Russ

[quote name='bubinga5' post='375597' date='Jan 9 2009, 09:06 PM']The Lakland IMHO, is in a different league compared though..Longer scale length of the Laky, may be a deal breaker mind... What about a second hand MIM Jazz? Must try a squire jazz out, heard so many good things about them..[/quote] The 4-string Laklands are 34" scale, only the 5-strings are 35". I'd also recommend trying out something like a Squier VM Jazz - I was pleasantly surprised, and for £250 or so, it was one of the best deals out there.

[quote name='bubinga5' post='375398' date='Jan 9 2009, 05:58 PM']PBY, i would say a great bass to go for is the Lakland 44-01 for sale in the for sale section here. £400.00 from Riddler Awsome bass, and very versatile, Bartolini pick ups..i would say for that money, there is no better...[/quote] +1. For £400 you can't go wrong.

[quote name='waynepunkdude' post='375393' date='Jan 9 2009, 05:57 PM']Is Rockbass to Warwick what Squier is to Fender?[/quote] Pretty much, yeah. Made somewhere in the Far East. Did you notice that the Rockbasses, in addition to the nicer headstock, also have the proper Warwick 2-piece bridge now? Much better.

[quote name='waynepunkdude' post='375353' date='Jan 9 2009, 05:32 PM']TM Stevens Signature Streamer is horrendous.[/quote] It's certainly very "him", and it's going to be a much nicer bass than that Cort thing he was endorsing before. Can't see them selling too many though, since it's basically just a SSI with a custom paint job. I'm actually quite surprised that TM got the Warwick endorsement again - great player, but he hasn't got much of a profile any more. Gone are the days when he backed up James Brown, The Pretenders, Tina Turner, Billy Joel, Steve Vai, etc.

[quote name='Josh' post='375352' date='Jan 9 2009, 05:31 PM']The Stu Zender Sig is a massive dissapointment.[/quote] I quite like it - it's certainly different, and I like the fact that he has a custom design instead of just a tweaked Streamer or Thumb. Not liking the inlays though. Out of all of them, I'd definitely have that P-Nut sig bass. Looks stunning.

[url="http://www.warwick.de/forum/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=9174&start=0"]http://www.warwick.de/forum/phpBB2/viewtop...174&start=0[/url] Enjoy... The new Zender bass has a definite Carl Thompson vibe, not sure about the inlays though. Those new Rockbasses are sweet - they look so much better without that cheap-looking logo all over the headstock.

[quote name='martfitz' post='374536' date='Jan 8 2009, 10:27 PM']They're not to fill the gap left by the OLP and SUB as these new ones aren't budget basses, that gap is going to be filled by something else, allegedly [/quote] From what I understand, they're going to be the EB/MM equivalent of Fender's MIM/MIK basses, made in the Far East somewhere, so they will be a lower price point. Probably more like SUB replacements than OLP ones in terms of quality, though. Probably also a response to G&L's well received Tribute range too.

From my experience, the pre-EB Stingrays (and some of the very early EB ones) have a somewhat different colour to their tone on the 2-band EQ models - the older ones are a little more midrangey and punchy, where the newer ones are brighter with less mids. They both have that typical MM "thwack" to the tone, but, to my ears, the older ones seem to move more air. The newer ones are most definitely better made though, with the 6-bolt neck, body-end truss rod adjustment, etc. Plus, the finishes are far better.

I played a 55-01 with a pair of Nordy Big Singles recently... HUGE Jazz Bass tone. Definitely worth the upgrade - actually sounded way better than its big brother, the 55-02.

Looks like EB/MM are putting out a new range to fill in the gap left by OLP and the SUB range... [url="http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=3FG3ZSiKrYE"]Sterling by Ernie Ball[/url] I'll have the Ray35, please.

Love it. Wish I was back in the UK to try out. Should be back around June/July time, so if you're not sorted by then, give me a shout.

