Ed_S

I'm one of those who doesn't like taking basses that cost too much out to gig with. I realise that 'they're tools to do a job' etc. but I get too preoccupied with their safety to enjoy the outing, so I play mid-value (£500-£1k) instruments out and have a couple of slightly more expensive toys to play at home, just for my enjoyment. I guess that makes my answer "both". Cheaper copies can also be subjectively better if they're built to more personally comfortable specs than the originals. The nut is too wide and the board radius too small for my liking on a 'proper' Fender 5 string P-bass, but much cheaper copies are out there with measurements that I find just right, so a couple of those (modded and fettled as required) are what I have.

I used to kick myself for more obvious (to me) mistakes, but then I saw a live festival set from a band I like, where the bassist butchered the key change at the end of the encore song. It was obvious and they literally only got it back on the held last note. As uncomfortable as I found it to listen to, and as much as I felt a bit bad for the guy, I'm glad they didn't just cut the encore off that video because it hammered home to me that not only can you still royally stuff up a song you've played at every gig for the last 12 years, it can be the fist-in-the-air moment, it can be recorded in HD and viewed over 650,000 times, and even then nobody will give a damn enough to say anything about it in the comments. I've found it quite freeing to know that I'll try to go easy on myself for any mistakes I make going forward. Last gig I played was a really solid one for me personally, but the band as a whole had a couple of blips. One where the keys were still on transpose, which made no difference to me as I play by ear, but all I could do was give the guitarist the 'watch out' look and play index-finger-only for a couple of bars to try and show him where we'd ended up before he had to come in ...and then hope the singers were still ok 4 semitones up. Went fine, but would have been an instant wreck (seemingly of my making) had I stuck doggedly to playing it where we'd rehearsed it. The other was an intro that for some reason one singer just couldn't pitch so she was perfectly out of tune for the first verse. Every fibre of me wanted to follow her and make it sound right, but the keys were sticking doggedly to playing it where we'd rehearsed it, so that one just had to be a bit clenchy until the other singer came in. Some you can cover.. some you can't.

A minor resurrection to pass comment on a rehearsal a couple of evenings ago that I'm still smiling about. An operatic metal band I recently helped out with a slightly out-of-character acoustic covers set asked whether I fancied doing a proper originals gig with them early in the new year while their bassist is still on holiday. They're genuinely nice people and a great band, so of course I said yes and duly received the 5 song / half hour set list - one of them is a 12 minute epic! I checked that I had some latitude to play them 'as myself' rather than trying to mimic their recorded material, which was fine with them, so I spent a few hours committing the songs to memory and then half my lunch hour for the next week just playing through the full set to really make sure I'd got them. Monday night was the first rehearsal and it went really pleasingly smoothly. Turned up to find that the borrowable cab in their space was a perfectly nice old Hartke VX215, plugged in my GK instead of the usual Markbass gear as I thought it'd be more fitting with their sound, and hit a near-perfect run-through of the set. They commented that it was a shame they'd not asked me to learn another particular song, but it just so happened that I'd seen they often used that one as a closer/encore so decided I'd learn it just in case (you know.. turn up to the gig and find out a band couldn't make it so everyone just gets a slightly longer set to cover) so I was able to play it there and then, which went down well. They all seemed really happy with how it had gone, the keyboardist complimented my tone for sitting perfectly in the band, and the drummer who I was meeting for the first time said he'd really enjoyed playing alongside me. All in all, one of those sessions you can walk away from feeling like you've done your job and the bit of extra effort in preparation really paid off. I'm not somebody who does dep gigs normally, but I actually wouldn't mind being their go-to. Anyway, even if it's just a one-off I'm looking forward to another quick run-through closer to the gig, and then showtime. For the gear-enthusiasts, simple but effective clean rig with a bit of edge... Ibanez SR1105B -> [G30 wireless -> TU3 tuner -> Thumpinator -> MXR M87 compressor -> SansAmp BDDI v2] -> GK MB500 -> Hartke VX215

