding. It's also a very light head. The Markbass is a very good tool, but it can be razor sharp. The EQ points on the AG 1000 are different to other Markbass heads and I prefer the EQ points on the AG1000 over the LM3 I had years back. I'm also playing active 5 string basses and get a kick out of that 'zing' you hear lots of gospel players using (though my skills are very much lacking in comparison). The Markbass EQ was very much what you put in, you get out. Whereas the Aggie's was flattering, the Markbass did exactly what it said it would do, and I found that the bass sound out the front of the band was more 'in your face' and solid sounding. It gave all of my basses much more authority. The EQ points should be exercised with caution as there is more to give compared to the Aggie, but the overall sound pushed through a mix much better with the Markbass. The live-in bag is also much better designed than the Aggie's carry case, and the level knob for the DI is extremely useful on the Markbass which the Aggie was lacking. It's a very modern, forward sounding head that can take your eyebrows off with high end or induce earthquakes with lows. In my experience, the mids on the Markbass are more useable in a live context than the Aggie's, but I mainly used the mid controls for taming harsh/resonant rooms rather than overall tone shaping. I kept the Markbass and sold the Aguilar because I'm in a 4 piece wedding band with a full PA, click and backing track mixes, and I wanted to push through that mix. If I was playing more classic rock, used passive basses or wanted a studio tool, I'd probably have kept the Aguilar. Both do a great job, but I'd finish by saying the Aguilar is more classic and flattering to the low end, whereas the Markbass is more modern and uses it's more interesting mids to push through a full mix to allow the bass to be heard.

I agree the 5 in Metallic Blue looks great, spacing looks a little tiger tight (like less than 16mm!) but seems like the board has space to take it out a little with a new bridge/saddles/nut Fairdeal seem to be the only UK stockist for this brand atm (i read GG didn't renew the deal that had as distro) they have some of their headless 4's in (but no 5's) might be worth pinging FD to see if they'll be carrying these ray copies at some point in 2026 ?

Early in the chain. Some like before comp, but I prefer it after the comp. It throws a more consistent/even input signal to the synth, which can help the synth's pitch detection and sound generation track better and less glitchy. I also get longer note sustain before it glitches out especially the Thrillinganes green preset 1. Sample here:

Not sure if this will make you feel any better, but time and use will help. I bought a wiffy cab from a wiffy house earlier this year. The house was a mixture of years old damp and two extremely wet, smelly border collies who had free roam of the place. I kept the cab in the garage, brought it out for gigs (after some initial cleaning) and fortunately the smell dissipated after a couple of months. Airing out and baking soda work well!

Yep, shame I can't find a UK stockist. The stingray 5 looks gorgeous!

Mostly play old school blues and roots music , so I’m looking for a rich old school thump , that has authority. So I like hollow body basses with flats , I can get an upright ish thump palm muting. I usually gig with a big orange Gretsch hollow body. Nice deep woody tone. It has TVJones pickups. I use a boutique tube preamp , and have a couple of Class D amps I use for back end power. Bergantino cabs. Now I drive my stuff downtown , load it in and out , and drive it home. Not a teenager any more. This gear is surprisingly compact and light. I get that big old school depth I was looking for. Much of the time I am not in the PA , so my stage sound is exactly what the room gets. This delivers. I’ve been nerdy about gear for some time now , no longer looking for that perfect tone , this is close enough for me. Big orange Gretsch in the back there , Monique pre , Jo Choui power , Berg cab. The power amp was built by Jon Chouinard in Quebec. He has a great YouTube channel comparing preamps. Great guy. A lot of folks are familiar with him , here’s his channel for those that are not. https://www.youtube.com/user/jochoui. Check out his archive for the preamp comparisons. edit … there’s a bunch of other stuff in the pic , Barefaced One 10 , PhilJones C-2 cabs , an Aguilar TH350 , Darkglass m200 , Darkglass e500 Exponent amp and a Batwing Harmony H-22 stuff I goof around with at home , the Berg , Monique , back end power , and Gretsch are what I drive downtown. The Jo Choui is 500 watts , if I think I will need more I tend to grab an older Bergantino Forte with the compressor , and use the effect return channel.

Not yet purchased it, but I am exploring other options. Ideally, the seller will realise that the market in Neath for midi pedal boards is limited, and will instead offer postage. Certainly, that's what I asked him for. Encore! Encore!! One more song, ideally at about 4pm on Wednesday....

I'm about 25 mins from Wymondham. This is pub band heaven if that's what you're looking for. Depends on your prefered genre of course but if you want a blues band or classic rock covers, you've come to the right place. Pubs with music are alive and well here compared to other parts of the country. The Cross keys in the town centre has live music. You have at least another six venues in Dereham plus the Dereham blues festival. Jam nights in Norwich, the Apex in Bury St Eds, the Waterfront in Norwich, the Corn Exchange in King's Lynn and many other venues. You shouldn't have much trouble finding a band. Send me a PM when you've moved and I'll do you a list of places to check out and maybe a couple of contacts who may be up for playing. Good luck with the move.

Random FB discovery:

Wow! Thank you.

I’m in Swansea. Have you already bought it?

Dammit. Gigged in Neath on Saturday. Don't think I'm back down there for a couple of months. Ah well, have a bump.

I would like the tribute band to get more of the better type gigs that we do, but it's a bit difficult at the moment, partly due to the BL having a few health problems and we really need him to get those sorted. It would be great to get the 'occasional' blues band to play more, but again there are issues with a couple of the guys being so busy elsewhere (not to mention that the main dep for the guitar chair is the aforementioned BL of the tribute band, who needs to recover from his issues with his back). I would like to get some more deps, especially for the blues stuff. I used to think that I was pretty good at networking and such, but perhaps I need to step that up again.

Isn’t @Dood a local ?

Hanging Around - The Stranglers

Did 26 this year but they seem to come in batches. Can go for 2-3 mths without a gig then we get a run every week for a month. Nov and especially Dec we're always busy. The punk band i was in used to fill in the gaps as we had same drummer and female singer in both so it kinda worked out quite good. Not looking to gig every weekend but averaging out 2-3 a month would be good but more evenly spaced. Its good to be playing in 2 bands with different styles as it keeps the mind busy. Never thought about advertising for an agent and i'll maybe suggest that at tomorrow nights gig. We did have one but he didn't do much at all. He never even took posters to the venues or even pushed advertising in local areas. We ended up doing it all ourselves so why pay someone a share if they aren't pulling their fair share of the workload. Think we're going to have a meeting early 2026 to see how we move forward with the band to get more gigs and look at different areas rather than mainly East Coast Scotland. Also to make it more of a show and perhaps move more towards Theatre venues. Dave

Oh! They have really cool Mustangs and headless basses too! Whoa! They look great!

No Particular Place To Go - Chuck Berry

How's your guitar playing? 😁 That's what we need, we've already got two bass players!

Beautiful, stunning collection 😛💕You must be very proud. Just out of interest, just how good is the fretless compared to other basses in the same price category/class ?

This ^^^ Just try a thinner set, or moving them over a slot, and see how it goes. I bought a Ibanez Talman 30 when they were silly cheap to try a set of piccolo bass strings on, EADG but an octave higher so guitar register and gauge, I didn't have to change the nut and it's fine. The tension keeps the strings in the bottom of the oversized 'U' shape, you'd have to play really hard to move the string across and up the slot.