Linus27

Ibanez is probably your easy off the shelf option and comes in under a £1000. Its fretless but does have lines on the top of the board so technically a lined fretless. It also only comes as a 5 string option. Very good basses and I'd love one if it wasn't lined.

Thank you @cetera @stevie and @eude for the super helpful replies. From what you say, the Monza will probably be my best bet as I really don't need a lot of volume and I do like portability. My band is a singer playing acoustic, drummer with brushes and myself on fretless so not loud. For some of the smaller gigs, I even use my Warwick Gnome 300 through an 8ohms TC Electronic 208 which gives me a tone closer to what I'm after, it's just the occasional larger gigs I'd take the MB LM and BF Two10. What's more important to me is clarity, depth, richness and I guess fullness. My tone and playing is very much in the vein of Pino or John Giblin rather than a loud rock bassist or a funky bassist. If anything, closer to Jazz so articulate but certainly not nasal sounding like Jaco. Warm, rich, punchy and clean. Sounds like a Monza is on the cards in the new year. Despite Monaco being my favourite F1 race, I proposed to my wife on the grid at the 2006 Monza F1 race so I guess it make sense to go for the Monza 😄 Thanks for the advice everyone.

I'm currently using a Barefaced Two10 which I have generally been very happy with in terms of size, weight and performance. However, the vintage flavour of the cab is not suiting what I play these days and I have for a while been looking at changing it for something that is cleaner, tighter and more articulate. I'm currently leaning towards the Barefaced Super Compact which I believe will tick the boxes for my needs but I am also curious about the LFSys Monaco and Monza after positive customer reviews on here. They all seem pretty similar in application from what I have read so far, so I am just looking for feedback from those who have more real world experience in these cabs than me. Is there much differences between the three cabs? What is the difference between the LFSys Monaco and Monza over the different speaker sizes? Any pro's and cons between them all? I am currently using a 500w MarkBass Little Mark IV and play fretless. Many thanks for any input.

My moto is life is a book, and nobody wants to waste time reading a boring book so fill your book with amazing adventures, experiences and achievements. It doesn't matter how big that book is, but like all books it needs a start and will always have an ending so make the bit in the middle amazing. As SumOne above says, nobody is ever going to say, 'I wish I watched more daytime telly alone'. 🤣

Rio or any Duran Duran is a no but The Cure were discussed.

To be fair, Adam has always been like this. I've grown up with U2 since around 83 and he has always been this very cool, intelligent, calm, thoughtful character. Not too technical but he knows his stuff and very level headed. The Edge is the technical geek, Larry is always in the shadows and Bono is Bono and exactly when you get.

Andertons have even done a big interview with him on their YouTube channel which I thought was a little unusual.

Just watched episode 3 with Nate and that was so much better. It was more about the bass and the bass lines rather than 'look at me, I'm interesting' like the other two main bassists. In hindsight, I think the producers should have focused on three different styles of bass and perhaps done an episode with Bootsy, Mark King, Guy Pratt, Gail Ann Dorsey, Daryl Jones, Norman (Fat Boy Slim), the reggae bassist and the other black guy and focused on Funk, Disco, Dance, Pop, Motown, Soul and Reggae and the styles and great bassists that influenced those genres. See if you can get other bassists involved like Stuart Zender, Flea, John Taylor, Marcus Miller and Victor Wooten involved or talked about. Then another episode with Nate, Melissa, Hooky, Glen Matlock, Adam Clayton, Krist from Nirvana, Alex James, Mani, the girl bassist and focus on indie, punk, rock, grunge, metal and show the bits about John Entwistle, Jack Bruce, Queen etc. Try and get bassists like Geddy, Sting, Robert Trujillo, Jeff Ament and probably a whole bunch of other bassists who I can't remember involved. Then another episode to focus on everything else bass related like the history of bass and technique which they touched on like slap, fretless, pick playing and different styles. Also discuss equipment so the P-Bass, double bass, uke basses, amps, pedals and everyone who contributed in the other episodes can add there little bit, for example, Mark King showing slap and Nate showing playing with a pick etc.

Ive watched the first two episodes and I enjoyed the bits when they weren't focusing on Hooky and Melissa. Nothing against them but I found the small contributions from the other bass players more interesting, especially Mark King, Adam Clayton Daryl Jones.