I wouldn't have called myself a composer, but I guess I fit 'improviser' to a certain extent in that even though I play written songs (originals and covers) rather than improvised jams, I never have a completely set idea of what I'm going to play when I get on stage. I don't use manuscript, tab or charts, I don't consciously employ any theory beyond 'what my ears know', and I don't even know what any of the notes I'm playing are unless my tuner tells me, so as long as the bass is tuned 'correctly' (conventional intervals between the strings - don't care what the actual notes are) I can use it to play what I hear in my head. The oversimplified way I've put it before is that I use the bass to be able to play any song I've committed to memory in a standard manner, where some appear to commit a selection of songs to memory in a specific manner so as to be able to play the bass. I wouldn't say I practise.. but I play every day. And the point? I'll use what I have available, so if you give me a 4 then I'll still be able to play something to anything I know - it just might not be what I would have preferred. If that 4 is tuned BEAD then that's fine - it'll just be a different something and again might not be what I would have preferred. If you give me a 5 then I have the amount of room to manoeuvre that I like, and it gives me scope to play exactly what I want to in the moment. 5 has always been 'home' for me, but I limited myself to 4 for some specific reasons (covered in my earlier post) until it made sense to return. When I have a 6, I generally have to force myself to use the highest string; it rarely figures naturally in what I want to hear, so that's the musical basis on which I classify it as broadly unnecessary for me. What I have no concept of is choosing a bass with a certain number of strings to play a set of songs, knowing exactly what the correct lines are and that I won't need any note below an E to play them. I'll play what I play, and if I have a 5 then it'll be what I wanted to play. If I have a 4 in either direction it might be partly what I had to play ...and if I have a 6 it'll be what I had to stretch a bit further over to play. On balance, I don't think it makes sense to limit yourself to a lower number of strings than you personally find optimal if you're a 'make it up as you go along' type like me, unless/until you're doing it for non-musical reasons. Of course this all works for me and might not work for anybody else, and that's fine.

Wouldn't say it's cheating at all - I thought the Digi Drop was great for up to 3 semitones down when I was gigging 4s. Admittedly anything lower and it started to sound just a bit chorussy, but in a live mix it was close enough for many genres and, indeed, good for metal.

I've mentioned before on here that I spent my first 10 years predominantly playing 5s, then switched back to 4s for 10 years, and now I'm a few years back into exclusively playing 5s. When I switched back to 4s, my reasons were... - I had back problems and lightweight 5s within my budget were happy accidents. To be honest so were lightweight 4s, but there were many more 4s out there to dig through and find a light one. - Sound techs at the kinds of gigs we played seemed to be at home with a 4 string P-bass. Playing a 5 string Warlock would reliably get your FoH sound butchered; the low notes weren't worth the aggro. - I could work around the missing low notes easily enough anyway, and started using a BEAD tuned bass or a Digitech Drop pedal to get round the very few songs that really sounded wrong without them. - The feel of playing a 4 was more 'energetic'. People rightly point out the economy of motion you can enjoy with 5s, but I actually enjoy playing up and down the neck. Yeah, you can still do it on a 5, and I do, but it's a decision rather than a necessity and the extra width of the neck means it feels different. - I like to have fresh strings, and sets of 4 are generally cheaper! I've tried 6s a couple of times, and whilst I like them - mostly for the novelty - I don't really need the extra width, weight, expense etc. enough to justify playing them all the time. Beyond the novelty, the one thing I do like is that there's another string between what I'll lazily call the G and the edge of the fretboard. I've just never liked the feel of playing on the thinnest string at the edge of the board, so to have another one that I really don't need, just as a spacer, was kinda nice. Not nice enough, though.

Just measured a few of mine, all of which get set up by look and feel rather than measurements. It seems that what I consider normal is 3.5mm at the 12th for all strings, and what I think of as low is 2.5mm. The 'measurements' are oddly precise, too.

I think I have a tendency to only consider low-to-mid priced basses that impress me by not needing any work at all to be 'magic', as more expensive ones should be magic to justify their price tag. To that end, mine would have to be an Ibanez SR655 from 2018 which is just great despite not being a premium model and only having 'designed by' pickups etc. I changed the tuners as a prefer the shape of the keys on GB707s - there was nothing wrong with the stock ones, I just had a set of nicer-looking ones spare.

I think I'm now at the point where I could pretty much spec a bass to be built for me. I did it 10ish years ago and now realise that I didn't have a clue what I actually wanted other than a unique and perfect thing made just for me by somebody that everyone heaps praise onto for the flawless nature of their work. It didn't turn out that way, and I take part of the blame as I gave far too many answers that sounded like "I don't really know.. whatever is 'normal'.. I'll trust your experience". The rest of the blame was in the workmanship, but though that's mostly irrelevant here, I do wonder whether they cared less about the build since it was almost certainly not going to be what I wanted - given that I clearly didn't know. Anyway... P-shaped 5 string 3.8kg absolute maximum (lighter the better) Passive V/T 34" scale 12" board radius 45mm nut (65.5mm at the 12th) 18mm string spacing I'm still no good at describing back-of-neck profiles but I could hand one to a builder and say exactly "like this" - it's a P neck that's neither the thinnest nor thickest you've ever handled. So, I found a cheapy with most of the specs and modded it the rest of the way!

