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[quote name='Chris Horton' timestamp='1343065688' post='1744687'] I really like the look of these, If i had one ,I don't think that I would ever remember what all the buttons do [/quote] I'm witchoo Chris. I'd get well confused. That's why I like the 5-way slider on my SR5 HH - very easy to see what you're on. Each to their own tho I guess.

[quote name='Eljay' timestamp='1343006948' post='1743797'] We did! I was SPECTACULAR!! [/quote] I'd expect nothing less of you sir...

[quote name='chardbass' timestamp='1343122709' post='1745461'] She sends her love :-) [/quote] Mr Richard that's made my day - week even - and hello to you and a non-gay love to Keef (if you see him) while we're at it. (Sorry everyone - is this becoming a "should have pm'd" hijack?)

[quote name='Eljay' timestamp='1342785381' post='1740883'] Oh, do I! Are you stalking me??? I'm going back to bed. [/quote] Dammit yous twos, get a frikkin room already!

Dude - gorgeous! The scratchplate is a v nice touch I think. And it's defo an EARLY Korean cos it's got the skinny tuners which (IIRC) were only fitted in the first few months of the Skyline series - my now departed 55-02 (Oh Christina, she never writes, never calls... ) I bought new sometime in 2002 and it already had the cloverleaf tuners (IMHO they look better - they were Hipshot Ultralights if you ever fancy the change - it makes them look more like the US Laklands if you like that kinda thang )

Despite my curiosity I haven't looked in here for a day or so but it looks like we's all friends now an sheet? Good - I was feeling kind of uneasy there. It's like my old mum used to say - 'play nicely with your friends dear.' Anyhoo - put me down for one o' them there t-shirts fella!

No offence, this all seems thoroughly stimulating stuff but some of it... er... are there subtitles available on here?

I dunno if it's a 4 or 5 you're after - I recall a good review of the Jabba 5 in that bass mag the other year, the 5s are 34 (and a bit) scale too which should be comfortable enough after EBMMs, albeit at 19mm spacing (is that right? 45mm nut according to specs). If your SRs are anything like mine you might not mind weight either! Quite like those ACG Jazzes Eude- quite a cool angular take on the classic, if a bit skjoldesque. Some nice J5s on the website. Anyone know the scale? Or the price? Would he whip the skinny tuners off and bung some more trad looking cloverleaf ultralights on it I wonder? I can feel GAS coming on.

Ok dude you've convinced me... looks are irrelevent on an instrument. I'm gonna trade in all my gorgeous basses for some super-light and ultra-compact square headless Steinberger thingies. Mmmmm. Function over form! Anyway, gotta go, my mrs needs a lift to millets to buy some new shoes. Fire up the Reliant!

It'll never catch on.

Thanks Mr. I loved my old Bart loaded 55-02, it was a class act and really nicely put together, just a bit too 'polite'. She now belongs to BC's own mr Chardbass. Not tried the Lakland 01s at all though, or a G&L for that matter, hmmmm...

