Russ

The Spector. I had a Legend 5 for a little while, and it was an awesome bass. Certainly a lot more usable sounds in it than the Warwick, and a much nicer neck to boot.

I was tempted for a while to buy two Lowdown 300 combos and use them together as a versatile stage rig (each combo could be EQ'd differently, etc). But I'm a 10" speaker guy at the end of the day, and I really just want them to come out with a Lowdown head and some cabs to go with it.

As a little anecdote to add to the Spector love here... I'm in the US, visiting the in-laws right now, and one of the things I wanted to do while I was out here was to take my Spector NS5-CRFM up to the Spector workshop just outside Woodstock, NY to get a problem with the truss rod sorted out (the previous owner had broken the nut off the end of the truss rod... ). So, we headed up there, and found them, out in the middle of nowhere, in a rather anonymous workshop right opposite a big industrial welding company. So we went in, and handed the bass over to Jimmy (Spector's tech) for him to take a look at. The secretary (whose name escapes me, alas) directed us to a shop a few minutes down the road that stocked lots of British stuff (amazing to find Marmite, Golden Shred, Cornish pasties and Double Deckers in a tiny shop miles from anywhere)... when we got back, Jimmy had fitted a new truss rod, filled in a small crack at the top of the fingerboard, then gave the bass a proper setup for me... for free! I also had my Spector GAS re-ignited when I got the chance to have a go on a USA Spector NS-5 with buckeye burl facings... what an absolutely amazing bass! Best customer service I've ever experienced. I didn't get a chance to meet Stuart Spector though, alas... apparently he was off fishing with Michael Tobias (who's also from around there).

There's lots of differences, but at the end of the day, it's purely a matter of taste. As an overview, Conklins are a little more modern and esoteric in their approach (they specialise in basses with cool woodworking - melted tops, etc - and more than six strings, for instance), whereas Overwater are a bit more old-school and traditional. Overwater also make their own hardware, pickups and electronics, which give them a definite "Overwater sound" - British custom luthiers are quite well known for this (GB, Gus and Wal are other examples). Conklins are fairly hard to come by in the UK as well - I've played a few Groove Tools basses (their cheaper range) but only ever seen one of their proper US-made custom shop basses over here. And they're not cheap, even with the exchange rate being so much in our favour at the moment - we're talking almost Alembic money for a top-of-the-line model. So if you're thinking of a custom, as Dood said, it might be easier to deal with Overwater, since they're actually over here.

I've been toying with the idea of putting together a more "hi-fi" kind of bass amp, using either one or two PA speakers, a power amp and a preamp of some description. Basically, a system that will have a wide, full frequency response, without the colouring that bass-specific cabs add to the sound. Has anyone else gone this route? If so, what types of PA speaker would prove suitable? I would have thought something with multiple drivers for the bass, midrange and treble would work best. I'm mostly unfamiliar with the different PA speaker models available, so can anyone recommend something good for this purpose? Won't be doing this for a while, but best to get the research done early.

90% of Chris' customers are guitarists, and guitarists are almost always interested only in the classic shapes if they want a custom instrument. The site is tailored to that market. If you go down to see him, he's got pictures of various non-traditional custom instruments he's done, including basses.

Chris is a fantastic guy (got to know him well during his Sei days), and will build more or less anything you want - he doesn't just do basses and guitars based on the classic shapes. He's also quite reasonably priced compared to other builders. I say go for it.

[quote name='lwtait' post='55462' date='Sep 4 2007, 06:45 PM']it depends on the colour you get it in in my opinion. i can't tell a difference in tone on any bass i've ever played, and your fingers don't actually touch the fretboard when you play, so it doesnt feel any different. so i'd just choose whichever one looks best, because you have to be happy with looks as well as the way it sounds[/quote] It depends how much of the bass' sound comes from the electronics, I think. The Stingray pickups do have a characteristic sound, but you can still hear the woods. Trust me, a maple neck Stingray sounds very different to a rosewood one = there's quite a different balance of frequencies.

