bassbiscuits

Agree with all the above - the flip side is that when I've bought a bass that's right for me, I've known absolutely straight away and it's become my go to bass from the outset. I bought a secondhand precision about 11 years ago, which had been hanging in the shop for ages. I hadn't given it a second glance either until I eventually played it. It just sang - it was everything I was looking for, and was immediately comfortable and right. I gigged it the same week and it's still my main bass. Tho I'm slightly in the same boat as the OP with my Sandberg TT4 I bought in the summer. It's much lighter, better built and set up, and better condition than the Jazz bass it replaced, and I really bought it with a view to being something specials for me. But six months later, I'm still preferring the sound and feel of my precision, which just feels more right for me as a player. Splashed a lot of cash on it, and desperate to click with it rather than sell and lose money again... Hmm.

Hello all I gig about 30-40 times a year on average, mostly playing bass in a covers band playing fairly a diverse range of rock/pop stuff. I have three basses - two Fender Precisions and a Sandberg jazz bass. I find they cover everything I need. I very seldom take more than one bass to a gig, tho I probably should as back up! If I had to narrow it down to owning just one bass I'd say I could get away with just a Precision. In terms of how quickly they wear, I'd say surprisingly slowly. I do play hard and loud but I don't treat them badly. My main Precision is 20 years old and has done about 75% of my gigs over the last 10 years or so, but the thick paintwork etc is miraculously almost perfectly intact. I'd expect the Sandberg's thinner soft relic finish to age a bit quicker tho!

Great tune! It was years between me watching Weekend World as a kid and discovering Mountain a few years back.

Totally. Ive been playing a P bass of some sort for 20+ years, mostly because it was what was available secondhand at that time, and sounded good. In more recent times I've explored a range of different basses, including jazzes, T-bird alikes and various other bits in an attempt to broaden my experiences and scratch that itch of trying some new gear. However in the last few weeks I've dug out my main P bass (a USA 1995 one since you ask) for a couple of gigs and totally realised how much of my whole approach to playing depends on this instrument. It's everything I live for in bass. It's taken me a big circular journey to realise I had the right bass for me in my hands all along.

Hi Naetharu They sound ace for blues - the neck pickup is rich and creamy, the bridge pickup is bright and barking, and the two together sound full but not muddy. The neck isn't anything like as thick/wide as i'd been led to believe, and is actually a really natural feeling handful. The tone control also works really well to roll off about halfway for that flutey woman tone on the neck p/up. Mine is actually really lightweight (same as my 2000s USA strat) which is very comfortable for two hours of singing/playing at gigs. On the strength of the handful of gigs I've done with it, I'd say its great for blue/rock and also surprisingly versatile for quieter more sparse guitar work, with the gain turned down a bit. Tho quite how good I am when it comes to playing blues is a totally different matter....

Looks like they can't shift those 2015 models for love nor money tho. £500 off an £800 guitar? That's practically giving it away.

Had a brilliant one on Saturday - our last gig before Christmas in a really packed bar, really hot and sweaty and loud, and with some festive beers flowing. It was definitely one of those 'string killer' gigs tho, when you sweat so much that the bass is all smudgy and smeared afterwards and the strings are just dull thunks. And finished with the obligatory "Merry Xmas Everybody" Slade jobbie. Even had people getting their photos taken with us afterwards, tho we are a bit too wet and slimy to hug by that point. A most excellent vibe tho. A proper gig!

Soon after we both started getting into music in our early teens, my older brother decided he wanted to play guitar. I didn't want to be upstaged, so decided bass was the sensible companion to guitar. I found out about 20 years later that he was really annoyed with me for doing it, but i think he's forgiven me now! Originally I really wanted to be a drummer and had all sorts of brochures with drum kits on my wall, but didn't have the money or the space, so bass it was.

I would add to all this great info - that fret sizes and neck radiuses do differ over the years too. Vintage ones tend to have more curved fretboards, ie 7.25 inch radius, and smaller, thinner, vintage frets. These are on a lot of reissues too, and some custom shop models. More modern ones (ie USA standards, deluxe etc ) have flatter 9.5 inch radius, and medium jumbo frets. Many older precisions and reissues (Mexican classic series 50s for example) also have wider nuts than the more modern standard ones. Personally I prefer the feel and playability of the more modern spec, which is much easier for string bending, slapping etc. But just as many people swear by the original older spec. Neither is better or worse, but worth bearing in mind when you're trying/buying.

