BigRedX

My choice of bass is decided by the following criteria: 1. In the studio: whichever bass I own is the easiest to play in order to get the part recorded with the minimum of fuss and smallest number of retakes 2. Live: whichever bass I own best fits the image of the band while still allowing me to play the bass lines.

There are some people who appreciate good clothes and how they look in them, and others who have them simply to keep themselves warm in winter and stop them from being arrested for indecent exposure in the summer. Musical instruments are the same. Some people like to obsess over their choice of musical gear and others simply want to make a noise in a band. Neither are right or wrong. For full disclosure: I do own one item of Primark clothing; I needed a pair of conventionally smart dark coloured trousers that I will probably wear on a handful of occasions at the most. I could have bought something from one of my favourite designers or had a pair tailor-made, but on this occasion Primark at £10 fitted the bill perfectly.

This. Don't expect that extra 1" to make any significant difference on its own. The factors for getting a good sounding and playing low B are: eck construction, neck joint and choosing the right low B-string (make, construction and gauge) for your bass.

I've owned a couple of basses with such a thin finish on the neck that I could feel the wood grain while I was playing. I hated both of the them and eventually got rid. For me a thick glossy finish feels far better.

Unfortunately once you get beyond the body shape it's just an over-priced PJ bass. I do like the body shape though.

The first thing you need to check is that your drummer can play accurately to a click. If they can't then the whole thing is pointless. The other thing is that it sets the structure of the song in stone and can make changing the set order less than simple. If those points are deal breakers then you need to keep looking for a suitable keyboard player or re-arrange the songs so that you don't need one. In over 40 years, I've only played in three bands that didn't use some form of automated backing, from just a simple drum machine to complex arrangements with synths, additional guitars, percussion, and backing vocals. On of the bands that I currently play with uses a lot of additional backing, but we would drop it in an instant if we could find a suitable synth player who could double on guitar as required, and who also had great backing vocals.

Proof that great music is as much about using instruments with the appropriate timbre as it is about playing the right notes.

Here you go: In the rack from top to bottom: Peavey Rack Sentinel which provided power for the other two Peavey units and lights for the front of the rack 1U blanking plate Peavey BassFex - the input volume control is behind me on the left. The knob you can see is the parameter access adjustment Peavey Spectrum Filter - lots of knobs but all labeled very non-amp things such as resonance, envelop amount, release etc. Plus this device was only in the signal chain for those sounds that required it, and when it was all the knob settings were ignored in favour of the patch settings and MIDI commands. Boss TU12 Tuner in a custom 2U rack box. Carlsbro 2x300W power amp. The BassFex had a bi-amp module that could be slotted in anywhere in the signal chain and was set up to send high frequencies to one side of the power amp and low frequencies to the other. Effects that tended to sap the low frequency power like chorus and flange went after the bi-amp module and were set to affect the high frequency component only. The high frequency side went to the red 2 x 8 cab on the top of the stack (which I made myself based on the dimensions of my favourite guitar cab), and the low frequencies went to the Carlsbro 1x15 cab. There were also two DI boxes in the back of the rack for high and low frequency sends to the PA.

The advantage of using a non-standard bass rig, with the speaker cables permanently attached to the amp via spade terminals and then cable clipped/tied into the rack. That rig used to terrify bassists from support bands. It was bi-amped and based around a Peavy Bassfex multi-effects unit. There were only 3 easily adjusted controls - input volume, and output volumes for the high and low speakers. Everything else was parameter access or controlled via MIDI. I had a blank patch for those support bands who needed to use my amp, but we always suggested that they bring their own.

Having switched to an FRFR setup a couple of years ago, I no longer need speaker cables, but before that I had 4 (2 x Speakon to Speakon and 2 x Jack To Speakon) made up for me by OBBM back in 2010, and before that I had a set I made myself using 13A two conductor orange mains cable terminating in XLRs, back in the late 80s. None of these have ever failed.

The Simpsons is an equal opportunity offender.

But surely apart from the intonation and the tuning (which you need to do yourself) everything else in a setup is entirely personal and subjective? I know that what I would consider a good setup for me would be completely unacceptable to many on here.

But if the OP already has a bass then a synth or drum machine would be a good companion instrument. Or maybe a guitar?

A synth. Or maybe a drum machine.

And with significantly larger sample sizes.

Unfortunately it's just a marketing slogan. "The sound of active electronics" doesn't have quite same ring to it

Not in the early 80s. When they came out no-one wanted them because they sounded thin and weedy, as well as being less than intuitive to program. My synth band tried one and decided we'd wait for the recently announced MC202, which looked to be easier to program, had two channels of sequencing and a full SH101 synth built in. Come 1988 it was a different story... (Of course much of the classic TB303 sound comes from what happens when you clip the output rather than the unit itself.)

TBH this is probably the most iconic bass instrument from the early 80s...

Those Aria headstocks are from the late 70s.

Brilliant, thank you!

Yes but generally that's the least important factor. I would look at the different pickups and electronics used and the actual construction of the bass before worrying about the woods.

I saw this thread last night when the post post was the OP, but I didn't have time to post a comment. This morning I hardly need to as most of what I thought has already been said. So we have 4 basses that sound (slightly) different to each other. That's easy. Anybody can do that. It would be far more impressive if he could make 4 basses that sound exactly the same, and even more impressive if the luthier could predict exactly how each bass was going to sound before it was made. Maybe the bass version of "Snackmasters" where two respected luthiers are tasked with making a bass that looks, feels and sounds EXACTLY the same as a particular example of a classic bass. Now that would be something I would watch.

The main problem for me with the Super is that the neck is narrow even by guitar standards, let alone when fitted with Bass VI strings! I've settled on the Shergold Marathon/Eastwood Hooky neck width as being the ideal for me.

AFAIK there appears to be a lot of variation in the early Kramer basses. It's a pity the Kramer Forum no longer exists as it was a mine of information with several ex-employees from the days of the aluminium necks posting there. My 450B was fine for balance but it was relatively heavy (although not unbearably so for me). I can imagine that one with lighter body woods might have been a problem. The Kramer XKB10 was a problem for balance but again that was entirely due to the body shape and strap button positions than the fact it had an aluminium neck. A wooden-neck bass of the same design would have been just as bad. Basses made with unusual materials and less conventional designs tend to be very polarising. Also many of them date from a time when there was a distinct lack of consistency from one example to the next of the same instrument. All I can suggest is that if anyone is interested in one of these that they try the actual bass they want buy for themselves, and make a decision about that particular bass only on their experiences.