Osiris

I moved to the Genzlers from a TCE RH450 but I'm not sure how similar that sounds compared to your BH550. I loved the warmth and retro voicing of the RH450 and could get a similar - albeit much smoother and somehow 'bigger' retro tone - from the Magellan 800. But what has really impressed over the past year or more of gigging it is the weight, clarity, depth and articulation of the clean channel to the point that what it's now my go-to sound instead of a the more vintage bass tone that I've been using for the past 30 years. If you have a Spectracomp check out the Muscle Comp tone print if you haven't already. That adds a massive punch to your sound. Are you using ear plugs when you play? If you're playing at even modest volumes with a drummer (or anyone else making a significant row) without any from of ear protection my guess is that its ear fatigue that's the cause of the apparent dampening of attack that you perceive. Do your ears ring after a gig/rehearsal? If they are ringing it's ear fatigue caused by the volume - and you don't need to be playing flat out either to cause it. Try some ear plugs if you're not already using them and see if they help.

Genzler Magellan, either the 350 or the 800 (just ignore the drive channel, although you're missing a trick if you do ). The clean channel has a massive weight and punch. It's also got on incredibly versatile and simple pre-amp. Just ignore the anti class D brigade, this thing punches like Tyson after 8 pints of Stella

I seem to think it also claims to be where the pancake race originated too. That's flipping awesome. No? I'll get my coat.

I'm just a few miles north of MK For reasons that are still not entirely clear, Osiris junior insists on calling it smelly Olney and insists on trying to hold his breath whenever we drive through the place. Hope this helps.

Yes, I agree with you on that. Maybe if I was still a 20 something long haired rocker I'd have loved it, but as a podgy, balding middle aged man it didn't really look so cool! On my white intermediate model I had a 3 ply white/black/white one made to tone it down and it looked much more civilised, IMO.

Yes, it did. It also had Dave Ellefon's signature and a scorpion graphic on the head stock along with a mirror scratch plate. The BXP models didn't come with any of these but were still great basses considered how inexpensive they were.

And not forgetting Battenberg of course.

I have the short lived intermediate model from the Zodiac range that had the DE Scorpio headstock and mirror scratchplate of the top DE signature model but the stock pickups of the BXP (of which I have replaced the P for a Di'Marzio Model P) and it is indeed a hugely underrated instrument. Super skinny neck that makes an Ibanez feel chunky

Never a truer word spoken. Gravy is the food of the gods.

Ooooh, I like that But then again I like fish fingers in gravy.

If you're in the area and have the time, please give me a shout. Cheers!

Yes, it is similar totally to how JE used to play. I saw a video clip of him showing off his typewriter style where he attacks the strings as though playing an old fashioned manual typewriter, but my style and hand position is more like traditional finger style but I probably have my fingers a little straighter so that it knocks the string onto the frets but not completely perpendicular to them. It's more crap technique than anything! Any alleged prowess on my part is long gone

I'm in Northamptonshire, there's a PMT in Northampton so I wondered if they were possibly going to be getting one in. Thanks for the offer to try yours, I really appreciate it. I'm a couple of hours away from Southend but if I'm in the area before getting opportunity to try one I'll drop you a line

@Chownybass are there any more SWB's heading PMT's way? I'm keen to try one out and there's a PMT just up the road.

I also play in a similar way to this but using 2 - or occasionally 3 fingers for dotted 16th rhythms. I tend to strike the sting towards the body rather than plucking it parallel to the body, if that makes sense? It definitely gives that Steve Harris-esque fret clank which I personally love - although I know not everyone does. Kind of, but not exactly like slap. The tone I get has that clank to accent the note but has more body and low end a slapped note, it's hard to describe the tone but it's somewhere in between finger style and slap with a less pronounced percussive edge than slapping but more attack than traditional finger-style. The notes sound more full and defined than when slapped too, although admittedly I'm not an expert slapper. Cue amusing quip about my sexual prowess. But in answer to @Frank Blank's original post, I don't use my finger nails at all. I'm pretty heavy handed when playing so I'd imagine it wouldn't be long before my finger tips and nails were in tatters

