Kiwi

I could suggest the one I have on order but its got lots of knobs on it.

Its only collectable to the bloke who owns it, I guess. There are some Alembic owners out there who would enjoy the bragging rights and status boost within their own online community and lets face it, many of them are wealthy enough not to blink at that asking price.

In no particular order there are bassists I admire but, due to a lack of technical ability (i.e. practice) have no realistic hope of emulating...like Esperanza, Pino, John Patitucci and Sharay Reed. Then there are players whose bass lines I enjoy playing like Bernard Edwards, Gene Perez, Mark King (yes, I'll put my hand up), Herbie Flowers, Rutger Gunnarsson, James Jamerson and Meshell Ndegeocello. So I guess that's 11 in total...but I play guitar more these days anyway.

Alembic were always clear about no endorsements officially. Mica never responded to questions about Stanley Clarke and Mark King at the time they were asked on the Alembic club forum. I squandered an opportunity to ask Mr King about this when I shared a Jubilee line carriage with him in London last year and have been kicking myself since...

I have a pair of Bose QC25 ear buds. They're pretty good but in terms of sound quality, they don't compare to a non-cancelling set of Sony buds. I only got the Bose set because I moved to Samsung phone, still wanted noise cancelling (for Saturday mornings at my son's day care) and I couldn't use another set of Sony buds that use inbuilt noise cancelling built into my Sony Xperia Z2. Side note: Sony Xperia phones are great for audio. Stereo speakers and inbuilt noise cancelling.

Doesn't look like a standard humbucker design and the photo doesn't provide enough information to guess how the coils are connected. If you can't find an obvious place which has a blob of solder and looks like it might have had something attached, you may be better off emailing to Seymour Duncan and asking for help.

Mid to late 80's rays are the best period in the company history IMO. Quality was amazing as EB attempted to resurrect the brand.

Mark was responsible for marketing at TE.

[quote name='JTUK' timestamp='1401134044' post='2460487'] TE were the most capable for many for a while but were outclassed by SWR and Eden by the late 80's. Things move on and altho old SWR and Eden gear is still decent, there are other considerations today and the TE cabs were underpowered and heavy. TE had also lost out on the valve pre amp stage by that time as well.[/quote] I agree and more. Cumulatively I think they never quite nailed what customers expected after Level 42 broke up and Britfunk was replaced by grunge. Trace Elliot were fantastic in the late 80's. Cool looking amps, innovative, the Series 5 offered a great PA based sound. Series 6 was my least favourite range - the amps were both underpowered and lacking warmth. I liked the SMX range, particularly with the dual band compression but by that point they were too limited in terms of patching potential to use with my other gear. The MP11 I owned for example - great idea to have a MIDI programmable eq (at a time when bassists were still into gimmicks) but sorely limited by just having a single in and a single out and no effects loop. It was like the guy who came up with the idea and the guy who developed and delivered it didn't talk to each other. It should have been a master tone and switching control unit. It should have been a swiss army knife like the Eden WT100 preamp or the SWR Grand Prix - switchable stereo series effects loop, stereo - or biamp outs with crossover and parallel effects loop with blend. The mid 90's valve amps they made were amongst the best but retro stuff never sat well within Trace's historically progressive and technology focussed branding. I think the valve amps were the best kit that Trace ever made though - the only thing I would have changed is the use of LED biasing indicators for the power valves. At one point Fender were interested in Trace but went to buy their main competitor SWR instead, only after Trace had provided full disclosure though.

Greatest Dancer or Forbidden Lover could probably be rearranged as jazz standards.

It sounds like a noise gate or level issue. But you're not using a noise gate...are there any threshold related settings that you might need to pump up a bit? Other than that, it might be a dry solder joint somewhere.

welcome I always preferred Noiseworks myself but there's no denying Cold Chisel's popularity.

[quote name='leftybassman392' timestamp='1476036998' post='3150710'] he must be pushing 70 by now. [/quote] Yes and not enjoying the best of health but he's getting by. [quote name='Freddy Le Cragg' timestamp='1476120697' post='3151533'] The one amp I regret selling in my Burman 501. IT was a beast of a thing. [/quote] Looks very clean too!

[quote name='Tuco' timestamp='1479343462' post='3175892'] EVH 5150iii The cleans are awesome and goes to about as brutal as it gets. Well within your budget. Would be great through a Mesa 2x12", the resonance control makes my 2x12" sound thunderous. I used to use mine as my bass head too, I can't say enough good things about this head!! [/quote] I agree, these are fantastic hi gain amps too if the budget will stretch.

[quote name='Danuman' timestamp='1479080537' post='3173835'] If you don't mind buying a used amp, a Peavey classic 30 wouldn't stretch your budget too far. Those little monsters keep up with the best of 'em. [/quote] This would be my suggestion - get one of the older models (the newer models have a curve in the top side of the front surround). Stevie Ray Vaughn played through them and so did Nile Rodgers for a while. Great Fender tones.

I remember a Gibson SG I played had a wide fretboard, but the neck was pretty slim.

At risk of making things a little more complicated, the time I investigated Plekking I was informed that by a reputable music shop that it was a waste of money. Apparently the Plek machine didn't account for the inconsistent curve of the neck as it was under tension. This was quite a few years ago so perhaps this issue has been addressed in software updates since.

I have two shuttles these days but don't/can't gig. However I used to run an Eden WT800 in stereo many years ago. Stereo isn't ideal live where there is a lot of onstage volume as the lows lose the little direction and definition they have. But I've done it anyway with stereo chorus and fretless and dialled back the bass a little. It was one of the most memorable and satisfying playing experiences I've ever had. If you don't use stereo effects there's not really much point and the load in is so much easier.

Blessed Instruments of Loving and Glorious Enlightenment: You Know Why I'm Your Daddy?

Ibanez tsa5, £90 from thomann and they have tube screamers built in. The blackstars look nice too, don't worry about the headroom when there are so many pedals out there which will do a great job.

[quote name='skankdelvar' timestamp='1478044687' post='3166400'] [i]oi-disant[/i] milquetoast[color=#faebd7].[/color] [/quote] Do you make these words up?!

[quote name='mep' timestamp='1478029163' post='3166211'] The pre shape is a bit useless I found. Ok on its own but no good in a band situation as it gets lost. I went for boosting the low mids which will cut through more. [/quote] Me too. It sucks out all those frequencies I use for telling what pitch I'm playing. [quote name='PaulWarning' timestamp='1478030242' post='3166228'] that's what I've found, although as I said before I do cut around 6K Hz to get rid of 'boxiness' which is what some of the preshape does, and boost the low mids 100 - 200 Hz, I'm just interested in what certain frequencies do, for instance I've found that cutting 60 Hz gets rid of booming when I'm play around the 7th fret on the A string on my P bass [/quote] 6KHz for boxiness is new - normally those frequencies are around 400-600Hz. Be careful with boosting 100Hz if you're in a small room, have a hollow stage or are in a highly reflective environment. Having the stage awash with sub 100Hz frequencies is not necessarily a good thing unless you're playing a stadium or on the back of a truck outside. Lots of players make the mistake of thinking that what sounds good in practice will sound good at a gig. They then play through a set up where not being able to hear themselves is normal and they think it sounds great because it worked in rehearsal. Often bass players (and guitarists) just need to cut back [i]a little[/i] on the bass in order to achieve better clarity on stage.