Russ

That's always the issue with Ibanez. They look great, play very well, have comfortable necks, aren't too heavy and... have bad electronics. Those Bartolini Mk1 pickups they put in everything are dreadful. The higher end ones that come with Nordstrands or Aguilars always sound 100% better. The best Ibby I ever played was a cheap-ish SR505 with a set of Delanos and an OBP-3 installed. The thing sounded massive, chunky with a Warwick-esque woody bite, nothing like the middly, twangy tone you hear from stock 505s.

Anyone got much experience with the Nexus SL? Looks like a good head with a ton of power. I haven't really connected with the Mesa Subway D-800 I bought a while back and this looks like a good, more substantial alternative.

Oh no. I had a Larkin many moons ago. It was a lovely instrument, weighed a ton but sounded huge. I actually looked up his website not too long ago to see what he'd been up to. RIP Chris.

It wasn't a black SSD-era Spector, was it, with the SSD pickups and SimS aqua blue LEDs? If so, that's my old bass... miss that one. It had growl in spades. To contribute to the thread, here's my son modelling my LED'd up Sei:

I've had a few regrets - first one was a pseudo-Sei, made from a Brandoni body, and fitted with a Bartolini MME pickup and a Kahler trem. That bass probably saved my life during some pretty low times back in the late 90s/early 00s. I foolishly sold it to Notting Hill Music Exchange about 16 years ago. The second one was another Sei - a 5-string fretless with Wal pickups and electronics. Sold it to a guy in Japan (who I think is a BC member) in 2005. I'm sure he loves it, but I miss it badly. The thing was amazing. Now I'm actually a proper grown-up with money, I'd buy either of them back in a heartbeat.

Probably about 90% fingerstyle, 10% pick these days. Once I shed that 'bass snob' attitude to using a pick, I threw myself into it and got quite good with one in the end. There's an articulation and tone to the notes that you get with a pick you can't get any other way, and it's worth knowing how to use one just for those moments. I have been working on an alternate technique for some of the pick stuff I play though, as there's a few songs I play where I would play part of the song pickstyle, and the rest fingerstyle, and I didn't want to keep reaching into my pocket for the pick. I keep my thumbnails long, then I play the downbeats with the thumbnail, then the rest with fingers (ie, thumb-2-3-4, repeat). It's a twangier and less complicated version (ie, less fingers involved) of the Matt Garrison technique that I've adapted for my own purposes, basically.

I think there's far more women being sexualised in music than men. Bieber is the musical equivalent of a very itchy venereal disease, but, to give the boy a little credit, he did things the modern way by promoting himself via the channels he had available before he was ever signed. MySpace has a lot to answer for in this regard.

Back around 2003/2004, the band I was in was doing alright. Signed to Copro, album out, opened the main stage on the first night of Bloodstock 2003, gigging all over the place. Not exactly living the dream, but getting closer than most. Then we got set up with a new manager who was much more of an 'industry' person, and it all went downhill fast. Having to run every new musical idea, every photo, etc past the management got old very quickly, and the whole thing stopped being fun. And we still weren't making any money. At this point, I was the wrong side of 30 and just couldn't be f***ed with it anymore. The band split up in 2005. There's very little to be gained from 'making it' in this day and age. Unless you're 19, female and look good with not many clothes on, no label is going to throw money at you. You can do almost everything a label does by yourself these days, you've just got to acquire some additional skills. You've set yourself up as a 'brand manager' as well as a musician.

I wish I could get my old Sei fretless Jazz back. I sold it back in 2012, cash was not abundant at the time and it was a case of "last in, first out". It was a stunner, and sounded amazing. Weighed practically nothing too. Although, of course, I could always commission Martin to make me another one.

Not sure they do still make the VBA, it's not on their website any more. They might still do it on a custom order-only basis, but that's going to make it astronomically expensive (as if the VBA wasn't expensive enough to begin with).

They don't do any bass stuff anymore. They bought out Eden, so I guess Eden are now Marshall's bass division. Besides, they hadn't really made any good bass gear since the dear departed DBS range. The MB range was OK, - loud, versatile and powerful, but they had a shocking reputation on the reliability front. Personally, I'd like to see an Eden 'Marshall Edition' range of bass gear, with the proper black and gold graphics....

