Kiwi

This is the only custom bass I've ever had made. It ended up being a bit of a mess at the end of the day. If the bloke making it doesn't really know much beyond making a specific product then you end up taking a lot of responsibility on yourself.

well in which case lets secure www.bassmultidimensionalquantumreality.com If only Doctor Who owned a fender jazz, eh?

All the exposed metal bits have to be coated in a rare metal, gold's not rare enough. Its got to be futurinium or something pretentious sounding. Preferably with a trademark signs all over. Something reassuringly elitist. Yeah and then it'll sound like liquid jesus dipped in butter. Only then will I get respect from my fellow bass players and it will definitely help me address my feelings of inadequacy. The fact that it going to cost more than a years worth of therapy doesn't matter, coz I won't have to face my personal problems. Oops. Did I go too far? I never know... :wacko:

Here's my motley lot, although if any of you have accessed my [url="http://www.freewebs.com/crazykiwi_bass/mybasses.htm"]website [/url]there probably won't be anything you haven't seen already. Anyways, to start off with this is my trio of Smith BSR-GN basses. I like them because they're well made, warm, growly and supple to play. I originally bought the fretted 5 string from the Bass Palace (now out of business) in 2003 and they got it in a trade from The Low End in Tennesee as NOS. It was a bit of an epiphanic experience to see this bass when I collected it in Hong Kong - couldn't wait to get it back to the UK and plug it in. Sound wise its very warm, growly and has a crisp but not overly bright top end. I've recorded with this bass and it sounds near perfect going into the desk - very phat and growly. The neck is made from a 5 piece laminate of maple and bubinga with graphite reinforcing and an ebony fingerboard. The body wings are made with maple facings front and back on a mahogany core. The pickups and 3 band 9v preamp are kens own brand as is the hardware apart from the tuners which are Schaller M4's. For a long time after getting the fretted, I'd been looking for a matching fretless. Then last year, after faffing about with Modulus and Pedulla, I spotted a fretless 5 at BassNW and pretty much bought it on impulse. I did worry that the differences in body wood might mean tonal differences too, but they weren't significant enough at performance volumes for me to worry about. So now I have a pair of fretted and fretless basses that I can swap interchangably mid set without needing to faff with the eq on the amp or on the desk. The neck is the same maple and bubinga 5 piece laminate with ebony fingerboard as for the fretted 5 and the body wings are plain black walnut over flamed maple core. Compared to the fretted 5 its got a little bit more upper mid growl. The preamp is 18v on this one with series/parallel switches and mid preset DIP switches inside the cavity, in addition to the 3 band eq. I got the Smith 6 in 2004 after I sold my house in Plymouth. Compared to the 5's, this bass is a little more even sounding across the strings. The high end on this 6 is particularly sweet - it reminds me of a flamenco guitar. Shame I don't have the skills to really put it through its paces, so its more of a toy than anything. The neck is again the maple/bubinga laminate with a black walnut core on the body wings and quilted maple facings. Everything else is the same specification as the fretted 5. Next trio is my collection of "trad" 4 strings In the middle is a Celinder Update 4, bought from Flanker, it was made in 1998 for Thomas Skarbye. I bought this bass in preference to a genuine 70's jazz bass. The Celinder is better made, better designed and sounds just as good if not a bit better thanks to the preamp. Soundwise, its about as close to the sound of Marcus Millers bass as I have ever heard - huge lows, crisp highs and a compressed upper mid range. The neck is made from maple (one piece with graphite reinforcement and maple fingerboard) and a danish ash body, lindy fralin pickups, Aguilar OBP-1 preamp and a Badass bridge. To the left is my 1978 Musicman Stingray. I bought this off Ebay with a mutilated body, and last year managed to score a matchingly mojo'd 77 body off Ebay which matches the neck almost perfectly. I wasn't too impressed with the sound at first because it sounded a little lifeless but after about 6 months it all sort of settled down and sounds as good as I think its possible for a stingray to sound. Its got warmth, bark, growl and attack in spades. To the right is a 1984 or 1979 Musicman Cutlass 1. I'm giving two dates because the body has a 1979 date and serial number whereas the neck has a 1984 date. To add to the mystery, the neck has a factory fitted three bolt neck where most Cutlass basses have 4 bolt necks. In fact, this bass was made for Cliff Williams from AC/DC as an 'artist special'. Tone wise its like a Stingray but with a slightly deeper, harder sound less growl but more oomph. I've got a case for it with Cliff's home address but as yet haven't had any confirmation letter from him Now for the single shots This is my Alembic Series 1. Alembics are idiosyncratic instruments at the best of times but I've always wanted to own one. I did own an Elan 6 for a while which I bought off Ped but it was really heavy and dark sounding so I sold it. The Series basses really are in a class of their own with a very distinctive, full but crisp sound (and growly depending on how much maple is in the construction) plus for extra w*** factor they're stereo . The bass is pretty much a swiss army knife of tone with a huge variety of tones available using the onboard Q filters. Probably what is most unusual is the graphite through body neck which probably makes it 1/50 ever made (maybe even fewer in long scale). The body is chambered and made from a core of mahogany with facings of lightly flamed walnut. This bass also has a bit of history having been owned by a number of well known Canadian session musicians, including Hugh MacMillan from Spirit of the West. This bass is a Jaydee Supernatural Mark King, it was made in 1985 and features mahogany wings, maple/walnut centre section with a glue in walnut and mahogany neck. It's pretty typical of its type but this was my first decent bass which I bought in 1991 after working two dead end jobs and saving enough to afford it. I placed an ad in UK Guitar magazine and the seller was located in Bournemouth. He was a teacher/player and was upgrading to 5 string Warwicks. Its got a very bright sound with a strong mid-emphasis and not as much warmth as my musicman basses. Because I played it exclusively for 12 years, its still the bass I'm probably most comfortable on. As for all of my other basses (apart from the Cutlass maybe) I can get super low action on this bass however the neck does need a twice yearly adjustment as we go from summer to winter and back again. Usually its just a quarter turn on the truss rod. Finally this is possibly the most amazing fretless I've ever owned. I bought it from vmaxblues via ebay and sold him back the bartolini pickups after replacing them with Alembic Activators. This bass has a poly (ie "diamondkote") finished ebony fingerboard and the neck is reinforced with steel bars so I'm able to get a super low action. The change in pickups freed up the mid range considerably and added some much needed crystal clarity which really lets the singing tone shine. With stereo chorus its lush. The bass is all maple which does give it a very bright and punchy character. There's not a lot of fullness to the B string but the Alembic pickups through a neutral sounding amp let lows thunder forth if needed. This mid range mwah is astounding and with my GK amps I can set up a mild feedback effect at performance volumes which makes the bass literally feel like its alive and has a mind of its own.

