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Just took ownership of this lovely bass. Sounds like a classic Stingray but with the extra string! Little bit heavy, but manageable for me. Been after one for a while & got offered one from a private stock in January 2022 Got a session coming up on Thursday so I'm going to take it along p.s. It matches my fretless 4 perfectly!

Two that spring to mind: 1. We had a gig the other side of London and the drummer offered to help ferry across the PA that was stored in my garage. When we finally arrived at the gig, instead of picking up the mixing desk in its gig bag he'd brought our camping table by mistake. Fortunately the landlord had a spare desk, otherwise it would have been a four hour round trip to retrieve our desk. 2. A guitarist in a band I played with in Bristol had the disgusting habit of walking over during a song and letting rip right by me. He'd then saunter off leaving the smell behind him. One night he turned up with his brand new Les Paul and was cradling it like a baby all night. During the gig he sauntered over as usual, let rip and managed to follow through! The look of panic on his face was priceless. The Les Paul was swiftly unslung and propped up against his amp (or so he thought) while he clutched his buttocks and minced off the stage. Unfortunately for him, the guitar slid off the amp and he ended badly bending a couple of tuning pegs.

I really want one!

I know a bass player who forgot his drummer once. I had to drive all the way back to collect him.

I’m not sure if this counts as a build (well it most probably doesn’t) but it’s a creation I’ve been hankering after for a while. I have an orange Shuker jazz with reverse headstock, maple neck with block inlays and I wondered if I could create its P bass versioned cousin. I acquired a Mex P body in Capri orange, had a Dimarzio split P pickup, had a black badass bridge, had the pots needed so just bought some hipshot lyte tuners, a black scratch plate and was about to buy an American jazz neck when I decided to challenge myself. Having seen various threads on the merits of Chinese necks, I took a real gamble on a maple neck with black block inlays (real ones) for £59. The challenge to me was “how good can I make a crappy neck”. It came with roller coaster frets but the board was straight and the truss worked both ways so, as expected, it was out with the tools. I levelled the frets, taking a lot off 7 and 9 but did get them level. I crowned and polished the frets and took the sharp ends off and 3 hours later fitted it. It wasn’t pre-drilled and the nut had split so I treated it to a graphtec nut I had too. So far I'm really pleased with the neck. The parts are what they are and exactly what I was expecting but the neck is actually pretty good - up there with the stable and comfortable necks I've played on much more expensive basses. It's not my Shuker for sure but it's not £1000 off it which is the price difference. Body £200, neck £59, pickups value £75, badass bridge £50, tuners £80, other bits £20. What I have is an orange P with a hot pickup and a jazz width neck with block inlays that looks pretty good and plays very nicely. I’m really surprised that the neck adjusted to flat and held normal gauge strings but it has turned out really well. Just wondered whether others had experimented with the virtues of Chinese necks with good or bad results. Anyway, orange (or maybe tangerine) bass No 2 pics attached..... Its big Shuker shaped brother is in the last pic. Not quite the same, perhaps a slightly sun faded anaemic version but it's along the same lines.....

Just ordered one of these.

Slightly off-topic, but I work at a hospital and have had people turn up to an appointment for their child... without the child. I also had one old dear turn up a year late for her appointment - the appointment card just had the day and month written on it, she found it by chance and thought it was recent.

Reasons I've owned multi-fx including Helix Stomp, Stomp XL, Effects, and various Zoom pedals: They seem cost-effective, sensible, convenient. Reasons I no longer own any multi-fx: Most of the best things in life don't tend to be cost-effective, sensible or convenient!

Ah I have so many of these, mostly with one band. Back in the 90's my band were doing our first headline show and, foolishly, the guitarist and I consumed a quantity of... let's say... stuff before doors opened. As we were getting ready to play our set, the guitarist came over to me, looking quite pale, and said "I can't feel my hands." He couldn't really feel his feet either, as it turned out, so had to do the gig helplessly wobbling atop a small bar stool, his hands fumbling for notes in the fog. Not a great look for a rock band, it must be said. I was physically fine but, instead, was experiencing intense paranoia and every gap between songs seemed to take an excruciatingly long time. As a result, I was giving the singer a hard time between songs, pleading with him to hurry up introducing the next song so we could finish and I could hide somewhere. Unknown to me, what had started as banter between him and some mates in the crowd, had turned nasty as the set progressed and there was huge tension between him and a lot of the audience. During one of the following songs, our singer simply walked off stage, went straight through the crowd, out the door and did not come back. When you've tried to figure out how to do the second half of your set without your singer while a rather hostile audience looks on, in the midst of a paranoid meltdown, it changes your perspective of what 'train wreck' really means 🙂

