Ed_S

The only thing I don't like all that much about mine and which I'd generally alert a potential buyer to is that they both have whatever the opposite of fret-sprout is. Mine are both PF boards but one other that I no longer have was exactly the same with maple, so whilst I haven't played loads and it might not be true of the majority, I'm 3 for 3 - every fret at both ends. Running my hand down the sides of the board isn't the smooth experience I'm used to with other brands, and I'd have seriously preferred that it was. It's not massively uncomfortable or unpleasant, and I've clearly decided I can live with it, but I guess it could be a deal-breaker for some...?

I really like Ibanez for cheap but sturdy stuff - got a GSR180 that I bought to cart round as a gigging backup, a GSR200b that I impulse bought because it was so light and had such a nice neck that I just had to, and a TMB30 that I was given and decided to mod and see what all the short scale fuss was about. I'll be honest, some days I put down a £1400 Sandberg superlight, pick up the £140 GSR200b and genuinely question my choices. The Ibanez is actually lighter, just as comfortable to play, holds its tuning just as well and makes a sound very much like me playing a bass. It doesn't look flashy and of course there's a difference in the quality of the parts, but the body wood and finish of both seem to be equally soft and susceptible to damage so I can't see either coming out of a life 'on the road' unscathed and I could fully replace the Ibanez a good few times for the same money. Properly great little bass! Still got a picture of it in my saved attachments so here we go...

Can’t particularly relate as I’ve always preferred the feel of a brand new pick and intentionally use ones that stay feeling that way for a good length of time. Since ‘brand new’ is a much easier state to return to than ‘perfectly worn in’, I’d probably invest some more time and money into trying to find one that feels alright from new and then stick with it - bulk buy and treat them as more of a disposable item. Or I guess maybe find another player whose ‘worn out’ is your ‘perfectly worn in’ like some people (equally confusingly to me) do with roundwound strings!

I had great fun making a fairly substantial pedalboard with a custom flight case but then realised how inconvenient it might be at some of the smaller venues we (used to be able to..) play where there are 5 bands and no storage, as well as some of the very short opening sets we get with bigger bands who fill the stage and refuse to move anything of theirs yet demand that you PUFO in 5 mins flat after your last note. That’s why I got the FlyRig - because it’s decent quality and ‘it’ll do’. The board has, amongst others... a TU-3 tuner, OC-3 octave, VT-Bass overdrive, MXR chorus, EBS compressor and a BDDI. The separates sound better and if I always had the space I’d always use the main board, but the FlyRig is sometimes much more appropriate and covers what I need to a level that I can live with. Sorry to say the Behringer didn’t impress me as a BDDI alternative - the switch didn’t feel that sturdy, the knobs didn’t seem to do very much and it just didn’t sound right to me, so I’d vote to put my £20 towards the real thing.

Saw Slipknot, Machine Head and Children of Bodom in 2008, and was pretty much only there for Bodom. They played their disappointingly short opening set and then Machine Head played about 3 songs before Phil Demmel collapsed due to some heart condition or other and that was it until the headline slot. As soon as it became apparent that he was alright, we were all willing Bodom to come back out and carry on - bet they could have plugged in and made do - but nah, didn't happen.

I reckon it depends on whether the thing you had was a particularly good example, and you risk re-buying one that's only average. Probably matters more with instruments than it does amps and electronics. I went one better with a Sterling Ray35 which I traded in for a proper StingRay 5. In the shop I managed to convince myself that it was a massive step up, but then a few months of playing it made me realise that the Ray35 was a much, much nicer sounding instrument, and what I'd bought at great additional expense was actually just nice woodgrain. I've played other 35s since and in doing so realised just how nice the one I had was. Should have kept it. Sold the Ray at the usual kind of loss you experience from new, as it was just a monumental disappointment and I wanted it out of my sight!

I discovered a while back that my band associates the ‘Precision with volume and tone full-on through a Markbass with the EQ at noon and both filters off’ tone with me, and they seem to prefer it to most other things that I buy, try for a bit and eventually sell. I like it as well so I certainly don’t see it as a problem if that’s the tone in their head when they think of me as they’re writing etc. I never set out for that to be ‘my’ tone, but the LM2 was the first amp I was really happy with the basic sound of so I guess it figures. I really like the GK MB200 with everything at noon as well. When it comes down to it, I give a clean DI to the sound tech at gigs and I give a clean DI track to the engineer for any studio recordings, so I don’t think I count as being too precious about tone as long as they make it fit the mix.