For me it was those first bands/albums I got into. So people like Steve Harris, Aerosmith's Tom Hamilton and Duff McKagan from G'n'R really influenced me from the outset. Tho weirdly, the huge thudding bass from dance music I listened to a lot in my early 20s has also been an influence in terms of providing big, fat, pounding basslines.

I went for the old flight case option - fill it full of leads, plugs and lights etc to take to the gig, then set the amp up on top of it. It certainly projects better by putting the amp and a more listenable level - whether it affects the tone i couldn't say without a direct comparison. Sounds good for my needs tho.

At the risk of reviving an old thread, I can just update you that this has just come back from having a proper pro set up which has really put the cherry on the cake so to speak. The nut slots were lowered and smoothed off a bit, and the frets given a wee polish. Basically it now plays beautifully with lovely low action and holds its tuning way better too. I thought it played well beforehand anyway, but now it feels fantastic, so can't wait for next chance to gig it properly.

That's interesting. I have a 1970 precision, based on its serial number, pot codes and pickup stamps. But it also has in the neck pocket a number 71 in a circle exactly like yours. I wasn't sure if that made it a 1971, but it could just as easily be a QC code. Hmm.

For the first time in about 15 years I'm not playing this NYE. In fact my whole December is unusually quiet for some reason. Like some of the others posting here, I've got a wife and young boy so I'm going to put my spare time to good use and spend some quality time with them. Quite looking forward to staying in for a change!

I've got a Rotosound bass flyer signed by Steve Harris - i queued for it for ages but was too starstruck to say anything when i got there! I had a signed Quireboys album from about 25 years ago, now long lost. Somehow I've also got a Shure Sm58 that used to belong to someone in Saxon!

Something in the back of my mind says that an amp presumably running at 8ohms (i.e. your combo and its internal speaker) will sound slightly different to when its running at 4ohms with another cabinet, (aside from the obvious volume difference I mean). Doesn't the greater impedance of an 8ohm load slightly tighten the sound up a bit? I don't know if that's imperceptible difference, or even if i'm talking cobblers - can anyone shed any light? FWIW I used to gig with an old Peavey TVX210 cab for years and it was brilliant. I flogged it in a part-ex and really wish i hadn't as it was a good smallish rig.

I've almost always been in a one-guitar band, sometimes just as a trio, and sometimes with an added piano player. I gotta say I love that format - it gives me lots of room to play a bit more freely, rather than just plunking away root notes at the back. I do tend to do things to try to emphasise quiet and loud (i.e. quieter in the verses, and flooring it for the choruses or big climaxes) for some dynamics. As long as you can strike the right balance between providing some full, interesting bass when need, and easing off to something very basic and restrained when needed, then its a very liberating format to play in, I find.

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1448934572' post='2919436'] I probably didn't use effects for close to 40 years. I see plenty of guys that sound and play great without pedals. I also think it takes a while to fully understand how and when to use effects. My opinion managing a pedal board for bass players is more of a challenge than it is for guitar players. Blue [/quote] I think you're right Blue. With guitar its pretty obvious what sort of thing is needed, and how to use them. But for bass I imagine its a bit more open ended and room to be creative. I'm not against pedals at all - I just dont find I really need them with the music i play (rock, blues, pop covers). But i can't imagine something like Muse without some serious effects going on!

Personally I don't find I've ever needed one in the 30 years I've been playing bass. The range of fingerstyle, pick or slapping gives me plenty of sounds, plus my tone control, and seriously that is all I've used for 99 percent of gigs over the years. If you're a guitarist then yes, you need to be able to switch between a couple of different sounds, have a lead boost etc, but not for bass unless you really need multiple sounds. Fx boards can be good fun tho!

I took my 1995 USA precision to a gig on the weekend, for the first time in a few months. I'd used my Sandberg jazz-alike on the Friday night, but fancied some big fat P bass tones the following night, so took it along. Just reminded me that I'm definitely a P bass man at heart - I love the articulate clean sound of jazzes, and they way they let you play, but a big blurry fat P bass thump really sort of suits how I play. It was bass bliss and I feel better for the experience! Ahhh.