Jean-Luc Pickguard

If its not good enough for John Giblin, its not good enough for me.

Gwilym - exactly! nail -> head It makes me cringe when people talk about being endorsed as if they don't understand something they're in the middle of.

I know a guitarist who had his knob fall off during a rehearsal. Probably explains why theyalways pull those funny faces during solos.

My, that's one fugly muddyfunker of a bridge The blingy 1980ish precision elite had a faintly similar bridge - not too similar though as it had a regular size rectangular baseplate without the Harry Hill collar bits at each side

I have a few. The brown acoustic ADI21 preamp/DI thingy is fantastic for acoustic guitar and EUB. After trying many many compressors I found that the Green BLE100 limiter is my perfect compressor - I even have a second spare one.

Fender CIJ Mustang - looks OK in vintage white, but would be nicer in Daphne Blue. Needs vintage-style tuners with 'lollypop' buttons. 1981 Cherry Sunburst Precision - The Heavy Ash body weighs more than Eric Pickles 1971 musicmaster bass - topload bridge means that Thomastic TI JF324 flatwounds are too long to work on this bass & the last time I tried short scale LaBellas, the G was too short, so I have to use crappy rotosounds. Ashbory - looks silly

I have the acoustic version of the one in the original post. I only use it for gigs, but its ideal for my tanglewood acoustic bass. It folds up tiny, so fits in the pocket of my tribal planet hard gigbag/case

There' s no such thing as a best bass - everyone has different taste. Make sure you get one which looks so cool that you can't walk past it without taking it off its stand/off the wall & having a noodle. You can get a fantastic bass for under £300. If you can buy it from somewhere that specialises in basses and has on-site expertise for setting it up - or take it somewhere for a setup. Then learn how to do setups. Nothing worse for a beginner than to have an expensive bass that plays like arse just because the shop that sold it have no idea how to do a bass setup. - I should know - I had owned my first fender for nearly 20 years before I had the courage to take a screwdriver to the truss rod.

I have a few short scales. the Korean reissue Danelectro longhorn is great fun to play - especially when fitted with the flatwound strings LaBella make specifically for it. my '71 fender musicmaster - & my daughters one are fun for something with a vintage vibe, but the second hand price of these is just daft. I used to have a squier vista musicmaster. it was fun but weighed a lot ore than it should have and the neck was rather chunky. my CIJ fender Mustang is my go-to bass. it sounds like a precision - but more so. I got mine when the going rate was £300 secondhand. I've tried a squier Jaguar SS in candy red a while ago and loved it. I wouldn't be too bothered about the weak jazz pickup as the precision pickup sounds so good on its own. The neck was shaped just like my mustang - fast slim & easy to play, but with a fast satin finish rather than the gloss of the mustang. at £166 with the current rebate offer, I'd say this is the best shortie bass value at the moment. the only possible disadvantage I can see is that the top loader bbot means that my favourite thomastic TI JF 324 strings will be too long whereas they are perfect on the mustang.

Whilst my kids were watching it I blocked it out with Brian Eno's 'Taking tiger mountain' & 'here come the warm jets' going into my ears from my DT-150s

The experts on 'rays are on the EBMM forum. Perhaps you might want to ask your question there?

Looking at the suggestions already posted, I'm wondering whether taking the rubber bung off the endpin spike and harpooning a tennis ball with it might be worth trying? Perhaps along with plugging the f-holes

A secondhand one.

I want a candy apple red squier jaguar short scale bass. at £166 delivered it would almost be rude not to, but I've run out of hiding places and I think the missus is onto me. Also I don't have any money.

Daisy Rocks are great, although my stardust elite bass is [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Daisy-Rock-Elite-Bass-/270861119091?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item3f1094ae73"]on ebay[/url] at the moment as I have too many basses and not enough room or money. I'm kind of hoping it won't sell though. My daughters also have three daisy rocks between them - another bass the same as mine a pink daisy electric and a lilac wildwood acoustic guitar.

A Gripmaster may or may not help with left hand technique - I don't know, but that's not what I used mine for. It did help me with my right hand technique. I used to run out of steam halfway through a fast song we used to play at the end of the set and would get severe cramp in the hand. After using a gripmaster these problems went away as my fingers felt a lot stronger and I could play a lot faster and not run out of steam.

I have a CR5M - my tuners are of the fiddly variety - not very different to the ones on my thunderbird

Thomann do the gigbags - this one looks identical to the one which came with my CR5M http://www.thomann.de/gb/ns_design_bass_gig_bag.htm

If a seller's asking too much, they may get more realistic offers from a potential buyer and possibly realise they misjudged the original price. However if other with no interest in buying the item, but know (or think they know) the price of everything so reckon the asking price is too high, they should keep it to themselves. The seller will eventually realise that asking too much was a waste TIM.

It looks like it has a tight radius on the fingerboard which is carried over to those lovely chunky pickups, so I wonder whether is has some kind of eub capability - or is maybe designed to be bowable. I love the Bo Diddley / ZZ Top vibe it has

I don't think I've ever played a well set up bass in a shop. I can usually tell whether a bass will be to my liking once I have set it up though.

Think some people may have voted with their numb left hands

[quote name='RhysP' timestamp='1321810826' post='1443316'] Honestly, that wasn't me who negged you. [/quote] hey no worries Rhys - I would have negged me for that, so you showed great restraint Perhaps everyone could neg this post so that I can neg everyone back with a clear conscience.

[quote name='RhysP' timestamp='1321810582' post='1443311'] You nasty f***er! [/quote] I was feeling guilty, so I voted up one of your previous posts & then I see you've taken your revenge already. This could get messy.

Sorry Rhys - nothing personal, couldn't resist voting that one down