Doctor J

Just as well they didn't choose "Why go?", not the best thing to put on a gig poster.

Nice!

4 real?

The mortgage gets paid, the car gets serviced, the cats get fed. If I've got money left to spend on a bass every now and then, where's the problem? Some people blow their money on smokes and booze. I don't. I like playing basses, I like building and repairing basses and I enjoy the different designs from an aesthetic perspective. They're tools, they're instruments and they're art pieces, all in one.

I don't mind who knows it, I'm going to say it now...

I...

like...

bass. 😳

Looks nice but also looks uncomfortable. Classic Rickenbacker.

Amazing! 😂

Please note that this is a brand new serious quality neck as the fingerboard had lifted beyond repair on the original it came with when I bought it.

They're only underpants if you actually bother to wear something over them.

Cleaning out biocrud is half the charm of buying used.

Ehh... anyone fancy a restoration project which starts with a shave?

https://www.ebay.ie/itm/80s-ELECTRA-HAIRY-BASS-TARDD-EX-KARL-KONG-the-GORILLA/174581592177?hash=item28a5dfb071:g:bDQAAOSw~hNfsU6X

Today might be your lucky day. This is the first one I've seen available since I got my one

https://reverb.com/item/38264014-ibanez-sb900le-1992

2 hours ago, cetera said:

@Doctor J - Love the King Billy, Jackson Winger, Peavey Sarzo, Ibanez SB900 & Hamer Chaparral! I know you still have the Hamer, but do you have any of the others anymore?

Of those, the Winger and Sarzo are gone. The Winger was the UK model with Reflex pickups and I could never get a sound I liked out of it. It was a nice player, though, comfortable and very light, and I flipped a coin between replacing the pickups and electronics or moving it on.

King Billy is currently getting pickup transplant. I have a coil tappable EMG MM pickup which will go in instead of the P. I'm mulling around the idea of putting the P in closer to the neck. It's a great player, though, and I'd hate to butcher it. One must know when to stop.

@AndyTravis Are you sure there is enough storage space left in the internet for that?

While it looks bad, I started in 1989 so this is 31 years of shenanigans which, in my mind, makes it look like a semi-reasonable number to work through. Most have been moved on. In roughly chronological order... and with apologies to your broadband... (all but the first two are the actual instruments, those two pics were found on a quick image search today)

Aria Pro II XRB-2 - First bass, bought in 1989. Butchered it as I learned how to do setups, electrical work, added pickups, made fretless. Sounded nice though.

Aria Pro II Laser Electric Heritage - 86-87, ish I think. Nice bass. Meaty.

ESP 400 Series - 89, they think. I love this bass. Still the one by which all others are judged.

Rickenbacker 4003 - 92. Saved for a long time for this. Loved it, especially the sound, but was just an uncomfortable bugger to play. Still miss it though.

Squier Precision - mid-90's. Cheap second hand purchase for a specific band. Sounded great.

Ibanez SR3006E Prestige - 2003, I think. Always wanted an SR, went with a 6er for some reason. Lovely bass but more than I could handle at the time.

Fender Japan 62 RI Fretless - 2004, I think. Lovely bass, imported it from Japan.

Hotwire Custom 5 - Custom made with Q-Tuners and a Noll pre. Never liked the neck. Eventually found the sweet spot with a Warmoth neck and East Filter pre-amp in it.

Bacchus 04 Standard 5 - The best 5er I have ever played. Brilliant instrument.

Lakland 55-02 - I never really felt I got the best out of this. Would love to try another one, or perhaps a 44-02 instead.

Bacchus Venus 5 - Lovely bass but couldn't get on with the slab body.

Fender Jazz - 77. Weighed a ton and worth far more in cash than as an instrument.

EBMM Stingray 3EQ - Early 00's, IIRC. My first Ray. Really nice but sold on when I got the Godlyke 4

Aria Pro II SB-R80 - 83. Great bass but couldn't get past the dead coils. The replacement Armstrongs didn't sound the same.