Passive, for most of the reasons others have said; less temptation to twiddle, the tone I want is 'just there', cheap and easy to service/repair/replace. I also like the 'cleaner' look of an instrument with just a couple of controls much more than clusters of knobs and switches all over. That said, most of my basses are actually active as that's the only way they come and I don't have a big enough problem with it to start ripping the preamps out. One I did rip out by necessity was a Rockbass where the preamp died. The active MEC pickups still need powering but sound great into passive VVT controls, and there was even a spare hole for a toggle switch to select one/other/both parts of the twin-jazz pickup in the bridge position, which gives a substantial difference in overall tone.

I used to have a Jake L4p+ (passive with P/H pickup config) that just had the default bridge and tuners as far as I could tell, and it weighed 3.31kg. No idea what the body wood was, unfortunately. At the same time, I also had a Sandberg SuperLight TM (active with J/H pickup config) that was designed to be as the name suggests, and was 3.02kg. If you spec all lightweight hardware, then perhaps between 3 and 3.3kg would be a reasonable expectation depending on the specific pieces of wood used.

My home jamming and quiet rehearsal amp is a Markbass Micromark 801 (50W 1x8) and I most recently used that to do living room rehearsal with considerately amplified acoustic guitar and keyboard, and two quite strident un-mic'd singers - it sounded great and had plenty of volume left to request. I used its 300W 1x12 big brother for the gig that followed just due to the size of the room, but years ago I used to do acoustic duo gigs that were coffee-house-ish in scale, and I reckon the 1x8 would even handle those just fine.

I put D'Addario XL nickel rounds on almost everything. I like Dunlop Super Brights as well, so I use those on my Warwick out of choice and my miKro out of necessity; XLs don't fit. I've tried various sets of flats, but all they do is make me ignore the bass they're fitted to until I eventually sell it.

I really shouldn't be - I've done 6 strings a couple of times now, and whilst I genuinely like them for the novelty and have no problem playing them, it's not a feature I really need so they eventually fall out of use when the novelty wears off and they get sold on. But at that price and with that nut width, yeah, I could easily be tempted to go round again.

It's not even as if they'd have to look too far to find one, given the Compressore is quite well regarded. I've had a CMD121P for a long time, with just a short break where I sold my first one, regretted it and bought a new one - with a nicer handle. Great combo for turn-up plug-in rock-out gigging, and I generally get the tone I want by leaving the EQ at noon and the filters turned off. Fits nicely with using the Micromark 801 as my living-room-rehearsal amp, since that has no EQ and only one filter to turn off in order to achieve the same sound but quieter. I do like my Markbass gear 🙂

Yup, they're my local, and they are indeed a friendly and knowledgeable bunch that I'd have no reservations in recommending. I noticed an email from them recently said they were having a clearance sale on some new gear to make room for even more second hand stock, so they really seem to be continuing to embrace that side of the market. Unsurprising when the margins on it are so much better for them and it looks to be flying out of the door as fast as it's heading in - certainly a few of the bits I've taken in were sold before I'd even left the shop, and the rest didn't take more than a few days to disappear.

If I'm out and about and see a music shop then I'll usually nip in for a brief look, but I won't waste their time or get their hopes up by trying things I've got no intention of buying from them, and I don't tend to buy token bits either. I don't even buy all that much from my local music shop, mainly because they've either binned or been binned by most of the brands I'd be interested in. What they've done instead is shift to buying and selling a lot of second hand gear; importantly without making the store look too much like a junk shop, and with good photographs and stock control online. It's working really well for them as a business, and it's allowed me to support them quite substantially by taking along my unnecessary impulse purchases and failed experiments to move on without having to deal with private selling.

