Russ

Yep. They've never really got the hang of email there! You do need to chase him up by phone.

I wasn't playing much fretless back then, so it was one of the first to go when we moved (along with a Warwick Streamer Jazzman I got through a short-lived endorsement deal). It was an amazing bass - you're right, all the Wal tone with none of the weight or ergonomic issues (always loved how Wals sounded, but I never liked the necks, and they were all boat anchors). Actually been toying with the idea of asking Martin to make me another one - same woods, same look, but with Turner pickups and the Lusithand preamp.

My first "proper" Sei, back in the late 90s, was a 4-string with a beautiful ziricote top. Ended up selling it back to The Gallery after being unemployed for a while, unfortunately. I'd love to track it down, it was a beauty and sounded amazing (it had original Lane Poor pickups in it, with the Schack circuit). I also had this one for a while - it's a Flamboyant fretless with an ebony top, and Wal pickups and electronics. It was a phenomenal bass. I sold it to finance our first international move, and I really miss it.

I have my Sei and my two custom Maruszczyks, a Spector and a MM, so I've got quite a few high-enders, but one of the basses I play most often is a 5-string Revelation Jazz. Cost me less than £300, and, after a proper setup, I'd put it up against any Fender. It's a great bass.

Should add that to the official BC merch store.

Bona is incredible. The man is just music incarnate - I'm not sure I've ever heard such a natural musician. He just breathes it. That black Sei Jazz with the EMGs was in The Gallery for ages. It's a lovely bass that I'm sure has a very appreciative new home now.

I've had several over the years, but one has stayed with me through everything. I've had my singlecut 5-string since 2003, and it's not going anywhere. It's a wonderful instrument. It's survived many gigs and tours, several international relocations, and it's still going strong. Here's two pics of me playing it, 20 years apart! EDIT: Looking at the old picture, I'm thinking that I kinda miss my Eden rig that I had back then!

If they're playing the songs from the film, whoever gets the gig will have fun. The tunes are great, and some of the bass parts are quite tricky!

Alex Venturella has a couple of custom Status B2's with fancy wood-and-resin tops - not sure how recent they are. I suspect they have different electronics to the original Entwistle version - the knob layout looks different, anyway. Give them a call. They've always been happy to help during the limited dealings I've had with them.

I guess it doesn't have to be SWR or Tecamp-level clean. I quite like a little bit of preamp drive, in that slightly squishy, slightly hairy SVT-ish style. Not full-blown distortion - I have that on tap with my pedalboard. Yes, I could get (another) Ampeg. But I trust their stuff about as far as I can throw it these days after having an SVT-7 and a Portaflex 800 both die on me mid-gig. I'm pretty happy with my Ashdown and Trace gear right now, but I am feeling the need for something that's maybe a little juicier-sounding.

So I'm thinking of trying out a Darkglass head. They've got some Alpha Omega heads at the studio I rehearse at, and I've always managed to coax a decent sound out of them. They must also be pretty reliable, if they're standing up to the rigours of living in a rehearsal studio! Given that Darkglass are best known for their distorted sound, which one of the three ranges (ie, Microtubes, Microtubes X, Alpha Omega) available provides the best clean tone? It'd be nice to have the distortion as an option, but I'd mostly be using a clean tone. I really like the look of the amp section that's in the Infinity combos, but I don't think that comes as a separate head.

The 1970 live album from The Who. Entwistle's playing a Precision and his tone is fearsome. Then again, at that time it was just the four of them (before they started adding keyboards, etc) - his main challenge was being heard over Moon's drums!

The similarity, to my ears, is the clarity and amount of detail in the upper mids - for want of a better expression, they both have an upper-mid "boing". The overall tone is different, but that upper-mid prominence is shared. The Jones basses have multicoil pickups and filter preamps, so I guess, while they might have some Smith in the looks department, the tone is more Wal-like.

