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Jon sent me a few pictures.

Finally it's back! I traded this beast away several years ago and always considered it to be 'one of those that got away'... I think we've all been there, trading a bass and then suffering instant regret! However... finally after 3 years of failed attempts to get this bass back, the right sequence of trades has now landed this monster back in my hands. It's a Warwick Thumb Single Cut 6, a horrendously expensive thing if you wanted to buy it new (price tag is a shade under €8000). Warwick only made 120 of these and now only make them to order. These are heavy, but they are exceptionally good basses. The tone is outstanding and slices through any mix, the construction is immaculate. Pommele Bubinga top with USA ash body, flame maple neck and thick ebony board. Solid brass 'invisible' frets, MEC active/passive pickups and preamp. This one is near mint, with the flight case and Warwick folder. Very glad to have it back!

Well I don’t know about anyone else but all I have ever really wanted from Fender is decent build quality and some interesting colours, not just black and sh*t-burst.....so on that note, well done Fender and yes please to this....

As part of my ongoing search for a decent Overdrive pedal (ie a warm, slightly overdriven sound rather than a dentist’s drill), I decided to pick up one of the new Fender Downtown Express Bass pedals incorporating and Overdrive, Eq and Compressor. Build-wise this thing is high quality and a really substantial bit of kit both size and weight wise. It was apparently designed in conjunction with Mr Aguilar and I can well believe it. At just under £150 the quality of the Compressor (analog) and the really meaty Overdrive (all the way from thick warm valvey sounds through some serious dirt) as well as a decent eq and a DI, it really seems to be very good value indeed. Granted I’m not a massive user of effects, but it really is a good (in essence) multi-effect pedal as one that is very intuitive and easy to set up. The LEDs are something else too!

The Q\Strip is very capable as an analog speaker sim if set correctly. I'm not familiar with the other pedals you mentioned. For a speaker sim, it's best to use after any distortion producing pedals. You should obviously have the LPF engaged. You need to make sure everything is gain staged correctly as you could be getting fizz from overloading the interface. If you're running a number of pedals in series you want to set the gain structures so you have unity gain. Here is a video showing the Q\Strip as a speaker sim in action.

I'm asking Rocco to fund my holiday to Crete

A new Fender range. "Vintage style for the modern modern era" 60s Jazz 70s Jazz 50s Precision 60s Mustang

A fellow Scot here, with a Sterling Sub Ray 4 in my arsenal. (No cheap shots, please, about tight Scotsmen, or I will hunt you down like a dog.) Like the OP, I wanted to test the MM waters, but I find the wide nut on EBMM basses to be too wide for my delicate little paws, being a Jazz Bass player by temperament. The Sub Ray 4 I nabbed may be cheap, but it really packs a punch, and sounds close enough to the real thing to me to be well worth considering, to get a sense of these things, which are very different to the Jazz. I got mine for 200 quid, and there are plenty around, so give one a whirl, I say. I will now duck into my previously prepared bunker, so as to avoid the inevitable incoming from those rightfully enraged by my maundering.. Carry on.

Always looking for a bargain...one day somebody will post an ad for something I want but missed. Hope that I'm doing the same for somebody else... That or I'm fuelling everybody's GAS...

I'd like to take some of the credit but I think at least 95% must go to @Andyjr1515..... As you say "amazing skills"..

...Handbox looks great, but sadly only 200W at 8ohms, otherwise I would have been very tempted myself! Mesa M6: definitely a bit of fan noise with this one (not noticeable at all as soon as you start playing). But does it just deliver the best tone of any amp I've come across to date? Yup

Thunderfunk all the way.

The Portamento basses has 30 “fret” boards

Every time you buy a cd with tracks you haven’t heard in the radio. Every film you’ve gone to see at the cinema, or bought as a preorder.

The basses are ‘no great shakes’, but some of the telecasters look quite tasty...

I've actually always wanted one of these. When you think about it they are ridiculous, having only 15 frets and the same range as a 4 string but I still want one but I like the odd balls from the 60s & 70s like these:

Brilliant, thank you

@cetera Oh Spector King - knowest thee what this is?