Me. Male, 35. Overplaying rock monster. Been playing 18 years. Penchant for heavy metal, very loud amps, OTT custom basses, esoteric techniques, melodic bass parts, crazy effects, and a desire to tone all this down and be more like Tony Levin. I'd say I'm alright. Not brilliant by any means, but I can hold my own. I've got a decent groove, a good ear, can play with fingers, pick, thumb, and do all the other tricks, can perform in an animated fashion, and am reasonably good with most styles of music. Still got a lot to learn though - my theory is strictly average, my reading sucks and I wish I could improvise better. There's always more to learn and I'm applying myself to all that at the moment.

Both. I have no qualms about using whatever technique is appropriate for getting the sound and feel I need for a bass part. For some songs, the fingerstyle groove is all that'll do. For others, I need the up/down articulation and bite that only a pick can give.

The Streamer Stage Is don't seem to suffer from quite the same stigma as many of the other basses in the Warwick line - the current ones aren't really that much different from the older ones. The woods are the same, the body shape is the same, I think all that's changed is that they now use MECs instead of Bartolinis, and they use CNC machines a lot more in the manufacturing. It seems different with the Stage IIs and the Thumbs, what with them abandoning wenge for the necks, changing the body shape and headstock detailing of the Thumbs, and so on... everyone seems to prefer the older ones (me included - I'd murder for a mid-90s Streamer Stage II 5er).

[quote name='Bigwan' post='52716' date='Aug 30 2007, 12:07 PM']My No.1 choice also but I would refer you to my comment above... Well outside my £400 budget at the minute! Would you flog your ATK Russ?[/quote] Hmmm... maybe... after all, once I get my custom bass plans together, I'll need a deposit...

Lakland 55-02 with the Basslines pickups. Nails the MM tone, has 19mm string spacing at the bridge, and has a fair bit more versatility than a regular, single-pickup MM.

Very nice basses. Always wanted one with the CAT tremolo. My first exposure to them was seeing Claypool using one (a 6-string fretless) in Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey (there's about 20 seconds of Primus playing towards the end). There is just something mysterious and alluring about these esoteric, high-end Japanese instruments - Tune, Atlansia, etc. I'd love to go to a musical instrument shop in Japan and try some out.

To sum up... Cabs - decent enough. Don't get the ones with the aluminium speakers though. Heads - utter sh*te. Avoid like the plague.

I'm in Croydon, currently bandless and not adverse to your influences... but I'm probably a bit old for you guys (35)... Plus, I'm generally a 5-stringer these days.

Well, I've exchanged emails with Jon Shuker, and it's looking promising - he can do it, and for the right price. I'm sourcing the pickups and bridge I want, so that's taken the cost down a bit (Sadowsky pickups and circuit, Kahler trem bridge). So, we shall see...

My last band supported Saxon and Blaze Bayley in 2003 (Blaze is a top bloke, but the Saxon guys weren't exactly pleasant), and, in the band I was in before that, we supported a nascent Feeder (their Swim EP had just come out), PJ Harvey, The Crazy Gods Of Endless Noise, Breed 77 (before the 77), and Imogen Heap. Not exactly top-flight stuff, but cool nonetheless.

[quote name='cetera' post='52204' date='Aug 29 2007, 10:36 AM']Jonathan Law at Feline Guitars (www.felineguitars.com)[/quote] I know Jonathan well (I live just around the corner from his workshop) and have been going to him for years for setups and so on. Nothing against him, but most of his experience is with guitars rather than basses, and, to be honest, for an expensive custom instrument, I'd rather go to someone whose speciality is basses. Did you hear that Jonathan's assistant hung himself last week?

