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Here's my last minute entry. All sounds played on the Roli Seaboard. Just made it tonight (Mrs is wondering where I am ).

I've never seen a Dingwall fretless, but according to the Dingwall chap on here a few years back, they do in deed do a lined fretless (I think an unlined variax fretless would be a bit of a tricky instrument to play). Bass Direct have a nice ABZ5 in blue. It's in my budget too. I've got over a month to decide, so looking for as many options as possible (there might be something I've never seen before).

I've been browsing the classifieds. There's a few nice instruments available. I've also been looking at Luthman basses. They make some superbly shaped instruments. Had a look to see if I could pick up a 2nd hand Ritter... No chance!

With a valve amp, sometimes it can be hard to recreate the sound of the valve power amp section. Back to fx on amps... I suppose when you think about it, most valve amps have a built in overdrive. I still think a dedicated pedal for things like octave, chorus, compressor etc gives better results. Even a decent multi fx unit should provide better results (though most multi fx are not very good at dirt).

I've spied this too. https://www.bax-shop.co.uk/right-handed-bass-guitar/sandberg-classic-special-5-string-bokote-top-fretless Bax have some great prices!

With the ones I've tried, they usually pale in comparison to having a dedicated pedal for the job. Though I've never tried the RH450, so I've no idea if the overdrive on it is good or not. You make a point though. A guitarist friend has a Kempler & it sounds pretty good (though for the money, it damn well should do).

I had a Stingray Lead with a built in spring reverb. Looked something like this. I'd probably be wearing my rose tinted specs if I were to tell you how it sounded.

I don't think tacked on compressors or octavers are a good thing. An amp really should just have input & output gain & some tone controls. Leave the effects to dedicated units.

Sounds like a message to Skelf could be on the cards next month (I'm moving house first). @CameronJ, I'm up in Perth (not Oz, thankfully), but soon to move down to Falkirk, so ACG would be a little over an hour's drive away (about 70 miles). Though I'm not against the idea of a wee drive down to Warwick & London. If I wait until July/August, I'll hopefully have a lekky car, so no congestion charge. Guitar Guitar stock Sandberg, so a trip to Glasgow/Edinburgh is imminent too.

Some good suggestions. I never thought ACG or Shuker would be in my price range. I think I'll have to take another look at both. I like most of Skelf's designs & the Shuker Uberhorn with the infinity fretboard is rather tasty too (though I'm pretty sure that one's gonna be about £1k over budget at least!). Status basses are a good shout. & the Celinder does look the part (even for a F***er lookalike ).

I'm looking at getting a nice 5er in the next couple of months & looking for suggestions on what basses I should definitely try. I'm going to try as many basses as I can & then hopefully narrow it down. I'd really like a fretless, but it's not 100% (probably about 75% set on fretless). I've spent ages going over different ideas on the Maruszczyk configurator & the Sandberg one too. I'm not a fan of the traditional shapes (e.g. Fender clones), but it's not a dealbreaker. The Warwick Alien fretless 5 seems to tick a lot of boxes on paper, but I've not tried one (yet). I'm also a fan of Dingwall basses (having played one a decade ago in Vegas & kick myself to this day for not buying it! I had the money too). I've drooled over some of Skelf's instruments & I'd love to get a UK built bass, but I think they're a wee bit out my budget. I can go a little over £2k, but I'd rather be under & have spare pennies to maybe spend on a DI pedal. If you had about £2k to spend on a bass, what would you get?

Cheers guys. It sounds like you guys are pretty happy with your basses. I'm not a fan of the "F***er" shape of the Elwood & Jake, but I like the options & colours. The Frog is a better looking instrument (IMO of course), so I'm looking at that & some of the other models. Oh so many choices!

One for the owners... How are you finding the build quality? I’m looking for a new bass in the £2k region (or less). I’ve come up with a few great looking & well spec’d basses, but I read that some of the components such as screws are of poor quality.

Would the extra power to that 3rd cab be worth it? It's likely going to be a different volume to the other 2 cabs. What about putting it in the same loop as the other 2 cabs? I know it means the full watts aren't coming from the amp, but if it's loud, what does that matter? It'd certainly be kinder to the amp's circuitry than trying to get a 4Ω load.