Certainly was a bargain! If I hadn’t already got one I’d have been after it myself 🙂 I paid a couple of hundred more for mine back when the peavey warehouse got cleared out and everything was being auctioned off. Think that possibly makes it either a return or a repair but it’s been fine for the last few years so I can only imagine that if it did once have a problem it was sorted. I don’t get to play it as often as I might, but every time I do it’s good fun. If I was to offer any small piece of advice, I’d say don’t run it for 3 hours and then immediately pick it up and carry it to the car with the back pressed tight to your body. Those power valves are close to the grille and damn near melted the elastane in my comfy stretch jeans!

I’ve always used badass bridges on my fenders/squiers that came with cheap bbots from the factory and I think there is probably a difference in sound, but I’m not sure whether it’s down to sustain. The decision to get rid of the first bbot was taken on functional grounds - I got fed up of it either rattling, bits working loose and altering the setup in transit, or grub screws sticking up and tearing chunks out of my hand and/or gig bag. The decision to go for the badass was taken mainly on aesthetic grounds - I just like them. The difference in sound, if any, is probably due more to the way I play when I have confidence in the hardware on the instrument than it is the mass of that hardware.

No worries! Actually I suppose since you specifically said 1/4” to 1/4” cable, that’d need another of the jack to speakon converters as the speakon joiner thingy isn’t combination as far as I recall. Or just use a speakon/speakon or speakon/jack cable instead as either would get you to the combination socket on the head. You absolutely can use two converters and a join, though - I’ve done that as well. Apologies if that sounded like a brief introduction to egg-sucking but I noticed that what I’d said wasn’t quite accurate 🙂

Those two Neutrik converter/connectors that you linked do work well together - I keep one of each in my gigging bag and have used them on the end of an appropriate cable to get from a combo’s speaker to an external amp head just like you describe.

Great deal on that VB-2, whoever got it - and just in time for the cold weather, too! 🙂 Actually noticed the other day that Richtone have a s/h matching 1x15 if it was anyone round here doing some rig building.

I’d say maybe try a Spector (or by extension perhaps a Warwick) as I find the physical feel of them is still sufficiently conventional but quite noticeably different to a Fender, and they generally come with active humbuckers and/or preamps as suggested above. I do like an Ibanez SR, but for my money the Spector has a bit more ‘personality’, for want of a better word.

My first 6 was years ago - an Ibanez BTB406QM in trans blue. I had the matching 5 string in trans black and that was my main bass for aaages but for some reason the 6 was one of those uninspiring instruments and looking back I was just too inexperienced to do anything about it like replacing pickups etc. Also I was using it to play fairly straight up metal with a pick so it was needlessly heavy and wide as I had no use for the extra string, and when I contrived a use for it.. it sounded thin and pretty naff. Anyway, both BTBs moved on eventually and that was it for 6s until the end of last year when I was instructed to select something for my birthday and given a £500 budget. I spotted an Ibanez SR506e on offer at Dawsons so headed over to Manchester and ended up getting it for £450 - with train tickets and lunch at ‘spoons I came in pretty much on budget. This time I’m using it to play generally lighter acoustic/pop-rock with fingers and really enjoying it. The only issue I‘ve had was that the frets sprouted pretty much as soon as I got it home, so I fixed it ...then they did it again a couple of weeks later, so I fixed it again. It’s been alright since but the board just seems to be incredibly dry - it absolutely drinks bore oil and then just goes back to looking dry! 🙄 I’d still recommend it as a nice 6 to get started on - especially the most recent version after they changed the pickups to a slightly different model of Barts. I normally hate Barts but these are really good.

Mine’s 3.64kg - it’s a 2017 but maybe gives an idea of what to expect from a current one.

You and me both! If the 4s were 35” scale like the 5s it would probably have tipped the (bank) balance.

I reckon if I were in the same situation I’d buy the cheapest reasonable neck going, see if I could scrounge a pickup and some wiring components from the many overflowing bits boxes that must be out there, have some fun making the bitsa so I’d done it and scratched the itch for as little extra outlay as possible, and then sell it as a whole instrument for as much as possible! Then sell one of the Japanese P’s and keep the other.

