Rayman

My Highway One Jazz is a great bass. It plays well, and looks the part, I like the finish, although many don't.

The build quality is good, and the fretboard is nice and smooth.

Soundwise, I found mine to be very dark sounding, lots of bottom end, and a nice top end click (Steve Harris style), but it lacked a little top end sparkle, and I found it hard to find a traditional jazz style mid bark.

I've upgraded mine with Villex pickups, which have transformed the sound from "nice" to "amazing" at a cost of about £120. With the upgrades, the bass is now a fantastic bass, extremely powerful and versatile, whereas off the wall it was less so, although still very playable. It was bought as a backup to my Stingray, but live, I've found myself prefering the jazz to be honest.

I believe the hardware could be Mexican, with the timber and assembly of the bass originating in the US, although I can't be 100% possitive about that.

It's a great bass, very playable, and with a great tone out of the box, but you won't get a Marcus Miller type honk with it if that's what you like. For rock, pop or even reggae with a deeper tone it'd be great, but for slap, I found it a bit too dark sounding.

I guess if you were asking me which bass I'd buy today, a Geddy or a Highway 1, if I had the choice, I'd buy a Geddy. I reckon it'd be more versatile as a standard bass straight from the box, and being made in Japan, I reckon the build quality would maybe be superior too.

I love my H1 and won't part with it, but only really thanks to William Villex and his pickups, it really has transformed my bass, but at a price.

Hope some of that helps.

That's fab that is, best looking Flea I've seen, you're right about the colour too, the sparkly ones are a bit loud. I think it's the same model/colour Steffan Lessard uses in the Dave Mathews band.

Love that Epiphone, I really must look at geting one of those.

Wicked, like that a lot.

The Nordstrand pickups are amazing. Niceguyhomer has one in his Sterling, I've played it, and it's wicked. Big sound and clear as a bell, very nice.

I wondered about a brass nut for my ray, that'd be my choice as they give a nice boost to the sustain.

Ah those Japanese ones are nice, mine was Taiwanese, and still nice, not as good as the MIJ 3000S, that was quality. I think the Villex mid boost pot would be worth looking at, as I say, Ped just had one fitted and likes it a lot so far, give him a shout.

[quote name='wateroftyne' post='24906' date='Jun 29 2007, 02:09 PM']+1. I keep mine right where I can get 'em.

[/quote]

Those are stunning basses.

I only have two these days, one lives under the stairs in its case, while the other is next to the bed for practising. They get alternated depending on my mood. I wish I could have a music room, but the kids have put paid to that, and as far as basses on the wall, I think my wife would leave me if I did that.................so where do buy wall hangers from?

Just occured to me though, the wierd shape of the jazz pup could be a problem. Maybe just getting the Villex mid boost pot fitted would help. Ask Ped, he just had one put into one of his basses.

Maybe I'm doing the Columbus an injustice, it [i]was[/i] 25 years ago! I can remember gigging with it, and thinking it was hard work back then. I borrowed an S.D.Curlee bass from a mate about the same time, and it was a dream to play compared to my Columbus, I remember thinking "Wow, this is a real pro bass".

The Columbus looked the part from a distance (except for those tuners), and I'm sure that with a few upgrades it'd be a good little bass. Yours certainly looks nice that's for sure, mine was identical, except for the fact that I painted mine black!!

The over wound 84's are darker sounding, not as bright, but with a higher output, and more low end thump.

Villex pickups are awesome, high output, big clear tones, they'd be great in an 1100S. My BB1100S was quite nice as it was, higher output than the 3000S, and great for slapping, is yours MIJ or MIT?

"The funk's in the fingers, not the bass"

Almost every bass I've had I've ended up with a simillar sound the the previous ones, purely because I have a sound in my head that I like, and I end up with something simillar whatever I'm playing, Stingray, Precision, Thunderbird, Jazz all a simillar end result soundwise for me, although they're all "capable" of many different tones depending on the player.

At the end of the day, [i]for me[/i], a precision, for instance, would be just fine for almost any style of music. Who needs anything else? Your sound's in your fingers, not the pieces of wood and wire between them.

Just my opinion.

That's wicked, by far the best colour for those. The switches scare me off though, what do they all do?

Ha ha.........I can't believe this clown is still trying to sell the chuffing bass. How long ago was it we spotted him on BW? Months ago, and he's still trying to sell it. He's a total pillock, and as great as the bass is, I wouldn't buy it from him if it was the last bass on earth. Someone on BW actually defended him, saying they knew him, and that he was a really nice guy, well, I don't give a toss, if that's how he addresses potential buyers, he can shove it where the sun doesn't shine. Idiot.

My man Robbie Shakespeare and his mate Sly Dunbar are a must for any dub fan.

What a beaut. I fancied one of these at one point although I couldn't afford a Hofner these days. I noticed Amy Winehouse's bass player using one at Glastonbury.

+1

It's a fantastic day out, and highly recommended for any bass player of any level. Plenty of porn to drool over, and plenty of top quality acts guaranteed.

Marcus Miller Jazz
70's jazz or precision
ACG 6 string
Amp upgrade

In that order. I should never have let my Marcus go in the first place.

I'll be there, best day out of the year for me.

If you need a lift Gary let me know, got you message via myspace.

Russ.

Cheers Matt.

My first two basses were a Columbus jazz and a Squire Precision, but that's going back to the 80's, and that was long before I took pictures of my stuff, and to be honest, they weren't worth showing anyway.

Next, MIM Precision, upgraded with badass, Quarterpounder, Hipshots etc etc. Fabulous bass, and still the best Precision I've ever played regardless of where it was made, the neck was gorgeous, and the sound with the Seymour Duncan QP was awesome, seen here with the Yamaha mid 80's BB3000S, a superb bass. I should've kept them both:




Then, the Yammys, a 400S fretless, a 3000S and an 1100S, all 80's models:



Then, the Thunderbird, an awesome rock bass, with a beautiful neck and a massive sound, Epiphone, but better than any Gibsons I've tried. The Marcus Miller jazz, loved it, should never have sold it, and I'll be getting another someday for sure. The Ibanez Precision was a 1975 model, packed with mojo, another great bass, I used it for playing dub reggae mainly:



Fender Precision Deluxe, the very one Mikeh had from me, great bass, but I traded it for his Lakland JO:




Lakland Skyline Joe Osborn, loved it, loved it, should still have it, but I needed to raise some cash, so out it went:



Highway One jazz with Villex pups (seen here before the new pups were fitted) and the Stingray, my babies, and going nowhere, any future basses will be bought not traded for these:

Ha, wicked, every one of them except the Status of course, I didn't like to tell you at the time in Colne when me and Dr Dave had a look at it, but I thought it sucked too, I'm not a fan.

Top quality basses one and all, and I've played quite a few of them. I wish I still had the Marcus, I miss that a lot.

The current MMs look fantastic, and I know how awesome that Nordstrand sounds. Wouldn't mind a go on your ray to see how it compares to mine.

Cheers fellas, Yes they're both mint at the moment. I intend to "look after" the ray in that respect, but the jazz is a workhorse, and hopefully in time, it'll pick up a bit of wear and tear, just how I like them.

[i]Jaaaaazzzzzzzzzzzzzz[/i]

My two are a few posts down this page.