I say have as many as you're comfortable with. I've got a self imposed limit of 10, simply because I'm too concerned I might start collecting in earnest otherwise! Everytime I see an unusual graphite necked bass (eg. Steinberger, Klein, Rainsong, Strata etc.) from the early 80's on fleabay I can't help but add it to my watch list.

Welcome NAS, whats the status like to use? [quote name='Bassmonster' post='2408' date='May 19 2007, 07:56 PM']lets hope all our stays here are permanent[/quote] They will be if I have anything to do with it. I'm fed up with all this shifting about.

I am a fan of it but have yet to find a compressor I like. Most compressors I've tried have either been too coloured (removing some of the sparkle and low end) or too severe in their impact (sucking volume and adding an unnatural thup at the start of a note because the attack setting is too coarse). The kind of compression I've liked the most has been just from valves. They tame the high end (which is really all I'm after for when I'm slapping) without removing low end punch and (particularly) the mids. The Trace Elliot dual band compressor is the best I've tried so far but I still don't want to use it in my rig because the tone still isn't right. Dave Hall is going to send me his valve compressor prototype to try out soon and I'll pop a review in the reviews section.

Dood's endorsed by a few names. I think you have to approach them and sell yourself. Get a press pack together and send it to the company, put in a CV, CD, stage and studio photos and a covering letter demonstrating that you've been a life long user of their gear. Helps if they already know you too. Lane Baldwin talks about endorsement deals [url="http://www.laneonbass.com/eden.htm"]here[/url] and on his myspace blog [url="http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=80056738&blogID=197949021&MyToken=463851ad-ebca-45ea-a50a-b39dbaa27086"]here[/url]. I wouldn't say Eden are uncoloured in my experience though, I had to sell mine because it wasn't letting me hear the upper mids from my Smiths. They are good amps with the right bass however.

[quote name='MacDaddy' post='2342' date='May 19 2007, 06:29 PM']- pathological liar[/quote] I don't believe you!!

This is the most amount of gear I owned at one point about 2 years ago until I joined a band that actually gigged instead of just rehearsed. Then I had to face loading and unloading outside venues. (I have a choice of about 5 different amps there and still have two Burman heads, the Bass 400+ was bought from Basszilla and sold to Ped only to be replaced by a Strategy 400 which I use mainly as my hi-fi amp. The Eden WT800 was sold to Chrkelly, the Loud 2x10 cabs went to funky_bass_guy, one of the Burman heads went to Pete.young, I still have the Deep Impact). So this is my current rig. Just as loud but a bit less complicated. This was my rehearsal set up when the band I was in had its own rehearsal studio. I'll end up selling it when I get a few bits sorted out.

and the colour of the LED's too. Blue ones sound the best. BTW: 2 No. Trantec diversity wireless Custom 3 channel stereo mixer/Alembic power supply (being burn tested as I type) Lexicon MPX-G2 (and possibly a stereo valve compressor if I find one clean and subtle enough)

Steady on lads! We had a look at a "karma" system which R,5,R,5 suggested on Bassworld and it turned to be very complicated to implement and potentially subject to mis-use. I haven't seen any module as such which is available for invision boards that could be used as a feedback system in the same way as Ebay. So the solution we've got is very much a band aid type thing. However I'll ask Phatmonkey if there's a better and easier to implement alternative.

