Greg Edwards69

Slade, Wizzard, Pogues, and Mariah Carey are all in the set this month. It helps having both male and female lead singers.

I quite like that. It’s certainly an affordable way to dip one’s toes into short scale territory. Id never considered a shell pink bass before, but it looks the prettiest of the bunch.

As a fellow born and bred Canvey Islander for 30 years, I am deeply upset at his passing. A true Canvey icon.

I really hope Nathan comes back. I think he's busy with Level 42 at the moment, so fingers crossed he'll be back at some point. I've noticed this several times in the past, that they haven't completely done their research before recording. I remember the Helix for bass players video they did several years ago - they weren't even sure what some of the amp models were based on. 5 mins with the manual and google would have made it much more informative video.

I used to think the same when I had my Warwick Thumb. Until the day we played an indoor charity festival, with a stage light in the perfect place to blind me just as I started playing the bass intro to Sweet Child O'Mine... a semitone in the wrong place! It's maple boards with black markers all the way now!

Until recently, I had convinced myself that my preference was for chunky bassball bat necks, with wide nuts. I used to play a 5 string Warwick Thumb with a huge neck but found that my hand would occasionally cramp up on when playing repetitive riffs near the nut. I was sure the problem was the narrower spacing at the nut. My Yamaha Attitude has a chunky vintage P profile and feels great. I later got lower end Attitude as a backup (that I stupidly p/exed a Yamaha RBX4/A2 for*) with the same nut width, but I really didn't enjoy playing it as the neck was considerably thinner. That got replaced by my Squier 50s P. It's not a huge neck but has a very comfortable C profile. This got me thinking that maybe my issue wasn't nut width, but profile. I had a hankering for a lightweight Jazz bass and ended up getting my G&L Tribute JB-2. It has a smaller jazz nut width with a sensible C profile. Again, very comfortable to play. In retrospect, I now wonder if the Warwick's neck was too big for me, and combined with terrible ergonomics (tiny body and mile long neck), this was the main cause of the hand cramping, and not the string spacing. *I really wish I had kept this one. Not the prettiest of basses, but in hindsight, I never had an issue with the 40mm nut width and the neck profile was perfect. I also prefer lighter weight basses these days This one really ticked all the boxes.

I'm surprised you say the bridge is terrible. Sure, it's an inexpensive vintage-style affair and not exactly a hipshot or hi-mass babicz or omega. But I would expect a Wilkinson bridge to be more than adequate.

What system are you using for your FOH PA? I’ve been looking in line array systems - is yours for vocal only or could he handle all the instruments without backline?

This is one of the reasons I decided to buy my G&L Tribute JB2 last year. Jazz bass with a precision shape body. I only found out about it when I was looking for a light, inexpensive bass and found it listed on Bass Direct's lightweight basses page.

Here you go, I think these are the one's installed at the factory Framus & Warwick - Strap Button Set - Black | W-Music Distribution FWIW, I've switched to using rubber washers too. I used to swear by schaller strap locks. The locking mechanism itself is fine, but as with all third party straplock systems, they require removing the original button and screw and replacing them. This action IME weakens the fixing. One on of my basses, I was frequently tightening up one of the strap button screws and had to perform the cocktail stick and superglue trick a couple of times to reinforce it, but it still kept loosening. Since switching back to the original button and screw it's been rock solid. The basses I've bought since I have only used rubber washers and not removed the buttons at all, and they are rock solid as well.

I think I'm getting my descriptive terms mixed up. If I'm understanding the definitions correctly, I think my Jabra Move's are actually closed back, on-ear. However, they still won't offer the isolation of over-ear headphones. I've had the Edifier H850 headphones on my wishlist for ages - they are basically the same product as the PJB headphones for less money. Maybe I'll pick up a pair soon. Good shout on the drum/vocal mic bleed. That didn't occur to me, but it makes sense.

I realise latency is not an issue for listening to recorded music. Not an issue at all. I'm specifically wondering about transparency mode, and if there's any latency with outside noises being processed by the Airpods and fed into your ear. I understand that you can dive into the accessibility settings and adjust the level of transparency too, which would be helpful.

Is that the latency of the transparency mode? I was considering getting a set at some point and using them as digital earplugs. But if the latency is bad, then there's no point.

