lukeward2004

Long time no see my friend! Yeah I have been very lucky to have had these basses, but it took hours upon hours of hard work and saving to be able to afford them! Its only really recently that I have had the pleasure of owning a few top end basses, like the Bacchus and the Vigier, and m Warwick - I could never afford to lay out £1000 + for a bass nowadays! I wanted a Lakland DJ5 for a long time, but the Bacchus is so good I dont think I'll ever want one now!

Last week I traded the Stingray for this: Bacchus Venus Jazz 5 - its fantastic, plays like a dream, lovely low action, awesome modern Jazz tones and a powerful Bacchus preamp. Chuffed!!

Hi guys, I thought I would start a thread about folks bass history, the basses you have been through since day one, and what you have now - its a bit of a gear porn fest, but hey! Ill get the ball rolling: Sadly, my first bass is no longer with me, it was a Westfield Precision bass, black with white plate, and it fell apart after 3 months, no pictures unfortunately! Next up: MIM Fender Jazz Bass, with Badass II Bridge. Precision GAS struck and then I had this made: Precision bass handbuilt by Bravewood Guitars - loaded with SD 1/4 £er and finished in Nitro Cellulose. I traded this in for a Warwick, which I will get to shortly. Fantastic bass, should never have let it go!!! I decided to take a little foray into 5 string playing, and bought my first 5er, a Yamaha BBG5a, seen below: Which was replaced after a year or so with a Warwick Streamer Standard, shown here being gigged hard a few years ago: But then sold on as I couldnt find the tone I wanted, great bass, fat as you like and a really nice hifi growl, but just not "me". Eventually got replaced with: My Warwick Streamer LX5, which is still with me today and I will probably keep indefinately - it has such a lovely warmth and growl I dont think I can face selling it! Next up is a 70's Style Jazz Bass, which I believe is for sale on these very boards: Cracking bass, white blocks and binding, Badass II Bridge modified for strings thru body, and played like a dream - sold to fund my Vigier, which is coming up. "bitsa" jazz bass, really nice little player, but I sold it on after a week after realising I had far too many basses and not nearly enough talent to justify it! Traded the Custom Precision for a Warwick Streamer Stage One 4 string, completely different animal to the 5 string flavour, and a really nice bass - now with Ben White on the boards: Traded this in with Ben for a mint 2000 Musicman Stingray 3eq, I was GASsing for that classic Ray sound! Here she is: After a big clearout of gear, I aquired this from our very own Ped, and its still with me and going nowhere for the foreseeable future: My Current main bass, Vigier Passion III 5 string custom - quite simply the best bass I have ever played. So, lets see what you got!!

The last basslines I learned where "Blame it on the Boogie" by the Jackson 5 and "Canned Heat" by Jamiroquai.

Something that helped my ear develop so that I could sing was to not only sing what you play on the fretboard, such scales, arpeggios and the like, but also listening to shedloads of good singers and trying to imitate what they did on those tracks in the car, shower etc. Start of with the main lines, then sing it again on the 3rd, then the 5th, then an octave if you are able to. It works well for bass playing too - If im writing a bass part, I sing it first, record it with a crappy sound recorder to get the rough jist, listen for what like an dont like, then I play it on my bass working out what I sang by ear. Im not good enough to translate exactly what i hear in my head onto the fretboard!!

This is my dream rig, and as it goes, its mine!!! Lightweight, loud as you like, and easy to transport - perfect! I can get pretty much any tone Im after out of the Bass Pod, and its superb all round for all the different bands I play with.

I spent years playing and trying out different Overdrives and Distortions - I had a Russian Big Muff, a USA Big Muff, a HAO Rust Ride, a Boss ODB-3 and all of them either sucked tone or low end and just didnt "do" it for me. In the End I approached Dave Hall at DHA, and asked for a custom box to be made based on his VT2 box. It was basically two tubes with an EQ and few other tricks that Dave chucked on board, and I could choose to run it with just one tube, which gave a nice bit of valvey warmth and a touch of grit if pushed, and then a second Gain stage that I could kick in with the 2nd tube that just gave a fantastic valve overdrive. All I can say is try out a few Valve overdrives/distortion boxes, like the DHA gear, EBS etc -in my experience you simply cannot get better than a valve OD.

Since switching to Elixir Nanowebs about 2 years ago, once a year seems about right. I do find that they only start to sound good after about a month or two of regular playing wear though. As with anything in music - go with your ears!

TuTu - has Marcus Miller on bass and I believe he also produced it.

Yes!! Sounds like a plan matey, equally you have to come round and see my new flat in Slough. Things have just been so busy mate I havent been able to spend much time here on BC, let alone anything else, but we are due a proper catch up!!! Doesnt sound as good as Headington though son!!!

Im in a similar position - my primary focus just recently seems to be on learning songs for the band, which in itself has taught me a few new things, however a year or two ago I was able to practise at least for 2 hours a night, working on technique, harmony, groove, and generally anything and everything I felt I struggled with. I got to be a pretty good slapper, and just started to get to grips with Double thumping, and pinch harmonics - then I got busier at work, and socially I had to sacrifice some of my practise time to compensate. Now Im lucky if I get an hour a day to practise, but I am in the studio/rehearsals for at least 4 hours a week and gigging most weekends. I think I was a better slapper back then, and generally a better musician in terms of what I could do creatively with my bass - although a few muso chums of mine seem to think im a better, more tasteful player now because I dont get so technical and I work on serving the situation. For me, I think you need a balance between being creative with an originals band and replicating other peoples lines in a covers act - I will hopefully be starting an originals project with a close friend of mine very soon, so im hoping this will chang my focus a little bit. Lessons is also a good idea - get yourself a good tutor and he/she should be able to "refresh" things a little!

Merton - your Retro Active J is just SEXUAL!! Loved it when I played it at the basschat bash, top stuff mate!

Stingrayfan - yes, that is me gigging the life out of Propaganda in fleet! Ped - you know how much I love your Vigiers, the two that got me "into" vigier basses, and I think I owe you a few pints for selling me the best bass ive ever had and the only bass that hasnt made me want for more!! Except maybe your fretless...... ;p

Hi Guys, Seeing as we have a Musicman one, a Status one and a Pangborn one, I thought Id give some light to Patrice Vigier's masterpieces. Ill get the ball rolling - here's my Passion III Custom 5 String, formerly owned by our very own Ped, and is my main bass: And in action: Show me what you got!

Heres My Growler.... 2000 SR 4

[quote name='doctor_of_the_bass' post='259604' date='Aug 10 2008, 10:43 PM']Luke I thought you'd played it at the Bash when I had it? Nick[/quote] Actually now that you mention it, Im sure I did - but all credit to Mr Vigier, I have not yet played a "bad" Vigier, they all seem to be superb instruments!

Cracking Vigier mate, if it plays anything like my Passion III 5er its a belter!

Sorry, thats rubbish. Give it to me immediately.

Its all about the flashy lights!

Nice to see my old SS1 in action next to a UL310 again - I love mine and wont be parting with it anytime soon! Nice rig mate!

Loving the Vigier - They are superb basses!

Your Overwater Jazz and Marcus are just sexual!

Good man Russ, I knew you wouldnt give up mate! Nice Rig!