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Showing content with the highest reputation on 20/11/25 in Posts
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So after two hours of playing with backing tracks this morning it is a keeper. For the first time in ages I actually had goose bumps and the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. The sound is so amp like through my iem and standard headphones it was a revolutionary. I went back to just using my AEA active DI and small eq changes on the mixer and the sound collapsed. Yes it became more bass heavy and brighter but I was lost in the mix. On its own the Fifteen sounds a little dull and very mid forward. But in a mix it stands out and really feels like you are playing through an amp. I've finally found a preamp / Di that I can use on every occasion.11 points
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Selling a classic 1991 Warwick Streamer Stage II. Bought this about six months ago from the original owner. It’s in fantastic condition. Looks as good a new really. Some light tarnishing to the gold hardware but that’s about it. It had been sat in storage for quite some time before I bought it so it needed a bit of attention. I had the battery connector replaced and it’s had a full setup and light fretstone since I got hold of it and it’s feeling lovely to play. It’s a lovely instrument and I’ve really enjoyed playing it over the last few months but it doesn’t really fit in with the kind of work I do so it’s not going to get played enough to justify keeping it. Plus I’ve just bought another bass and frankly I need to replenish the gear funds! The bass doesn’t have a case unfortunately so it’s collection only from Peckham SE15. You’re welcome to come and try it out and have a cup of tea, no pressure! My feedback thread on here:9 points -
Selling my CV Mustang bought off @Loz back in the summer. I really wanted a short scale mustang as I love the look and the tone, but despite giving it a fair go my sausage fingers are proving too much for the narrower string spacing and shorter scale. It's in excellent condition, not a nick or dent on it apart from a small scuff to the top of the headstock and some very low level tarnishing on the bridge/tuners. I've fitted a new set of Labella Mustang Flats before deciding if it stays or goes and these are pretty much brand new. Looking for £285 - happy to meet up within reasonable distance or can post if buyer sorts a courier (I have a dedicated shipping box from Andertons I can use to send and it’ll be well packed) Thanks, J7 points -
For sale is my outstandingly good Lakland Skyline 55-AJ 35” scale Active Jazz Bass. This is one of the best playing & best sounding basses I’ve ever had, I’ve had numerous comments on how good it sounds, particularly since the pickup & preamp mods,’which has turned it into an incredibly versatile bass giving you the option of everything from thumpy, tone down passive P-bass to Marcus Miller slap, to rear pickup focused funk and anything inbetween. Condition-wise the bass is in good condition - it’s been gigged and isn’t a dog by any stretch but it isn’t a brand new bass - it’s a working bassists bass, supremely high quality and it will not let you down. The only thing that I have to mention is it did get a knock underneath next to the back strap button - this caused a couple of cracks in the lacquer that went around from the stacked knob to the rear control panel. It was taken to a luthier for professional repair and it was fixed & the lacquer was redone, you can see the mark if you look, and if you tilt it in the light you can see where the lacquer was cracked, but it has been repaired and it is smooth to touch. There’s no structural damage and you only notice it if you look for it, however I have to mention it as it’s there and I have factored it into the price SPECS: It has a swamp ash body with a beautiful figured maple top, 22 fret rosewood fretboard & a 35” quarter sawn maple neck with a reinforced head and 2 graphite reinforcement bars. It has the option to string through the body or through the Lakland custom bridge, and 5 hipshot tuners in a 3+2 layout. This bass has one of the best B strings I’ve ever played, only bro g beaten by my Dingwall, but you can get the same clarity on the B string all the way up the neck. MODS: Preamp: The original preamp on these is the cheap Bartolini-licensed MK1 that is also in the 55-01. It had no Passive mode and sounded pretty rubbish. The preamp was replaced with a Nordstrand 2 Band preamp (2B-4C) with Tone control & push/pull for active/passive mode, so the layout is now: Volume/Blend/Tone/Stacked Bass & Treble. Tone control works in both active and passive mode, and if you open the rear cavity there is gain trim pot, where you can have the preamp so it is exactly the same volume in passive as it is when active and totally flat, or it can be turned up by up to 15db. Bass is +\- 12db @ 50hz and the Treble is +\- 12db @ 4khz - I t’s a very musical preamp, not one of those where if you boost it more than 30% it sounds horrendous Pickups: The original Lakland single coil pickups that were in the bass were pretty good, however I don’t play a jazz bass at centre detent very often and find single coil him annoying, and I thought I may as well do it whilst I got the preamp done, so after a lot of researching decided to go with the Anaconda AC5-TN stacked coil pickups, and they sound really great. Loads of clarity and a fat low end - if you give Anaconda basses a look on YouTube it gives you an idea, but they do old school/vintage just as well as modern if you EQ it for that - and they look ace with the big pole pieces too 😁 I am including a nice padded Ritter gig bag with the Bass, and I can post within the UK for £20 with DPD (I have a Bass Direct box & packaging from the last bass I bought from them & it will be extremely well packaged). I am selling as I have seen something I want, so I am putting it up for a very good price with a view to a quick sale, however I’ll likely pull it and keep it if what I want to get is sold Reduced Now £750! (inc Gigbag +£20 for UK shipping)6 points -