Been there, done it, changed my mind and went back to a board. Helix is great and I’ve had every model and for all it’s brilliance it just doesn’t quite get there for me. Buy a tuner and compressor mate and save the heartache 😂

So after a quite honestly disgraceful 2021 of buying and selling, followed by an equally disgraceful January 2022, I've arrived at this lot: Back Row L-R: 2015 Thunderbird/Guild Starfire 1/ Hohner B2A (not fully working). Front Row L-R: Stingray 5 Special (strung with rounds)/ Stingray 5 Special (flats)/ 1989 US Fender P Bass (flats)/ 4003S/ Fender American Pro II P Bass (rounds)/ G&L CLF L-2000/ Custom Fretless. My Ibanez EHB1505MS is not included as I've put it up for sale. I spent a really nerdy day yesterday, cleaning and setting up this lot. I must say it was rather fun I'd really like to think I'm done and ideally would like to lose a couple, although for the life of me I can't decide which ones. If anything, I've got a hankering for a lightweight G&L SB-1 but we'll see...

… and well! My Jaguar bass mute is installed now…!! How cool is this Limelight ala Sean Hurley tribute?! (Bar the pickup and jazz neck lol) And the full family together, have to say the best collection I’ve had…! Best, Ander.

Inspired by a comment in another thread where someone posted 'who would possibly turn up with a bass that bad to a session', to which I replied you would be surprised, I thought it might be fun to share some of those moments which turn into train wrecks, be it incompetent musicians, engineers, promoters, or self destructing equipment/ musicians, engineers, promoters, plus mishaps and misunderstandings. Unreliable musicians have always been a source of frustration and at times (in hindsight!) amusement. I was in a trio and we had managed to get the headline slot at a small local festival, about a thousand people and we were chuffed to be given to top slot. The pianist was a fantastic player but a bit flakey, so I made sure to pick him up early so he didn't get lost. He'd just bought a new keyboard and as we were getting ready a horrible thought struck me, had he bought a stand for the new keys (until that moment it hadn't occurred to me it was a possibility).... but apparently this had slipped his mind. With moments to go we hastily found two small boxes and he played the gig crossed legged on the stage floor. The audience thought we were a great duo but couldn't understand where the piano sounds were coming from!

Squier Contemporary Active Jazz bass, Sweetwater exclusive, no longer being made. Matching headstock and roasted maple! Comes with a hardshell case, too. Not sure if the strings are flatwounds, but I'll probably be putting on a set of GHS black tapewounds.

So my brand new and shiny Helix Floor (not LT) was meant to be my all-in-one do everything solution for vocals and bass. I was expecting to be able to plus my wireless into that and then have it straight into the PA and, as a result, have an easy life. Alas… 1. The tuner is crap. Therefore I still need to use my Polytune. 2. You CANNOT use the polyphonic drop-tune pedal unless you only want an amp, cab and compressor. It literally devours all the DSP. Ergo, I still need my Digitech Drop. 3. There is no fuzz model with a blend control, so I have to use my Big Muff in one of the loops and blend that way. 4. I’m far too lazy to make patches for each song so I still need to use my Sadowsky preamp pedal for level matching between my basses. So that’s 4 pedals plus a wireless on a mini board next to my “all-in-one” solution. I’m starting to think the honeymoon period is over.

Love that tone. Beauty

Thank you! Yeah, it adds a lot of swag to the bass I have to say - a very unplanned Sean Hurley tribute but having said that it feels natural and made sense. I am a fan of having vintage winks to my P basses, I love my purple metallic with the covers on! Best, Ander.

Same band as above but this took place a few months before that story. We had a decent support slot on a Saturday night with a quite popular local band at the time. When we went into the dressing before soundcheck, there was a guy in there who we didn't know but was quite chatty and seemed sound. He was damp, though. Damp, as in wet, from head to toe. He claimed he had been "in the Liffey" earlier. As I said, though, he seemed sound, so, no harm done and assumed he was meant to be there. At some point, our singer and the main band's roadie got chatting and, eventually, shared a spliff - something our singer had never tried up to that point. I went about my business for a while and returned to find the lads a bit stressed out. They had been getting along with the damp guy, who turned out to be a harmonica player, so he and our singer had a harmonica jam, which I'm glad I missed. The damp guy then said "Anybody messes with me and they get this!", took an iron bar out of his jacket and started whacking the dressing room wall. The lads had to get security and this guy was removed. This had spooked our singer immensely, which would have repercussions later on. We were stinking out the place, really going down badly with the biggest crowd we had played to up to that point. The singer from the main band used to dress up as a Vegas-esque character, which our singer was not aware of. The main band guy came on stage to try to get the crowd on our side a little. Our singer, quite stoned, seeing another weird looking character coming towards him, reaching for the mic, rammed his elbow into yer man's throat, screaming "You're mad!" and an onstage scuffle ensued. Security swiftly entered the scene and we wisely left the stage.

