casapete

Wish I'd known Mart, you could have had mine. Impulse buy and then stupidly impulse sold it! If I see a s/h one anywhere I'll give you a shout. Cheers.

Totally agree - great MIJ Fenders that you can still pick up s/h for around the £300 mark, and worth every penny.

Agreed - in fact, have Yamaha ever made anything crap? Years ago had a BB300 that was bottom of the range and fantastic, especially for the money.

Agreed. Only reason I sold mine was it's weight, bit on the chunky side for me. Great for the money though.

As with the guitars, some of the early Tokai basses were particularly good. The P-bass (Hard Puncher) I had was a cracker, as good if not better than the USA Fenders at the time.

Think I'm probably not the only one on here who has had to sell a great instrument when finances dictate it?

Another budget SS is the Squier Jaguar. Great basses for the money, s/h around £125 ish.

Just got mine, works great too. No brainer for me...

Being in a tribute band, we constantly have the problem of keeping it fresh whilst still playing the staple tunes everyone expects to hear. Each year we jig the set around a bit, usually adding 3 or 4 lesser known songs and trying to keep the others sounding as good as possible. ( It's a fine line to walk sometimes, with the old fans just wanting the hits and the afficianados wanting some album tracks, but we just about manage it, I hope anyway.... )

Set??

Understand your hesitation, but £25 does get you a lot of bang for the buck. I've used mine ( as a spare / double for my Sansamp to be fair ) for 3 years now with no problems.

Maybe worth looking at these too - https://www.gear4music.com/Guitar-and-Bass/Behringer-BDI21-V-Tone-Bass-Preamp/6LV Great little Sansamp clone for £25 with DI, if you can get over the Behringer thing

I think techniques regularly employed by some bassists probably do more damage ....

Just checked t’internet, seems there are a few out there! Sunburst and black look cool IMO, not sure about the orange though? Priced around £299 / £319.

I started a thread somewhere on here when they were first announced. Think they look ace, but havent managed to see any recently. I think GAK had them in? Nice to see an original design that still manages to have a retro feel to it.

Oh yeah, regarding the strap buttons - I play mine seated so not a problem, but should be easy enough to fit a button to the heel of the neck I reckon, if you can’t get on with tying that end at the nut.

For me the fret less seemed a little pointless with a U Bass. The silicone strings mean that the frets don’t alter the sound much at all, and slides/ bends are hard to manage with them anyway. Also look at the Countryman bass ukes. Mine was £149 I think, and is fantastic. All ply construction (which isn’t a problem on this type of instrument),nifty little preamp and Aguilar strings as standard. Tried the U bass along side it, and honestly didn’t see the £200+ difference in quality or tone.

Really interested to see how they turn out weight wise. I had to give up Stingrays due to my knackered shoulder and not being able to find one I could manage. Anything sub 8lbs could mean I’m in with a chance!

Didn’t watch all of it, but the first method of ‘popping’ the loosened strings definitely works. Tried it on a mate’s old bass and it did improve the tone of a set of dead strings - not a massive amount but certainly enough to notice.

If you look in one of the cheaper stores (like Home Bargains etc) you can pick up the digital ones for around the same price too (assuming you were referring to the ones with a dial?). Probably a bit more accurate.