As an artist I think it is somewhat presumptuous and disrespectful to your (potential) audience to expect them to crowd fund your recording. It is my experience as a artist that if your music is worth releasing you will find a way to do it without resorting to begging. It is also my experience as a fan of bands who have used crowd funding to release their music that the incentives being offered aren't really that special. What I am primarily interested in is the music. I'll be able to buy that for £10 when the album comes out. Nearly all of the other stuff is irrelevant to me. And in this particular case $50,000 just seems to be far to much money to ask for with no explanation of exactly how it will be spent. Is it just for recording costs? Getting your music on-line with all the major download and streaming sites only costs $50 for an album, so unless he's going for a large volume physical release that seems like an awful lot of money. For that kind of money just for recording plus mixing and mastering I'd be looking at a couple of weeks lock in with a name producer and mixing engineer with the aim of producing a fantastic sounding album and turning at least one of my band's songs into a potential hit single. Getting your music recorded and released has never been cheaper. My last studio recording (made earlier this year) was charged at the same hourly rate (£6/h) as my first back in 1980 and while both were made in similar locations (converted garages) the quality and range of the equipment (as well as the acoustic treatment in the studio and control room) used for this year's session was vastly superior to 1980's semi-professional 4-track tape machine fed from a modified 12 channel PA desk and the sole effect available being reverb and echo from a spare 2-track tape machine. Maybe the way forward for crowd funding recordings would be instead of offering useless "special" incentives would be to give everyone funding the album a cut of the sales? I might be tempted to throw a couple of hundred pounds at my favourite bands in return for 1% of the sales of their next album.

Yes, I've forgotten to thank Luke for his work on the badges - looking good.

What a negative thread! Give them some credit - they've made up a word!

I've owned a Sterling Ray 34. USA Stingray 3-band and still own a USA SUB. Honestly, there was minimal difference in sound between them . The 3 band USA and Ray 34 were slightly more hi-fi/sparkly/brittle but certainly nothing that couldn't be eq'd out or in. The 2 band USA SUB has a bit more of a fatter, punchier sound that gets my vote! Anyone of of these will get you the sound you're after and then some. 😀

I agree with Billy Corgan, the colour of the instrument changes the sound of the instrument. Well played stew -- it looks and sounds fab !! 💟

In short no! However, they are small scale and Dave (Funk) used to organise sales and shipping himself. As for trying one before you buy, it'd be a case of seeing if any BCer were local (I'm NE). There are a couple for sale used on BC (550 and 750 but the 550 is way loud enough for pretty much anyone).

If it's any use, I have a TMB30 and it easily fits in the Fender Urban Short Scale Gig Bag.

It was years ago now but I had no trouble whatsoever when I changed the strings. I didn't even need to tweak the neck. I'm playing the bass a lot these days as my band rehearses in a very small room, for financial reasons. My Thunderbird struggles to fit in the room. That said, the Hofner really does sound wonderful, and has such a happy tone to it.

I think this ought to go down a storm with the TalkBass members: given the number of them who reflex-post things like: 'there's no money above the 5th fret,' or 'But Jaco...'

Not sure if you were joking or not, but I love this! Not seen it before. Take off that extra string and I'd be very keen! Wouldn't mind seeing what's under that pickup cover too, the saucy minx. Reminds me of a Mustang but with a bit more charm.

@akabane the bands that I like are still releasing music on physical formats and their fans are still buying them, so for the music that I would be interested in supporting there is a good chance that I would see a return on my investment. However these bands are selling their product off the back of gigging, and it has been my experience that unless your band is very well established (to the point where you shouldn't need crowd funding) the only way to continue generating sales for physical formats is to gig and sell copies to people who come to the gigs. Maybe as an alternative strategy in this age of streaming would not be to record albums at all, but to release a single song/piece of music every 3-4 months as a promotional item, and the only way people are able to hear the rest of your material they have to come and see you play live. Also, if as an artist you are serious business venture (as I suspect Rocco Prestia is), rather than just doing it for your own enjoyment then your business model needs to be one where income from each previous release funds the production of the next release. You might need to put in some of your own money in the first instance, but from then on it should be self-funding. That was certainly the way one of my previous bands operated. I put up the money to record and release our first EP, but the recording and production of subsequent releases were funded from sales of the back catalogue and other merchandise. If you can't do this then either your "product" isn't appealing enough or your business model is wrong. Start small and work your way up to an album that is going cost $50k to produce when your income from your back catalogue and royalties support it.