Been on there for years, and have around 1800 posts or so (not that many in the grand scheme of things). It's a great resource for gear-related info, but it is hugely US-centric (even as a Brit who's been in the US for the last 14 months), and many posters' (and mods') attitudes to religion, guns, other countries, etc irritate the hell out of me. I much prefer the vibe here. But the Lobby, and, formerly, Tin Pan Alley were always good for a laugh.

I keep the bass at a height where I can keep both my wrists straight - my wrists never hurt after playing now (I was worried about RSI and carpal tunnel). On me, that works out to be about lower-stomach level, maybe a little lower than the bass sits when I play it on my knee. There's a lot of variables there, such as being able to reach the end of the neck comfortably, the balance of the bass and so on, but I do think the straight wrists thing is pretty important.

[quote name='geoffbassist' post='349259' date='Dec 9 2008, 01:34 AM'] As i was driving home today my boot came open, the bass fell out the car on the motorway and was runover many times in its case (overwater soft case). I had been driving for over an hour so it was a bit of a shock! luckly no one was hurt, except the bass.... Its a real nightmare, im a freelance bassist and this is my only instrument! I think i know someone who can lend me a bass to help over the christmas period but its a real blow, i really loved that bass, best ive ever owned. I think an email to fbass to find out how much a new neck would be is the best way forward as the rest of the bass is ok.... It was really dangerous though and im lucky i didnt cause an accident...[/quote] Ouch. That is not good. Get that bass up to Jon Shuker (he's in Sheffield) or any other decent nearby luthier. Looks like a fairly clean break, so it should be fixable without too many issues, and it's probably cheaper than a new neck. But drop George Furlanetto a line - maybe if you send him the neck, he can sort it out for you. I gather he's a nice guy and very accommodating. Moral of the story - the bass always rides in the passenger seat from now on.

I guess it depends on which direction you want to go in. Undoubtedly, London is the place to be if you want studio/session work or profitable function band gigs. If you're looking for success in a band environment though, the UK has different hotspots where labels go to seek out talent - ie, Manchester still has a huge indie scene, Yorkshire is a hotspot for rock music, Cardiff/South Wales seems to be an up-and-coming area for many different genres, and Scotland (esp. Edinburgh) is well known for having a good range of singer/songwriter gigs. Although, to be honest, London has all these too. You'll have the widest range of opportunities there, although it's not necessarily the be-all and end-all.

[quote name='silverfoxnik' post='340807' date='Nov 29 2008, 10:48 PM']If you mean the original Wal pick ups & electronics, then the answer's no; they've never been available seperately as I understand it. Only once have I ever seen the Wal electronics on another bass and that was made by a luthier called Jeff Finch, so he must have known the guys at Wal to get that to happen.[/quote] I owned a fretless 5-string Sei with the full Wal electronics setup for a while... however, I believe these were actually cannibalised from a Wal, rather than provided separately. That was a lovely bass - it's living in Japan now.

[quote name='Faithless' post='339459' date='Nov 28 2008, 12:50 PM']Why then? [/quote] I'd say it's because that's "his" bass - he's been using it for over 20 years and it's completely comfortable for him. Plus, it sounds fantastic. He's been through his signature series Ibbys, not to mention various other basses, and keeps coming back to the old Spector. I saw him on the Living Colour Collideoscope tour, around the time he had the Ibby endorsement, and he used the Ibbys for maybe two songs - he used the Spector for all the rest.

[quote name='bremen' post='335711' date='Nov 24 2008, 06:32 PM']Heard his stuff with Tackhead? and Keith LeBlanc's solo stuff? Dirty, dirty bass! It's what made me buy a Thumb :-)[/quote] Shame he used his orange Spector on 90% of the stuff he's recorded. I have seen him with a Thumb 6 though. I love Doug... I find his playing to be supremely inspiring. He can groove like a monster, yet he has these amazing solo chops, not to mention the wild sounds he gets out of his pedals... I went to one of his bass clinics, and it was awesome... from deep groove to Jaco-esque harmonics to Jeff Beck-style soloing over loops in one tune. The Little Axe stuff is fantastic from a bass perspective. Funny guy too, lots of great stories from the road and from the many gigs he's done. He does have some unusual techniques though... the technique you're talking about is almost a reverse slap... he "slaps" the strings with his fingertips, and pops the lower strings with his thumb - he can get this technique going pretty bloody fast too. He also has that very strange technique where he hits the strings with a small jam jar... certainly a unique sound!