I put one together a few years ago.. White MIM Fender P body from the bay - official spare part that somebody had bought and never got round to using. Mighty Mite licenced P neck with rosewood board also from the bay - seemed to be one that somebody had bought purely to practice applying dodgy decals as it had never been fitted. Tort guard left over from my departed Squier CV 60s P because it was cheaper to use one I had than buy one I liked. Badass II bridge and Schaller straplock buttons from the hardware bits box. Wilkinson tuners, Fender official string tree, neck plate, dome knobs and all screws from various Amazon sellers. A SD quarter pounder, CTS pots, Switchcraft jack, Sprague cap and wire from the electronics bits box. Couple of hours to knock it all together, a set of strings and a setup, and that was it - essentially a MIM P for about £350 when a proper one would have cost closer to £550. Granted, I was using up some bits I already had so that reduced the cost and perhaps made it more worth the effort. I was also incredibly lucky that the neck was true and the fretwork pretty much perfect. Since it was built it’s lived at our rehearsal studios and it’s been great - it plays and sounds as it should, it’s been through some hideous changes of temperature in the gear store there and it rarely comes out of the case even needing tuning. It’s taken some dings and, in fact, since I’ve not seen it for 6 months due to current events I guess could even have been nicked by now.. and I’m not overly worried since it’s a cheap bitsa, which was entirely the point. I say do it if you want to - but probably don’t do it to try and save any money, and certainly do it knowing full well that you could end up with a total waste of time and money!!

I can only speak for myself and from my own experience, but over the years I've owned 5s from all the brands you listed except Dingwall (also Yamaha, Fender, ESP and probably others I can't remember) and whilst all of them felt subtly different in a number of ways when comparing them to each other, all of them felt fundamentally different in exactly the same way when comparing them to any 4 I'd ever owned. Was it the same feeling of 'wrong' for all of the brands you listed or something different about each one?

The Tech21 Q-Strip is a handy tool - might be worth a look given what you’re trying to achieve. Para Driver is also a good shout. I’ve never actually owned the pedal but I use the rack version of it - the RPM - pretty much every day when I’m sat playing along to Spotify and it sounds great. Not as good at overdriven sounds as the BDDI/RBI or VTDI/VTRM, mind.

I put a board together with both the comp and the driver on it and I really liked both of them. The BC-1X is better than my usual EBS MultiComp for cleanliness - very impressive bit of kit and always nice to have some metering. No idea about battery life, though - always had it on a PSU. The driver works best for me as an always-on, with a dedicated overdrive in front of it to offer a bit more push when needed. In fact I’ve found a picture of how they were put together on my phone... We were putting a covers side project together with some but not all members of the main originals band so I didn’t want to use my usual bass and board but also didn’t want to think too hard about different pedals from different companies and making them all fit together, so I took the quick/easy route with all Boss gear and it worked out great. One of the songs we played was Undertow by Mr.Big and the stacked overdrive was just right for that.

The first song I learned was Def Leppard - Animal. No real reason behind it; I was just listening to them a lot at the time and that track seemed to be as good a place to start as any. Importantly, though, the first thing that I actually played along to was a TV theme tune because it happened to be playing as I'd just finished tuning my first bass after getting it home and out of the box for the first time. But then immediately afterwards I printed the tab for Animal and learned it. I quickly realised that I'd had much more fun instinctively playing along to 30 seconds of a recognisable theme tune belonging to a show I didn't even watch - something sportsy like match of the day or grandstand I think it was - than actually learning a song 'properly'. Almost everything from that point forward has been played by ear as a result of just knowing the song from repeated listening. In fact, every song I've ever actually sat and learned since has been done that way because I don't like it, so I won't ever listen to it enough to know it organically, so I have to do it by the numbers.

If I was in a band that normally commanded a fee, my answer would be “yes, if it’s still mutually beneficial to do so”. If it keeps a decent but genuinely struggling venue going and in the process it shows you in a good light, gives you something to post about on social media that’s not yet another ‘one in each corner’ video in your respective back bedrooms.. and maybe even keeps your band going given the number of musos openly questioning whether they even miss gigging.. then it could be worth it to get out there and do something rather than nothing, irrespective of monetary recompense. If it’s all very one-sided and just money down the drain for a naff outing from the band’s perspective, then.. don’t do it. As it is, I’m not in that kind of band so my answer would be “yes, if it’s looking acceptably safe to do so”.

Go on then, I’ll play. Only in the spirit of fun, though; I drew a line under this years ago, so no pointing any fingers, please 🙂 The neck pocket isn’t flat to the back of the neck and it’s also slightly too wide leaving a ridge, there are strange little oblong marks around the edges of the block inlays, the pickguard curves aren’t smooth and the chamfer angle and finish is.. variable, the battery cover corners are a different radius to the route and quite crudely finished, there are areas of orange-peel where the poly didn’t get buffed fully to gloss, and a bird’s eye has fallen out of the back of the neck to leave a hole. High-end custom builds, eh! 🙄

That’s a great looking bass and sounds like a bit of a bargain, too - well acquired! In defence of the GIOs, I have a GSR200b which doesn’t suck. It’s not pretty like the one we’re here to admire but it stays in tune, the fretwork is great, it’s the lightest bass I own and it has a conventional width nut. I genuinely like SRs but the neck on the 4s is just a bit too narrow for me so I actually prefer the GIO in that respect.