bassbiscuits

See you shortly!

I used one today at a gig for the very first time. It was great. Rock/pop covers gig, It belongs to a mate who'd agreed to lend it to me to buy if I wanted it. Strung with TI flats, nicely set up, it was the mutts nuts. Needless to say he's not having it back...!

[quote name='TimR' timestamp='1462025858' post='3039725'] You should come to one of our rehearsals. [/quote] Ha ha my mate's wife once stabbed his Musicman bass with a kitchen knife repeatedly during a domestic once. So maybe he's got a point!

Any damage to an instrument must always be referred to as 'battle scars' and an instrument is often described as a good one to have 'in your arsenal ' despite my belief that few basses ever actually take part in wars. Unless of course the damage is genuinely caused by shrapnel, in which case I apologise.

I don't want to sell any of my current ones, cos it's taken me till now to get them finally. But my oldest bass companion is my 1970 Precision, which I bought 22 years ago when I was a student. Since then it's been stolen along with my car, and recovered three days later in circumstances wouldn't believe if I did explain them. I kept it all the time I was a student, then unemployed, then skint for a few years until I got decent work and paid off my debts. Been thru a lot of my life together, and it's still going strong, and still sounding good, so hopefully I'll hang onto it for a few more years at least.

I had a California TT4 with Haussel p/ups for about six months, and I'd echo some of the comments above. Not better than USA Fenders, just different. Loved the feel and radius of the neck, the overall build quality, the light weight, the tasteful relicing, and it looked cool, with a immaculate fretwork and a great set up straight from the factory. Very impressed indeed, which is why i bought it. But ultimately after gigging it for a while I realised the sound to be too hi-fi for me, and dare i say it, 'polite'. I traded it in for a Fender Jazz, which was more my thing. Ok so it's a heavier bass, the action isn't as low, but I prefer the Fender sound. A TT4 and a jazz bass look similar, but they're quite different sounding instruments IMHO. Both lovely in their own ways tho

I've got a Bernie Marsden PRS SE guitar, not because of him but because of all the budget models I tried, it had the spec I liked most. I like any signature guitars to be quite subtle tastefully different versions rather than OTT models that you'd only ever expect the player in question to be seen with. So the Jack Casady bass I like; the Steve Harris West Ham bass less so...

Mine was a terrible Satellite short scale bass from a long gone cool little store called Picton Music in Swansea back in 1986. The bass was terrible - thin plywood body, and neck which promptly warped to give sky high action etc. I sold it as soon as I'd finished paying it off on HP and got a Westone Spectrum instead. The Satellite turned up in a secondhand shop about 10 years later. But the guy insisted it was brand new and wanted £120 for it (twice what I paid in the first place!). Yeah good luck with that mate.... I don't miss it. I didn't even like it at the time.

Just got back in from gigging with my main band - a 70s to present day rock covers band. Proper seat of pants crowded pub gig - band members haven't seen each other at all for over a month for various reasons, and we all play with other bands, so there was a fair bit of trying desperately to remember what the hell the song goes like! You can be too well prepared I find. Kept us on our toes. Somehow I pulled out from nowhere some weird combination of calypso and scorching slap bass solo in the "say hello to the band" section at the end. Ready for a cuppa and bed now tho.

My 1995 USA P bass has done about 90% of my gigs over the last 10 years or so. I love it. It just plays and sounds exactly right for me, with great intonation, no buzzing etc, tho I've never liked the colour (sort of dark sunburst).

Yeah your Rumble combo was great last year Norris. Sounded awesome!

[quote name='Si600' timestamp='1460058061' post='3022281'] We've exceeded the amp rig number for the event by 2, can we nicely sort out amongst ourselves which amps are coming? I know some are being brought along on request from other attendees and I'm bringing mine as a house rig for all to try. [/quote] I'm happy to limit myself to a small amp if it helps - I've recently got a Blackstar ID Core BEAM which is suitable for bass and electric guitar, so that might be a good bit of new kit to bring and for people to try out anyway.

