such

fair point, I haven't really thought of that, but it's probably because I'm really happy with this P pickup, so my first thought was to just add another one. And buying a donor wouldn't probably be more expensive than buying a good pickup (unless used, which would take a while before it'd show up for sale) - I bought this bass for 80 quid and see them selling for less then 150 regularly. The big plus is, I would end up with an extra bass, which is never a bad thing, right?

so I've got this crazy idea - I love my 415, apart from the bridge pickup. It's useful, but a bit noisy and in my opinion not up to the class of the P pickup. There is no aftermarket replacement, bar magnet means it cannot be recoiled to be a split coil, and even the equivalent in the top off the line BB2025 is reported to have a noisy J pickup. I came up with an idea to make it a double P. Of course, finding another P pickup for this bass is impossible, I'd have to buy another bass like this as a donor. Not to have it otherwise wasted, I could perhaps make the other one a J+J or put those pickups close together in the stingrayish sweet spot sort of place. There would be a fair bit of routing required on both basses, and then filling the holes, but I plan on refinishing my bass anyway, so I would just need to buy the donor bass in equally unappealing colour, so I wouldn't feel bad about first ruining the finish and then refinishing. As for the refinish, I'm thinking about some rattle can nitro lacquers from that guy in Manchester, some nice old Fender custom colour, most probably Burgundy Mist, but others like Surf Green or Sonic Blue appeal to me as well. What else... bridge, definitely. Something heavy. And tuners maybe. These are good, but something lighter would be even better, as there is a slight degree of neck dive. thoughts?

Thanks again, Bob, for the whole deal and for the kind words Also, I do apologize for not being there to at least carry the rig from your car. BTW, in the original "for sale" thread someone asked you if the amp is English made, you replied that it's probably Chinese. Well, in fact it does say "manufactured in England by Ashdown Engineering" on the back (of both the head and cab), which, while I couldn't care less about the place of origin, shouldn't be a bad thing. And yeah, the Yamaha is good, best 5 string P-style bass I've played so far, apart for the newer BB1025. I'm gonna refinish it soon in one of classic Fender custom colours, Burgundy Mist maybe? Anyways, thank you

I bought an Ashdown ABM rig from Bob - not only he brought it here (to Swindon, Wilts.) all the way from Pembrokeshire, but also agreed to an odd idea of making the deal. As it turned out, neither me of any of my housemates could be at home at Bob's arrival, so I just let him know where I'd left the house keys and where's the cash for the amp. After coming back from work, I found the rig nicely placed in my living room. I should also add, at the very start Bob agreed to hold the rig for me for a couple of weeks, and all communication throughout was extremely pleasant and to the point. Thanks mate. Brings faith in mankind back

there's also a question of material used etc. There were pictures on some online bass communities of a Harley Benton bass that was dropped. The body broke and turned out to be made of a rather cheap MDF.

I was actually thinking about getting a random half-decent bass with EMG or EMG-Hz pickups just to swap them for these SD's and try them out in different wiring options.

these should be a direct swap. They are passive, coil-splittable and apparently VERY similar to what SD are making for Fodera.

I would also recommend a second hand Yamaha. You can get a late '90s to early '00s BB-series basses for under 150 pounds all the time on ebay. These are perfectly giggable workhorses, simple but effective, with solid materials and decent hardware and pickups. As for the sounds you want - any good bass can sound low and warm, that's what basses are for. If there's too much treble for a situation, turn it down on the bass or on an amp or whatever. I wouldn't go for that classic "P with flats" advice that is given whenever someone asks for a warm sound. A solid, simple bolt-on bass with two pickups and roundwound strings is my recommendation.

[quote name='Oopsdabassist' timestamp='1337537533' post='1661605'] Dava Grip Tips, not worn one out yet...lost a few though [url="http://www.jhs.co.uk/dava.html"]http://www.jhs.co.uk/dava.html[/url] [/quote] I use the Dava Control ones. Sounds just like the green Dunlop to my ears, but much more comfortable. I also like to use the metal Teckpick ones - although I was really surprised how dark they sound through amplification.

My vote goes for epoxied ebony But seriously, I've had two fretless basses. One was defretted by myself, it had a maple fingerboard with a thick poly finish on it (surprisingly, the defretting operation only left little slots that weren't affecting playability). Next one had a rosewood board, and was defretted, filled, leveled etc by a good luthier. Here, the biggest surprise was that after six years (that's how long I've had the bass in its fretless form until I sold it) of daily play, slapping, gigging etc, there was almost no wear on the fingerboard - other than tiny marks - and I was using steel roundwound Rotos. Soundwise, I prefer the tone of a board with a hard finish on it. It's bright, biting and articulate, there's always many ways to mellow it down, which would be difficult the other way round.

that's what I think. And the smaller the better - I will probably take it places (like to work) and practice.

[quote name='bartelby' timestamp='1336634910' post='1648556'] If you wanted to plug Keyboard, MP3 player and drum machine in stereo and a bass (so 3 stereo and 1 mono) you're looking at £72: [/quote] No, I want to plug a bass and then either a keyboard or mp3 player or drum machine. Thanks everyone, it helps a lot.

So I need a little mixer - one that I could use for plugging a keyboard or a drum machine together with my bass to the amp. I would also very much like it for headphone practice with mp3 (are mixer good for that at all?). If I can plug a bass and one stereo thing into it, and then an amp or headphones to the other side, it's good enough, I don't need (and won't use) other features. Now, the budget is really tight, so I want it to be dirt cheap. Is that even possible? If so, where do I look? What names, models?

kinda tempting... still available?