lowregisterhead

My old much-modded '79 pre-EB Stingray, which I parted company with in 1986 when I couldn't pay the rent one month. Regretted it ever since. If anyone knows of its whereabouts, I'd be keen to get it back...

I've been playing bass for over 35 years now (dear god, is it that long?? ) and have done [i]many[/i] auditions, for big names and unknowns alike. The criteria that a band or artist uses to judge whether an auditionee fits the bill are many and various, and can be bigoted, pointless, illogical, and sometimes downright rude. I've discovered that over the years I've been rejected as soon as I set foot in the studio and without even playing a note because of my colour, my clothes, my bass, my hair (or lack thereof) my musical tastes, but never my playing as such. They may not have liked how I played it, but it was never the case that I couldn't have played what was required. The dynamic between a band and a potential new member is a difficult thing to quantify, but ultimately they will choose what they [i]think[/i] they want, whether it's actually what they [i]need [/i]or not, and there's not a lot you can do about it. Also, if you misrepresent yourself, it will all come out in the end. My own impression from what you've said is that they could be "unhelpful and over-controlling", but equally by resisting a request to learn new songs, they will think you are the same! You don't know them, so give them the benefit of the doubt. They might be great people, an are probably not relishing the task of auditioning any more than you are. Learn the songs and show willing, and if you don't hit it off when you meet, no great loss. At least you'll know some new songs!

Looks pretty good all round, but did they do it in red in '83... and with a see-thru scratch plate?? I await the judgement of the experts! http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180867662407

Hi Ben... I've been an EBS user for over 10 years, and although I've occasionally dabbled with other amps, (Genz Benz, Eden, Aguilar) I've always come back to them because they are, for me, without equal. I personally prefer the TD650 head to the Fafner. If you like Trace gear (so do I, I used it for years until EBS came along) in my opinion the TD is closer to the Trace sound. The Fafner is a great amp, but I feel it leans more towards the classic big valve head sound. The TD also has a valve in the preamp stage so you can add more warmth. The 650 has now been superseded by the TD660 - basically the same head with a few tweaks in the preamp stage. I'd strongly advise you to try one out!

I just sold a bass to Ryan, and it was a pleasure to do business with him. Fast payment, excellent communication, a good guy all round - perfect!

I just sold a bass to Ed, and it was a pleasure to do business with him. Fast payment, excellent communication, a good guy all round - perfect!

I had one of these in the early 80's branded as a "Lincoln', as a couple of people have already said. It looked good, but the pickups were awful, and it had a serious neck dive problem - I tried to compensate for it by loading the control cavity with strips of lead, but it didn't help much! I got shot of it not long after and bought an Ibanez Roadster...

Fabulous. I know its not THE Stingray fretless, but it's close enough! Brings back memories of kneeling in front of the telly with my nose 2 inches from the screen in awe the first time I saw Pino playing live many years ago, on 'The Tube' with Paul Young and The Royal Family. Couldn't believe my eyes or my ears.

I just bought a beautiful pearl white MM from Peter - great communication, immediate despatch, and the bass was exactly as described. A thoroughly trustworthy person, and a pleasure to deal with.

I've not seen any of them surface for sale - stayed with friends and family, I expect. I know an old band mate of his, but it's not an easy question to ask...

Maybe he's had a change of heart and taken it back! I'm sure he can't need the cash...

...in The Gallery... but it's not the famous one, apparently! Still quite nice, though. http://www.thebassgallery.com/product_details.cfm?ID=2230&type=Bass%20Guitar

Thanks you for your kind words, folks. As to the possible cost/value, I did a quick calculation, and with the purchase price of the original bass plus the new neck, bridge, tuners, preamp and scratchplate, in total it cost around what a good second hand JO5 or DJ5 would cost. I used it on a gig for the first time last night, and it was great - tonally it's quite a different animal from either of those basses. The only slight downside is the slab body, which makes it fairly heavy at a shade under 11 lbs. I'll try and put up a YouTube clip soon.

If anyone's interested, I can try and stick a bit up on YouTube so you can hear what it sounds like - as I said before, it has more than a hint of Stingray about it...

The old neck, tuners, and bridge were all sold to various forum members for new projects - I believe in recycling!

I said to a couple of people on the forum when I bought this bass that I would post something when it had been altered, and now I've gone about as far as I want to with it, here it is. As I understand it, it started life as a bit of a project, with a spare neck from a Lakland Joe Osborn Skyline that had developed a small split behind the nut from the truss rod being overtightened. A Paul Rose body was added to it, along with a Schaller bridge, a couple of Bartolini pickups, and some rather oversized Korean tuners. It showed promise, but was never really completed. It then passed through the hands of at least three Bass Chatters, and I bought it on impulse on eBay last year, thinking it might be worth investing some time and money in. It had problems - the tuners were huge and heavy, unbalancing the whole bass. The pickups had a nice variety of tones, but were pretty weak. The bridge was just too narrow, with nowhere near the spacing needed for the neck. The split in the neck, although unsightly, was stable, but the first thing I did was source a replacement - I figured that if I was going to sink cash into it and if I ever wanted to sell it, the split would make it virtually unsaleable, at least for the kind of money I'd need to recoup my outlay. Luckily I came across a brand new JO neck online, and asked the wonderful Martin Petersen at The Gallery to fit it, along with a set of Hipshot Ultralite tuners, a new ABM bridge strung through the body, and an Aguilar OPB-2 preamp. Martin finished it off with an inspired 'teardrop' scratchplate to echo the Stingray-like tones it's capable of producing. It now plays beautifully, sounds fantastic, and looks really striking, IMHO. And sorry, it's not for sale. Dave