Too many windings, 3 is enough.6 points
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Thankyou. I retired from the city late August and started part time at guitar tech as the bass tech. Quite a career change at 63! Joe the owner is passionate about running a shop that he wanted music shops to be like. It a rare thing. We try really hard to make it a place worth coming back to..6 points
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So, its finished, and it works. After a long WhatsApp with the estimable Andyjr1515 I decided to at least postpone my original plan of shaving down the heel and do what Andy was suggesting, file down the frets where the strings are bottoming out. He reasoned that in filing down the frets, I'd not be doing anything as drastic as removing material from the heel of the neck, plus of course its easily reversible. After messing about with the bass a bit I decided that every fret from 21-24 would have to be lowered, so I pretty much ground them down as far as I could. Its wasn't too bad a job only being the top few frets. Anyhow, I put the bass back together and its all pretty good. There are two buzzes on the neck now, but I that's more to do with my shoddy refret than anything else. It plays pretty nicely although the neck is a bit of a cricket bat- and thats after me slimming it down. I decided to simply ignore the slope on the neck where it stands a couple of mil proud of the body just in front of the pickup. You have to look closely to see it and even when you do it looks like it could just be a raised centre block á la a Gibson T bird. I'm delighted that this lovely and interesting old bass has been saved from the scrapheap. It will now sit in the corner of my living room as my noodling instrument. Thanks everyone for the comments, advice and encouragement. Special thanks to Andy for the idea. Top quality basschatting! A picture of the finished article below.5 points
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It arrived today. It’s the lightest bass I’ve ever played, it's like a toy. It’s got the same Gotoh Resolite tuners as Gary's CST that I played recently and it’s got no neck dive. It's really well-balanced, which I wasn't expecting at all. On the lap, it stays put and on a strap with a shiny textured internal surface it sits well, so that's all good. Neck carve is standard Euro LX shape. The finish is ultra thin matt, it feels like my oiled Euro5LX to the touch. I know a couple of folk have found this finish to be a bit fragile, so we'll see. This will be gigged. I've been playing it through the HX Stomp with GK800/Ampeg810 rig settings with the DarkGlass Legacy pre-amp dimed and it's exactly what you'd expect. My ebony board peacock one is just 22 lower on the serial numbers indicating that the two were made during the same short period. Another comparison is that the RST resonates differently acoustically to the gloss finished ebony board one and they've both got new EXL170s on. I'm not going into tonewoods and all that wizardry, I'll just bring a few along to the next Bash and let people see/hear for themselves 😉 The build quality of it is as we've come to expect from the Czech factory, it's absolute top notch all round.4 points
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Lovely look! We have our own Limited Run of Euro Spector's being finalised as we speak4 points
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Here is my Squier jazz in classic sunburst and tort. It started life as fretted, but got a Fender pau ferro fretless neck during covid lockdown. It has a lighter set of tuning machines fitted, though I forget what brand (they were in my guitar tech's spares bin). The neck pickup failed recently so I had DiMarzio relentless J bass pickups fitted and better quality pots & jack. It's my only bass guitar, so I've spent a bit getting it exactly how I want. I play a fair bit of double bass so my bass guitar is setup in that sort of style - including XL chrome flatwounds.4 points
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This is an interesting insight - I feel quite similar about the Bassrig Super Vintage. I've struggled with dialling in sounds I really like at home, but in a band context it's totally exceeded expectations, to the point where we only used the Bassrig DI from a recent recording session, despite having some pretty decent additional options to blend in from a cab mic and Radial JDI.4 points
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I'm not a man with violent tendencies, but there is something about that ghastly phrase that makes me grateful that my wife has hidden all the sharp objects in our house.4 points
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Due to arrive tomorrow and continuing a trend for Japan Exclusives (my third), here it is. I've had an eye on it for months. It's one of 5 made in that spec. EX = Exotic, LTD = Limited, NAM (Spector Colour Code) = Natural Maple. Nothing to do with NAMM but one of the 5 of these was at NAMM last year to show dealers what is possible with special orders. It's a 3-piece roasted maple neck with a 4A North American flame maple top, walnut sandwich layer, empresswood wing-backs and the headstock matches the top but seems to be gloss vs the matt finish of the body. The wood build is as per the standard RST but in a limited edition finish. It has EMG P (reverse) + J pickups with ivory coloured covers and the DG Legacy Tone Capsule where the standard RSTs have Aguilar humbuckers and an Aguilar preamp. There's an LHZ-04 preamp on standby ready but after playing Gary's CST the other day, I think I'm going to leave the DG in there for a while.3 points