It's a fretless so gets a big fat juicy thumbs up from me 😃

I'm current running Bass > Tuner > Octave > Overdrive > Chorus > Reverb 1 > Reverb 2 > Compressor > Sansamp > Amp/Desk so its just before the Sansamp with the Sansamp last in the chain. I chose the Ampeg after having a great chat with @Osiris who suggested an optical compressor works really well for fretless and he was right, I couldn't be happier, it works great for me and the reviews were all really positive as well. A lot of people rate the TC Spectracomp as well though but I would say, due to the Toneprint option, you will fiddle a lot more and may not be able to easily decide what you like or what is working best for you. The Ampeg is literally three dials and super simple to setup and you can just start by having everything at 12 o'clock and tweak from there. I know nothing about the Joyo pedal though but I know the TC and Ampeg are both great.

I'm no expert but I play fretless and use a Sansamp BDDI v2 and an Ampeg Opticomp compressor and I couldn't live without it. The compressor just sprinkles magic dust on my tone and smooths everything out. I'm aware that the Sansamp pre-amps do add some compression but I found when I turned my compressor pedal off, my tone lost something and it was noticeable when it was turned back on again. The test for me was when I did a few gigs with another band and needed to build a small pedalboard for a fretted gig. I was going to save money and not bother with the Ampeg compressor but playing without it was considerably noticeable. As soon as I added it to my board (Sansamp, Octave and Compressor), my tone tightened up and was much better for it. I've heard good things about the TC Spectracomp pedal and they are cheap enough to get hold of so I say go for it.

Interesting, I think Coldplay are excellent, but I don't like them, Prince is a musical and songwriting genius but I find difficult to listen to and Precision basses are the best basses ever made but I prefer and play Jazz basses 🤣

I must admit, its a bit of a bugbear for me when someone says something is rubbish, when its clearly not, but I understand what they are saying is they don't like it. Music to me is art and a language and it either speaks to you, emotionally, physically, mentally etc. or it doesn't. We are all different so there is no right or wrong to any of this, it simply does or doesn't speak to you and one mans work of art can be a masterpiece yet to the next person it is utter garbage. Just enjoy what you enjoy. Agree with the Morrisey comments, an utter bell end 🤣

I don't quite know why they didn't as it looks unfinished to my eyes. I think if I had one, I would have to do something with it.

I would have been all over this but sadly its lined with the lines on the top of the neck. If it was unlined then I would have one for sure as they look pretty (apart from the wood at the end of the neck), sounds good and I love Ibanez basses.

I didn't realise he does trade-ins, do you know if that is still the case?

I also bought a lovely bass this year from Fender Fever and I echo the comments directly above. Transaction was easy and the bass came well packaged and the setup was amazing. I'd also contacted them on another subject to enquire about getting me a bass and I had a super quick and helpful reply back. I would happily without hesitation buy from Fender Fever again.

Does anyone know what pickups these might be? From memory, I have a feeling they were Nordstrand but I'm not 100% sure. Just wondering if anyone recognises the SED/SEB writing on the pickup and grey and white wires?

Thank you, I thought that was the case and the same as my Sansamp. I just wanted to check in case I was missing something 👍

Andertons price is £449 which is inline with the other Bassrigs. Am I right in thinking that if I wanted to have drive, I would have to stop playing, turn the drive dial to suit and then start playing again? There is no way to play with a clean tone and then kick in the drive to switch to a dirty tone on the fly?

I pretty much agree with most of what you've said, the only thing I kind of dont agree with is being moderately well known. Despite being together for only 4 years, they still achieved success with Love Will Tear Us Apart which charted at No.13 in 1980 in the main UK chart and No.1 in the UK independent chart. Their album, Closer also topped the UK independent album chart. New Order however have the biggest selling 12" record in history, 2 No.1 albums and a no.1 single so quite a bit more success. If you replace Joy Division with The Smith's, then what you wrote fits both bands, short lifespan, moderate success and cult following, a no.1 in the independent chart but minor success in the main charts. I'm not a fan of either bands really but I do love New Order.

I totally agree and he certainly influenced me a lot. His melodic approach and use of playing an open root note while playing a melody on another string is something I learnt from him and an integral part of my playing.