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Thank you both. That is clear. I regards to type of cable from di to desk what am I looking to buy?

A spring apparently. It’s loose but not detached. Seems like a few others have it, some saying back to last year when it came out.

My '66 Precision. Bought in the early 80's, from Tiger Music in Brighton (for £260). Pictures are almost 40 years apart.

If you decide to scratch the itch I recommend Affordaboard. Free post and based in the UK. Great company to deal with. I used it last night but really I need time with it. The seven controls interact in complex ways and I haven't nearly got my head around them!

I find that these days a lot of the cheaper far east instruments are all of a similar quality and standard. They all need a little fettling to suit the player, but that's the deal with cheaper instruments. I don't think manufacturers can afford to try and offload cheap rubbish these days - word of mouth travels quickly these days via 't'net' and can destroy a brand very quickly. The 1st gen of the chinese metro express basses is a great example of that. Roger came out and said himself that he wasn't happy with the first iteration and problems would be fixed on the next batches. Credit to them, I never saw a first gen model but the next batches seem to be great basses for the money. Sires the same - great basses for the money although I don't think they have ever had QC issues like Sadowsky had to deal with on the first gen ME. Having said that, I don't think I would have spent £700+ on a ME, just for £350/£400, as others have mentioned, they are a great platform to mod and tinker! I keep thinking about the VTC but I don't know if it brings enough benefits to warrant the outlay! I may see if I can pick up a used one to try out. To spend money I like to see an obvious difference, I'm not sure if it would bring me that much to warrant a near £200 spend. I recently put in a Glockenklang preamp in my Atelier Z DAL5 and that sounds amazing! It has the passive tone, 2 band EQ and is cut and boost rather than just boost. And it is just over half the cost of the VTC. A difficult decision but luckily not an urgent one as my MEs are not my main gigging basses.

Hi gentlemen. After some time chasing one used at a reasonable price I just got a GV5 and I must say it's the best 5 sring Jazz style bass I've owned. SO engaging to play. Skinny neck, responsive, punchy, barks effortlessly. Really loving it. I've owned a Sire V3 5-string for about a year and even tho' there's nothing wrong with it I never found myself playing it that much. At the same time I've been growing increasingly amazed by MarkBass Gloxy GV basses. I think the V3 is OK, plays nice, sounds OK, lots of tone options, but the tone is a bit too tame for me (there's more growly Jazz Basses). I've been particularly impressed by a Yamaha SBV-500 I got last Xmas (yep, the samurai bass), best Jazz Bass I've owned, I'd like those pickups for all my basses, super agressive, yet ballsy and detailed, lov'em. The bad thing about them is that going back to a normal Jazz Bass is a drag, all sound so "shy" to me now, including the V3. The Gloxy weights the same (about 4kg, doesn't feel basswood at all), looks much better, sounds better than any Sire I've played (and I've played many, mostly V7s) and is overall way more engaging to play. The only bad thig about the bass I find REALLY TERRIBLE really. Volume pots' position is some of the worst I've seen on any bass, they get right in my way when picking (and I pick for half the stuff I play). IDK why this isn't a thing amongst instrument designers, controls should be DAMM FAR FROM THE STRINGS, like Musicman FAR, really, manufacturers please stop doing this, thank you. Haven't opened the control cavity up yet, don't know how messy it is in there, but I'm definitely dealing with this HORRIBLE design decision, either by removing knobs and leaving just the pot shafts, or maybe fitting some rubber washers to use as ultra flat knobs. If none of that works I'd think of more drastic solutions, such as going "fixed" active EQ, hide those 3 EQ pots, move the 3 top pots to the lower row and use it VVT like a regular Jazz Bass. Besides that BIG rookie'ish screwup with knob position the bass is AWESOME.

Noise inside... ribbon cable knocking about?

Post eq means the eq settings you are using on your amp will be sent to the pa so it ‘should’ replicate the sound you’re generating from your amp. If you have extreme eq settings some engineers don’t like it. Pre eq takes the signal from the preamp before your eq settings have affected the tone (essentially the sound of your bass/any effects you might be using in-line that aren’t in an effects loop) and uses that cleaner signal where the mixer/soundperson can tweak the eq on the mixing desk to create the front of house bass sound, meaning your amp tone is really used as a monitor on stage.

In simplest terms, "Pre" means FOH will get a flat signal regardless of what you set you mid, bass and treble to. "Post" means they will get the same as your settings. Most FOH engineers prefer pre as they can do their own shaping to suit the PA, but if you have critical wacky EQ settings that suit your style of music, I would go post.

I've just joined a band that will use front of house pa for me to run my bass through. Can someone explain in simple terms what I need to do with my ABM di and what 'pre' 'post' eq does. I don't want to look a complete novice when it comes to setting up! I have looked at the Ashdown online manual but still confused.

Master of Puppets - Metallica

And if the new owner has paid £6000 for this bass, in the current market he has done very well indeed. If it was my bass I would have expected at least a grand more than that in my hand before I would let it go. I hope he has a lot of pleasure from playing and owning it. Very special basses for sure.

Should add, the comparison between the two Zoom’s was done with the DI engaged on the B2-four. This section has surprised me. I wasn’t interested in the slightest before getting it, but now i find it indispensable. It’s a cool feature. Not sure it’s worth wasting a foot switch on it though. I’d be happy to just a global on or off.

The point is not so much "it cost less in the past" so much as that Wal basses were much more available. They were always great instruments, but they weren't Holy Relics like they are now. I remember Barry Moorhouse at the Bass Centre in Wapping saying how they had sold 11;Wal Basses in a week and then sent the van up to High Wycombe collect more. They had a display stand with several Wal basses every time you went in the shop. I don't think the new Wal basses are particularly overpriced in relation to the competition like Fodera ect. But you can't buy one anyway. They are definitely proportionately more expensive than they were,though. In a discussion abou the used price of Wal basses that is perfectly relevant. And as to this bass being costing less than a new one...it isn't a new one!

My dream cab back when they came out. I've always liked a 610, very jealous. I remember walking into Sound Control and asking if they could get their hands on an Epifani 610, he smirked and told me that he didn't think "Ep-eeeee-fone" made bass amps.

Gypsy Pisteleros in Guildford last night. Great to catch up with my old mate Shane who is now playing guitar for them!

I guess everyone's milages varies. I love the idea of a massive pedalboard covered in boutique gear, and I also love the idea of having the world available in something properly space age like a full fat HX or a Quad Cortex, but I feel that for me, right now, neither is ideal. I have a pretty big pedal board, with some darned nice bits and bobs on it, but, I find I often just pull it all out, unless I know I have a chunk of time to myself. I'm currently slimming down the amount of gear I have, basses included, and I think this Boss unit may well let me release some of my pedal pedals back into the wild too, apart from some of the special ones. Doing so will also likely pay for 3 of these Boss units too!

Puppet On A String - Elvis P.