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After years of never giving up on the Roses getting back together, I'm so grateful he had this moment. The first time they took to the stage again, unified. A free gig they threw at Warrington Parr Hall. Gives me goosebumps every time.3 points
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MY 1987 CHERRY-RED JAYDEE MARK KING SERIES 2 I purchased this bass from the U.K. off of eBay 20 years ago. It had a major issue on the fingerboard as there was a high spot at the fourth fret making everything below those frets unplayable. I had a trusted guitar luthier friend of mine pull out all the frets, re-plane the fretboard level again, and then re-fret the bass. Problem solved. I also purchased new parts from John Diggins including all-new gold hardware and a pair of his hand-made humbucker pickups. After all that, the bass was almost excellent. The biggest problem is that since it has the tradition control-cavity sized circuit board, you have to remove the entire circuit board to access the pots just to clean them. (If I were Jaydee, I would have redesigned this particular circuit board so that it incorporated drilled access holes through the circuit board that lined up over the back of the pots to get a long spray nozzle tube so that you can spray contact cleaner without having to remove the entire board..........just a thought.)3 points
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Literally just saw this. Gutted. Probably the most quietly influential British bass player of the last 40 years. There is no bass player in the UK of a certain age who didn't implicitly know the bass parts to Fool's Gold, She Bangs The Drums or Waterfall, or that bass break from I Am The Resurrection.3 points
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You're worrying too much - there's only a problem with break angle over the nut when there isn't enough of it.3 points
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With 48 different Grade 3 pieces to choose from, and a World Of Books account, I have found a few pieces that are both part of the syllabus, and great fun too. In other news, my neighbour's daughter is one Grade ahead of me, and has the same piano teacher. Dad handed me her now-redundant Grade 3 books. So, I have 12 pieces from the syllabus to try. I will nevertheless be working on other things, such as some pieces by Bach. As for scales, I will give them a miss for now. However, if I carry on at the current rate, I will be taking Grade 5 piano by March 2027, so should l want to aim for the Theory exams soon?3 points
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Moving on from this morning I've used the 1/4 inch amp out straight into my Ashdown ABM / 4x10 with no EQ, valve drive or sub harmonics turned on. With the settings shown below it sounds almost the same as the Di out going into the PA. This feature is great as I can duplicate the Di sound into any back line amp.3 points
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More than a few DIY experimenters have turned that hobby into a lucrative profession. Included in that list: James Lansing, Paul Klipsch, Edgar Villchur, Henry Kloss, Conrad Sundholm, Thomas Danley and Alex Claber, and if I may, myself. All of got into speaker design because they were dissatisfied with what was available commercially and thought they could come up with something better. Audio design in general, and speaker design in particular, has always been advanced by the work of amateurs, unimpeded by corporate politics. Villchur's example is perhaps the best. He had a Masters degree in Art History. He got into audio as a radio repairman while in the Army in WWII. That piqued his interest in audio, which he followed up on after the war. When he came up with the idea for the acoustic suspension speaker he shopped it to all the major players. They all said the same thing, that if his idea had any merit that their own engineers would have already done it. That was circa 1950. Undaunted, Villchur built a prototype of his new speaker out of a plywood box. The dimensions of the face of the box were taken from a picture frame that he had hanging in his house. His wife, Rosemary sewed the pattern for the flexible surround out of mattress ticking. After proving his concept to himself, if not others, he and his student, Henry Kloss, proceeded to create their own company, Acoustic Research, in 1954. In 1966 AR’s loudspeaker sales represented almost one-third of the entire market. Not bad for a couple of tinkerers.3 points
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The value of any instrument will always depend on how much potential buyers are willing to pay, as well as the usual things - make, condition, etc. Unless your local-ish music shop specialises in double basses, they are probably not the best place to go for a valuation or to sell it. In your shoes, I would Google something like "double bass dealers uk" and contact a few of the names that come up. Ignore any shops that sell electric instruments. I just tried it and places like Bass Direct and the Bass Centre, which sell mainly or exclusively electrics, appeared, but there were also some double bass specialists. Speak with a few and get a feel for what they think they can get for the instrument. All will charge commission - they have to set up an instrument, put right any issues before sale and offer some kind of guarantee - which will not be pennies. Fair enough, given that they have to make a living. If you have a quality instrument, you are still likely to realise more by selling it through a specialist and paying commission than you would by doing so privately. You could also contact a few auction houses that specialise in musical instrument sales. Avoid local outfits - the sort of places you see on programmes like Bargain Hunt - that auction mainly bric-a-brac and house clearance stuff. Google "stringed instrument auctions uk" and you'll find some.3 points
