Karnage

I'm a fairly recent convert from 4 string to 6 string (wanted a 5, but preferred the 6 to all the 5s I tried at the same time). I can't imagine going back now. The band I'm in has 1/3 of the songs or more needing the lowest string, but wouldn't want to be 'messing around' with the tuning as opposed to playing the one thing. Don't really miss the 4 that much, and when I pick it up it feels like playing a pencil with strings on it!! The enjoyment might wear a little more thin in time maybe, but I can't see it right now, even with the extra weight I have to shoulder.

I still have a Jackson guitar (Jap built one) in purple metallic, just the same colour Cadbury use! Didn't buy it for the colour at all (must have had it 17 or 18 years), but people liked it at the gigs, and these types of colour look way better under gig lights than you expect. Get it and enjoy it!

[quote name='alittlebitrobot' timestamp='1380831950' post='2231380'] I'm fairly sure that's the fretted version of the bass Bakithi played on Graceland. If so, then that is one of the nicest-sounding basses ever made even if it's not aesthetically my cup of tea. [/quote] It's great when he plays it, he makes that bass talk. A truly exceptional player from my point of view. He knows just how the make use of the 'bloom' in his fretless, especially on a couple of the tracks on Graceland. Love the taste in his playing.

[quote name='bbqbob' timestamp='1382760625' post='2256316']So I hit the stage with DJ-5 for the first time and played three full sets with it, smiling the whole time. For last set, I pulled out another Lakland I have, JO-4... and it felt like I was playing a toy bass. It took me a couple of minutes to forget the "tiny" feel and settle in again. [/quote] I can relate to that sooo much! It's even more extreme when you are mad enough to go to a 6 string and have a relatively small necked 4 like my Status is. I don't think the 6th string is all that necessary at all, it was just the bass I preferred out of the 5 and 6 string basses I tried, certainly wasn't the most expensive one! an LTD B206SM is not an expensive bass really, but sounds at least as good as my Status.

[quote name='JTUK' timestamp='1382725293' post='2256050']Too many bands have decent enough sounding gear as a backline and then run the vox through a muddy and battered pair of 12's... I really don't get that... if the vox suck then so does the band, IMO. [/quote] Never a truer word typed.

I never wanted the PA sound firing at me, I wanted the appropriate monitor mix, but we did have a big rig!!! 4 separately mixed monitors on stage. I want to hear my bvox more on stage than we want them out the front so I could pitch better. It's definitely right that the Bose idea simply isn't realistic at any sort of real volume, regardless of the electronics they use. As soon as you move around near the mics you provide a moving target (frequency and response wise) their 'clever' electronics will not cope with unfortunately. The difference between theory and practice. Not heard the Line6 yet, but they seem like a great idea. Just hope they are designed for the longer throw and to cope with poor acoustics we all deal with in pubs, not designed for an unrealistically good room!

I was a 4 string player for many years, then got involved in a project with over 1/3 of the tracks needing a 5 string, ended up buying a 6! Just liked it more than the 5s I tried...

I've seen Gear4Music do a 5-string one of those for not much more. Seem incredible value! Enjoy the gig, and send us a report!

Looks like a nice bass for £120 regardless of what it really is. If the instrument does the job you want for the money you pay it's not really an issue, but there are a few fake Fenders out there for sure. Someone brought me a Tele to look at, and it was a great guitar for what was paid, but was definitely not a Fender! The man was happy with what the guitar sounded and felt like for the money, but without the Fender transfer, it's true it would not have fetched the money he paid (a bit over £200).

By far the worst ever were some Trace Elliot strings quite a few years back. Most of the low E strings went suddenly dead in about 10 or 15 mins, we found there was a fault in one of the winding lairs in the batch that meant that layer was breaking, acting as a damper for the string!!! Sounded like they were 20 years old in a flash!! Was working for GAK at the time, and we sent loads back!! Rotosounds are higher tension than the likes of EB, Elixir, DR etc, whether guitar or bass, so when switching to or from them, the instrument needs setting up for the change. Put them on a guitar with a floating term and watch it get pulled way up! IMO having the tension of a thicker set without the benefit of that mass driving the pickups isn't my ideal plan.

Check out Pro Music International in Ickenham (do mail order too) they have a couple of b-stock LTD 5 strings, one bolt on, one through neck. http://www.promusicinternational.co.uk/ Not on their site, so give them a call maybe.

I just treat each bass as it comes. Heard great passive and active basses, and bad active and passive basses. Like Lowend said, all sorts of basses have their place. Some setups benefit from having an active bass, like wanting to use a long cable without anything buffering. I currently have a TL Audio valve Mic Pre/DI box feeding a Matrix power amp as my setup and the EQ is on my bass (although it's mostly left flat). Wouldn't really work that well with a passive bass, but both mine are active.

The change in gauge isn't major, but any reason you changed from 130 to 125? The change would mean that the neck etc would usually need adjusting unless like Rotosound strings the Status strings are high tension for their gauge in comparison to the EBs. You might have a freak string or something, although these things are rare. Might be you need to go to what you know works in the end.

Sometimes they use one routing pattern for multiple options (why the excess was covered with a scratch plate in some cases) and as in the 60s they probably did exactly that, the re-issue has to repeat all the bad bits as well as the good bits! I know what you mean about the non-scratchplate look though, it's pretty cool.

I have to disagree on US fenders being overpriced, they hold their value way too well for this to be the case. They also age their wood far better than most, especially when compared to many far eastern made instruments. If any bass retains it's value well compared to the competition in its price bracket, it can't be that overpriced as you can own one and pass it on for little cost to you. When you lose a load of money selling on a bass, you've paid too much for it. Obviously if you love it and don't sell it on you haven't lost any money IMO!