uk_lefty

That's nice!! Here's another thing that puts me off... Right handed basses.

Yep!! I find sweet home a really boring song to play tbh, not because the bass line is so simple but because it's just too long. For pub gigs medleys help keep things interesting. Please tell my band members this so they can think it's their idea and then get it on our set list 😊

Right, hopefully an end to the saga. Armstrong suggested I take it to a chap at my local music store, Music Department in St Albans. I figured that if it definitely is an issue with the pickup then they would accept that as an explanation from the people they recommend... So the bass went in and a few hrs later I was asked to collect. There was some loose wiring and poor soldering, probably through age, so they neatened it up and tested it. I've given it a quick test at home and I now have a working 1984 Aria Pro II SB-Elite 1. The Armstrong pickup is great in dual coil, really throaty deep lows and quite percussive too. Very thin on the single coil but I need to play with EQ a bit more. I haven't thoroughly given it a bash yet but plan to in the next few days to really see where this bass has its strengths. Overall I'm just pleased to have it working. It's number 4 out of 4 basses, but I'm hopeful that it will do the job for bashing out covers. With what I've had to spend on it I'd probably break even selling it, but actually hoping it finds a place and earns it's keep. It's been a frustrating journey but one that has led me to a few good lessons learned.

I sold a bass within an hour on Reverb to someone uk based, all went very well. It had been on Facebook for a while and I got "is it still available?" from two Americans and a German but nothing remotely solid in terms of interest. I didn't bother with Gumtree and I leave eBay as a last resort.

It would be hard to say. I'm a jazz bass man, so I guess if I sold my four basses I'd buy a USA jazz and have change left over. But really, the CIJ Jazz I have looks better than anything available to buy right now because the Japanese have a higher proportion of left handers so they made better options. I'd maybe get a Sire 5 string jazz then if I had to have just one so I've got that 5th string option. Amp wise I love a Trace Elliot for everything except size and weight, so I'd probably stick with my Ashdown RM rig because I don't need more bells and whistles than that. I have a Trace amp emulation in my fx board anyways. So why do I own 4 basses, then? Probably because one is a fretless I've had since aged 18, and I am most at home on that bass. I have a Stingray because it's big ballsy tone is best suited to bashing out 80s covers in a busy pub or at a wedding or function. I have an 80s Aria because I wanted it, no other reason, its probably expendable. I have a jazz because for fretted basses I prefer the sound and feel of a jazz bass over anything, even a Stingray.

Describing any bass whatsoever as "custom" "handmade" "rare"... When it's a Tanglewood precision bass over 20 years old and they're asking £250 for it.

I use one of these and carry it around in a laptop bag. I'm not an Ampeg lover myself, having got rid of my P Bass, but the Ashdown RM amp is great for flexibility. Decent amp on its own, you can add in the valve simulated drive, or you can switch off its EQ and use pedals to simulate amp and cab combos. I even had a while switching off its EQ and using the inboard EQ on a Sire bass then sometimes bringing in different amp simulation effects from a Boss multi FX pedal. These days my Stingray and jazz often go straight to the amp with no pedal in between at all. There are "better" amps out there but if you want a lightweight, not too expensive, single box to do 80 percent of what you could ever need then I don't think you'd find many better. Ml

Not sure on the specifics but I used Eurosender, the firm that gives a BC discount to send and retrieve two different basses. They outsourced to a courier company, possibly DPD, but their pricing was way better and they insure musical instruments. Their customer service was good when I made a mistake in one of the orders so I'd recommend getting in touch with them.

I think that would help offset the whole issue of reach to the neck being deceptive, the "thinking you're two frets away from where you really are" I mentioned in my earlier post. I don't know about drop tuners but what's often said of these type of basses is that they rarely go out of tune.

Of course! Basses, strings, amps, fx... I am so busy with work and family life my bass adventures live mainly in my idle imagination so I dream up changes I think I want and if something appears second hand I'll buy it if I want to or if my "i will bid low, probably won't win..." goes wrong. But may I raise you this, changing stuff for reasons that don't even fool myself? Buying gear for the band I'm never actually going to start, or because "all pro's need a..." when I am far from ever being there. Why did i need £155 worth of wireless kit? Why do I have a Badass bridge lying unused in my spares box... Why do I even have a spares box??!!!!

Nah if they made a bass version I'd have it Right, can't unsee this now. I don't want one anymore.