Loads of times - usually when playing in London with local bands......... "Hey man, can our bassist use your bass and amp and stuff maaaan, he's got to get 3 tubes and a night bus so can't bring any gear...good vibes, good vibes......" "sorry maaan, we have a 5 hr trip back so we're leaving immediately........"

I've reported all his ads as scams, and his profile too. Not that I'm expecting it to achieve much.

Sei Flamboyant 5 string. It was a stunning instrument -- I mean, just look at it -- but I couldn't get the setup right, so in a fit of pique I sold it. What a stupid, stupid move. Piezo bridge, Schack eq, Bart pickups (wasn't super-keen on them, but that's an easy fix), blue edge LEDs and a whole forest of stunning walnut. I should have given it to a luthier and got them to do it properly, hell I should have taken it home to Camden -- a decent setup and a set of Delanos and it would have been simply perfect. It was beautifully made, felt great to play (apart from my crap set-up job) and the sound was to die for. I often kick myself, very hard, for letting that one go. Arrrgh. Ouch (just kicked myself again).

I’ve been very tempted by these JMJ basses

TC Electronic Spectracomp.... one knob but has the benefit of toneprints, so behind the simplicity is a 3 band comp with lots of expertly tweaked presets to choose from. Oh, and it's cheap and has a small footprint.

That guy sells basses on the Facebook groups I think, seen a few MM copies. While they usually look very good for the money he has managed to make the Bongo even uglier with this one which is quite an achievement.

Rule 6: 6. Your Conduct. You also explicitly agree that you shall not: ( a ) provide any content or conduct yourself in any way that may be construed as; unlawful, illegal, threatening, harmful, abusive, etc In other words: play nicely. This is not open for negotiation.

Hopefully @Dan Dare you've had half a day to recover It's a reasonable enough term, not a scientific definition. It's a bit like calling something hi-fi or a car an SUV. How faithful does hi-fi have to be? Which sport and what utility? For decades most bass speakers and most instrument speakers were deliberately designed to colour the sound. By and large most PA speakers were designed to give a reasonably honest impression of what was fed in within the limits of price and the available technology. With the availability of computer modelling of amp and speaker sounds you don't want to start with a deliberately coloured sound from a speaker with a built in smiley faced eq. As we know if you mix colour with colour you usually end up with muddy brown. No hi-fi system is ever going to convince anyone that they are listening to live sound, at least not in the near future and few PA systems are likely to be as honest as a mid-range domestic hi-fi speaker. FRFR is a design philosophy and an aspiration, there will be good systems and better systems and ones that aren't worth the money but that is true of conventional coloured bass amps too. FRFR is just a shorthand for a flattish system we all understand. Not every vacuum cleaner is a Hoover. PS it isn't the plastic it's what you do with it

!987 Thumb 5 string, one of the first 5 strings I think, a thing of beauty.

Nice neat job, shame you got hijacked, glad you sorted your problem.

A little update on my BB605 with Delano pickups and preamp: It sounds good. Much better IMO than with the stock pickups. The stock pickups were a little bit mid-focused, I felt them a little bit more compressed. The Delanos have more range. Much better low-end. They sound really cool. However, I wanted my BB605 to be like a modern jazz. And it is. But it doesn't sound like a jazz. It is completely different. I love it, since it is also really comfortable and has an impressive 5. The preamp is really transparent and has a lot of options. It is a much better bass now.

I'd like it if someone did Abba Abba Hey in some form:

Not the prettiest, but it works a treat!