Its now there guys, we just forgot to put it in while we were setting up the forum behind the scenes. Pure absent mindedness on my part and nothing else.

[quote name='GreeneKing' post='2009' date='May 19 2007, 07:28 AM']I'd just like to add a big thank you for all the work you guys have put in. If I'm honest I'm a bit fed up with all the moving around and losses involved but you guys are in the driving seat. So, did I say thank you [/quote] We're fed up too, but our choices are very limited. In terms of the bigger picture, its the best way for us to make sure everyone has a forum which isn't shut down in the face of potential legal action. Thanks again Pete and everyone else for coming over.

I have a few others but these are my 4 main basses.

I don't really know in much detail to be honest. I've just found firewire very very reliable and stable, hot plugging is easy and I can daisy chain devices (I have three external firewire drives) with no problems. The firewire devices are detected easily by the PC also. I don't think there's an issue of quality - if the device is working properly then the information is getting through. There's bound to be someone on here who knows more about it than me. Yes I have Flankers old Celinder. Its a great bass, and with the two Smith 5's and the Stingray I've got a quad of stunning basses that will cover nearly any playing situation I'm likely to encounter. Chris Celinder says he'd like it back if I ever choose to sell.

The important thing is that the reviews are there. Its great the number of contributions we've got already! It could be great if we had sound clips too!

[url="http://www.usb-ware.com/firewire-vs-usb.htm"]http://www.usb-ware.com/firewire-vs-usb.htm[/url] [url="http://www.cwol.com/firewire/firewire-vs-usb.htm"]http://www.cwol.com/firewire/firewire-vs-usb.htm[/url] Here y'go matey

345 members and counting... ...this is better than we could have ever hoped for. You guys are the greatest!

[quote name='acidbass' post='1656' date='May 18 2007, 05:55 PM']There's really no Substitute for a genuine Hofner[/quote] LOL!!

Looks like we'll end up setting a BWAG's forum up at this rate!

Kiwi's musical career is remarkable for completely avoiding any band with any claims to credibility, coolness or talent. He's tried to compensate for his sense of personal inadequacy by dominating as many bass forums and telling as many outrageous lies as he can in order to attract attention to himself. He was introduced to Bassworld originally by Rich, who he later made a mod 3 years later because he only promotes his friends. He made millions out of sponsors on Bassworld and now lives in a 5 bedroom penthouse in a converted power station in Chiswick, and eats at Carluccio's most evenings on Chiswick High Road. He's also in a band with 12 female singers who can't seem to remain fully clothed in his presence. He has to leave gigs early less fights break out between the singers about who gets to go home with him. Kiwi's car is a McLaren F1 and only capable of taking three at most if he fits a small trailer on the back for his gear. Kiwi also took all those spam emails seriously, now has a permenantly viagra'd appendage the size of No.1 runway at Heathrow, made yet more millions on the stock market with those share tips and the only thing bigger than his manhood is his ego. This makes some people with slightly smaller but equally distended egos very jealous, but Kiwi doesn't care. Basschat now his and he will mould it into a monument to his own greatness before charging everyone only slightly less than Talkbass in subscription fees to use it. When he's got as many people paying for it as possible, he'll plaster it in ads anyway. Aahr ahaaaaar.

and a good one matey. We've only just got the forum up and running and haven't transferred the mods over yet. We'll do that this evening and sort out someone for this forum. Thanks for the tip

how about a union jack pattern?

Hi everyone, Welcome at last to what we hope will be the final incarnation of Bassworld. The last few months have been trying for everyone, but we're through the worst of it I hope and there's nothing preventing this site from being everything and more that BW wasn't. It's an opportunity for a clean break and there's no reason to look back from here on in!! I just want to say a few shouts out first to: [b]Phatmonkey[/b] - for being the technical genius behind this forum. If it wasn't for him, you wouldn't be enjoying the slick and secure site we now have. [b]Ped[/b] - for dealing with Gerard in a way that I just don't have the patience or skills for. [b]The Moderating team[/b] - particularly Slaphappygarry, Dood, Lukeward2004 and Machines for their advice and support. We're lucky to have them onboard. Finally the biggest shout out goes to [b]YOU[/b] for your continued understanding, support and patience. Ped and I are really grateful that you've stuck with us and we hope that the forum, such as it is, will now be everything that you all want it to be and more. ENJOY!!! All the best, CK