YES!!

Love the IT analogy. As someone who spent a lot of years writing IT contracts (after trying to drag the spec out of people, negotiate with the suppliers... Yawn) and now works in a company where Agile and SCRUM are used almost everywhere I think this is such a clear parallel, clear to me anyways. Just wonder if you could build a bass using Agile...

Looks like an incredible instrument! Love the easy selection of the sounds.

I contacted a builder a few years back and offered to go to the workshop with all my basses and talk through what I like or don't like about them and give them a link to clips of my playing. Seemed like the best way to get somewhere rather than me send a drawing or make an unrealistic or unworkable shopping list of stuff. He was open to the idea but finances prevented it from going further than a few emails, sadly.

Yeah I think they use pre made parts and they route, assemble and relic to order, helps keep the costs sensible. I could go to Nash or someone but I don't want to pay in body parts. Always drooled over Warmoth, currency conversion and taxes don't make it viable at the moment though.

I've often considered a custom but the problem for me is the sheer number of options. I'd like a really nice fretless, but then again I asked a company who makes Fender relic type things if they'd do me a Telecaster bass, 70s style, luckily for my wallet they don't do lefties. The other day I even thought "well, I should get an 8 string really!" because you can't buy them anywhere so why not have an 8 string (octaves) bass? Then I realised, I'll never use it except for messing about for five minutes at a time at home. I'm still tempted to have a nice fretless built though...

Beautiful! Would be interested in our advice... I hack around on guitar, have played at acoustic nights and so on and 9months ago picked up an electric for messing about recording, though I never expect to play ripping lead like Hendrix. I don't really want both guitars and considered something like this as a good single instrument to cover both... Is that realistic or are these more of an acoustic than a 50/50 between acoustic and electric?

Thank you both. I'm looking at what I can pick up for a good deal on fleabay, my vocal work has improved a lot in the last few years by backing a decent singer, a lot of it down to maturity and knowing my range, so in the past when someone said "let's do an Aerosmith song" I should have just said No. Does the mic mechanic help with pitch correction? That's the bit I'm looking for as I have half an idea to front a three piece while playing bass, that's where I'd need it most. For BVs it could help but I'm happy enough with most of what I'm doing now.

Not sure if this is the right place... I'm tempted by a TC Helicon vocal pedal. Either a voice tone or a mic mechanic, but open to ideas. Basically I can sing a bit but I can easily run out of steam or lapse here and there when playing bass. I'd like to see if a box of tricks could help me cheat the system a bit. Any advice gratefully received!

Hi everyone. How has anyone's new bands, or new projects, been going at the moment? Anyone started anything new or joined a going concern? I love my band, great guys, but we aren't doing enough for my liking. I need another project, something very different... I've looked in the usual places and the "established" bands that are looking for bassists are not my cup of tea either from description or from recorded songs. I have thought of contacting singer song writer types and saying "hey! Want a bass player?" but I'd rather have a bit more say in everything. Is anyone managing to form something new or get good slots in interesting bands? Where is best to look these days? While I look I might write some songs and record the guitar, bass and vocal parts, and hope i can attract a drummist and guitarer who would buy in to it...

Not sure when you compare it to the Warwick Star Bass, rockbass version, it seems OK. There aren't many lefty semi hollows out there.

They're made in Japan but with US pickups was my understanding... Though that rings a bell... Either way, they're decent.

I had an MIJ PB70 and sold it to fund a CIJ JB75-US. Coincidentally both are "US" versions so had Alder bodies and US hardware. Excellent, excellent basses. The PB was great and I was reluctant to sell, but other basses were doing its job and I'm more of a jazz bass man at heart. My CIJ Jazz is unreal. The quality of build is flawless, you can see woodgrain through the butterscotch paint, everything is fitted perfectly, the neck feels great and could only be better with a more satin finish, but the gloss is the best gloss neck I've played. It looks, feels and sounds stunning. And second hand it was around half the price of a new USA jazz bass. The only change I may consider is to add ashtrays and a thumb rest. The pickguard is pre drilled for them but the body isn't.

One of our last gigs we kept hearing "PLAY AC DC!!!" At the end of each song. So the guitars plays the opening riff of back in black, hecklers get excited and without any prior rehearsal the three of us with mics all said "nah, we don't know it" couldn't have done it better if we tried. Never got asked for it again.