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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!

Show us your Fenderbirds / Explorerbirds. Heres mine

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. 😀

Lots of inexpensive/bargain Yammies on t'bay at the moment. Don't look if payday is ways off... https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/Bass-Guitars/4713/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=yamaha&rt=nc&_dmd=2

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...'

This. To me the best thing about the Stingray is the neck. It's just the best neck out there in my hands. Obviously the tone is massive and, despite what people say, it's a very versatile instrument with the active EQ. But that neck man...

For a PJ setup in soapbar housing check out the EMG 35P4 ad EMG 35J. For something different many people go with the EMG DC pickups.... http://www.emgpickups.com/bass/extended-series.html Both should work with the BT circuit you have. I'd try that first....

Upgrade the pickups to full active EMG soapbars (many choices) and the EMG BT circuit will come alive.... :)

Welcome to the F112 club :). The lows seem overwhelming at first but once you figure out how you amp and eq best works with the speaker you'll be in tone heaven. I still haven't found use for my second F112 in all the gigs I've played the last 2-3 years except as a PA for one gig :).

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/

Exactly! Which is why all the current "tone wood" "experiments" are completely meaningless, and irrelevant.

Ah, but will they? With this question burning in my mind I telephoned my close personal friend the New York music lawyer Mr Wolf J Flywheel. Our conversation proceeded as follows: Me: Wolf? It's me, Skank ... Flywheel: Whaddyawant ya Limey fag? Me: About this Universal masters fire ... Flywheel: Get the f*ck outta here! Ain't got time to talk, too busy filing a class action against those f*ckin' schlemiels Me: Based on what? Flywheel: Who cares? It's a bonanza. Now scram, shitbird, I got plaintiffs to depose (Ends)

I'm amazed, you mean it is possible to have some kind of shop outside london?? 😮

I can't wait for the Fender marketing videos of lots insta-famous teenagers walking through the woods and/or city centres with the bass hanging over the shoulder without a case, never actually playing the bass, but instead providing a bunch of nauseating marketing speak such such as: 'I love the snap and zing of the finish' 'you know, it feels old, but it also kinda feels new?' 'it is so versatile, I can play it with my fingers or with a pick' 'for me, bass is the foundation of music, and the Fender Precision is the foundation of bass' I like the look of the seventies Jazz because it looks like a Fendeer Jazz bass and I like Fender Jazz basses.

Roqsolid will make a cover to fit anything.

Well - other than I'm going to recommend to @TheGreek that I order a replacement barrel jack for it (it works - but it crackles when you really start rocking!), it's finished. Hatch fitted and magnets installed; frets polished; fretboard cleaned and oiled; bridge fitted; bass set up; sound check completed Here it is:

Setting intonation at the 12th fret allows for very basic tuners. Nowadays tuners are more sophisticated but if still makes sense the inonate at 12. It is half way between the bridge and nut and assuming all the fret slots are cut accurately, setting intonation at fret 12 will be good up and down the fingerboard. What you are trying to do is make sure the length of string from Nut to fret 12 is the same length as fret 12 to bridge.

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.

Well I suppose I could buy a couple of RPM’s, Palmer speaker sim, an AD200 and Avalon DI and recreate the sound, or use the excellent Tech21 gear to get close to what he has live but have my own twist as even with his settings dialled perfectly exactly the Same, i’ll Never sound exactly the same. Its like dUg products, by all means I could bi-amp, but they have been engineered brilliantly into small boxes. Studio as you know is a different kettle of fish, often not the same bass as Live etc. But to answer your question, if he is using his signature pre-amp live and playing songs from multiple albums........

When I had a 9 to 5 I had the horrendous cycle of no sleep, followed by a day at work literally flooding coffee into myself, followed by no sleep, followed by flooding coffee into myself, followed by.... Horrendous. Really affects you. However, once I went self employed and didn't need the pressure of getting up at 7am after being up until 4am I found a solution. It may sound daft, but hopefully it will help. And it's the oldest thing known to man. Instead of letting your brain run riot, what's the best way to stop it? Listen to something. As kids it was always bedtime stories or nursery rhymes. Now, for the last 4 years I've been listening to podcasts (karl pilkington / Joe Rogan etc) every night on headphones, and I'm off to sleep in no time. I believe it's simply because it stops my mind from thinking and starts my mind listening. Interestingly when I'm away and I've forgotten my podcasts or mp3 player, my mind goes into over drive and I'm up all night. I know lots of people who listen to podcasts or YouTube at night and it really works. Try it if nothing else works. You never know.