Lfalex v1.1

I'm sure they're lovely, but not for me at that price!

That is frighteningly complicated. I'd not know if I was coming or going!

Her catalogue contains one of my favourite performances, too. The song itself even polarises my own opinion; The lyrics are quite clever in their use of metaphor. The bassline and bass playing are superlative. And yet the song as a whole is perhaps somehow less than the sum of its parts. Babooshka.

Don't know them all, and can play maybe half of them to a reasonable standard. Not only do I feel for any potential vocalist, but if your drummer can do them justice.. That's Paice, Ward, Bonham, Torres (?) (That I can think of !) Yikes!

The Reflex, I think, if you include the switching.

I like the pre-amp on the Big Al... but it's concealed by the body. Which is.... uh... not so great?

I had a 1990 Stingray5 Fretless. Wonderfully made, lovely thing. But it never gelled properly for me- retrospectively, I think my choice of strings were poor. I moved it on at zero loss after a decade and stuck my neck out, buying a second- hand NS5 CR EUB with the funds. That's the sound I was looking for. And I can still use chorus (!) It just sits there on its tripod, ready to go whenever I feel like it. (Much smaller footprint than a DB, easier to store and transport, plus no mic'ing, volume or feedback issues) I always have at least one fretted hanging on the wall, also ready to go, and rotate them to ensure they all get played occasionally. Edit- I might get back into fretless eventually, but it'd need to be a special instrument indeed!

I've used- Korg Pandora A Cheap mixer NUX Mighty Plug They're all perfectly serviceable solutions. The Pandora did well for having a built in tuner and effects. The mixer has the greatest flexibility, and is a generally useful item to own. The NUX wins for portability and the fact that it reduces cabling to just a headphone cable. All are perfectly adequate for silent home practice, but any battery powered unit will be better for use away from the home environment. I use a mobile phone to supply music. It has a headphone socket so can be connected to other devices via an Aux cable. The files are stored on the phone, so I don't have to rely on Internet availability to practice.

I seem to recall having played a fan- fretted bass at some point. There doesn't seem to be a very consistent approach in terms of scale length; For example a 5 string Dingwall is 34-37", whereas their Super P4 is 32-34.5". Surely there's an approximately optimal length for any given string/pitch as determined by maths/ player consensus. The latter seems to favour about 32" for a G string and around 35" for a B string. I don't think I've seen a (5 string) design that seems to embrace a short scale approach for the higher pitched strings and a slightly longer than long scale (34") for the lower pitches.

(I have no connection to or affiliation with Newtone Strings) I mailed Newtone with a query about Chapman Stick Strings. Neil replied with the precise measurements relating to my query... 2 minutes later. Wouldn't normally make a big deal about such a thing, but excellent service should be recognised. I'll check the measurements tonight, and I'll be placing an order straight away.

No one in that demographic! Which raises an interesting (albeit tangential) question; What is the bulk of the bass-buying demographic, and does it shift dramatically with manufacturer and style of instrument? Relevance here; who is buying the Joe Dart? Under 30's? I'm much older, and I only know of him from threads like this...

It's not like Flea or Tony Levin got one (other than TL's OLP) Surely they're two of EBMM's more prominent long- term users?

Beginning to look like a Mike Dirnt, but with a more contoured body/ different scratchplate. Can't comment on pickups, mind.

I just don't think that recordings can do justice to every aspect of a performance (or even series of notes) at once. Irrespective of methodology, something gets lost, even without compression, EQ etc. in play. Maybe it's just the shorter signal path. Maybe it's the complication of ADC/transcription/DAC (assuming digital recording) then replay equipment.

Which is infinitely better than sledgehammering a carefully placed (land) mine..