Rexel Matador

[quote name='chickenjames' timestamp='1484346966' post='3214933'] Is there anywhere in the south that has stock of the MIM 50s P? I'd quite like to get my hands on one. [/quote] GAK (Brighton) have them on their website. They might also have them in the shop - maybe worth asking.

I have a few, but the one that comes to mind is "...And Out Come The Wolves" by Rancid. I hadn't thought about in years until I joined Basschat where someone seems to mention Matt Freeman (or more accurately, I suppose, the instrument that bears his name) every few minutes. It's been great to revisit their stuff with a view to learning the bass parts, because they're super-fun to play and a real workout for the fretting hand.

I just bought a new MIM precision for £500 and I absolutely love it. You could always switch out the pickup and still be within your budget.

Ibanez Mikro? https://www.gak.co.uk/en/ibanez-gsrm20b-wnf-walnut-flat/111403?gclid=CMHgpM2MtdECFdS4GwodmPUKtw Or one of those ukulele basses if you want something even smaller!

On investigating further, the strings on this account have been given a review by a different account that a: has the same address and b: has negative feedback for selling dodgy strings. Until yesterday I had no idea that people selling fake strings on ebay was a thing. It's quite sad.

[url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/172466904547?_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT"]http://www.ebay.co.u...K%3AMEBIDX%3AIT[/url] Seems awfully cheap. What's going on here? I notice that it's a very new ebay account. Might it be a scam or should I have more faith in my fellow humans? Edit: I'm pretty sure the strings are fake. I thought I'd better mention it up here at the top in case anyone sees this thread and thinks they're onto a good deal without reading the posts below. Thanks everyone. Stay vigilant!

[quote name='Jamieboy' timestamp='1483793774' post='3210144'] Well. After playing it I've gone for a squier vm jazz bass. I'm really pleased with it. To me it seems to sound and play really nicely. Ends up my question was irrelevant but thanks to all for the input. [/quote] Great choice. How is it weight-wise compared to the others you were considering?

I've become particularly fond of the term "bass guitar" of late. It doesn't get used in full enough.

[quote name='keeponehandloose' timestamp='1483740130' post='3209833'] Fx pedals have the input and output on the wrong sides. Input should be on left, out on right. [/quote] I wondered about that recently too when setting up a pedalboard. It's weird to us because our language goes that way, right? If we spoke Arabic, Hebrew etc it would seem perfectly sensible.

At first I read that as "neither" and it made me chuckle.

I prefer to identify as the latter. I don't know why. How about you? I'm genuinely curious...

The A string on my Fender P Bass rattles at the bridge due to insufficient break angle at the nut. Fender will gladly sell me a string retainer to rectify this issue which is their fault in the first place. I just wanted to join in. I still love this bass more than pretty much any human being I can think of!

I sold Marc some strings. Prompt payment and great communication. A pleasure to deal with.

Bought a bridge from Alan. Smooth quick transaction, fast delivery and great communication. Highly recommended.

This is all very interesting and is pretty much the reason I asked. It seems like the love for Matt Freeman's signature bass only slightly crosses over with the love for the man himself and his ouevre. It's just a consistently great and affordable precision bass, hence why I'm mystified that it's no longer available. So good that it's a threat to the Mexican standard? And I remember reading another thread (possibly here, or possibly over on Talkbass) when it first came out. Someone questioned what was even so "signature" about it. It's just a p bass, isn't it? (For the record I think he's wonderful. Rancid are hit and miss but Freeman always brings it.)

[quote name='Mister RLP' timestamp='1483703819' post='3209354'] I have a bit of gas for a USA precision but there is very little to fault with my Matt Freeman. Excellent build. Good weight. Plays well. It's a keeper. [/quote] Why on earth did they discontinue the Matt Freeman? I've never heard a bad word about them. Is it because Rancid aren't quite as popular as they once were?

Thanks Happy Jack. I tried that and it's the string. I think it's a case of another wind or two on the next string change.

They're all already wound down the post. Unfortunately it seems it doesn't go down quite far enough.

Having raised the action on my P bass, I now find that the open A string is buzzing at the nut. I think that this is caused by the higher action meaning that the angle at the nut is slightly insufficient. (If I press slightly on the part of the string between the nut and the tuner and play the note, the buzz goes away. I don't think it's coming through the amp, so I suspect that the best solution is to live with it for now and then, when I next change the strings, do a couple more windings on the machine head so the string is pushed down a bit lower. Is this a common? Does my diagnosis sound right? Or is there something else I might have missed?

I took up bass about 6 months ago recently after playing guitar for years. I went straight for a long scale and found that I adjusted pretty quickly. When I first picked up a Fender Precision it felt like a cricket bat and I thought "why do people love these so much?". It really didn't take very long at all for it to feel normal. It's not like when your hands first had to adjust to playing guitar. Most of the work is already done. I would go long because, as already mentioned, you will have a lot more choice (and, given that you're on basschat, it seems fairly inevitable that you will feel an irresistible urge to fill your house with the damn things before too long ). Just my 2 cents.

[quote name='pfretrock' timestamp='1483445210' post='3207131'] I have the rosewood version, a really nice neck on it (2013). I'm slowly "de-chroming" it, so may get a black bridge. - Don't listen to them, leave the pickguard alone, else it will look awful! [/quote] I'm inclined to agree. I like to tinker, so it's always tempting to change it, but I think I'll leave it alone for now.

Steve Digiorgio plays fretless bass in a whole bunch of metal bands - he might be worth checking out.

After coming across this thread I looked around online and found them in stock in one or two other places. I emailed one shop and they said that they were indeed discontinued and they had received them, IIRC, about six months ago. So I suspect the one in the link above is probably left over from the earlier run, rather than a new line.

I have an Ibanez SR300E that I bought new about 6 months ago. You say you like a thin neck and this thing is as thin as it gets. It was great for me as I was switching from guitar. A lot of people have very good things to say about them, particularly given how cheap they are. It's served me reasonably well and is very very easy to play. I have the pearl white finish and it looks awesome. It has two humbuckers with coil splitting options, and active eq (the pickups themselves are actually passive), so there is a large variety of tones available to you. The thing is, I could never quite find one that I really liked. I tried it through various amps etc and it always seemed to lack a certain "clarity" that I was looking for. It has a lot of power but it's difficult to harness/focus that power (sorry, it's quite hard to put into words!). I guess all that depends on your style though. I'm playing mostly hard rock - as soon as I plugged in my new Fender Precision I realised that that was what I needed all along. The Ibanez is about as far from that as you can get, so no wonder it didn't quite work for me. I also found that an hour or two of playing with a pick at a rehearsal caused the saddle height screws to loosen and drop the action right down. I fixed this with some Loctite thread locker and the bridge is otherwise pretty nice. It's nice and chunky and has grooves to stop the saddles wiggling from side to side. To be fair, I don't know anything about Ibanez's quality control standards. Maybe there are better ones out there. I didn't really know what I was looking for when I bought it and I liked the neck. To summarise: Insanely thin neck, very easy to play, looks cool, BUT, for all it's bells and whistles, it still sounds like a mediocre inexpensive instrument. Hope this helps!

[quote name='Cato' timestamp='1483138391' post='3205074'] If was proper sea foam green I'd be delighted with it, but from what I've seen from photographs and the one video I could find (in German) on YouTube I think it might be a bit 'flash' for my tastes. [/quote] I get that. It's definitely not one of your timeless Fender finishes.