Watched the set on iPlayer. Funky as hell, plus a great reminder of how many other peoples' songs Nile has worked on behind the scenes over the years and what a legend he's become. I'd honestly forgotten that he produced Let's Dance for Bowie until they played it. And Jerry played his arse off. I don't care that he plays more notes with a brighter tone than Bernard did. He's entertaining. It's a gig, they're supposed to be entertaining. Every member of the band should put their 2p's worth in, and Jerry put in the full quid. I could understand him being criticised if he had lost the groove, but at no point was he anything less than funky and in the pocket. Ever seen any footage of old Bernard-era Chic gigs? He didn't play the stuff the same as the record either, he embellished, he slapped, he had fun with it, which is exactly what Jerry was doing. One thing to never forget is that, when someone books a band, they're booking 'entertainment'. So part of your job is to be entertaining and to draw the audience in. In this regard, Jerry Brown does his job very, very well.

The US-made models are great, including the G Bass range - basically a Modulus for thrifty people, and every bit as good if you ignore the name on the headstock. Never liked the Far East-made ones though, they sounded OK but used much lower quality wood and didn't feel nearly as well made as the US ones. It's a shame they don't make any in the US any more. I guess it's the way of the world, but I remember reading an interview years ago with Hartley Peavey and he made a big deal about making everything in their range in the US and being proud that they didn't outsource anything. Times have obviously changed.

Not hugely impressed. I was hoping for something much more substantial. The pedalboard looks good though. Peavey obviously have no idea what to do with TE. They should sell the Trace brand back to a British company. Perhaps Blackstar? They haven't got into bass amps yet, beyond that little pocket practice amp they do.

Interesting. Could that be an acoustic amp though? Looks way too tiny to be a bass rig. The little amp on the top isn't much bigger than a fag packet! I'd love them to do a teeny Class D SMX head with loads of power and the dual-band compressor.

I've had both, and I still have the SRFF. The GWB is lighter, has a nicer neck, has the funky GWB tuners, and seems to balance a little better, plus it has fret lines. But the tone isn't too good and the rudimentary active electronics are noisy and don't really enhance the sound much. The SRFF is a much better-built instrument (through neck, higher quality finish, etc), plus it has the piezo bridge for added thump. It also comes from the factory with flatwounds, which suit it pretty well. The only downside with it is the electronics - the Bartolini Mk1's sound pretty good considering they're basically cheap, stock OEM pickups with a boutique pickup manufacturer's name on, but the tone controls are pretty ineffective, and, even with roundwounds on, it's more difficult than it should be to coax the classic fretless 'mwah' or the classic Jaco sound out of it - one thing this bass really needs is a midrange control. The piezo works well if you want that thumpy upright-style thing (which, with the flats, is pretty easy to achieve), but is pretty useless otherwise as it's either too thumpy or too bright and zingy, with not much in between. So, I'd pick the SRFF, but the tone may not be for everyone.

I remember seeing a huge 42" scale Sei Flamboyant back in the mid-90s at The Gallery - I think Martin beat Knuckle and Mike Lull by a good few years. The thing was absolutely enormous. Must have weighed 20lbs too.

Just picking five is massively difficult. But here goes: Doug Wimbish John Paul Jones Tony Levin Eddie Jackson Les Claypool Honourable mentions to Jaco, Justin Chancellor, Geddy Lee, Pino Palladino, John Taylor, Nick Beggs, Mark King, Norwood Fisher, Flea, Cliff Burton and Steve Harris - any of these guys could enter the top 5 on any given day.

Great guy, known him for years - he worked at Rockbottom in Croydon back in the early 90s and he was a monster player even back then. Used to go and see his old power trio at the local dive quite regularly. He was always a huge classic prog fan, massively into old Genesis/Yes/Rush and so on - he had a lefty Rickenbacker 4001CS, one of only a few that were made. Nice to see that, in addition to Take That, the Jubilee gig and so on, he's been tickling off all his dream prog gigs - It Bites, Steve Hackett, Rick Wakeman and now Anderson/Wakeman/Rabin. His prog-metal band, Headspace, are bloody great too. And it couldn't happen to a nicer bloke.

Sheehan does have loads of copycats - in Japan. Any kind of instrumental, virtuosic rock with oodles of tasteless shredding is HUGE over there, and, as you might imagine, Mr Big, a band with Sheehan and Paul Gilbert, was one of the biggest of them all. Most of the videos I've seen of people aping Billy's style are Japanese. Here's a good one from Boh (bass player for Babymetal) - he does a pretty decent job of copying both the style and sound, albeit on a 6-string... [url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-mL_s3x7jE"]https://www.youtube....h?v=r-mL_s3x7jE[/url]