scrumpymike

To quote a well-known song: "You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone." I ended up buying back the GK MB800 Fusion I mistakenly sold.

It's very, errr, relic'd-organic, which obviously makes it highly sought-after.

I gig classic rock covers and from my experience the 3 amps that have the right core tone so you can just set everything at 12 o'clock and plug and play (as I do) are: Eden WT550 Traveler (valve pre); GK MB800 Fusion (also valve pre); Mesa Subway D800+. The first of those has the edge tone-wise and is only up for sale on here as it's bigger and heavier than the other 2. I'm sure that other heads I haven't tried will work for you too. Eden WT550 Traveler

Re Banshee headstock, the more I look at it the more I like it!! I can see one of these joining my collection (don't tell Mrs. Scrumpy 😉). It's the name I can't forgive as it's so inappropriate. Mind you, at least they didn't choose some belittling, trivialising name like 'Half-pint' or 'Wimp' or 'Shrimp' or 'Flyweight' or 'Bantam' or 'Short-a*se' (Spector please note).

Agreed, I was just going to post the same.

My fave is the Mesa Subway D800+ very closely followed by my GK 800 Fusion - not much in it.

Yes, I'll be interested to hear what the Ray owners think of it.

OK, so my Olympic White SBMM short-scale Ray arrived in the week from Bass Direct. It was ordered by e-mail just after lunch on day 1 and delivered by DPD at 8.30am on day 2 with packaging and contents all intact. Pretty amazing under the current circumstances. As for the bass itself, it really is incredibly good. US owners have been giving these glowing reports on Talkbass, including one guy who reckons there's very little difference between the one he's just bought and the $2k+ US-made EB he already has. Even so, I didn't want to raise my expectations too high but as soon as I got mine out of its gig-bag the quality was obvious. The build, finish and fittings are excellent, the only exception being a small flaw in the wire wrap of the G-string. No obvious reason though (like being crushed against a fret) and I will report it to BD tomorrow. All that needed changing was the set-up: no relief in the neck, action way too high (for me anyway), and nut-slots not cut deep enough - par for the course with low/mid-cost, mass-produced basses in my experience. Having just finished fettling it to my liking, I'm really impressed! All the adjustable stuff worked as it should and this is one sweet player. It's my first Ray experience outside a music shop but, to my ears, this one sounds really nice and I would expect it to sit well in the mix of our classic-rock covers band (assuming we ever get to gig again). I'll give it a run thru my Mesa Subway 800+ and BF SC3s at home tomorrow. Top marks to SBMM! I can definitely recommend this to any short-scale players looking for that distinctive Ray sound with maybe a bit of the edge taken off by the passive electronics on this bass. I'll try and grab a few pic's tomorrow and see if I can do a decent recording.

+1

… or even when I am in earshot 😁

Reminds me of my delight at finding an equally nice LP Triumph bass in the mid-'90s (complete with bridge cover and case). Gigged it for a few years then moved it on. That was heavier than an extremely heavy thing.

I sometimes think companies put random names in a hat and draw one out. In this case, they should have drawn again for the reason you've given.

Me too - although I'd like it more if it was different 🙂 Not sure why you would want to risk adding Marmite to a nice P-bass.

A Watkins Rapier like the ones pictured below. Mine was the light blue with bridge/tailpiece covers and chrome pickup mounting plate. The other blue one shown was the later Wilson-branded version that probably weighed a kilo less. Cost around £30 new in 1966. Thought it was SOOOO cool back then - actually still like it. http://

Not sure if they're the same spec as fitted to 6-string guitars but they work superbly well. AndyJr sourced them from Artec as a low-cost, look-alike equivalent to the SDs fitted as OE to the Fender Rascal bass. The SD's are over £300 a set and I think these were around £60. If I back-to-back with the Rascal Andy re-bodied for me (below), there's a slight difference in tonal quality but only I know that and it's close enough to make no difference. Sorry! Just realised I've posted a pic of an un-guarded bass on a topic about pick-guards 🤔

Here's the bass that AndyJr recently made for me with its ebony-veneered plastic guard. SOOO subtle and perfect against the oiled black finish.

Very nice too - and the perfect excuse for me to revisit the Alan Stivell stuff I listened to a lot in the '70s 🙂

As I've already posted on other related topics, it was hearing 'I Was Made To Love Her' that cemented my lifelong infatuation with the bass in general and Jamerson in particular (when I found out who he was). This guy was in a league of his own and it's no wonder he was earning IIRC $25k a month when that was a HUGE amount of money. I know this stuff is always subjective but I have yet to hear a Jamerson part that I can fault. He just had that natural ability to come up with parts that set the benchmark for the song in question.

No, these are passive.