Dr M

My girlfriend recently took up bass, but found she really struggled with a 34" scale, so we found ourselves in a similar position - hunting for a cheap, playable short-scale. If you can stretch to about £200, I would [i]highly[/i] recommend the Squier Jaguar Short-Scale (Squier Vintage Modified Jaguar Bass Special SS - bit of a mouthful!) Lovely neck, fantastic build quality, and quite versatile with PJ pickups - can't really go wrong with that combo. For something cheaper, Epiphone EB-0s come up on Ebay / Gumtree from time to time. If you're lucky, you might get one for £50-£100, but I've seen them go for £150+ too, which is more than they are new! The build quality is variable, so definitely try before you buy. They're also not all that versatile. I've not tried a Bronco, but I understand some people have had success swapping the single coil for a hot-rails type pickup to get a much better sound.

Another +1 for the Bad Monkey. Bought one years ago for guitar, and now use it to just add a little grit on bass. Really versatile, and plays very well with picking dynamics. I own a Jackhammer as well, but I've never got a useable tone out of it. Sounds pretty good going via Line6 Toneport into a PC, but every amp I've plugged it into has just produced a horrible farty noise. Does make me wonder if there's something wrong with it. [quote name='nottswarwick' timestamp='1358693300' post='1943423'] James Lomenzo from Ashdown is a great pedal. I just got one, and it has a lot of versatility to it. Also the BDDI. I I might be getting one, in which case I might let the ashdown go. [/quote] Personally, I wouldn't call either of these 'cheap' drive pedals!

Never owned a truly awful bass, but pretty much every Epiphone I've played has been terrible. Ironically, the only exception was an EB-0 - recent Indonesian made one was actually pretty nice. Unfortunately I have a thing for Thunderbirds, which means I keep trying out the Epis, and keep being disappointed. The basic Thunderbird IV has a neck like a cricket bat. The Pro I played felt like someone had forgotten to sand the back of the neck, and the new Classic I tried had 1/4 inch action and a wonky bridge... I think I'm gonna have to keep an eye out for a Tokai.

Well, there we go. First night went well. Only one (noticeable) duff note during the Spanish-guitar style bit. My girlfriend later commented 'for a moment, I thought you'd gone all experimental jazz.' Everything else was great on the music front. A couple of forgotten lines from the actors, but they recovered well. Just 5 more to go!

I've always been a fan of female rock vocals, and a mix of genders does add a fun dynamic to bands. I've been working with a female singer / guitarist for a while now in a duo / three-piece arrangement (depending on availability of drummers). We mostly play originals, but threw in a cover of Billie Jean for a laugh one rehearsal. Given that said singer has a girlfriend, she could do most of the song with a nod and a wink. Until the lyric 'The kid is not my son'

[quote name='Thatguy59' timestamp='1359459655' post='1954969'] -They can't, because for some reason the B3's hardware isn't capable of it, which means we're sold what is an inferior product at the same price (although not having this upgrade kind of makes it inferior in the first place) [/quote] It's possible that the B3's hardware isn't capable of running 6 effects simultaneously, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's inferior hardware to the G3. There's a note in the manual that the bass amp models are very processing intensive, and the same might be true of quite a few of the effects. It might be that the chip is perfectly capable of 6 lots of signal-processing where the guitar effects are concerned (mainly eq / clipping / modulation) but many of the bass effects (eg. synths / compression) are just too processor heavy to pull it off without noticeable latency. Simply playing devil's advocate here. Recently bought a B3 myself, and I'd love to be able to set up 6 effects to a patch.

I've ended up playing guitar and bass (not at the same time!) in a 3-piece band for a little local am-dram panto! After 4 full runs at the weekend, tonight's the first night of a 6-show run. Gotta say, I'm feeling the nerves a little. Been a few years since I last played live, and I certainly wasn't expecting to get back into it like this. Even got a couple of solos - bassline to MJ's Bad for one piece of entrance music, and a faux Spanish guitar piece during a (suitably comedic) romantic moment.

I've got an old Squier Standard-series Jazz from 2006. The neck is fantastic - having small hands, I really get on with the slim, narrow style, and the satin finish feels great. Compared to my Ibby, I find the Jazz dead easy to play. Unfortunately, I do have 2 problems with it. The first is the weight. A 2 hour rehearsal leaves my shoulder aching like mad, and then I've got to carry the damn thing home. The second is the tone. Unfortunately, I've come to realise that I'm a great fan of the Precision tone. Just can't get that middly growl out of a Jazz. This means that I find the Jazz a pleasure to play, but I also find it somewhat boring, which is a real shame.

[quote name='Grand Wazoo' timestamp='1359127704' post='1950323'] I dread to think at the retail price of them, looks like they've cut no corners on quality and material so they will be pretty expensive. [/quote] There was a suggestion on TalkBass that the list price is going to be $2600 - $3000. Probably be looking at £2500 by the time they make it to this side of the pond. That's about normal for a PRS, I believe. And [i]well[/i] outside my price range.

http://www.prsguitars.com/grainger4/ http://www.prsguitars.com/grainger5/ Love the look of the Grainger 4. Not usually that fond of pretty wood tops, but that's gorgeous. Interested to see whether these take off. And fingers crossed for SE models if they do!