This may take a while, and it's definitely going to test my memory! The story begins in early 1991 with... 1) "Axe" 4-string P-type bass. Very cheap, but serviceable as a firstie. Bought it for £60 - last time I saw it, it was on the wall of the local music shop for £175! 2) Bass Collection SB300 - I modded the hell out of this (Seymour Duncan active pickups - the ones with the little switches on - and a Kahler trem) 3) Chris Larkin Reacter 4-string (nice bass, if a bit beaten up) 4) That Bass Collection again (don't ask) Didn't sell it - just stripped it. 5) Westone Thunder 1-A fretless (my first fretless) 6) Hohner cricket-bat (was fun for about 5 minutes) 7) Nightingale 4-string (gorgeous, gorgeous bass - should never have sold it.) 8 ) Bizarre custom 6-string with fanned frets (made by a bloke who went to the London School of Furniture-Making with Martin Petersen... was, well, interesting...) 9) Musicman Stingray (nice, but just couldn't get it to sound right in the band I was in) 10) Fender 1974 Jazz - another one I should never have sold. It had mojo in spades, even after I put EMGs in it. 11) Custom "pseudo-Sei" 4-string (more about this in the "basses you regret selling" thread). This bass probably saved my life... but I lost my job and needed to pay rent, so it had to go. My biggest regret. 12) Sei Flamboyant 4-string. My first fully custom bass - wenge, ziricote, Lane Poors and red LEDs. Shame that it was around this time that I decided I preferred 5-strings. Plus, I lost my job about the same time I got this, so it went back to The Gallery at about the same time I had to sell the other bass. I suppose I never had the time to get attached to it. 13) Cort Curbow 5-string. Nice bass, and my first fiver. Was a stop-gap bass until I got... 14) GB custom 5-string. Bernie did a great job with this one, was very, very custom - custom body shape, two (!) Hipshots... but, like the Stingray, I just couldn't get it to sound good in a band context. 15) Dean Edge 5-string fretless - My second crack at fretless, and it wasn't a bad bass at all. I'd get another one. 16) Carvin BB 5-string. Again, wasn't a bad bass (got it in part-ex for the GB). I think someone here had it at some point... 17) Conklin Groove Tools 5-string. Very nice bass, but was just another stopgap until I got... 18 ) Sei Singlecut 5-string. My current squeeze. Amazing, awesome bass and is only getting better with age. 19) Spector (SSD) NS5CR - my first introduction to the amazing world of Spectors. Was an older Czech 5-string with a gloss black finish. I fitted SimS LEDs to it. 20) Sei fretless 5-string with Wal pickups - Got a good deal on this one, and it's another one I should have kept. Awesome bass, is now living somewhere in Japan! I moved to the US in September 2005, with the intention of staying, so this got sold to lighten the load - I only took two basses with me. 21) Squier P-bass. Xmas present from an ex of mine. Didn't hang around long. Neither did she, as it happens. 22) Warwick Streamer Jazzman 5-string. Got this through an endorsement (my old band were doing pretty well at the time) and paid less than 50% of list price. Just couldn't get on with it (that horrible thick neck was what did it), so I sold it for twice what I paid for it and cancelled the endorsement! 23) Squier Jazz 4-string. Was my attempt to get back to my 4-string roots... modded up with EMGs, etc. Another one I sold when I moved to the US. 24) Spector NS5CRFM. The bass that brought me and my wife together! Still got this one, both for sentimental reasons, and because it sounds and feels amazing. 25) Fake Fender "Jaco" Jazz 4-string. Got this when I came back from the US. It was cheap on eBay, and actually sounded and felt pretty good. 26) Squier VM Jazz 4-string. The 70s one. Nice, but, unfortunately, not my thing. 27) Ibanez ATK405 5-string. Awesome barking rock beast of a bass. Still got this one, as it sounds fantastic when you dig in. ... and that just about brings us up to date. Currently I have the Sei singlecut 5, the Spector NS5CRFM and the ATK405. Big regrets? Selling my "pseudo-Sei" custom is the biggest one, as that bass had serious sentimental value for me. But I also miss the Nightingale, the Sei fretless and the '74 Jazz and would have those back in a heartbeat. The GB was also a lovely bass, and it's a shame it had to go (it was back up on eBay a few months back, but I missed out on it) - the electronics could probably have been tweaked to get a more suitable sound out of it. And that's my story.