Well... I've had a lot of gear dramas. If you see my posts here you can tell I'm a usual criminal of sales trades and whatnot. I picked up a guitar recently after letting go of one of my (admittedly redundant) Limelight P basses (jazz necks, nordy pickups)... And guys even if I was a guitarist in a past life, for the last 3 years all I've enjoyed is bass. Got a fender US special tele guitar last week with hopes to record demos or gel back in and gosh I just do not enjoy it anymore. It feels closer to doing the dishes than making music. I find ideas for bass whilst playing guitar and switch in a moment to my preferred instrument... ... With that in mind I did some reflection and thought 'what is the bass that is different to your Limelights that you'd still use?' - I hate having stuff I don't use in the house, and well the options for buying new are slimmer considering how the prices are lately, and I've gone through gear worth 2.3/3k£ and can admittedly say that for my budget and the price/quality, the 1k£ish range is what I prefer most... I've also gone through 19 basses since I started playing in October 2018 - yep you've read that right - mind you some where returns the next day or week or just passing by as part exchange etc.... but I've learned enough about basses to know what I like. Comfy neck, passive, fender types... ... So I decided to round it up to 20 basses and will want to retire for a while (admins, can I be banned from marketplace?.... Seriously.... can I be banned from there?). I saw a good JMJ for £800 and went for it - I'll be selling the guitar and back to three basses - the short scale is handy for when I'm on my mates' little Ford Fiesta for gigs so that I don't have to keep my bass in my lap in the rear seats for 2hrs. A short scale should fit nicely in the boot, as it's just a bit longer than a regular tele - Probs not bigger than a baritone guitar. The pros: * Finish on nitro, tasty relic * 'Grown up bass' sound - it feels like a real thing! Very nice sound, proper passive P vibes but with a sweeter top end I'd say (probs the scale/strings) * I don't like big necks and this is a P profile, but being short scale means it doesn't dig into my fingers like a regular P/Stingray does. * Light at 3.5kg which is a big plus... I'm used to 3.7/3.8kg tops these days.. * Flat wounds make a lot of sense on a bass this type, does pick very well which is grand The cons: * Why on Earth did Fender use LONG SCALE strings on this bass? the actual strings on E and A roll around the tuning peg * Why on Earth again does it come with a LONG SCALE gig back? These cons are honestly a joke - easy to fix which is good, but man.... seriously 🤣 I get it's probably money saving but it's very cheap of a bass that retails over 1k£ I'll be putting appropriate labella flats (760F-MUS) soon and may get an appropriate gigbag I will post picutres if someone points me in the right direction - the last months I've not been able too as all my pictures exceed the 3.5kb limit it says? (of course it does, who has 3.5kb pics?) I'm really hoping that with this journey having gone from actives to passives, from 5ers to 4 stringers, headless basses, modern, classics, cheap and pricey..... I'm genuinely hoping I can retire or go on a long hiatus of not buying more stuff - I've put a lot of thought into all my rig to continue going down this way ugh! Best, Ander.

This is the one for me. Early 2000s Musicman Sterling. I imported it from the USA in 2007. Sold it when I needed funds for a house move in 2018. Really would love to have it back; if anyone knows where it currently is, I’d love to hear.

in which case you over-paid by about £25.00

So I can replace a bass because it's defective - it has one too few strings?

When she finds out - give me first refusal please! (On the bass, I've already got 1 wife and mother in law)

We drove halfway across the country for a fairly standard club gig. We opened the back doors of the van and the BL’s cat shot out and promptly disappeared into the nearby industrial estate. The BL swore his missus would have his nuts if he lost the cat, so we promptly set out in pursuit… took over an hour to find the moggie. We were really late setting up that night… great gig, though.

Our roadie forgot to pick up the singer on one gig. He arrived at the gig with the PA and no front man. We were bass, drums and guitar, and had to scrape a couple of set lists together in 20 mins. We all sang a couple of songs (even me) and played a few instrumentals, then we asked if anyone in the audience would like to do a number. A guy in a suit got up and sang some rock and roll in the style of Johnny Rotten on speed. This was 5 years before JR. We also had a guy who was transitioning into a woman! He got up and did a strip to us playing Green Onions. He got everything out, meat and two veg and a pair of boobs!! We made it through the night and even got an encore! I wish someone had recorded it.

Every time I look at a Helix, I end up wondering if it'll be enough, and I should get the next model up instead. Then when I get to the top model, I wonder if I should consider a Neural DSP Quad Cortext instead. Then I look at the price and go back to considering the Helix Stomp again. Then repeat.

The new Zoom B6 has both XLR out and fx loop. Probably won't address your "sounds" point though, if the existing range was not to your liking, despite having a higher 88.2kHz sample rate.

I feel a GAS build-up starting myself.

Yup. Second hand one knob Spectracomp (there's a couple in the FS) plus a tuner shouldn't come to anything like the price of a Helix Stomp. Job done.

If you quoted all of what I said, rather than just one line, you wouldn't have had a point. Will a high level session player use what is right for the gig? Obviously. Will they be using an inexpensive bass because 'the audience can't tell the difference'? No. When a session costing thousands of dollars is at stake, they are going to use quality instruments.

It’s where they keep the abstainers.

Better tell them he's been seen near a statue with a hammer.