JoeEvans

You can't help but suspect that the luthier had an otherwise nice batch of timber that had got ruined by woodworm, and decided to make the best of the situation...

Stunning bass!

I think a unique bass that someone has carefully assembled has another kind of mojo.

There are some gorgeous basses in this thread! I don't know why but I find a nice bitsa bass much more appealing than an equally nice off the shelf one...

Aguilar's website seems to suggest that the AG preamp pedals are super transparent, whereas the Tone Hammer aims for valve amp character, does that sound about right?

Ooh that's interesting. Thanks!

I'm after something that will work for just DI but which I will probably also use with an amp. Warm, clean or nearly clean sound, nice solid low end. Ultimately I suppose the kind of sound I used to get from a large, cranked-up Trace Elliot, in a package that weighs about 50kg less... But I'm also more broadly interested to know what's out there and to hear some user experiences, I find it hard to hear subtle tonal differences in YouTube review videos ...

I've tried a few that were good at adding eq, drive etc but seemed pretty transparent in themselves. I want something which adds a bit of warmth and solidity ideally, but just interested to hear people's experiences about what's out there.

I think I'm just interested to hear about any preamp pedals that successfully give a specific character to a clean-ish sound. Obviously lots of them promise that, but which pedals have you plugged in and heard a definite, useful, specific tone?

Which preamp pedals would you say have a distinctive tone, even with fairly neutral settings and clean sound? A bit like the channel strips from certain older mixing desks, which imparted their own vibe to whatever went through them, so much so that they now get stripped out of the old desks, mounted in racks and sold as high-end mic preamps.

Is anyone using a Trace Elliot Transit B preamp? Any thoughts if so?

I think there's a pretty broad zone of solid, playable basses that are better than basic cheapies without being stunning deluxe coffee tables. Something like a Reverend would be at the lower end of the zone, good enough for any actual musical function but under a grand new. For £1500 you get pretty much anything in that zone if you're happy to go secondhand.

Buy a secondhand ACG. Simple.

Couldn't the earth connection to the rails in the sliding pickup just be a bit of copper braid, squeezed against the rail by a piece of closed-cell foam, neoprene or similar, in a little recess in the pickup housing?

A DPA would be a great choice anyway, whether or not it was used on that bass, although it isn't a cheap option.

Since about 50% of them are root notes, and 25% are fifths, you can mix up the order a fair bit without it changing much ..

On the plus side, you get the pleasure of being in a band, but you have to play way less notes than anyone else.

I think the thing with low action is that it goes with softer playing - you can't play as hard with very low action, and playing harder definitely changes your tone.

If I was selling I would happily do the following to reassure a buyer that a bank transfer would be ok: - Video call showing the bass, and invite the buyer to record the call. - Hold up my driving licence during the call (with the licence number covered to be on the safe side) and then send a scan of the licence (again with the number redacted). - Step out onto the street during the call to show that my house number and street name were the same as on the licence - Send a link to my employer's website, where there's a photo of me on the 'Our team' page. But the seller takes a risk as well in sending a bass, because there's always the possibility of some scam in which the buyer claims it never arrived. So I'd ask for the same evidence from them. I think if you have a phone call or video call with a seller or buyer and talk this kind of stuff through, you'll quickly get a sense of whether there's the right level of trust in place.

It's kind of a leap of faith, I've done it but it made me a bit nervous. Might be worth discussing acceptable ways to make it a bit safer, eg the seller could send some evidence of who they are, address etc?

The great thing about playing bass, especially with a darker, softer tone, is that very often playing the exact right note isn't critical. You have to get the rhythm right, but a different note is often fine. I once played a couple of bars a semitone up, noticed and shifted down for the next bar, and it actually sounded pretty good in context, but when I mentioned it afterwards, nobody else in the band had noticed.

I think that in any market you tend to get sellers offering a spread of prices to try and work out what the market will bear, but the items that are priced too high don't sell, so you notice them, whereas the bargains get snapped up pretty quick, often before they even reach a public platform.

I think the right hand fingers do a lot - hard or soft skin on fingertips, hard or soft plucking, on the neck, by the bridge or in the middle, effective muting to reduce boomy rumble, etc.

Which basses have you liked the most of the ones you've owned? Top three?