FinnDave

After many years of using separate amps & cabs, I have recently bought a couple of Ashdown ABM combos - picked them both up for less than the price of a single second hand ABM head. On the heavy side, but sound superb. Easy to set up, too.

First gig with my ABM 500 2x10 combo last night - cost me 10% of the Evo 5 head in the post above and sounded great.

Last night's gig was mostly yesterday afternoon - played with Franklin's Tower on the patio at the back of a pub close to the centre of Oxford (The White House, for those who know the area). Start at five, had to skip a few songs we had hoped to play, finished at seven - no breaks. First proper gig this year, felt good to be back out there. After some indecision about whether to the Jazz or Precision, I took one of each and the Jazz stayed in the car. Played my 2012 US Standard P for the whole gig, through the Ashdown ABM 500 2x10 combo I bought from a fellow Basschatter recently. Sounded good where I was standing, and I am told also sound good out front. Next gig is this afternoon, same band but slightly out of the city at Iffley, close to where I spent the first ten years of my life. I expect I'll use the same equipment but probably take a second Precision as back up.

Both of the Jazz basses are strung with La Bella FX flats, two of the Precisions have LaBella FS & FL, the 50s Classic Precision has Rotosound flats, which are brighter than the LaBellas. The Rotosounds have only been on for a couple of weeks, so may loose their brightness a bit over time.

Couldn't find coin so just decided to play the Precision for the first set. Turned out we only played one set - two hours long, but only one set. The Precision was perfect - my 2012 US Standard strung with LaBella standard flats. I'll take two Precisions to tomorrow's gig. Three hours, but maybe with a set break.

I decided to string my only P bass with flats a couple of months ago, and bought a MiM P to play with rounds on. That lasted less than one day before it too was strung with flats. I then bought another P bass (50s classic series) and changed that to flats almost as soon as I had my hands on it. Same story with my Jazz basses, strung one with flats and bought another to use with rounds….both have flats on now!

I've just been packing for this afternoon's gig and decided it was a Jazz bass show, so packed both Jazzes. Then I was sitting upstairs and wanted to run through one part of a song we'll be playing and had to use a Precision as both Jazzes are cased and waiting to go into the car. Now taking one Jazz and one Precision. I'll decide which to use when I get there. I think the Jazz sounds better for this band, but the Precision is more comfortable to play. Maybe I'll just toss a coin. Now I've just got to find a coin!

Correct, but you forfeit the prize because I had already written that some hours earlier!

It's certainly a shocking thread title! Dave Smith (another one - I've played quite a few gigs with yet another local Dave Smith - gets quite confusing!)

Remember, it's not about how many Precision basses you need, it's really about how many Precision basses need you.

Fellow of the Royal Society, apparently. My band mate told me so I didn't actually need to ask. I think he's used to that! I had thought it could mean 'Fairly Reasonable Singer'.

Life's too short for rigid rules

If I could keep only one bass, it would be my 2012 US Standard Precision. It currently shares wall space with two other Precisions and a couple of Jazz basses, all of which get used, but the white Precision is definitely a keeper - I've had it nearly nine years now.

You should come to one of our gigs - the rhythm guitarist/vocalist is a professor of particle physics at Oxford. At one gig last year there was a slightly starstruck scientific type watching him play and said he couldn't believe he was in a pub garden in Oxfordshire listening to an FRS playing the Grateful Dead's songs. Of course, ignoramuses such as myself had to ask what FRS meant...

I'd agree with most of your observations, but as I have never heard an elephant fart in a train tunnel I can't comment.

I try to buy my instruments and amplifiers from shops that I can visit in person - but they are becoming increasingly hard to find. They also don't do themselves any favours when their websites show something as being in stock at your local branch, but after driving there and asking for the item, they tell you that the website hasn't been updated for weeks... My last two new basses were bought on line, and although I had problems with one of them, it was replaced without any fuss.

I didn't say I was proud of it, nor did I say I was ashamed. It is a simple statement of fact. I see no need to keep up with the current fashion.

I've heard of them, but couldn't say which decade they are from.

If you botch it, you haven't just lost a blank piece of plastic, you will also have learnt a lot about how to do it better the next time. Plan to make several, each better than the last until you have one that satisfies you. It'll still probably work out cheaper than paying someone else to do it. I used to have a work colleague in Finland who was from rural Tennessee, really good guy. I couldn't say where exactly he was from, but he used to say he was from a long line of radical rednecks. He was responsible for getting me back to listening to the Grateful Dead, for which I shall be forever thankful.

I'm in my mid 60s and couldn't name a single band from the 80s or 90s of any genre.

At last, a post I understand!

I always take a spare bass and spare amp plus a DI box to every gig. I have had both amp and bass failures - the amp was brand new and died on the first song, I had a spare in the car and we carried on after about one minute, the bass was on a stand which 'fell over' (I still think someone knocked it) and damaged strings and fretboard on a cymbal as it fell through the drum kit. The spare bass was put to use. Both of these happened at the same gig - still carry spares of everything but haven't need them since.

Beautiful Jazz - and great provenance.

Depends how you do it -