lemmywinks

That Carvin B4 at £450 is a steal, shame about the thumb rest mods though and the bridge is also a cheap replacement. It will probably have originally had a nice Hipshot B style which looks much better:

https://fenderfever.com/products/1?_pos=63&_fid=cdb17b57b&_ss=c

6 hours ago, edstraker123 said:

Why oh why Cort hadn't designed out the neck dive issue I'll never know, as it would have been a 10/10 bass without it.

I'd be waiting for the next set of Ultralites to appear in the Marketplace. Guyker do some alternatives at various price points and hole diameters. A couple here:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005010061436369.html

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005008360034080.html

Sire V7 is a great first (and second, third, fourth...) 5 string and that one is especially pretty, they do tend to be on the heavier side although obviously this varies. I sold mine after fracturing my left clavicle but was otherwise perfectly happy with it and it was a fantastic live bass. It was a whopping 11.6lb which was heavy even for a Gen 1 Alder V7, usually they're in the 9-10lb region.

A used Sadowsky Metro Express (the Chinese ones) might be a good alternative if weight is an issue, possibly one of the higher end Cort GB series as well if you can find a used one.

7 minutes ago, BassApprentice said:

So I managed to try one - bit underwhelmed.

 

The body has been scaled down and this thing is *light*. Unfortunately with a full size headstock this is really neck divey sitting down without a strap (with a strap might be different). Next up, the second it was plugged in it sounded overdriven - checked amp then twiddled volume knob and it went dead. Very possibly a dead battery (which would be odd since these are new) or a dodgy pot as it came back to life when the volume pot was just on. Pots aren't level either so yeah, just a very meh experience.

Neck felt nice but didn't really get a good go of due to issues above. Everything else felt a bit on the budget side. Tried pointing the problems out to the guy in the shop who couldn't have cared less, even as I tried to make light of it...Must be having a case of the Mondays.

 

 

One of the GB Modern's I briefly owned had a similar issue with Cort's (I think they make these in house) Markbass preamp - intermittent sound with a constantly draining battery leading to low volume and distortion. No visible shorts anywhere so assumed it was the preamp at fault.

It's a very good pre when you get a working one with a sensible freq point for the bass control, I was originally intending to swap it out but kept it in there.

1 hour ago, LeftyJ said:

 

 

That would most often be the LA Custom Shop in the US 

Much of their Japanese high-end builds are outsourced to Sugi these days. The Japan Custom Shop is for the really top notch stuff. I'm really curious where these Visions models are being made! 

I always thought the US CS was more seldom used and just for one time artist orders whereas the Japanese CS did the small high end product runs as well as artist stuff. Odd that it doesn't say where these are made.

Assume these are Japan Custom Shop builds? If so the price is nothing out of the ordinary, that's where their top artists' instruments are built.

8 hours ago, Paul S said:

I sold a rare bass on here for under the market price as I no longer had a use for it.  It's what I do because I hate stuff hanging around when I no longer use it.  Saw it for sale on another resale site - might have been Reverb - for around twice what I sold it for.  Fair play.  But using my pictures?  Not so much.  

There's currently a bass I sold on FB Marketplace (that old charity shop Hondo, think you had one) being flipped for double what I listed it for, not only has he used my pictures but also copy/pasted the description, right down to the bits where I detailed the work I'd done on it and the new parts I'd fitted, all recounted in first person. Wouldn't even mind but the pictures I took were awful as my phone at the time had a rubbish camera!

It's been on there for ages probably because my original price was the market value and the flipped price is about £100 too much.

Some fine strewtherie there.

Considering it comes with a case that's Squier Affinity money, genuine high end vintage bass as well. Crazy how much a logo is worth!

2 hours ago, zonular said:

Can any owners attest to if the joyo amp would hold up to a multi acoustic house jam?

Not specific to the Joyo but reports on the PJB X4 (which this seems to be a loose clone of and is similarly capable) suggest that it can sit in with one or two acoustic guitars but pretty much runs out of headroom to get there.

Maybe Joyo will make an affordable version of the Double Four? There's definitely a market for people who want this form factor but don't want to pay PJB money.

Would also have to see it on a strap, some basses which look pretty awful on a stand actually look good when being played. That's all that matters really.

A surprising amount of expertly built basses which strive for individuality end up looking jarring and wonky, almost like the person who can craft a seriously high end instrument isn't neccessarily the same person who can come up with a visually appealing design.

Off the top of my head Shuker and Iceni can do both but a lot of luthiers would benefit from getting someone else in to design a body shape and cohesive theme.

Still boggles my mind that body shapes designed from the ground up for headless still have the tuners sticking out like that.

Different logo to most of them, assume it's an older one? Another one like yours here with better pics:

https://reverb.com/uk/item/45374901-secondhand-tanglewood-rebel-4-string-bass-trans-purple

My old guitarist had one of these and it weighed a ton for the size of the thing, actually made it quite unwieldy so count yourself lucky you got a light one!

Tanglewood Rebel?

Think you can see part of the logo on the body beneath the sticker.

I do use a small rig at home, pretty much all my learning is done with headphones but for general playing it's more convenient for me to use a little amp. Since getting a Double Four my 1x10 rig is in storage and about to be listed for sale, I imagine one of these or an X4 would be even more convenient.

If it's the type of device you will get a lot of use from it's still a bargain IMO, there's a comparison with the PJB X4 Nano on YouTube and the Joyo isn't out of its depth at all. Doesn't quite have the same depth but puts in a good showing and the slap tone with the Warwick is tasty 

With AliExpress I usually watch an item and click on it a few times, then a day or so later it magically appears in the bundle deals for a much cheaper price.

1 hour ago, zonular said:

Showing a price of 229 euros for me? I thought they were 79 quid. I can wait for that price jump

Shows as £114 here.

A couple of AliExpress stores are still advertising them:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005009465930390.html

From the reviews they seem legit, photos of a guy with his BA-30.

Bit of a thread resurrection - looks like this is gone from Thomann and everywhere else apart from AliExpress, has it been discontinued?

A mate of mine was contemplating one but waited too long.

Great price that.

Thomann have the 5 strings up at £949 for plain colours and £977 for the Black Cherry and Black Stain, so £977 then as Cherry is the best colour.

https://www.thomann.co.uk/spector_icon_ns_5_bolt_on_bg.htm

https://www.thomann.co.uk/spector_icon_ns_5_bolt_on_bcg.htm

They're £888 and £949 respectively for the 4 strings:
https://www.thomann.co.uk/spector_icon_ns_2_bolt_on_bg.htm

https://www.thomann.co.uk/spector_icon_ns_2_bolt_on_bcg.htm

I use a little Phil Jones combo (BG-75) with a FIshman Platinum Stage preamp for acoustic get togethers, I'd probably just scale that up for louder scenarios and use my Platinum Pro for its stage friendly features. A BG-450 would probably do you, what sort of volume do you need?

Alternatively a mini head with a decent small cab, a lot of heads aren't voiced particularly well for acoustic music though. A suitable preamp like the Fishman into a compact powered PA cab might be preferable.

Linux support for Surface devices has improved massively in recent years and Ubuntu has a touch friendly GUI, the patched Surface kernel has pretty much everything working on most models. Can see what might be a dealbreaker here:

https://github.com/linux-surface/linux-surface/wiki/Supported-Devices-and-Features#feature-matrix

Another option would be to install the Ghost Spectre version of Windows 11, I have it on my Surface Go 1 (8/128) and it's much faster, sits at 2.6gb ram usage after boot.