bassbiscuits

I try to be sensible like not using them with filthy/greasy hands etc, and i keep them well cased when travelling to gigs etc, but i'm not overly OCD about avoiding the usual wear and tear that any gigging instrument is bound to get.

The stripey spandex will be a bugger to source tho...

I love Explorer shape for guitars, but on basses the proportions all look wrong. All the beauty in the guitar version doesn't seem to translate to bass for me. Hmm.

P basses are the ultimate plug in and play bass. I've got some other basses which all sound good, and do more variety of sounds etc but need a bit more EQ'ing etc to get them how i want them. The P on the other hand just sounds right as soon as you plug it in. It does just one thing, but very very well. Love 'em.

I usually use round wounds at 45-105, and recently i've switched to La Bella flats 760FL which are 43-104, and feel pretty much the same tension as the 45-105 rounds. But I have had Rotosound flats before which were only 40-100 and felt really stiff compared to the same tension round wounds. La Bella 760FL probably a decent middle of the road gauge, which handle being tuned down to E flat too. Don't know what they offer as an equivalent five string set tho.

[quote name='Chiliwailer' timestamp='1477502881' post='3162668'] I couldn't agree more, that's far from my kind of bass yet in the shop it really is breathtaking, looks stunning. And whilst I'm here, I've had two visits there in the past 3 weeks and have enjoyed both of them very much. First visit, I was there for nearly 2 hours I think, but ended up not buying the bass. Their response was very understanding, professional and welcoming. Yesterday I went to check out a different bass, which I bought (that makes 3 happy purchases from them now). I was mostly helped out by Marcus both times, who it was a pleasure to deal with. Ashley and Mark were also great to chat too. I like straight talking no nonsense shops, if I wanted people crawling up my backside and faking pleasantries I'd go to my local car dealership No complaints and I'd go back again without hesitation. [/quote] This is like my experience there too - i spent a good two hours there a week or so ago, trying out a secondhand bass and comparing it against my existing one. They were cool to let me get on with it, and even though i didn't end up buying it, it was time well spent. Marcus was helpful and happy to let me noodle away.

Im pretty sure he did have one that looked like that in a feature in Guitar and Bass Mag about 10 years ago. That's not hard proof that its the same one tho!

Yep i saw them about two years ago, and went along as a bit of a nostalgia thing with a mate. But with PRB on drums they were a proper kick-ass live band, and he in particular blew me away too. What a drummer. Looked like he was thoroughly enjoying himself too!

A 1996 US Fender P bass i owned for 10 years and did hundreds of gigs on. Best all round bass I ever owned, but got to be too heavy for me, and I had to part-ex it to afford a nice light Lull bass. The P was on the shop's website for about three weeks afterwards, taunting me every time i visited. It was a relief when someone actually bought it to put me out of my misery. Shame it had to go. We'd done a lot of gigs together.

Those T4s and T5s do look incredible. I've got a PJ4 and its lovely - regular precision bass size, but just a lot lighter and more ergonomic.

Some good stuff here - cheers. I think if i change the p/ups i'll get the wiring upgraded too. saying that, I'm quite liking the sound as it is at the moment so i'm just gonna get on with playing it.

Definitely as a songwriter. I'm pretty good at collaborating on original stuff and hopefully sometimes even bringing something interesting to the table. But I haven't got the attention span or confidence to sit and chip away at an original idea to turn it into a really good song. If I could do that I'd die happy.

UPDATE - strung up with a set of La Bella flats now, and sounding, or rather [i]feeling, [/i]awesome.....

We tend just to put vocals, a bit of kick drum and the keyboard through the PA for most small gigs where we just use a pair of EV SX300 tops. For bigger gigs, we add on our LEM bass bins, and get the kick drum and bass going thru them as well, which does sound much better. We're only a three piece usually (four with our keyboard player) so we end up being governed a bit by how much we can fit into our cars, especially when you factor in stage lights etc.

I had a model 1B back in about 1990 to 1992 (same as this but just a P pickup, and a maple board) and it was a great bass. Was in a metal band at the time so it went nicely with my guitarist's BC Rich. Ahem. Good bass tho - secretly kind of wish I still had it really...

Hello, Just wondering if anyone has experience of these basses - my mate is trying to tempt me to swap an unused guitar for it. Now i know the old 80s MIJ stuff is held in great esteem, and I have a 1990s MIJ strat which is also cool, but this one isn't familiar. It's from 2005, and seems like an entry level jazz bass, with the description JB-STD (Jazz bass standard i'd assume) Truss rod adjustment at head end, standard BBOT bridge, budget MIJ pickups and just "Fender Jazz Bass" on the head if i recall correctly. Usual small MIJ style machine heads, vintage frets and 7.25" radius board, satin/matt finish neck. I had a quick Google yesterday and it seems that they might have been a transitional thing between MIJ and CIJ (this one is marked MIJ). It looks like this pretty much (see below, taken from Japanese website) Does anyone know where these fit into to the rest of the MIJ range?

[quote name='jonunders' timestamp='1476481590' post='3154770'] After speaking to Mark at bass direct I went for the labella 760. I couldn't have imagined the difference between the types of strings. I already feel comfortable with them and cannot see my self returning to round wounds. [/quote] Good choice - I've settled on these strings and love them. Happy playing!

I love playing bass, and i get very caught up in the moment when playing live, especially with a good drummer when its really coasting along. If I haven't got a great sound, i.e. using someone else's back line etc, then it does tend to distract me a bit tho. I dabble with playing guitar, which at home is often more interesting than bass, but onstage, playing bass is far more satisfying!

Ive got La Bella 760 FLs on both my Precision and my Lull. I find them deeper and bassier than the Thomastik Infelds (which are on my other bass) but still decent tension, not too stiff at all, and enough to string bend (a bit!). The ones on my Lull are new and still quite bright; the ones on my P are settling down to a much duller thud. Personally i find flats great - not necessarily when played alone, but in a band (and definitely on the recent recordings I've been doing) they provide the best fat smooth bass sound ever. I did briefly try Rotosound flats but didn't really get on with them and that put me off flats at the time. But TI's and La Bellas are both fantastic strings. And if you don't like them, you can always sell them on here!