Sadowsky M4 - Early 00's. I don't know why I moved this on and miss it. Great instrument.

Bacchus Woodline P Classic 07 - Loved it but separating from the missus proved very expensive so it was one of many which were sacrificed to raise solicitor cash.

Godlyke Disciple 5 - 2005ish, I think. Lovely neck but never got it to sound the way I wanted.

Godlyke Disciple 4 - A few numbers away from the one above. Came stock with Barts. Lovely neck, sweet tone, still have it.

King Billy - Home made bitsa. I'm in the process of putting a MM in place of the P

Warwick Streamer LX - 01 I think, great tone, huge neck.

Fender Japan Mustang - 07.  I'm 6'3". Byeeee.

Bacchus 24 05 - Super light, plays wonderfully. Great bass.

G&L L2000 - It's an 81 SB1 neck on an early 90's L2k body. Massive sound.

Warwick Streamer S1 - 91. Bought in a dreadful state and I restored it. Love it still.

Ibanez SR1300PM - 94, I think. Lovely but the wenge neck was too skinny for me.

Peavey Rudy Sarzo - 89. Always wanted to try one but never bonded with it.

Warwick Streamer LX JazzMan FL - 05. Ovangkol neck, ebony board which was lined before I got it.

Status S3000 - 91ish. Bought from an Elvis impersonator in poor condition - both Elvis and the bass. Flat backed D neck.

Mayones BE4 - late 90's, I think. Schaller hardware and MEC electronics. Basically a Warwick and sounded like it.

Fender Japan Geddy Lee Jazz - Mid 00's, I think. Nice bass but you're no ESP.

Aria Pro II SB600 - 1979 bolt-on with a dead coil. Swiftly moved on.

Ibanez SR800LE - 89. Always wanted one of these. Insanely good basses for the money.

Alembic Orion - 04. My friends call it El Presidente. Nuff said.

EBMM Stingray 2EQ - 96.Battered but a superb player. Lost to the separation cull.

G&L L1000 - 1980 3 digit serial, beast sounds out of it. Culled. I'm starting to cry.

Charvel JP - 1990. Bought as a fretless. Resto job. Really nice bass.

G&L El Toro - 85. Nice, but another cull victim.

PRS EB 4 - 01 Loved this bass. They're massively underappreciated. Missed it a lot.

Ibanez Roadster RS924 - 1980. Heavy, but sounded great. There's no mystery why this lot were killing Fender at the time.

Yamaha BB1100S - 85. It has been in the wars but came through it. You know the score with these basses.

Jackson Kip Winger - 91. Crazy shape, high quality, could barely give it away when I needed the cash.

Ibanez SR1000E - 89 Great basses.

GMR Bassforce - Really nice bass, very slim neck.

Yamaha TRB6 - 95. Bought at a price I couldn't refuse. Neck is as wide as a motorway. Built to last.

Bacchus Grooveline - 04. Another repair job. As Stingrayish as you can find with a J sized neck

Ibanez SB900 - 91. Slim body, fast neck, means business.

ESP Horizon - mid 80's. Dusty Hill vibe.

Aria IGB-CST - 91 Billy Gould model. Massive high output pickups.

Yamaha BEX4 - Bought on a whim but surprised by how good it is.

Bass Collection SB311 - Always wanted to try one. Far better than their prices suggest.

Hotwire Force Pro - Alumitones bring thunder.

Blade B4 - 91. Recent addition. Lovely, lovely instrument.

PRS EB 4 - 01. Missed the old one. This one's a little plainer but it delivers.

Hamer Chaparral - 90. This is a great bass, lovely neck.

Oooh bad mistake. I went to see him in Cork and then again in Dublin the next day. Both nights were fantastic.

Oh yeah, on a strap the Orion balances beautifully. No neck dive whatsoever.