Yep, looks like a Q4 Pro http://www.spectorbass.com/uploads/Resources/Archived_Korean.jpg

Plenty of fair (and unfair) criticism in this topic. Figured I'd add my 2 cents as well... I think Fender, like most iconic brands, is doomed to be a victim of its own legacy. On one hand they've got the most successful and time-tested instruments of all time and are pretty much set for life. As long as "traditional" instruments stay in the world of music, I can never see basses like the Precision or the Jazz going away (as well as their guitar lines, obviously). On the other hand, with that reputation comes the fact that everyone wants to have a Precision or a Jazz and nothing else - they don't want weird Fenders, they want THE Fender bass. You wouldn't really go to a BMW stand to buy a family car, would you? You'd go to Volvo or Volkswagen...when you think of a BMW you mainly think of a luxurious sports car - that's their thing. HOWEVER, there are a couple of fair criticisms we can do here: 1) They keep rehashing the same production lines and only change the wording, the colors and more importantly THE PRICE. I think the "Player Series" was a step in the right direction - lightly increase the price but also improve the features, much like what Musicman did with their Stingray Specials. But these new "Vintera" basses are just the same as the Classic ones except with different colors and most likely a price increase. People keep paying more for the same stuff we had 10 or even 20 years ago. 2) They don't innovate when they could. Listen, I'm not saying that Fender needs to go all wild and do something really crazy because, as I said above, I think they're a victim of their own legacy. However, just do simple and small changes. Offer some little variations that will maybe captivate the player-base. Something like: a) a P/J configuration with a reverse P pickup; b) a Jazz Bass with a P style neck; c) a P/P or a M/J configuration (with the M pickup being able to be coil split and call it a Jazz Bass); Plenty of small changes that would perhaps make an interesting model sometimes. It'd still be a FENDER but it'd be something that would captivate longtime fans. That's just my opinion anyway. I think Fender ought to stick with their traditional models but also spice them up a bit sometimes. Keep the money flow steady but try to slowly do some changes in order be fresh and relevant. After all, isn't it a bit ironic that a company who advertises so much with young people & new music keeps relying on the same instruments that were made 70 years ago?

Dodgy deal done in a motorway service area today with Harry. It was a transcontinental epic trade of basses with Harry travelling about a million miles and myself settling for a lowly 100! Fabulous comms all the way through. Great guy and a total gent to boot - one for the Carlsberg Basschatters group :-) Enjoy the Stingray Harry!

Thanks for that skidder, I'll check it out now.

No problem with that at all. Why do you think there is a problem with it? Saying that, why moan about it costing you money if you chose to mod it and not live with it? That was your choice wasn’t it?

Leeds is cool. I'm happy with this move. NORTH.

Well, nearly bought a Gypsy Rose medium scale P but it was in the states so the shipping and import duty made it too expensive for a 'look see'. Instead, I've just bought one of these in burst to see how I get on with medium scale. I don't actually have a bass guitar at present, just my upright, so I'm expecting some fun to be had anyway! Impending NBD thread sometime this week... https://retrovibe.co.uk/product/retrovibe-les-paul-junior-lpj-bass-32-medium-scale/