Unless something stunning sneaks in before the end of the year, I think the best is going to be my Fazley Piranha 5. I’ve replaced all the hardware and electronics so it’s not quite as cheap as it started out, but it’s really light for a 5 string P-bass, the neck is remarkably comfortable and it sounds great with its new Delano pickup. Very pleased with how it’s turned out. I’m genuinely struggling to pick a worst as I’ve not bought all that much this year. Maybe the Ibanez miKro strings that were as harsh as tile saw blades and went in the bin as soon as replacements could be found.

Yeah, it's a tough one for sure. I'd like to think that some of a performance like that still lands with the audience and perhaps gets reflected on in favourable terms after the fact, but without question it can be dispiriting in the here-and-now when it's happening to you on stage. Because I was personally having fun playing with some different people in a style that I really enjoy but rarely get to take out, I was still fully invested in keeping the energy in the performance, even in the face of general apathy. If I get a call to do some more (hopefully in a more suitable venue with a more appreciative crowd and fewer pogo sticks) then we'll know it helped to sugar the pill.

Very rare dep gig for me on Saturday; a private birthday party at a village hall, playing a drummer-less acoustic-ish mix of covers and the band's originals. The audience seemed mostly disinterested, and somebody had brought along a pogo stick to entertain the children so the entire set was accompanied by a sound not dissimilar to an industrial stapler... sadly not in time with the music. In any case, I was happy with how I played and kinda enjoyed the novelty and general stupidity of the whole situation, plus I was ferried door to door and given a big block of chocolate as a thank you. One of their singers seemed quite keen to do some more acoustic stuff and said she'd be in touch, which would be fantastic if it actually happened as she's got a great voice.

Just in case anyone was fussed, this is how it turned out with the catchily-named Delano PC 5 AL/M2-AS and a guard that isn't made of resin-bound corned beef.

I went down the same track a couple of years ago, trying to figure out whether there was any stock lurking anywhere as it was on my own list of stuff to acquire. I remember playing a blue 5-string HH at Sounds Great Music in Cheadle (sadly closed now - I was trying a Markbass NY804 so this was 10 to 15 years ago) and it was amazingly comfortable to play. Sounded absolutely crisp through a Markbass F1 / NY804 as well, but sadly it was just too expensive on the day. Looking back it's one of a very short list of "I should have just bought that, irrespective" instruments; it may or may not have turned out as good long-term as I initially thought it was, but at least I'd have known for sure. I bought a Stingray Special when it became obvious that a new Sterling wasn't going to be attainable, and I completely agree - if they ever do it I'm certainly trying one!

I'm all for a backup bass if it's even slightly practical to take one, and a workhorse with as little to go wrong as possible if it's really not. If I'm only taking one then I'll favour something passive that I've wired myself so I know the components are quality and nothing's been bodged together.

I've got a Ray 5 Special, a Sandberg Cali Central 5, and used to have a Fender USA Pro Jazz 5. I don't have particularly small hands, but still found the Fender neck dimensions quite uncomfortable which is why I moved it on. The Sandberg is 35" scale so that changes the feel somewhat, but it's a slimmer nut and still a lot more comfortable than the Fender... though the way they do their fret ends doesn't really hit the spot for me. The Stingray sounds great (though the preamp does faintly pick up Radio 1) and the neck is very comfy, but it needs waxing every so often to keep the factory fresh feel. I've never played a Sire, and although I keep considering one (the P5R-5 specifically) I keep coming back to the fact that the neck dimensions look - on paper at least - to be quite Fender-inspired, and I know I'm not a fan of that. Of the basses you've shortlisted I'd go with the Stingray. I do own and like Ibanez SR 5s as suggested above, but I'd try one (including on a strap, not just sitting down) before investing, as they're overall a rather different proposition to handle if you're coming from a Fender Jazz.

I've just mostly finished a light modification job on a Fazley Sunset Series Piranha 5 in olympic white. Bought it as I was enjoying playing a Harley Benton Deluxe Series PJ-5 in hot-rod trans red that I did-up during lockdown, but I fancied something that was a pure P instead of a PJ simply for aesthetic reasons. Having done the same set of mods to each I'd say they're both great basses for their meagre asking price and as long as you're comfortable with some basic fret work (ends and polishing rather than levelling and crowning), shielding, and a bit of drill-and-dowel action where holes don't line up, they're fun to meddle with and result in a very playable instrument that you won't mind taking anywhere. The initial plan was to get a 3-ply parchment guard made, but the stock pickup (and hence the hole in the guard) is bigger than anything I can find on the market, so I need to decide whether I'm changing the pickup before I have a new guard made.