Edit -> and forgot to say how it sounds. It's very clean, very clear, but it's high output. If you need to drive a gain stage you will have no problem at all. The slightly wider gap between the pickups means you can get very bassy to very growly and everything inbetween, due to the blend. If you've heard the Won't Get Fooled Again isolated track, that's the basic sound but you can go far meatier than that but still keep the growl.

I have a couple of "Monthly Challenge" tracks I did with it. I'll bounce down mixes with the bass turned up and upload later.

1 hour ago, dmccombe7 said:

Cracking pics of some gorgeous basses i'd love to own.

Any chance we could get some descriptions of how they feel, play, sounds and how they compare to other basses you may have had.

Just to give us poor people an idea of what they are like to play as i could see me picking up a 2nd hand one at some point. 

I still need to go thru every page yet so maybe there are descriptions further back. My apologies if that's the case.

Dave

If you wanted to dip your toe, an Epic or Orion might be a reasonably priced place to start. They're the budget models (yes, I know 😂), generally set neck, no back facings and have a bass and treble cut/boost rather than filters. I got my one via the forum here a few years ago. It's a 2004 Orion with a walnut top, maple and purpleheart stringers on a mahogany body. The neck is five-piece maple and purpleheart with the standard ebony fretboard.

The Epics and Orions have MXY pickups, which are humbuckers and don't need the phantom coil you see on basses with the single coil AXY pickups. The neck pickup is pretty much where a P pickup is, relative to the 12th fret, though the bridge pickup is slightly closer to the bridge, even compared to the 70's J position. I play with fingers 95% of the time and didn't have a problem adjusting to it or finding places to anchor my thumb. The string spacing is 18mm, slightly narrower than standard but easy to get used to.

The electronics are very high quality. The blend is particularly useful. Minuscule changes on the knob position result in big changes tonally. I have no other bass which responds like that. As a result, the blend is fundamental to getting different sounds, moreso than the EQ, even. I find I rarely play one pickup solo. I usually use the blend to get what I'm looking for and then the EQ for fine tuning.

The nut is 40mm, narrower than a P, wider than a J. The nut height is adjustable and can be locked in position. I like this a lot because I like a very low nut, basically I like the height of a zero fret. I prefer J necks, generally, but this is very comfortable to play for extended periods. One caveat, I did find the neck edges quite abrupt so I rolled the edges. That is a personal preference, though, not everyone cares about that kind of thing.

It's built immaculately, as you can imagine, and the action can go as low as you need. I like low action, no complaints from me. When I got it, I put my preferred strings on it, adjusted the truss rods for very slight relief and haven't needed to touch them since.

They're not cheap, let's be very clear, and I would never buy a new one. I couldn't afford to. You'll pick up an Epic or Orion for much less than a late 70's P, though, which just makes no sense at all in my head. If you buy second hand you're never going to lose money either, if you choose to sell it on. I can't see myself parting with this one, though.

I was thinking about it a lot at the time but didn't have the cash and, like you, it popped into my head every now and then so I asked if it ever sold when I bought the Blade B4 from him. When the answer came back negative, I felt it was time to scratch the itch and we worked out a deal later in the year.

I've swapped out the EXB control, found it quite unusable, and put in a passive EMG tone. That, with some new strings, and it's a winner. The neck is really nice, in particular. The guitarist in my band in the early 90's had a Chaparral guitar with the holoflash finish, so it feels like it was meant to be, somewhat. 

Yep, the very one.

Calling Talkbass...!!! 😁

36 minutes ago, Maude said:

 

Thank you both. 🙂

It makes you wonder why more manufacturers don't do it. It's like a colour matched headstock taken to the next level. 

Tort headstocks... ugh! 🤢

I think they stopped doing anything at all after Fender ran them into the ground. This one is 30 years old.

My Orion. It's one of the "cheap" models but it's still something which is a joy to play every time. You can see where the money goes in them.

This arrived in late December and it's very nice indeed.