petebassist

They sound similar gauge to mine - just got a new Ibanez and it came with stock D'Addario ECB81 XL Chromes Regular Light strings, which are also 45-100s - awesome feel and tone,.

I tried out the MJM signature Mustang the other day while I was in my local music shop - the worn neck and frets felt great, but I found the stock string tension a bit too heavy for my taste, I'd like to try one with the lower tension La Bellas. Great giggin bass, pleased it went well.

@Jezyorkshire I nearly went for the A4 on eBay at the moment, I bet they sound fantastic, but couldn't get over there to try it out. Very happy with the Ibanez though, in fact I like it a little too much. The build quality and neck on mine are first rate & I like just having the piezo pickup.

Double-bass purists look away now - After spending ages looking for an EUB for rehearsals and the occasional tiny-gig where the big guy is too much hassle, I happened upon one of these Ibanez hollow bodied electric basses in my local music shop, and ended up buying a fretless four string. After tweaking the truss rod and raising the saddle height for the E and A string to that I can dig in, and adding a bit of sponge to dampen the sustain, I'm getting a very usuable tone that does a good impression of my amplified acoustic upright. It even growls on the E string. I found this clip in YT that shows a nice example of what it can do.

Hi mate, I don't know about getting more volume, but a preamp is worth trying out if you can get hold of one. I use a KK Pure Preamp with my upright and it enables me to dial in a nice tone even with the crappiest house PAs. It's got a volume & three tone controls, nice & simple, and clips onto my belt, so I can tweak the volume if the sound guy doesn't get it quite right (surreptitiously of course 😉 ).

@4000, hi mate, I've just bought the 4 string fretless today. TBH I preferred the top colour of the fretted, but I wanted the fretless tone so compromised on the aesthetics. I spent an hour trying it out, and took my KK Sound Pure Preamp to see what I could dial in, in addition to the built it tone control. I like the simplicity of the single volume and tone, and I got a really nice sound without my preamp from the piezo bridge pickup. It's gonna be my rehearsal/tiny gig instrument instead of the upright, so looking forward to trying it out.

Thanks for the update @Sambrook, d'you miss having a thumb rest? i usually play with my thumb on the end of the neck to get a mellower tone and on the fretless I tried in the shop the action was too low for my heavy hands (I usually play upright). I thinking about putting my own thumb rest on, you can buy rosewood ones on eBay. And interesting about the strings, I was thinking about some labella tape wounds, as I mainly play jazz & rootsy stuff, will lookup yours.

Anyone bought one of these, I don't think they've been out long? There's a fretted and a fretless version too. I like the look and the sound, though I wish they had a thumb rest above the strings a bit like on the similar Cort B4 FL MHPZ, which has a Fishman Piezo and a Bartolini mag pickup instead of just the piezo on the Ibanez, I don't think you can order the Corts in the UK, only from Thomann.

When I bought my bass new it had a fixed bridge, so when I went for a setup at Bassbags with an adjustable bridge they simply converted the existing one. Presumably any luthier could do the same, but I'm no expert. Maybe they could shave it down to remove the deep notches at the same time?

Love the tone on this & the bass line. For me being able to hear better adds to the character. My favourite bass line of Macca's is I want you from Abbey Road and the only track I know with a glissando in the bass line. Lots of isolated bass tracks on YT but I love this version on a Rick 4001. I want one!

The lightest strings I've used were Presto Jazzicatos. They used to mellow-out my old Stentor 1950 acoustic bass nicely, and felt soft under the 'fretting' fingers as well as being easy on the plucking hand.

Difficult to tell from the photograph, but it sounds like your bass doesn't have a waist extension arm at the back to hold the bass away from your body? If not, you might want to concoct one yourself so that your bass isn't too near your body and you can hold it more comfortably, like on the Eminence here. The bass should be stable enough so that you can move your hand freely up and down the neck with only a light pressure from your thumb to stabilize your hand, without having to press your thumb too hard, which I believe can cause hand/arm/shoulder strains. Small bodied/stick basses are also prone to swivelling, hence the T-shaped foot on the Eminence, which you might also be able to copy.

Yes :-) They're even more unstable in tuning though...

Have you considered hooking up with someone to do open-mics in the meantime? I found it a good opportunity to meet other musicians and contacts.

Thanks for the heads-up about this, hadn't heard about it. I love DT's collaborations with John Martyn', Glory Box, Solid Air, and David Sylvian's Ink in the Well, amazing tone he gets out of his instrument. As to GBPPH, I'd stick to chord tones if I could follow the arrangement, which is difficult as it seems to ramble on aimlessly.

I always use Vaseline or lip balm, and if it's mislaid I rub my hands through my hair hoping that I haven't washed it recently... nothing worse than trying to play with sticky hands.

After every gig I crowd-surf off the stage over the adoring bass-loving fans, then get cornered for half an hour to sign autographs and do selfies, then I'm invariably dragged off by a bunch of bass-loving groupies for a champagne fueled after show party - what's the problem here!

Good philosophy mate, well done, you'll be looking forward to getting on the road 😎

That bass plays like butter...

I don't know about the J-Tone, but I have used a K&K Bass Max - this worked very well on my Stentor 1950 laminate back with carved top, I never had any issues like you've described. I think I got it from Thomann. You can also fit these into the bridge wing without too much alteration, so maybe you could borrow one to try out?

Even if you don't like his music, (card carrying Led Zep fan here), you've got to admire someone who can entertain a whole stadium of people by himself playing just a travel guitar.

Surely that should be 'Bring It On Home' 😉

If there is an annual industry award for Best Bass Article, I think Ed deserves the golden bass gong just for including "honky tonk for chicken sh!t bingo" in it. Oh and contrary views are most welcome, it's a discussion forum after all.

Thanks for sharing. "my intention became to fill each note with what I call “life force.” " Brilliant. Ed taught me to play upright bass (via one of his excellent DVDs) - always loved his Bass player magazine articles. This one could have been called Zen and the art of playing bass guitar.