[quote name='AnalogBomb' timestamp='1358941627' post='1947295'] I know what people are saying about the manufacturing process and the impossibility of things being right 100% of the time. This to me, doesn't make it right. For companies that invest god knows how much in R&D to release a product, that has to be recalled a few months later, should be covering every angle. I could understand it more if it was a cheap, tacky product, but it's not. It's a reasonable price, but still £235 is a lot of money to me and I'm sure many other people. [/quote] I have to say, this attitude [i]really[/i] annoys me. It seems to appear any time someone has a problem with a product - someone immediately comes out with a line to the effect of 'well obviously the engineers aren't doing their jobs properly.' A company with the size and reputation of TC will employ some very experienced, very talented people. You'll probably find they also don't employ nearly as many R&D engineers as you expect. I have no doubt those engineers are kicking themselves over this, and yes, it is embarrassing for the company. But to have Joe Bloggs accuse them of failing to do their job is quite frankly rude. I'm sure you're familiar with the saying 'sh*t happens.' It does. Frequently. Even to engineering and R&D departments.

I would have thought all of Artec's stuff would use surface mount PCBs (most of it being made in China.) If that's the case, replacing the chip will almost certainly be more hassle than it's worth.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Washburn-T14-Taurus-Series-Electric-Bass-Black-Untested-Damaged-A7N026-CW-/251217395039?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item3a7db93d5f Seriously, how did someone get that wrong?

[quote name='eude' timestamp='1358852932' post='1945927'] I prefer a bit of simplicity, but I think it's a mistake to not include low mid and high mid controls. Perhaps its some kind of clever tone stack thing though, like they have on the tube series amps... 400W would be more than enough for me anyway, but you're right, cheeky even mentioning 640W. Eude [/quote] To be fair to Ashdown, it seems like a lot of companies are getting increasingly cheeky with their quoted power ratings. At least quoting a peak value as opposed to rms still has a basis in fact, and isn't a pure fabrication as some amp makers seem to be guilty of!

[quote name='Musky' timestamp='1358810041' post='1945614'] I'd imagine that's 240w at 4 ohms. 'Music power' is usually the sort of Mickey Mouse designation spirited up by marketing departments to make things sound more impressive. [/quote] That kinda adds up if its 240W rms, 360W peak.

Hmm... Looking at it more closely, that front panel is [i]very[/i] similar to the current MiBass heads - Same EQ section, Active, Shape(?), EQ switches. The Deep switch and Line In level appear to be missing. Wonder if that means they're just re-using the same preamp with a proprietary Class D power amp?

That's not an Ashdown. Where's the VU metre? Actually, kinda like the look of it. I'm guessing 240W @ 8 ohm, 360W @ 4 ohm? I wonder if the 'Student' tag is going to be reflected in the price?

Hate to spoil the rave reviews, but I tried one of these today, and I was pretty disappointed. I tried it out in Andertons, and to be fair to the guys there, when I asked to try it out, the member of staff took it off the wall, took one look at it and told me it was in desperate need of a set-up. He all but told me he'd never let me leave the shop with it in that condition! Unfortunately, it was in [i]desperate[/i] need of a set-up. The action was literally about 1/4 inch at 12th fret, and the neck was hideously bowed. Nothing tweaking the bridge and truss-rod can't fix, I know, but I'm of the firm opinion it should never have left the factory in that state. More worryingly, the bridge seemed to be off-centre. The strings were definitely skewed a mm or so towards the right hand side of the fingerboard. Again, this might be solved by a set-up, but it didn't inspire confidence. The fingerboard itself seemed quite odd, too. The rosewood was incredibly dark - almost no grain visible. It looked to me as if it had been stained, which immediately makes me wonder what the factory was trying to hide. I was particularly disappointed with the build because the sound was absolutely immense. Those Gibson humbuckers are fantastic - fat, growly, but without being muddy at all. I'm not gonna lie, I have massive GAS for a Thunderbird, but I've never played one that seemed right to me (and an actual Gibby is a bit outside my price range!) I was hoping these new Classics with the skinny neck and Gibson p'ups would be 'the one', but it seems like Epiphone are still having real problems with their quality control, even at the Indonesian plant. I appreciate this is still a budget instrument, but I would still expect any guitar or bass at the £350 mark to be free of these little niggles. Certainly plenty of other companies put out instruments in this price bracket that are completely faultless. Oh, and final good word for Andertons - the moment I finished with it, they whisked it away for that much needed set-up.

The Big Muff and the Fuzz Face have always sounded pretty good to me for that synthy square-wave harmonics tone. Disclaimer: I don't actually own either of the original analogue pedals, so my experience is based on Line6 models of them - which are usually judged to be pretty good.

Keep an eye out for a Vox Pathfinder 10B. Light as a feather and 2x5" speakers. Bit of a one-trick pony in terms of tone, but sounds alright, and the 2x5" approaches a 1x10" in terms of bass response, without the additional size and weight. I picked one up from Gumtree for £30 a few months ago.

I think the huge range of answers makes a point in itself. With guitars, there are some classic sounds - PRS & Boogie, LP & Marshall, Strat & AC30... Lots of players use these (often with their own take on it) but they're really recognisable tones. With bass, I don't think the same is true. The answers just turn into 'the rig that my favourite bassist uses'.

Might be a little bit below the price range you were looking at, but the Overwater/Tanglewood Classic J fits the bill. Jazz body and neck with PJ pickups.

I believe Precision necks have changed dimensions quite significantly over the years. A typical Jazz neck has a nut width of 1.5 inches - this makes for a narrower string spacing. I think modern Precisions have a nut width of 1.63 inches - not much greater, but it does feel significant. Some Precisions have a nut as wide as 1.75 inches.