The latest today: $100 million lawsuit filed over Universal's 2008 warehouse fire As expected, a lawsuit has been filed following recent revelations in the New York Times about the scale of a fire at an LA warehouse storing Universal Music owned master tapes all the way back in 2008. A legal filing made last week, which seeks class action status, says that the major breached its artist contracts by failing to keep the master tapes safe and then failing to inform said artists about the damage caused by the fire. Citing internal Universal Music memos, the NYT article alleged that up to half a million master tapes containing recordings from the 1930s through to the 2000s were lost in the 2008 fire at the Universal Studios Hollywood. This contradicts statements made at the time of the blaze when the record company played down the extent of the losses. The major has denied many of the claims in the NYT report. However, Universal Music chief Lucian Grainge said in a memo to staff last week that the company now had a duty to be super transparent with affected artists. While insisting that lots of speculation that has followed the publication of the NYT article is without substance, Grainge wrote: "We owe our artists transparency. We owe them answers. I will ensure that the senior management of this company, starting with me, owns this". However, the artists participating in the new litigation - who include Soundgarden, Hole, Steve Earle, and the estates of Tom Petty and Tupac - want more than answers. The lawsuit is seeking compensatory damages "in excess of $100 million", arguing that Universal failed in its obligation to keep the master tapes containing its artists' recordings safe, and then instigated a cover-up which, the legal filing adds, basically continues to this day. The lawsuit also notes that, while in public Universal played down the significance of the 2008 fire at the time, that didn't stop it from suing the Universal film company over the blaze and making a significant insurance claim in relation to its losses. Law360 reports that, in Universal Music's largely sealed lawsuit against the other Universal company shortly after the fire, the former accused the latter of failing to keep sprinkler systems properly up to speed at the Hollywood site where the music company still stored its tapes. It also said that the Universal studio business had ignored safety recommendations made after an earlier fire in 1990. But the music major itself should have been ensuring safety measures were up to scratch at the facility, the artists' lawsuit argues. Not least because when the 1990 fire occurred, Universal Music and Universal Studios were still parts of the same company, so the former would have had access to the safety recommendations that were made. Moreover, the legal filing goes on, "at a minimum, these alleged dire [safety] conditions were observable to UMG on even the most cursory inspection of the warehouse and its location". As for the way Universal Music communicated the impact of the fire to its artists, the lawsuit lists various allegedly false statements the company's executives made to the press back in 2008, all of which played down the scale of the damage. And as for how the loss of the master tapes could in turn impact on the artists pursuing the litigation, the lawsuit adds: "Master recordings - the original sound recordings of songs - are the embodiment of a recording artist's life's work and musical legacy. They are the irreplaceable primary source of recorded music". Universal Music is yet to comment on the legal action. If it gets to court, there will be various questions to be asked. Firstly, exactly how many master tapes were actually lost? Then, how many recordings on those tapes don't exist elsewhere? Then, has the artist still suffered a loss even if their recordings are stored in another format? And, perhaps most importantly of all, what are Universal's contractual obligations to artists regarding tape storage?

Interesting, I was researching what fabrics would make a good cover - tough but thin and without much stretch was what I found out. There’s a place in our village that sells secondhand stuff for crafts, they have all the ends of rolls left over from companies making swatch books so they have all sorts there- the heavy duty vinyl wall coverings would probably work, as would the fake leather aimed at busses and tube trains- but I couldn’t decide if I liked any of the colours

The newer Dimension was a killer bass. Beautiful compound radius, oiled neck, great weight and balance, 18v active electronics, dual humbuckers. They tried. We didn't buy them because they weren't 'Fender enough'. We don't actually want Fender to do anything other than what they are currently doing, it seems.

The manual for the Plex pre-amp gives details of the frequencies affected by the filters. I don't know if they will be the exactly the same for the Legacy amps as they seem to be either on or off but will share them for reference.

