XB26354

Fodera AJ for me. Despite the 6 strings and 36" scale it has a fair few similarities to a P-bass. As the man himself said, if your playing alone doesn't impress, youve had it anyway.

Just sold a Boss Volume pedal to Laimis. Everything went very well and he was excellent with communication. Thanks! Mat

I'd want it delivered a bit quicker! [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Warwick-6-String-NT-Thumb-Bass-/320758647804?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item4aaeb48bfc#ht_1005wt_1398"]http://www.ebay.co.u...#ht_1005wt_1398[/url] Nice example of a Thumb, but a tad optimistic with the start price. £30 for "economy delivery", anyone?

Speaking of stringbusters, I popped in there a couple of weeks ago after having a revolution moment with Fender's 7250-5 nickel strings. I've been totally DR for the last 5 years ago then had a punt on the Fender as they were less than half the price of the Hi-Beams. I bought three sets and won't be going back to DR. They're apparently made by Fender in their own factory and have colour-coded ball-ends like D'addarios. Worth checking out as an alternative

Just the other side of the fence... I owned a Wal Custom 4-string as my second bass. Bought from the Bass Centre for £900-ish as at the age of 14 I wanted to be Geddy Lee from Rush (don't ask). I traded it for a Status 5-string (number 5). Many years later I bought a 5-string Custom mkIII directly from Pete. He was/is a lovely guy and I had immense respect for their operation but really don't like the basses themselves. You can't fault the craftmanship but I have serious issues with the design, ergonomics and sound. All the Wals I've tried have been mega-heavy and even the mkIII had terrible balance. The neck feels horrible to me, and the tone sounds t hin and weedy. I appreciate the custom eq but it never seemed to do much and most of the interesting bits were in the last 5mm of travel of the tone controls. I recorded a fair bit with both and the pick attack did very little in a mix. That said we all have our preferences. I do have to laugh at the prices they go for nowadays and really struggle to see what the price is for - standard top and back laminates, bolt on neck and good quality finishing (but no better than a Indonesian Lakland, for example). I hope they fixed the bridge/tailpiece as a .120 B-string ball-end would not fit into the slot of the mkII I had! If I had £3K+ to spend I can think of a long list of basses I'd rather own.

I had a TRB1006 (non-J). Great value bass but I wouldn't say it felt expensive. Body laminates looked cheap in the natural finish and hardware looked like it'd tarnish quickly (which it did). Never liked the fat brick-like neck profile either - not what you generally want on a 6. Sound was clear but rather anonymous. I moved it on because it failed to inspire me. I've not seen the J version but spec and images look identical. The original one sold for about £750 new so obviously the exchange rate didn't do Yamaha any favours in-between discontinuing the old one and bringing the new one out. It was bloomin' heavy, too!

Bought Rob's ATK405 today. An absolute steal for the money and Rob was a pleasure to deal with (as always). Seriously underrated basses! I'd definitely buy from Rob again - he's always got interesting basses too (and well done on the pink P-bass!) Mat

I just sold my American Deluxe P-bass 5 to Zalan. Everything was very smooth, and he was a pleasure to deal with. Hope it fits into your collection! Cheers Mat

The problem with a 6 is that it almost always has to be a custom job to work. I've owned and played dozens of 6-strings over the years - often several of the same model, and no one bass had everything. One soundedgreat but was uncomfortable, one played great but had terrible neck dive, one looked great but didn't quite sound right. I've tried everything from a £120 shine to a £15K Fodera Anthony Jackson and there are so many variables that it's almost impossible to choose the "best" one. If you do look at a custom bass you have to know exactly what you want down to the finest detail, and know that the combination of specs you choose will work together to give you what you need. It's also a peculiarity of 6+ strings that you can't really get away with a cheap off the peg model as the extended size and tonal range usually demands a higher quality of manufacture. Having said that, of the 6-strings I've had the Warwick Streamer Stage 1 was very near the top, if not the top. Immense tone, perfect balance and totally even from bottom to top. I briefly had an Ibanez SR5006E but didn't like it - it suffers from a common 6-string issue in that the C string sounds totally different to the other 5. Other great sixes I've had were a Ken Smith BSR6EG (the best for soloing and jazz but has one tone you can't really get away from), MTD 635-24 with wenge neck and board (the most alive bass I've ever played, gutted to sell but needed the money), Modulus Quantum 6 with Zebrawood top (#11, wish I knew where it went!) and a Yamaha TRB6P-II. I've tried four Fodera sixes and although I love the design all were pretty ordinary tonally, much like a good old Fender I guess, in that you could quite easily sound like yourself. If at all possible spend a bit as the quality shows. A few people here champion the Ibanez SR506 and it is very good value for money but if I wanted to move to a 6 it would put me off as it suffers badly from some fundamental design flaws and to my ears sounds thin and weak. All the above strictly IMHO of course

Just picked up Rob's American Deluxe P-bass 5. Great bass and it was a pleasure to do business with him. I'd definitely buy from him again. Recommended!

Marmite = popular British yeast extract spread. The gist of it is that some love it, some hate it, and those are generally the only responses!