Late entry I know, but I did an ace gig last Friday night at the Donkey in Leicester, with a band called the Kirkland Turn, supporting a chap called Howard Rose, who was on the Voice a few years back in Tom Jones team ( I don't watch it, so feel free to correct me). It was great - really busy, and the first time we've played as the full four piece with all the harmony vocals etc sounding great. Went down well. Howard's band was also brilliant - really bloody loud rock/Americana stuff, and a nice bunch of lads. Had a quick chat with his bassist who had a mad pedal called a Zvex Mastotron fuzz pedal, which just sounded insane. I think it gave my band ideas... Top night out.

Just a quick update to say that a few weeks into owning this, it's rapidly become the most useful and versatile piece of kit I've got. I've been practising different stuff for guitar and bass and I haven't needed to go near any other amps at all - the sounds in this little beauty are spectacular, and the sound from the two speakers is large and wide. The two standard bass sounds are great too - one more vintage and one more modern, but both full throated and satisfying. The whole thing is smaller than a shoe box and sits perfectly on my sideboard at home, and looks really cool and neat too. A very pleasing, versatile bit of kit I can't recommend highly enough. I'll be bringing it to the Midlands Bass Bash on May 7 if anyone wants to try it out.

I stopped playing entirely for about three years from 2002-2005 after a particularly acrimonious split with an original band that I'd put a lot of time, effort and hopes into. But I kept one bass - my old precision - and I'm glad I did. When is finished licking my wounds and things picked up a few years later with a new band I was glad I had an old companion instrument along for the ride. Guitar isn't sacrilege tho! More fun to noodle on than bass for sure!

Got a Hiscox hard case from Owen - good comms, item exactly as described. Happy to deal with him again.

[quote name='Moos3h' timestamp='1459792476' post='3019700'] Hi all, Post a depressing visit to Bass Direct, I was spending the 1hr 30 in the car on the way back wondering...if you could ONLY have a bass that played like heaven OR sounded like it, which would you choose? I think it's playability for me, I mean, even the worst of basses sounds roughly like a bass, right? As long as it plays well, I could see me coping with it but so many basses that I tried today sounded INCREDIBLE but played in a way I disliked. It's all personal preference, so I don't expect us to be able to define what's good tone and bad tone and/or what defines 'plays well' (the forum would implode if we all agreed) but I'm curious to know. Cheers, James [/quote] why was the visit depressing btw?

Tone definitely. I've had super playable basses in the past, but their tonal shortcomings did my head in. I'd make the effort to coax stuff out of a harder to play bass if the sound it produced was worth the effort. If the sound isn't making you want to play, its never going to bring out the best in your playing, in my opinion.

I can cope with thick or thin really, but I think a big thick handful of a neck actually sounds better than a dead skinny one. Within reason obviously. But I don't really get on with wide (rather than thick) necks - those early 50s P bass fretboards are too much of a stretch for me.

Adam Cohen's (Leonard's son) latest album is great too.

Nice - I've got the same but with a tort plate. I do spend quite a lot of time just gazing at it!

I've got the AG4J hot set on my fender USA jazz and I've got to say the sound incredible. It was fitted with them when I bought it from Bass Direct, and for me it was the best sounding bass in the shop, having tried out a shed load of them that day. The bass itself is pretty loud and chimey unplugged but the pickups make it sound great plugged in - as a P bass devotee it's made for a really fat jazz sound, with all the J bass definition and clarity but a good slab of P bass punch.

I tend to use the bridge position and middle mainly, with occasional ventures to the neck pickup. One of my strats has a humbucker at the bridge which is a good bit louder than the single coils, so it actually works nicely to use the middle pickup for the verses and general rhythm, and then flicking to the fatter gainy bridge HB for soloing.

That's beautiful! I've recently found myself without any gibsons thru various sales / part ex's, but I still secretly fancy getting another! Bet those Custom Shop versions are immense. Nice one.

My last gig was Marc O'Reilly at the Donkey in Leicester. Never heard of him before but we were the support band so we stuck around to watch the gig. It was stunning. A sort of blues/folk and even slightly gospel overtones to some of it, and it went from delicate hushed stuff to flat out bluesy grooving. Just a trio too so everyone worked hard to cover a lot of ground. Drummer and bass player were brilliant as well as Marc himself. I think they've just been signed to Virgin and have a new single out called Bleed. Give them a listen if you get a chance.