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To the contrary, the NS-5XL (and the Euro 5 that is based on it) is my all time favorite instrument, I'm using my NS-5XL for much of the recordings I do and play Euros live exclusively. I sold that particular bass because I liked my other NS-5XL better. It was actually a NAMM bass with a one-off violin finish, as they were calling it and was a great playing and sounding bass but one can't have them all (unless one is @cetera) Can't remember the exact selling price but it was around £2,000. Good old times......

If its the new string zing you dont like, my experience is that Elixirs tend to bypass that immediately but sound like a just broken in set for ages. They are smooth too so they could well be up your street. Re NYXLs I think they had a slightly lower tension than the standard xls which I find a bit too stiff. Slightly different tone, which I preferred. Strings are such a personal thing so YMMV but I'd say neither of those are a "bad" choice.

And about bloody time too.

This may be too late, but have a look here, Heistercamp handmade leather straps are incredible. It's more than I planned to spend initially, but it will probably last a lifetime. Their leather belts are amazing too.

Thats how I got started, aged about 11. My father came home with a cello strung in 4ths and I took to it quite well. After about a year, it was replaced with a chamber bass, which I believe is half size? Ray Cooper from Oysterband played a cello tuned in 5ths and put down some great basslines with the help of an octave pedal and various other electronic trickery.

Brave Heart, never mind Open Heart! I salute you for having a go. Best wishes for a great outcome.

Correct. Same in all the BassRigs.

Dynamic pricing?

Thanks. I've seen these mentioned a lot, I'll try them one day for sure. Thanks. Never tried DR, but heard good things about them. Added these to the list to try someday. In what other ways did you prefer NYXL to the normal XL? I'm after nickel rounds with as smooth a feel as possible, reduced finger squeak and a well balanced sound (ie not too middy, grindy or boomy), would consider anything that fits this description. It's a bonus if they don't take ages to get the new string zing out of them! I like a fairly bright sound (I play with the tone wide open) but perhaps slightly less than I used to - I used Roto RS66LDN nickels for a while, think I'd find them perhaps a bit too bright now, they seemed to take forever to settle in when now from what I recall. Not greatly concerned about lifespan, as I'll change them once or twice a year regardless (I imagine I play less often / shorter sets, than a lot of people here). Meanwhile I'll keep searching and adding to the shortlist to try out. If there was some sort of brightness chart / smoothness ranking for popular nickel rounds, that would be most helpful.

Andertons price is £449 which is inline with the other Bassrigs. Am I right in thinking that if I wanted to have drive, I would have to stop playing, turn the drive dial to suit and then start playing again? There is no way to play with a clean tone and then kick in the drive to switch to a dirty tone on the fly?

As you bring in more gain with both the Behringer and Soundcraft units, you can hear the noise in a quiet environment. It is much lower on the CQ series. I have not used the Ui24R from Soundcraft, but that has uprated preamps and is also reportedly very good. Dave Rat has an interesting video on the Behringer V Midas X32 mixers where he shows that the Midas version really does have better pre-amps and uprated A/D converters, sleight of hand on the specs of the Behringer show no difference, but in reality the Midas are a lot better. Whether this translates into a better end product is open to debate. I had a Soundcraft Ui16 for a while and the difference between that and the CQ20 is very noticeable. Whether all Midas consoles are that much better than the equivalent Behringer is unclear but seems likely.

I've always wanted to play What's the Frequency, Kenneth? It's never happened and isn't likely to. I love that bass line.

I want one but it will have to wait until after the expense of Christmas. And my youngest has her driving test tomorrow so car insurance might suddenly be mindblowing.

The problem with crimp, especially those Faston crimps, is that they vary in quality. Some are too tight to fit on the blade and others are just too loose. At the speaker end, the issue is more that it is hard to keep the soldering iron away from the magnet. As for sealing the speakons, the speakons themselves usually form a reasonable seal with the panel. Jacks are a different matter. There are very few jacks that are sealed, and I once borrowed a cab the kept whistling. Of course, we all like a happy cabinet, but it was disturbing. The temporary solution was to put a jack plug into the unused socket. The long term solution, if you MUST use a jack plug, is to use the Cliff S1K Sealed Jacks. These can be purchased from RS, Cliff sealed jacks. Here is the PDF of the range. Cliff Data Sheet It should be remembered that these are rated at 5 amps. So 200 Watts into 8 ohms or 125 Watts into 4 ohms. OK for gig bag amps lie the Elf and Gnome but anything else use speakons.

Tempted so very tempted

How VERY dare you?!? 🤣

Three suns and one star - Down

That's the one, nice one.

WD do this one. Is this the kind of thing you are looking for? Plenty of colour options. WD Custom Pickguard For Fender Vintage 1970's-1980's 20 Fret Jazz Bass With Custom Integrated Control Plate

Just ordered one from Andertons (I think).

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