One of my favourite albums from 20 years or so back, Headspace by Pulse Ultra, was all recorded with a Smith. Fantastic bass tone that works very well in a rock/metal band, and not dissimilar to a Wal - there's a pretty obvious Tool influence, and that extends to the bass tone.

I beg to differ. My Sei is gorgeous. That hairy bloke playing it in the pic, maybe a bit less so.

Mark's moved away from the Ken Smith tribute thing and has revised his shapes to make them a bit more original. They've got a little bit more of a Jaydee vibe now, to my eyes. He's also using multicoil pickups and a filter preamp in most of his basses now, so they're just as much a Wal tribute as a Smith one! Lovely instruments though. Looking forward to seeing more.

From this past weekend's gig, my two Maruszczyk Frogs, my Barefaced Big Twin II and my Ashdown RM-800. Not shown - Zoom B6. The Luminlay blocks on the fretted Frog look great.

2024 can do one. I was unemployed for 3 months, one of my cats got cancer and passed away, the band was out of action for most of the year (firstly our drummer's mum died and he was overseas for 3 months, then our guitarist had a mental health episode and was out of action for another 4 months), and then there was all the Tr**p f**kery in November. I am so ready for it to be over. Not sure 2025 is looking much better though. The world is truly going to s**t at the moment.

I think you’ll find the vast majority of Brits here on Basschat (as well as most of the rest of the world) are utterly appalled with the results of the recent election in the US. And, as a Brit currently living in the US, I’ll add my name to that list. As well as the names of pretty much everyone I know here (all of whom are “normal” Americans).

It's US-based and most of its users are American. There is a decent number of non-US folk on there though, who sometimes have to remind the US-ians of strangely obvious things like how, elsewhere in the world, US Fenders are the foreign imports... little things like that don't occur to them! I'd strongly advise anyone from overseas to stay out of the TB Lounge section of the site if they're a paying member... some of the discussion in there gets ugly, is very US-centric, and some of them don't seem to like hearing from foriegners.

We're allowed to digress where relevant, and it's definitely relevant, when Sire are doing a better lower-priced MM-style bass than MM themselves. The Z series sound more like a proper Stingray than any of the Sterling range, whether it's the new cheap ones or the more expensive ones. There were similar discussions back in the day when Ibanez came out with the ATK range, which sounded much more Stingray-ish than the "official" lower-priced Stingrays of the time, the OLP range. On the upside, maybe this will encourage MM to up their game.

Not sure the MG analogy holds water - remember the MG Metro, Maestro and Montego, the ZR/ZS/ZT, etc? It's not like they haven't tried to reinvent themselves before! But, for anyone who really wants an MGB, there's plenty of old ones out there, the same way there's plenty of old Shergolds out there. MG decided they want a new, younger demographic, not men in their fifties and sixties whose dads might have owned an MGA or MGB. It's a rather limited market, after all. Similarly, Shergold have identified who they want their audience to be this time around. Younger guitarists who want something with a classic name but modern design - not the small-ish number of older players who probably have the means to buy a proper vintage Shergold anyway.

Agreed. They could do what Eastwood do - just churn out cheap reissues, or they could do something new. I’m actually quite happy they’re doing the latter. They’ve taken the less easy option. There’s plenty of old, used Shergolds out there, and, for the most part, they’re not expensive for vintage instruments - why bother with a reissue when there’s quite a few originals out there that aren’t selling for silly money?

The old Shergolds had big paddle headstocks - most modern guitar makers wouldn't do that now because they're more aware of balance and ergonomics, and big headstocks make instruments neck-heavy. I'm sure there'll be either a reissue series or a series of updated versions of classic models eventually, but I don't think that's what they're interested in right now. They want to be relatively contemporary, and basically sell a ton of instruments to British indie bands. There's always the Wilcock range if you want something that looks a bit like an old Shergold.

The new ones are all designed by Patrick Eggle (who used to make those PRS-ish guitars back in the day) and are original designs. I'm sure they'll come out with some reissues eventually, but they're pushing the new stuff right now. Personally, I'd have thought doing things round the other way would make the most sense, but it's up to them!