Dude, in my bigotted little 'blind-to-non-vintage-style-basses' world, I can't believe someone would see these two as interchangeable! When I was shopping around (via email) for my five string HH Stingray last year one well-known retailer tried the 'why not try a Roscoe?' (to lessen any offence insert name of any modern pointy thing here) approach- and I found it hard not adopt a defensive stance . I know I'm a small-minded luddite but I think I'm too old to be reformed now. I like my HH Ray very much. It's got a great range of tones and they're quick and easy to swap on the fly with the five-position switch. It'll do a nice 'hot p' with the two inner coils, a cool 'two-pickups-on-full j' with the two outer coils, and of course the classic growly ray sound with the solo'd bridge pup. 'All coils on' is a nice useable setting too. They all cut through the mix nicely (except maybe front pup solo'd) but have some nice rich tones in them. Three band eq gives loads of twiddle-ability. Build on mine is great, you do very occasionally hear of problems which at about £1200 is not on but seems pretty rare. Mine is heavy but fit and finish is really nice. Buying an EBMM of course also gives you the right to spout forth on the scariest and most cultish forum on earth, apparently. If your friend likes the [i]look[/i] of the 'ray, but wants to consider some alternatives, maybe try a G&L 2000 for a kind of similar but different approach - 2 MM pups and lots of switching options - doesn't necessarily give a classic 'ray sound though. They cost a tad more than a 'ray new and about the same used. The G&L Tribute 2000 is basically the same but much cheaper (now made in Indonesia but well built by most accounts). Also made in Indonesia and cheaper than a 'ray are the Sterling by Musicman range, comprising of the Stingray-style Ray 34 and a Sterling-style SB14 (the names here are well confusing) - they have just the one normal mm pup but the SB has some nice coil switching options. I'm sure Sandberg also do a double mm bass in their vintage-inspired California range, which generally get rave reviews. There are lots of great double-soapbar humbucker options too like the Lakland 44-01 and the Overwater/Tanglewood Contemporary J4 - both far eastern and quite competitively priced. I'm sure Fender do a twin humbucking p or j variant of some sort, and there's always the Fender Roscoe Beck sig if you can find one, people seem to rave about them, I'd love to try one. This list is by no means exhaustive! Firms like ESP and Ibanez offer stuff in this vein too probably, much of which is most likely built in the same factory as half of the above. If it's not the 'ray [i]look[/i] he's going for, just that pup combo, then er... fill yer boots. I'm sure Ibanez do one with two MMs, we know Sandberg do various ones, as do Warwick... I kind of lose interest at this point. One thing is very clear in my mind - if he's buying a pointy modern-shape one then it's got to be secondhand: it's absolutely mental to buy a new one because, with VERY few exceptions, the depreciation will bankrupt him! I'm off to seek psychiatric help now. PS. In the spirit of proper innovation, if somebody absolutely [i]has[/i] to have a 'modern' shaped bass I don't know why they don't try something properly different like a Dingwall Combustion, which at least tries a more genuinely innovative approach, or one of these: http://basschat.co.uk/topic/179614-fsft-steinberger-spirit-xt-25-5-string-with-john-east-preamp-l250

[quote name='EdwardHimself' timestamp='1341839276' post='1724863'] Yes it is entirely possible. [/quote] What? The bowel movement?

Animals the lot of ya! If a low B isn't low enough... You think it's a good idea now but wait til it causes the first involuntary bowel movement!

[quote name='JimBobTTD' timestamp='1341651788' post='1722236'] This is pretty much exactly how I feel. The Lull headstock reminds me far too much of this: Sorry! [/quote]Does Coppolo make guitars for Behringer then? Thanks for this, I might include it in my 42-slide powerpoint* presentation on headstock aesthetics, just after the extensive discussion on 'how the tele and tele bass only get away with it on historical grounds'. Sorry - I need help. (*-well Keynote presentation actually as my aesthetic obsession has also led to an expensive Apple habit and hatred of Microsoft. Just saying is all, and not in a smug way honest.)

[quote name='JimBobTTD' timestamp='1341559670' post='1720820'] Looks very nice indeed. Make it 34" and do something to [i]that[/i] headstock and I'd be in a state of incurable GAS too! [/quote] This ^^ - Dude, long lost twin or what! Small hands mean 34" for me and it can still have a good B. But dude -I have a real headstock snobbery thing going on. Of the Fender-style instruments' headstocks: Fender=standard classic. EBMM=good. Lakland=ok-to-good. Ibanez Blazer=cool twist. Sandberg Californias=just about pulls it off. Overwater J=good. Tanglewater J=just allright. Yamaha BB=meh. G+L=too fussy. Sadowsky=limp. Alleva Coppolo=awful (like a Fender with a sock placed over it). Lull=wanna like em but the headstock=just no. It's all about the curve and the knob on the end, or lack thereof. How can some get it so wrong? Have I gone too far with this? Should I get my coat?

Genius. RIP. I'm getting out me pipe and some StBruno in his honour.

What GreeneKing said -I heartily concur! I put Schaller straplocks on both my old Laklands after getting a MIA Jazz with them standard-fitted and thinking them rather nifty. The old Lakland screws were bigger-bore than the Schaller's (which didn't touch the sides ) and the screwheads wouldn't even fit inside the Straplock buttons to bodge it but it's incrediby easy to put a few slivers of matchstick dipped in pva/'wood' glue in the hole before you screw in the Straplock with the supplied screw. This was pre my discovery of handy advice sources like BC, I think I saw the tip in one of the mags tho. It felt solid as a rock straight away and I went on to gig both basses literally five hundred times afterwards without incident, so I've done the same to new basses evr since. It's not hard to restore the original buttons after if you wish. Mind, also did the Grolsch-grommit thing before that and never dropped a bass then either!