Lfalex v1.1

Graham Maby sounds amazing on "Look Sharp" and "I'm the Man" (the albums)

Sorry if it's already been mentioned, but isn't the Bona model reminiscent of the Michael Manring Zon Hyperbass? (but with frets and without de-tuners)

"Resistance is futile" Or did I mis-read another thread title?

I'm not normally bothered by aesthetics, but the fact that no two angles (and there's lots of them!) seem to correspond to each other in any kind of order makes it all look a bit.... Random. I know that the frets are fanned according to a formula and the bridge saddles are correctly placed with the pickups properly angled, but they don't visually correlate to each other or any of the angles in the body shape.

Also on my hitlist, but I doubt it'll ever come to much. I'll have to stick to my plastic Ibanez instead!

I didn't realise this was actually yours...

Back on topic... I do not suffer from bass prejudice! I'll play anything. Once, in IKEA, there was a P bass copy adorning a wall in one of their rooms. It was knackered and had 3 strings. They'd screwed it to the wall to prevent people stealing/playing with it. Undeterred, I plucked a string. BOOM! The stud wall it was screwed to acted like a huge soundboard. And because it was screwed to it, the energy transfer was very good! I tuned it to itself, loosely in EAD, and played it (fretting it from the front) until they asked me to leave because of the racket. Moral of this story; Play everything you can get your mitts on. You might get a pleasant surprise! It's easy for me; tone & ergonomics > aesthetics. Others' mileage may vary, of course!

I'm going to guess that it's a modern, headless iteration of the 60's Fender V, tuned EACGC. With midi, too.

I have a Series III Passion V. The necks are quite shallow, so I don't think you'd find the 48mm width too much of a difficulty. I certainly don't. Sounds and plays rather nicely. I've had it from new since 1997, and not so much as a hiccup.

For sale, my old Resonet Arco electric upright. It dates from the 1950s, but I can't find enough images online to work out how original it is. The only obvious item missing is the headstock badge Still working. Plug it in, play and sound comes out! Strings are tired but playable. The tone is fine and it holds tune. One tuner rattles as its "elephant ears" are a little loose. It won't come out, though. The pickup is magnetic - I think it's just a whopping humbucker and is actually quite high output. No piezo pickups here, and no tone control, either! The endpin folds up, reducing the instrument to about 5' (160cm) long There's no case, but I have a thick, strong vinyl bag for it (beware, it's bright orange!) No shipping on this one, I'm afraid, so it's cash on collection from my home address in Chelmsford, Essex. I'm looking for £150... Or make me a sensible offer! Thanks for looking. Alex

I've skimmed the thread, and I'm surprised that no-one's said that they use a different strap for each instrument that they own. Over the years I've amassed a few straps, and see which ones work best with each bass, adjust according to my taste, and that's it. It's partly driven by the fact that the instruments have a combination of Schaller locks, Dunlop locks and various sizes/styles of strap button.

I can't even remember if I approached them about it. That instrument was ultimately a big disappointment and I just wanted it gone. Don't think I'd have another Status now, though.

Oddly, none really! Hate's a strong term! Maybe the Ovation electro-acoustic, but only because of the limitations of the type of instrument or the tiny likelihood of my ever being in a position to make proper use of it. Had a Stingray 5 fretless. Looked, played and felt great. But I prefer the tone of an EUB. Status Streamline; Too light and sounded it tonally. The custom wiring (series/parallel) needed a buffer or trim pots to balance the output between the two modes. The limited choice of Double-ball end strings was a pain. Having sharp ends of single ball ends sticking out from under the clamps really was painful from time to time. Phenolic fretboard started to delaminate, so I got shot of it and lost a fortune in the process.

To reinforce the point about big amps... I used to use a QSC power amp capable of 400W rms into 8ohms with a Trace 2x10 whose drivers were rated at 80 watts each (160 in total) and which presented an nominal 8ohm load. Went much louder than my Trace head could manage, with the benefit of a low end roll-off filter and much better driver control. Never blew or melted anything. A little amp being run into clipping does far more damage than a big one just coasting along.

Yep. I also like the Marcus Miller Fatbeams. Nicely balanced but really punchy sounding. And they last quite well, too.