That make sense. I use a pair of open back, on-ear headphones for quiet practice. Nothing amazing, just a Jabra Move set, but they sound great and dead comfy (I chose them after extensive research for a pair of inexpensive headphones, with bluetooth and optional wired connections, with decent sound and sensible non-hyped bass response - they also don't look ridiculous if I wear them in public). I can imagine that an on ear set could work better in rehearsal, as you get some of the room ambience to hear the drums properly, whilst being comfortable to wear for 4 hours. If I do need additional protection, I could switch to IEM or simply stick some earplugs in underneath the headphones. EDIT: I wonder how well bone conduction headphones would work in this regard?

That’s is the plan, but not until we get a subwoofer. But it didn’t occur to me that it could make rehearsals easier and in many ways, better!

You've gotten me thinking now. Me and the two guitarists use a helix, we always bring individual FRFR speaker to rehearsal. One of them doubles on keys, and the drummer has a little trigger device with a couple of pads that he sometimes puts in a spare channel of my headrush speaker. We could potentially just bring a 12 channel mixer to rehearsal, plug everything into it and rehearse with IEM.

If it's anything like the generic G4M system my band has, it's not great. The problem, according to the IEM bible thread, is the cheap compander in the system. It's fine for a vocal only mix, but if you put the whole band through it, the bass is the first thing to disappear. I end up using one earpiece and an earplug in the other ear. We're in the process of rethinking our IEM setup. I've pretty much given up using my Line 6 wireless, it's often too much hassle for many of the smaller venues we play in. So we're thinking out going wired with behringer P2 units for the musicians, and the current wireless for the 2 singers up front. I'm thinking of making up a loom cable so I can put the P2 on the floor with my Helix, and have a single 'cable' for guitar and headphone extention.

Aha he does mention its not that light however, but he will weigh it for a future review.

I have no opinions on tonewood either. My main concern with wood these days is weight, and as you say, whether it balances or not. Looking at the specs again, it appears the new basses have a D shaped neck profile, whereas the JB75 Vintage series have a C shaped profile. I guess there's potential for the D shape to be heavier, or maybe they break even. However, with a roasted maple neck (assuming roasted=caramelised) and the lightweight Gotoh tuners, the neck should be lighter too and balance better. It makes me wonder if HB have been listening and created this bass in answer to the comments regarding the weight of their basses.

I've just compared the specs on the HB website. The JB75 is "american ash" and the new MV-4JB Gotoh is alder. One would assume the alder bass is lighter. FWIW, the other new jazz bass they recently released in their Classic series (the Gotoh is Deluxe) has a poplar body.

I came back to post the same thing via a Music Radar article. Harley Benton offers premium hardware at entry-level prices on the £199 J-style MV-4JB Gotoh bass guitar | MusicRadar I have to admit, they are quite pretty basses. I don't usually go for shell pink (it's a bit of fad at the moment), but it does look quite handsome. I just wish they'd offer a maple fretboard with black inlays - like the JB75 series, but with a painted, matching headstock. And I hope they've saved some weight. It's the only thing that put me off getting a JB75.

Yes. I had a problem with one of the gears on the factory installed Xtender on my Attitude Bass. It's a custom-built tuner made especially for this line of basses and not available to buy. Yamaha was no help in resolving the issue, so I contacted Hipshot. They sent me the parts I needed to rebuild the tuner, all the way from the US to the UK for free. Only problem I have with hipshot at the moment is scarcity and price. The specific ultralite tuners and xtender I want to buy for my G&L tribute seem to be out of stock in most UK vendors, and the price has skyrockets lately, like most things (I bought an xtender from Bass Direct last year for £80 - a similar tuner is now around half as much again depending on the colour. I wonder if it would be easier and cheaper to buy them direct from the US.

My brother had one for a while, and IIRC Paul Simpson bought one from Vinnie. I have a feeling Jim Nugent might have had one too.

Indeed, there were a few in the UKMG who had the guitars, including Vinnie Burns for a while. I seem to recall a certain Mr Creedy having several of the basses. No idea if he still has them.

I'm inclined to agree. I'm aware of their significance and legions of fans, but I just can't stand the look or sound of ricks and I'm not keen on the sound they make either. The only redeeming feature I can think of is Rick'o'sound, a version of which found its way into the Yamaha Attitude.