Some interesting reading above, especially in regards to when many of you consider your strings to be dead. I personally find new strings to be quite clangy and abrasive and I prefer to play them in for a few hours first before getting the sound that I like - which is the point at that most of you seem to be binning yours! Once they've been played in I can usually reckon on 2 or 3 years before they completely lose all tone and require changing. I find that I still have plenty of definition from the strings once they're played in, certainly more definition that I've ever had with flat wounds, but I'm quite a heavy handed finger style player so there's a good deal of attack in my tone anyway. I wouldn't say that my tone is particularly retro or vintage either, but I do like to keep the mid range detail in my sound rather than scooping it out. I currently use either D'Addario or Ernie Ball as they're the only sets that I'm aware of that are readily available in a 50-105 gauge. There's a lot of love for Elixir strings above, I've had a couple of sets but didn't get on with them personally, they were OK but just didn't sound very exciting to my ears.

It even comes with a handy little attachment that could be used to give your coat a quick going over before you leave Hooverkill???

Kind of. Made me laugh anyway

Loads of people have influenced and inspired me over the years, mostly bass player but a few drummers and other instrumentalists too. But as a bass player, I've always been drawn towards the players with a great sense of melody, those who play a line or riff that you hear once and can still hum it to yourself months later. It doesn't matter if it's simple, the feel and melody are more important to me than the technicality of a riff or the number and sequence of notes it contains. For me that means guys like Peter Hook and Bruce Foxton.

An update to the original review after a year of gigging the Magellan's. I've been gigging both the 800 and 350 for around a year now and have played some 40 or so gigs with one or the other of them in that time, as well as numerous rehearsals. The honeymoon period is well and truly over now and any flaws in the amps have had time to makes themselves known … … Except they haven't. I still cannot fault these amps in any way, and I still stand by everything I said in my original review; They are infinitely flexible and can very quickly and very easily give you any bass tone you're ever likely to need (with the exception of very high gain distortion). The pre-amp is so simple and intuitive, and the EQ points are set exactly where you need them in a live situation to allow the bass to cut though a busy mix. The DI is noise free. The anti-Class D league will have you believe that lightweight amps means lightweight tone. That is simply not the case with the Magellan's, there is a real weight and depth to the tone. Although I prefer the 800 purely because of the drive channel - which I still cannot praise enough - be assured that the 350 is more than up to the task of gigging alongside a noisy drummer. In short these are simply brilliant amps, everything about them is just right.

That makes 2 of us now The county can also lay claim to being the home of Bauhaus too!

@dave_bass5 how to you find the natural amount of compression with the SpectraDrive without the SpectraComp? To clarify what I'm asking, I've always loved the sound of the Tech 21 stuff, but having owned both the BDDI and the VT bass much as I loved the fundamental tone of each I found them both way too compressed for my tastes and as a result have moved both on. I use the stand alone SpectraComp pedal and have nothing but praise for it. Obviously on the SD the compression is variable but I wondered if with the SpectraComp off, or at least on a low setting, whether there is any additional squash going on like there is with the Tech 21 stuff or if the sound is more natural, i.e. with no additional squashing going on. If that makes sense?

Looking forward to hearing what you think once they arrive. Keep us posted!

There's also a quad driver model on Amazon UK too for £48.99. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Yinyoo-Earphones-Headphones-Detachable-microphone-Black/dp/B0779QG4CG/ref=sr_1_13?ie=UTF8&qid=1523610984&sr=8-13&keywords=KZ

Regarding the KZ headphones, the link above is for the KZ ZS10 set, Amazon UK has a number of different KZ models (although I couldn't find the ZS10's) including some dual and triple driver models all at under £50. They seem to be getting generally favourable reviews too. Amazon's no quibble returns policy means that it might just be worth taking a punt. Any takers??? https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=KZ+&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3AKZ+