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Some of those points occurred to me. I thought of how LFSYS came to be... they meet the requirements of a passive PA. Most people who make cabs do it out of curiosity and creativity, not to save money or even to achieve exceptional results. It's an extension to their hobby.3 points
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Last night Fractured Persona took a four song slot at a jam night. Squeezed in a tiny space. Lots of love for my Westone Thunder 1. Went very well and a big confidence boost for our less experienced members. A few fluffs, notably thinking we were at the end too soon, but...3 points
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I wonder how much trouble you could cause by taking your professional looking image and sticking on the other bass forum and Facebook groups with "have you seen this - so looking forward to it" type comments ....3 points
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I don't think you'd call it virtuoso playing, but I've always really liked Gabe Nelson's stuff on Cake's 1998 album Fashion Nugget. The band's arrangements are deliberately sparse and clean, and Nelson's bass always sits alongside the interlocking guitar and horn parts, rather than just being a rumbling noise underneath them. "Let Me Go" is a particularly good example, with a wonderfully bouncy, gappy bass line and the two very distinct guitar parts.3 points
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A great Christmas present…..to yourself! In good condition. Price includes InPost locker postage.2 points -
☝️ Press each string down on either side of the nut as well, so that it doesn't curve like a banana over the top. Reduces your chance of weird chorus-y noises. Same thing at the saddles too.2 points
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Just thought I'd mention a guitar/bass shop I came across recently in Maidstone (postcode ME15 8QF). Its called The Guitar Tech and has an interesting selection of new and used basses (plus many more guitars) as well as amps and accessories. I bought a really nice 1990 MIJ Fender Jazz from there recently for a very reasonable price. I think the shop has sufficient stock turnover to make it worthwhile checking in from time to time. The main bass salesperson/technician there is Graham (BaggyMan on this very web site) who also continues to independently buy, upgrade and sell on his own account on Basschat. I can attest to his bass tech skils (setups and electrics) and am very pleased there is a physical shop/luthiery/guitar tech facility nearish where I live to visit for advice and help. God knows they're getting increasingly rare. I'd thoroughly recommend anyone in Kent, East Sussex, SE London, maybe even Essex, to check out The Guitar Tech if they're in that neck of the woods. We need to use these places or lose them!2 points
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Off the bat, the VT’s speaker emulation is that of the 8x10. A lot of the B15 character is from the ported, baffled 15” cab so I expect there’ll be quite a noticeable difference there. If you can turn the speaker emulation off and run through an external IR, that’ll likely get closer.2 points
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What you should try my friend, is one of these. I find that set to these approximate dial-settings, it gives a not far-off Double Bass sound. Good luck and hope this helps.2 points
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Mani on bass…2 points
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With a hammer 🤣2 points -
Never got that phrase as I never knew what it was I was supposed to know2 points
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Same for me with both Bassrigs. At home I find I need to work harder to find "the sound", but in the studio or live, with more tracks or a real environment with musicians and other frequencies in the mix, these pedals really come to life.2 points
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VM pictured in the live room after a session.. The Affinity still sees plenty of use - here, it was used to test the Ashdown cab.. Squier VM, Ampeg SVT and SWR cabs - it all sounds wonderful..2 points
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Ooooo love that when it's screwed down that tight2 points
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Hi, Yes I was thinking I could supply the pickguard to be printed to guarantee the fit. I was playing in AI last night : Ricky x LV or Ricky X Joy Division - it was just an experiment as presumably this would be a trademark infringement but was a cool start to get the creative juices flowing. The JD didn't come out properly but this would be cool with the big waves under the strings if smaller waves covered the whole pickguard ( IMHO 😆)2 points
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The arrived yesterday and I got them installed on a Sandberg TT4 I usually have TI Flats or D'addario 40-100 rounds on this bass. The La Bella's have much higher tension that either of those. Possibly a bit much for me - I'll have to play more and see. I've done a set up and adjusted the action and so on but it's still a lot more effort for the left hand than my usual choices. I think they feel smoother than the D'addario nickels. Left hand finger noise is a little lower, but interestingly the finger noise is at a very different pitch - much lower - so it doesn't stand out as much anyway. Doesn't feel like a flat to me. When played finger style they sound deep and clear. My Sandberg TT4 is quite a bright / articulate bass with rounds and these tame the top just a little but without losing clarity. When swapping to slap they sound much brighter. So far I like the tone, I like the general feel, but I do wonder if the stiffness will annoy me. They are not La Bella DTF stiff or anything, just more than I usually like. The 103 E string is perfect, but the ADG could do with being a lighter gauge for me. 40-58-78-103 would be about perfect for me as a guess. I have some recording to do in Eflat and D tunings so that will no doubt be easier, and if they survive getting wrapped on a large tuning head post then they might be just right on a shortie until La Bella get round to offering them for 30 scale. There was a little stickiness out of the packet but after a rub down with Fast Fret to clean them that went away in about 10 mins.2 points
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Played a (PJ) Fender Mustang at a jam last Saturday (strictly the early hours of Sunday...) Flats, lots of foam at the bridge, but it played fine. The strap was very short so I felt like Mark King...2 points
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This is true of all electronic and musical instruments too. It is the joy of making, t(at is satisfying not financial savings.2 points
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yellow brick road is superb bass playing throughout and such a great tone ...2 points
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after Kramker closed and Staurt started up SSD making a Spector bass again, he wasn't yet allowed to call it the NS2 name because Kramer still owned the names and logos for several more years. So Stuart called the traditional PJ bass the NS4. Around very late 98 or early 99, he got all of his name rights and trademarks back.2 points
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As one who does both commercial and DIY designs I have to disagree. One major advantage to DIY is being able to build designs that are labor intensive without concern for the cost of the labor. There's a reason why high end outfits like Danley Sound Labs get top dollar/quid for their products, and it's not just the cost of the components, it's also the cost of the labor to build them. A DIY build of a sophisticated design can easily match the performance of a high end speaker costing $5k at a fifth that price or less. Where commercial has the advantage of economy of scale is in the low to midrange price range, but even there DIY can still be the better route. You can buy a simple ported or vented box or you can build one for the same price but loaded with premium drivers, whereas buying a commercial one with premium drivers would raise the cost considerably. Now that's not to say that all DIY designs are gems by any means, I see cringe worthy junk all the time. But to be fair I see plenty of cringe worthy commercial junk too. Maybe not in the $5k range but certainly in the $500 range. And lest I forget...well, I did actually...DIY doesn't have expenses for marketing and distribution, office staff, accountants, lawyers, offices and factories, the guys on the loading dock...it's a long list that all contribute to the price you pay.2 points
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And reported2 points
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I sent a new FX block proposal to Ivan from Darkglass proposing a synth fx block idea. It's basically the same blueprint of Entropia but synth engine where you can play around with LFO, Filters, Dirt, Sine waves to achieve classic synth tones. Just like how Entropia has different templates, same with Synthropia where you can achieve song ready synth tones like what you hear on Stevie's boogie on reggae woman, PYT, 24k Magic , moog related sounds and then tweak parameters to further improve your desired tone. The icon I made is just a quick render during my break at work. I just matched the same design elements in the Anagram's fx block icons. I really hope they have something synth related lined up in the future.2 points
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My collection doesn't fit in the studio anymore so thinning out the herd. Up for sale my Yamaha TRB6P (1st generation). Great classic bass guitar from Yamaha's hey days in the late 80s early 90s as famously used by Nathan East. 6 string neck through design 5 piece neck, ebony fingerboard maple body which looks as it might have been previously refinished in white. Alnico humcancelling coils Piezo 34'' scale (I believe technically it's 33 7/8). No trades please. Some cosmetic wear as expected for a 35 year old instrument but well taken care of and otherwise working well and playing great - currently setup with a low action with no fret buzz. Happy to meet in London or Spain (Madrid/Valencia). 1ºBass This is my feedback link - have sold many high priced items in here2 points -
That and Dance the Night Away are my idea of hell.2 points
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Some great bass playing by Dee Murray on a live Elton John album called 17-11-70. It was recorded when they were just a trio (Elton, drums and bass) in America really early on, so no big Elton hits yet, but some really fiery, tight interaction of the three instruments with plenty of room to explore.2 points
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Think I've made the same mistake as the O/P...........2 points
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