JoeEvans

I would say get the bass you want and get it repainted, rather than buying a bass you don't want just because it's the right colour.

Surely all bass gear solves one of three key problems? 1. I haven't got one of those 2. I've only got one of those 3. My collection of those is unsatisfyingly small

It would also stop scammers from using the delicious, borderline pornographic pics of desirable basses often found here as the basis for scams elsewhere. Much more difficult to edit a post-it out of a pic, especially if it's on the neck or headstock where there's woodgrain beneath.

I had a great rehearsal for a dep gig yesterday then last night I had an actual dream about playing my bass, which is an ACG Border Reiver. In the dream I was on stage with a band and I could just play whatever came into my head, effortlessly, which is not always the case in my waking hours... So I guess that's my dream bass.

Bose S1 would do very well although £300+ I think.

One of the long ones with four thick strings.

Playing rock music in four and five-piece bands will be a specific era in music, just as big-band jazz was a specific era. It might be that we're already in the tail end of the era.

Might work better with a short scale bass, from point of view of viable fingerings for common scales.

Maybe the arguments are especially bitter and unproductive because the question hasn't been clearly articulated? Are we asking: 1. Would a specific bass sound different if you changed the body or neck for one made of a different species of wood? Or a different piece of wood of the same species? 2. Do individual wood species give specific tonal qualities to all basses made from them? 3. Do the characteristics of the individual pieces of wood a bass is made from (density, growth ring spacing, quarter sawn / slab cut etc) generate specific tonal qualities, regardless of species? 4. How important is wood species relative to the other factors affecting the tone of a bass? These are all quite different questions, and I feel like a lot of the arguments come from confusion about what exactly is under discussion. My own ill-informed opinion, for what it's worth, is that the physical characteristics of a piece of wood have a modest effect on sustain and attack and a tiny effect on tone, but that species is irrelevant other than as a very vague guide to what those characteristics might be. And that other aspect of the bass such as strings, pickups, electronics and the person playing it are so much more important in terms of tone as to render the effect of the wood more or less irrelevant.

I don't really understand how anyone can argue about the theory of this - either it's an observable fact that different types of wood create different tones, or it isn't. How hard can it be to line up three otherwise identical basses with bodies and necks made of different types of wood, record them and do a blind listening test? And until that's done, why on earth would you bother arguing about it?

That's the key moment in the story!

Playing for recording is difficult and very different to live. I think it's a big help to set yourself up with a basic home recording system (eg cheap audio interface, Garage Band) and make a habit of recording yourself playing over simple drum tracks or whatever. It will really improve your playing.

Something a bit different...

There is something very appealing about ducking out of the whole complicated problem of the perfect bass sound, with all the countless options available, and just playing one bass with one sound. The P is maybe the go-to bass for that approach.

I think the P bass was the first production instrument that was recognisably a modern bass guitar in all respects - materials, scale length, body shape, pickup design, tuners, headstock, truss rod, controls, the lot. Every other bass since is a variation on that original design.

Historically though, the P bass was first released in 1951. In 1960 the jazz bass came along, a P bass with a second pickup, a slimmer neck and a tweaked body shape. Everything since has the DNA of those ancestors, and the P bass is the ancestor of them all - the Adam of the bass family.

To me the P bass is the original, basic, primal bass and every other bass is a kind of elaboration or variant of it.

Looks great! I absolutely love my ACG, best bass I've ever played. Discovering Alan's work has been a major benefit of looking on this forum, I bought mine after reading so many good things about them.

Anything by John Martyn and Danny Thompson but this is especially delicious. https://youtu.be/ohmSPv-rtSQ?si=6SEQn3lYfQyeiuEk

Thomann do an excellent wedge monitor for about £140, The Box MA82CL. Not a great deep bass response but it's the low mods and treble you need to hear to stay in tune!