nobodysprefect

I don't think I can call something 'the best I've ever played' convincingly - my 'best' obviously changes with the moon! And besides, over certain price you pay for a vision a lot of the time. If the vision matches yours - great! If it doesn't - well, it's still a brilliant instrument!

Aight, here goes: 1996: Rocky P-bass clone 1997: Epiphone El Capitan 1998: Warwick Corvette natural brown wood. Wenge/wenge neck. Aggressive as sh*t. 1999: Ken Smith BT5-G or summat, tiger maple then, I forget the years Riverhead 4 - last passive bass I'd play. Guild pilot 4 Spector NS2 Music Man Stingray 4, teal 3-eq - had the weakest g-string ever. Loved the sh*t out of that bass. Stingray 5 two custom builds, a J-clone and a Lakland-clone Yamaha JP2 Wal MkII 5-string NS5-XL Moon Larry Graham 5 F-Bass BN6 Dingwall Prima Artist 6 Then, I found internet fora, and I've got pics of most of these basses Skjold CS6, and after that Kenneth Lawrence Brase 5 Brubaker KXB-6 Celinder Custom 6 Conklin GTBD-7 Dingwall AB-5 Rick Turner Electroline 5 Esh Theo something custom 6 a CIJ Fender F-Bass BN6 F-Bass Studio 5 [i]an 80's us Fender[/i] [i]another mij fender[/i] [i]a usa fender[/i] [i]another us fender[/i] [i]a cij fender[/i] [i]a sting signature fender[/i] NOTE: I never played these basses, I just knew them to be easy to flip Jerzy Drozd Excellence 6 Kenneth Lawrence ChamberBrase (2?) Lakland 55-94 Leduc Masterpiece 6 Laurent Kah Remige 6 MTD 635 bloodwood top MTD 535 slapper's delight [i]another StingRay 5[/i] [i]H-H Stingray 4[/i] [i]EBMM Bongo 5[/i] [i]another StingRay 4[/i] NOTE: haven't gigged or rehearsed a StingRay in 10 years or so Dingwall Z1 Noguera Yves Carbonne deluxe 6 Nordstrand NX6 - the only one in the world with a set neck Overwater progress III 6-string Pedulla MVP 5 - shockwave re-finished this one Pedulle MVP 5 - rare figured maple top and fingerboard RBass SC 6 Roscoes: SKB3005, SKB3006, Century Signature VI (now owned by member njoha), Century Signature VI (sold to shep), Century Signature VI (sold to antonio or fiat 123545), Century Signature VI Sadowsky Metro mv5vtc Sadowsky Metro UV70 Skjolds: CS offset 92 ECS6 fretless (sold to overwater #1) ECS6fretted CS 4 PS 5 Smiths: Black Tiger Elite 6 BSR6-GN BSR5J-G BT6EG BT6TNV - another black tiger, the tone was killer, the weight more so Spectors: apart from the abovementioned JH5 Redwood LTD NS5-XL NS6-XL - a killer bass Stambaugh custom afzelia fretless tobias basic 5 W&T Chronos 6 Wal mach II in shedua this time Wal mk I 4-banger valenti 5-string warwick neck-through thumb 4, pre-switch to ovangkol warwick $$ I reckon I must be missing a few. A-ha! Fodera Anthony Jackson Signature 6 MTD 635 blackened redwood top

I think I might try and see if I can compile a list... As to why I've bought and sold so many basses: part of it must be insecurity in my abilities as a player. Another is that I am a damned perfectionist and have been looking for that one bass that would fit me perfectly. Also, I pretty much got the sound I wanted out of my URB with a visit to the luthiers and a set of Obligatos. I've never been able to get all the sounds I want out of my electrics. (Funnily enough, as different as my MTD 635 and Spector NS6-XL are/were tonally, I got the response 'THAT is the best bass tone I've ever heard, it's exactly what I've always thought a bass should sound like!' from a couple of musos completely unrelated to each other. I blame the Read preamp and ACME cabs.) I got very, very, near with the Fodera, but I realized I wasn't comfortable taking it to all my gigs. Just too much of an asset, not replaceable enough. I'm currently trying to do the Marcus thing with my MTD, which is far from a universal bass, but we'll see how it goes. Doubtless I'll end up buying a Fodera AJ bass again.