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Holy NecroThread, Batman! And an opportune moment to mention that I have spent the last 5-odd years kicking myself for not buying that Fernandes P/P when I had what was undoubtedly the only chance of my life. And I bloody knew I would be...

Just putting this in a few of the relevant places… in a few days I will have a few of the ‘latest and greatest’ preamp/DI offerings (Mantle, Luce) in my studio for at least a few days, plus a bunch of the classics and a few wildcards. I’m going to recording a few comparison clips in different contexts, mostly for my own curiosity but also as a resource for anyone who would find it useful. If anyone has any particular things they’d like to hear feel free to make suggestions!

Just putting this in a few of the relevant places… in a few days I will have a few of the ‘latest and greatest’ preamp/DI offerings (Mantle, Luce) in my studio for at least a few days, plus a bunch of the classics and a few wildcards. I’m going to recording a few comparison clips in different contexts, mostly for my own curiosity but also as a resource for anyone who would find it useful. If anyone has any particular things they’d like to hear feel free to make suggestions!

Agreed. I like the Caveman preamps for that reason. I think the magic comes from using both a transformer and a tube though (which I think you may have said in another thread). My clean pedalboard is a Cali76 with a transformer and a Noble, and my main board is a Caveman into a tube compressor, so a transformer and a tube each time. Some of this may come from me not being adept at stacking tubes though.

Love that finish - very rare & something I've only seen on TSB550s - apart from this, which might be a refin for all I know. Not sure but that & black might be the only solid colours Aria used on through-neck body wings.

Welcome AQ.

Nice one Michael! Coming back from tonight's gig, part of me thinks: "why am I not the least bit surprised to hear you saying that?!". Probably the same part that is loving the baby brother of your GX100, and finding it's delivering a core sound and some fab fx I'm really happy with in my band mix.

Oh dear, looks like I'm going to be a late submission on this one. I still need to do the drums, and work out how to make my bass sound like a baritone sax. Bear with!

I just did a search to see if anyone had identified it and hit this thread. Just been watching and got this far: Sunburst 5 string bass Maple fretboard & neck Chrome hardware Stingray-looking headstock, 4+1 with a downwards point No scratchplate (hurrah!) P (neck) and reverse P (bridge) pickups Controls are three in a horizontal straight line, with three in an arc below them - my guess is V/B/T (treble cut) on the top, bass/mid/treble on the bottom I would guess at Sadowsky as that's their headstock shape and they do custom FSOs, generally avoiding the cheap look of scratchplates, although their controls tend to be in a J-sloping straight line.

Adore the look. Will pass on feature set for the price.

I think you handled that very well indeed. You were 100% straight and got all the expectations out. I agree with the thoughts about how sax should be handled as far as set lists go too.

I now used the board and power supply for several gigs and rehearsals. No problems whatsoever. Now on to the MK2,

So I answered a JMB ad last week for a bass player - seemed interesting with an emphasis on funk n soul, with a female vocalist, so I was thinking Jocelyn Brown, Dawn Penn, Colette Kelly maybe, yum! I responded also mentioning that I played sax. The guy replied that he already had a bass player (a friend, who’d’a guessed, so why advertise?) but would like a sax player as well. So he sent me charts for ten tunes that they were rehearsing, mainly by male not female singers, very little solo sax, a few with brass section stuff, alarm bells already ringing but I invited him to my place one evening for a chat and a guitar plus sax tryout. It soon became clear that a) he was a very reasonable guitarist but b) he had very fixed ideas about what and how much sax he wanted in each number, eg one 8 bar solo in Moondance in a five minute number, and a few chorus punches in the Graham Parker version of Hold back the night where the original had a three piece brass section riffing all through, you get the idea. I played him some video of what I’ve been doing in other bands, where the sax was used more, but got nowhere so I stopped the session and told him that I didn’t think they needed a saxist, I couldn’t justify 50 mile round trips for rehearsals playing just a few notes with no gigs in the book, and BTW why did he advertise for a bassist if he already had one? Answer came there none… thing is, I took up bass two years after the sax because I’d learned that while bass is pretty essential in a band, sax is a optional extra that needs a careful curation of setlists to get maximum value…grr! Was I being unreasonable?

I found this site while going down the bass amp rabbit hole when I decided to start playing my active 3EQ Music Man Ernie Ball Stingray again after a very long break. I bought the Music Man in the late 1980s because of the funk. But this meant having to sell my immaculate Japanese Tokai Jazz Bass that I bought because of Mick Karn/Japan and Percy Jones (on Brian Eno's Before and After Science), and that I have regretted since. I managed to avoid lugging around bass and amp by getting an acoustic bass in the noughties for my then country-folk band in London. After a lot of reading and listening online, I finally ordered a Warwick Gnome bass head and 10in cab last week. I wanted something compact and portable, with the option of being able to play live, just in case, and these were ideal. But as I am primarily a bedroom musician, content with noodling and recording for my own amusement, the Gnome's fan noise is a non-starter. As much as I like the sound and small form factor, I will unfortunately be returning both amp and cab and resuming the great bass amp search. Looking forward to sharing, learning and meeting like-minded folk, it seems like a lovely lot here!

I went to a venue tonight with a signature sound and that sound is muddy bass and drums with bloody awful guitar and vocals. The same for five bands. Oddly, the sound was much better in the toilets. Maybe the sound tech had the squirts and spent the evening in there.

Probably not good for metal.....

I mean honestly, what’s with these shrinking violet, wishy washy pastel colour shit? Just buy something bold for once … 🧐 oh … you have … as you were 👍

Never been keen on the TSB shape or that particular shade of blue but for some reason that just works, very handsome bass.

At the risk of derailing the thread (lovely colour) - tell me more.

...still, there's bugger all on TV anyway, so here it is all done and dusted. This fella has had more than enough of the ol' hooch. The shine has gone from his marvellous moonshine days and too many hangovers and trouser accidents mean that the firewater has got to go down the plughole. Two guitars, one bass, artificial drums and one crap singer. Mixed up and spat out by the triumvirate of Wavepad, Audacity and Ableton.

I’m Sticking With You - Moe Tucker