[u][b]Zoot Custom 4 string, 32"[/b][/u] I took delivery of this bass back in the Summer and have resisted the temptation to review it any sooner to try and ensure the 'New Toys' syndrome didn't exert too strong an influence. I've had four basses built for me in the past - three by Les Evans from Liverpool and a more recent ACG Finn. I think there's always a leap of faith element to every new commission but they've been more successful every time as I've become clearer and more confident about what works for me. The Finn, with its filter preamp, and single pickup moved slightly towards the bridge was the best of the bunch for my personal tastes. I'd owned a few Zoots over the years, and played a few more - mostly in Mike Walsh's shop, The Bass Merchant, a good few years back. I'd always promised myself a custom build but had never got round to it and, after having had quite a low profile in recent years, it was just coincidental that has name popped up on BC at exactly the time I was thinking about adding a passive bass to my Finn and Les Evans fretless. Mike lives quite close to my family down south, so we met up when I was down visiting them and eventually settled on the following specification: [list] [*]Splat Ash body with figured maple book matched top, finished in am Amber trans' tint. [*]Ebony veneer dividing line [*]5 piece laminated neck of Canadian rock maple and Blue Jarra [*]Satin finish to back of neck [*]Hi-gloss finish to face of headstock [*]Ebony finger board with side dots [*]Soft 'V' profile [*]38mm bone nut [*]16" radius to board. [*]24 frets [*]Bi-flex (two way) truss rod adjustable body end [*]ABM bridge [*]Hipshot 'Ultralite' machine heads and string retainer in black [*]Dual Aguilar DCB pickups [*]Passive with Vol/Vol/Tone/Master Volume and three position pickup selector [*]1 X mini switch for H/B soap bar [/list] A mere five months later this beauty was ready to pick up: [url="http://s120.photobucket.com/user/Myrtle2014/media/Zoot%20Custom/WP_20160722_09_23_39_Pro_zpseldsho1h.jpg.html"][/url] [u][b]Fit and Finish[/b][/u] As ACGs have a lot of love in these parts and there's a fair few owners in the BC parish, I'll use my Finn as a reference point. The Zoot is a more straightforward, traditional bass, I'd say. It's a bolt-on build like my Finn but Mike sticks to the tried and trusted Fender method of securing the neck to the body with wood screws rather than Alan's preference for captive nuts and machine bolts. I've no complaints about Mike's method at all but the ACG method does feel a bit more robust to me. In all respects though the workmanship is fantastic. The frets sit low and level and the fret ends are perfectly finished - I mean really perfectly - and the rounded over finger board edges make for an incredibly comfortable-playing bass. I asked Mike for a soft V profile neck to try and get close to a friend's Wal I played years back and he's absolutely nailed it. I had no complaints about the offset neck on the ACG but this profile fits like and glove - it's fast, effortless, and simply puts a huge smile on my face. [url="http://s120.photobucket.com/user/Myrtle2014/media/Zoot%20Custom/WP_20160722_09_25_15_Pro_zps66mprjtj.jpg.html"][/url] Having mostly played basses with satin or oiled finishes in recent years the high gloss took some getting used to from a playing point of view as it's more 'grabby' over the forearm cutaway area of the body, but that was a small price to pay for the stunning looks (I honestly stood there with my mouth open when I went to pick it up and saw for the first time, lying on the bench!). The high gloss is a preference of Mike's but I didn't take any convincing as I quite fancied a change anyway. The only slight reservations I have are so minor as to hardly merit a mention, but in the interests of balance I will: the nut and the string retainer. I'd have preferred a black or darker nut material. Nothing 'wrong' with the white one but it sort of draws attention to itself to my eye and grates slightly. Similarly with the string retainer a three string version was fitted because that's all that was needed, the break angle of the G string rendering it unnecessary to be retained; however, it makes things looks slightly unbalanced now and we'll be changing it for the 4 string version on a visit soon. [b][u]Sound and Playability[/u][/b] Okay, I freely admit all attempts at objectivity are now futile because, quite honestly, I think this is the best bass I have either owned or played in my nearly forty years of playing. I think with my Finn (as good a bass as it was) I began to feel it lacked a certain 'something'. Don't get me wrong, it cut through like a bastard in a band situation and the filter preamp offered a huge range of tones. But I think that maybe the huge variety of tones it had up its sleeve seemed to mitigate - for me - against a fundamental character or personality. It was a brilliant bass but it never really put a smile on my face. The Zoot has character. In spades. It has a fundamental warmth, breadth, weight and punch; it doesn't just put a smile on face, it actually makes me laugh out loud. It's one of those basses that encourages you to try new things. I have one bass 'pupil' who commented on it sounding like a fretless, and he's right. There's something about where the attack in the note occurs that is very fretless-like. I was worried about it cutting through in a band situation as passive basses often sound great at home but struggle in company. Played through my TC RH750 and Barefaced BB2 at last week's rehearsal there were no such issues though. I didn't back the tone off quite as much as I might do at home but that was the only concession I had to make. I also have to say that returning to a slightly more traditional neck after the ACG feels good. There's something about V profiles that is so comfortable; I really don't know why they're not more popular. Likewise the radius - 16" is a great compromise between the benefits of a flat board and something more pronounced or Fenderish to me. [url="http://s120.photobucket.com/user/Myrtle2014/media/Zoot%20Custom/WP_20160722_09_24_34_Pro_zps0efhjssp.jpg.html"][/url] [u][b]To Sum up[/b][/u]: I love this bass. And I say that after 4 months of ownership and playing. There is nothing about this bass I don't like. Even the finish - which turned out darker than I imagined - turned out to be a happy accident. It looks fantastic, it sounds fabulous and it fits like a glove. It feels like home. I wish I could find something negative to say about it beyond the rather lame nut and string retainer observations but I can't! Suffice it to say I have sold the Finn and commissioned a fretless from Mike too. Make of that what you will.

Fantastic bass. My Zoot was the bass I should never have sold. Love the neck, love the spot and block-free fretboard (never liked fret-markers). Enjoy, and thanks for sharing your thoughts.

OK - here's where we began: ....and this is where we ended up: