Lozz196

The Little Mark Tube has drive on it but to be honest it’s so little you probably wouldn’t notice it as drive. It adds a “shimmer” and “life” to the sound that once it’s switched off the sound seems flat & lifeless, but proper drive it isn’t. It is great tho.

I’d have said Kermit Vomit

Yeah I’ve got a couple of their albums and think they’re a good band, the hate thing may well come from how popular How You Remind Me was, it was everywhere when it came out.

@BigRedXi remember the Comsat Angels, great band, should have been much bigger. Also think I saw them on that U2 tour as well.

Those five string basses, just new fangled fancy malarkey, never catch on

I really should get The Joshua Tree. I saw U2 a few times when I was younger but not since about ‘82. Dunno why, I like them, tho Bonio can stick to singing and leave the preaching imo.

I know full well that a Mexican Fender Precision would be more than enough for my needs. I prefer the US ones but in terms of what I need a Mex Precision is plenty suitable.

Just shows, sometimes doing the simple stuff isn’t quite as simple as would initially have been thought.

I found, having to learn much more complicated material than I’m used to for my current band, that both playing much softer than I usually do, and the age old “repeat the difficult passage on its own many times” really helped. Specifically re octaves, I use index finger for the low, little finger for the high, means much less movement over the neck.

I suspect that setting up like that adds depth to the sound but without being really noticeable as an effect. Whatever anyone thinks of Adam Clayton or U2 they’re not likely to do anything that has a negative impact on the sound.

From what I’ve read the first time he used an Ashdown his words were “now that’s proper bass amplification”. Couldn’t have put it better myself.

Passive Precisions, volume & tone on full. If I’m tinkering around at home playing to something requiring a softer tone I’ll back off to about 80%.

Very envious, I didn’t know they were touring at the moment, I’ll check this out

I def agree with those sentiments, I’m sure there are very few who see a bassist using one fretboard material and think “I wish they were using the other type”. My realisation is more to the actual playing experience, similar to (although I’m not in the same league of course) Eric Clapton as mentioned above by @Ricky RioliI just enjoy the feel of a maple neck when playing more.

I do think that the pricing is on the right slope, from Squier to Fender US, but I think there’s too much of a gap between them, I’d price them: Squier Affinity - as they are, £225ish Squier CV - as they are, £400ish Mex Fender - £650ish US Fender - £1000ish And then aside from artist sig models remove a lot of the “in between” ones. Keep it a bit more simple. But then that’s not the way to make mega bucks.

I think reading that this exactly it Steve, the hardness of the maple board just seems to be more favourable to my playing style.

So recently I decided to make a return to my rosewood roots, and have bought a few really nice Precisions (US2015, Mex2014, Squier Affinity) to fill this void. But last night at rehearsal I just found that I was "missing" my maple fret-board. I suppose it`s because for years I`ve only played maple fret-boards and I`ve just got so used to them, but I think it will have to be the maples for me from now on. Although I like the rosewood boards I just feel more at home on maple. So as usual a few basses will be moved on (all black/white/rosewood in case any eagle-eyed spotters decide this is what they`re after). It`s good fun buying new basses & trying things out but I think I`ve finally reached a point where I know exactly what the right gear is for me and maybe I should just acknowledge that and try and only buy new strings from now on (when the old ones die of course).

Must admit this thread reminds me of that old joke that ends: Tribal Elder - Bad when drums stop Explorer - Why’s that? Tribal Elder - Bass solo!