mcnach

Years ago I got an LMT800 when my main amp was an LMIII. I thought the additional 300W would mean I'd notice it being able to get noticeably louder. It really didn't. It was probably louder, as the different rating would suggest, but I didn't think it was significant enough to warrant switching to an 800W amp just for that. I ended up selling the LMT800 because I liked the sound of the LMIII better. I used the same speaker cabs with the amplifiers: 1 or 2 Barefaced Big Baby 2.

This is my MB-5 SBK. Stock except for the pickguard (can you tell I despise tort? ). I love this bass. It's passive but I don't feel the urge to mess with that, it sounds great as it is. I was recently going over a bunch of little demos I did last year and there was one in particular that I thought "ah, I love that Stingray, it sounds so good" then I heard a low D... "hmm, I do have a Hipshot D-tuner thingy on my Stingray but I don't recall having used it in ages"... and then a low B... ah! It was the Harley Benton 5 string!!! Nut needed some attention as it was cut slightly too tall, and the fret ends were a little sharp. Both issues were sorted easily in about 30 minutes. I wish the string spacing were a bit wider, as the fingerboard has room for it, but it's a really nice bass to play regardless. This is the bass that finally made me appreciate 5-string basses and now I'm comfortable playing 4/5-ers equally.

My first gigging bass amp was a Behringer BX4500H. It did a very good job. Recently I played at a venue in Glasgow where they provided backline and it was... a BX4500H. It still sounded good to these ears!

Ritchie Blackmore was probably the reason I wanted a cream Stratocaster. I ended up with... a Richie Sambora Stratocaster No, it wasn't a matter of getting the wrong Ri(t)chie, but the Sambora one had a humbucker at the bridge and a Floyd Rose, both of which I really like. So yeah, my first Stratocaster was a Richie Sambora signature (that I still have, 26 years later), purely because it was the right colour and it had the right pickup/bridge combination. I still tried to play more like Ritchie than Richie and managed to get close to neither

I've got 3, and my girlfriend 1... This is her PB-20 SBK. I had to replace the tuners because when I changed the strings (it's her bass, but I'm her 'tech' ) one of the tuners' gears just got all chewed up. This particular alloy of iron and cheese was not very good. Also changed the original tort pickguard to a single ply black, and put DR Red Neon string on it. The strings are much brighter in person but they're so hard to photograph! The cat hates the sound of the bass, but she's intrigued by it at the same time... Great neck, very low action, and I like the sound of that pickup... it just sounds like a Precision should, with a really nice low mid growl to it.

If you're all agreeing to prepare something and someone (guitarist now) doesn't prepare, I find that disrespectful at least: that person is essentially saying "yeah, my time is worth more than yours". Not sure you'll be able to change somebody's attitude. It sounds like you've tried and it is not working. Continuing to press the matter will only annoy you and them. I'd move on. If there's one thing I'd like to tell my younger self when I started out playing in bands, it would be "don't waste your time with people who aren't on the same page". I know it seems hard, you've invested time and quitting to start again seems like such a drag... but if you don't you won't be in a better band. Once I lost my 'fear' to quit, it was amazing. Audition all you can, talk to others... even if you don't join a band after an audition it'll expose you to other people, and networking is really important. I found my main band (12 years with them) like that. I was already in a covers band, and we had a guitarist audition. After a couple of practices he quit, but we stayed in touch and I knew about his other band. Then a while later they needed a bass player and the rest is history. You never know. The one thing you know, for sure, is that if you stay with a band that doesn't really do it for you and you don't do anything to get out of there, you won't be happy. Having said this... it's not always necessary to quit quit. If you have the time and the inclination, nothing is stopping you from finding another band and keep both going. If one day it becomes too much, you may need to make a decision, but until then... You could keep this band as it is, and see it as a way to play with a different set of people and learn different things. If you then take it as a low commitment band, perhaps it becomes more fun too. Meanwhile, keep looking for something better. Playing with a range of different people with different idiosyncrasies, tastes, skill level, is a very good way to grow as a bass player.

About that burnt bass, from Tony himself: https://papabear.com/miscpages/fire.htm

Richie Blackmoor???

I could use any of the 5, to be honest, although #1 and #3 sounded more the way I like it, and #4 and #5 not as much (especially #5). Nice example of the variation of 'Precision' style sounds while still sounded clearly Precisionesque.

I doubt it has much/anything to do with the temperature. A lot of people use these amps in locatons where this is just normal summer temperatures, and not that hot. However... playing outside tends to mean you need to pump out the bass harder than usual (as others mentioned, you usually lose wall reinforcement among other things) so I suspect you were trying to get more from those cabs than they're ok to give. Especially if you used a single Two10. I use a couple generally, with a Mesa D800... it's great, it's loud... but outdoors without reinforcement they can only do so much. A single cab I would not consider other than for use as monitors.

Looks like a 2010 (first 2 digits after the factory code CGR).

Or you could provide, for the kids to play with, a box of nails, hammers, scissors and set of throwing knives, and announce that over the microphone. Maybe.

If, like me, you prefer lacquered necks... I had my Stingray neck cleaned and lacquered by David Wilson in Hexham... it didn't cost that much and it's much easier to keep clean now. https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002025970885

Come on! You know better than that!

If you just make a cut for the strings yes, but the idea I got from seeing others is to cut a slot for each string with a different width, or maybe V-shaped so that you can find the amount of muting desired (that's the idea, how much trial and error it will take, I don't know... but I'll let you know as I just bought on of those to try.

A certain seller on ebay now has a template derived from mine, so getting a replacement pickguard in whatever colour you prefer should be straight forward

Got a new pickguard for the JP-55OP

beautiful!

I wonder if these would do a good job. It's a pretty dense foam and you get a few out of a single eraser so you can have a few tries with different slot depth/widths etc. They come in all colours, including black.

He now has a template for the 5 string JP-55OP https://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/earlpilanz I thought the tort on blue was a bit much, so I now have a single ply black pickguard. Originally: New pickguard: (in the process of changing strings... the tuner slot was too narrow for the B string on the set of TI Jazz flats I bought so I got a replacement tuner but haven't got around to fitting it yet).

But they don't do any of the usual materials, only acrylic with whatever design printed on the back, do they? At least that was the case a while back.

They do, or with an oval one. That huge piece of plastic on the SR5 always looked bad to me.

Heat-treated pickups... is that the new snake oil? What does it even mean?

Stingray. It just does everything and has the most comfortable neck.

Not sure what's the best, as there are many different parameters to consider... but when facing this question, I went and bought muself a TCE BAM200. Mostly because it was tiny tiny and cheap. It turns out it actually sounds pretty good and I played two gigs with it. It looks odd on a 410 cab but it does a very decent job. I considered other bigger amps that were arguably better, but size was a big point for me: if it's not tiny and fits easily in the gig bag I know I just would leave it behind often.