The new Marshall stuff is pretty decent (although, IMO, Marshall haven't made a truly great bass amp since the DBS series). I say go for it, but put a bit aside afterwards for an extension cab - adding a 15" or a 4x10" is going to make a huge difference, volume-wise.

A bit like the car industry, there's no British mass-market guitar manufacturers any more, but there are a lot of custom shops. Plenty of TVRs and Nobles, but no British Leyland, if you get my drift. I think all the main culprits have been mentioned - GB, Sei, Shuker, GB, Status, Overwater, ACG, Iceni, Gus, Enfield, Jaydee, RIM, Wal, etc. You'll find plenty of examples of all of these in the Bass Pr0n forum.

OK, here's a few suggestions: Lessons. Good to get an experienced teacher's take on your playing. Open mic nights. Playing with other people makes you a better player and you might just meet suitable people to collaborate with. Playing along with the TV - just play something that feels like it goes with the show you're watching. Internet radio - it's amazing some of the stuff you'll hear that you'll never hear anywhere else. Other instruments - get a guitar, keyboard or something other than the bass and stick with that for a while, then take that new experience back to the bass. Home recording - you have a computer, put it to use and write and record your own stuff.

[quote name='alexclaber' post='319234' date='Oct 31 2008, 05:47 PM']Alembic Epic I believe. Wal on all of BSSM bar StingRay 5 on Funky Monks and the title track. Not sure about Mother's Milk - could be a Ray, could be a Spector. Very few of Flea's studio recordings are on a StingRay! Alex[/quote] Yep. All of One Hot Minute, with the exception of Aeroplane (Stingray) and Pea (acoustic) was the Alembic Epic. And you're correct about BSSM too. It's amazing the amount of Stingrays that album sold, even though its sound is only featured on two tracks!

My old Rumour took 14 months... Then again, it was *very* custom, and Bernie has someone around to kick his arse these days... he made mine back when it was just him in an industrial estate in Croydon. Thinking of going to see Bernie next time I'm back in the UK to discuss a possible Spitfire-related project...

The whole New Romantic movement, apart from the dodgy outfits, was pretty much the last gasp for real creativity and experimentation in pop music. Many of the bands involved are still influential over 20 years later, and for all the right reasons - they could sing, they could play, they could write catchy, quirky and intelligent songs and they looked good. I would have loved to have been in a band back then, especially as a bass player... I could have had a brand new Trace Elliot stack, a Wal and a mullet, and funked things up like crazy! It can't really be denied that Duran Duran were basically a boy band - but a boy band who wrote and performed their own music. Hasn't really happened since. The era where pop music came to be dominated by producers came along shortly afterwards, with the Stock, Aitken and Watermans of this world basically reducing pop music to a formula and milking it for all it's worth. Time for New Romantic to make a comeback, methinks...

[quote name='LukeFRC' post='313457' date='Oct 23 2008, 10:52 PM']and conversely no evidence of God's non existence. If you are presupposed to disbelieve there is a God any 'evidence' found can be explained away somehow. Conversely if you believe in God you will find much evidence of his existence. Logicaly you are unable to disprove the existence of a God, and equally you are unable to prove it. In questioning God's existence to default to Atheism is illogical, really following scientific logic, through objective eyes one would be an agnostic. anyway, anyone for some bass playing, i enjoyed that video of John entwistle, although i think his bass would look daft on a little guy like me.[/quote] In science, the onus is on the scientist to prove a theory, not disprove one. Things are disproved as a result of new evidence. Many of the things and events people used to attribute to divine intervention have since been proved otherwise, so, personally, I think it's only a matter of time. In the classic theological debate, one must follow the scientific method - the onus is on the believer to prove God's existence, and so begins the vicious cycle... proof denies faith, and without faith, religion is meaningless.