T-Bay

Rehearsals should be for getting everyone playing well together NOT to learn the parts but sadly so many people don’t seem to realise this / care.

I am very much a mediocre bass player, I never have any nerves before going on, never had, even the very first time. No idea why. My best mate is a musician of truly stunning ability across several instruments but he hates playing live. He gets nerves so bad he will throw up and feels the stress is not worth it so rarely plays live. It has always struck me as such a waste that a man of such talent suffers in this way, whereas a person like myself can just go ‘F it, it will be ok’ and just get stuck in and enjoy it.

I find it varies song to song. For some the lyrics are absolutely key but there are others where I still have no proper idea what they are after hearing a song hundreds of times but I just love the song so it doesn’t matter. And there are those where I thought I knew the lyrics then see them written down and clearly didn’t.

I use my conservatory as a practice space as well. I do not keep any of my basses in there. However, I was given a cheap crappy Strat copy that lives in there 4/7/365. I have been surprised by how little the temperature has affected it, it must get down to close to freezing on a bad night and stupid hot on a bright summers day but there has been little movement to note. By contrast our lead guitarist left his guitar in a car on a hot day and it was totally unplayable (but did settle back after about a week). I wouldn’t leave a bass in there on purpose but don’t think any major harm would come to one over a short period of time. Long term storage may be very different though.

I may have missed it, but can’t remember seeing gaffer tape. I always take a fat roll of it and a few cable ties

As a serial bass and guitar purchaser I SHOULD agree with you regarding the g-word bit, but if I could get a bass that gave the flexibility and variety of tones I get from my 79 Strat I would be a very happy man indeed. And even my stupidly cheap Tele clone (try less than £100 including Artec pickups and all bought new) does a great range of sounds. I have others as well and am looking for a Les Paul, just coz, you know but could happily live with just the Strat.

Looking good! Have you tested the different materials back to back? Just wondering as copper, brass and SS have quite different densities. Wondering if there was a reason for the choice or if it was purely cosmetic?

I prefer a lighter pickguard on a darker bass as well, the Ultra I have comes with a vintage white (or some other stupid name for light cream) and it works well I think.

I love my EHX hot wax, it’s a combination of two others in one package. Each can be used individually or they can be combined for more fun. It gives a very flexible combination of options.

Or keep dropping the odd note whilst looking at the guitarist and shaking your head in disgust.

That matches my experience precisely. They do not care in the slightest and are so big that no one will be able to dent their profits. I have lost count of the fakes I have reported that they ignore. Even when it’s a clearly illegal sale, e.g. pile of rust and a V5, or ringing kit as it should be known, they don’t care (although in that case the DVLA certainly do).

If you have a conservatory then a couple of weeks in there should sort the colour (but obviously only if you can keep the temperature reasonably stable, don’t do it in August!)

Same here, hate the rear cover and the lack of a pickguard just looks rubbish. But each to their own And all that…….

According to the guy at Guitarguitar in Birmingham when I was looking at them they were selling as many in that colour as all the other colours put together. Nice to see Fender being a bit braver with the colour options.

One expensive one and few crazy cheap acquisitions.

I tried one in that exact colour but ended up going for the ultra instead. I certainly didn’t find it lacking bottom end either. Build quality is superb and the colour is very popular so should be easy to move on if you choose to.

I use stringsdirect or northwest guitars

It is indeed! It looks so much better in real life than on the Fender website.

It’s most likely the same preamp as the ultra is pretty much the same as the Elite. It really does work incredibly well live though and I have had a lot of positive feedback on it. At home I like a bit more low down so just dial it in. I love the colour of yours, this is my one-

If the preamp is like the one on my ultra, then I find it is naturally heavy towards the top giving a brighter sound than in passive mode, I just dial up the lows and mids a bit at home, but keep the brighter sound live as it’s cuts through better.

@Sidlanir I understand that you are passionate about your product. That is essential for any new business to succeed, but if that overspills into an inability to accept criticism then it becomes counter productive. Every amazing new idea has had its fair share of detractors, however many terrible ideas have cost their developers dearly when they failed to listen to the market. What you need to do is to explain and persuade potential buyers of the benefits of your product but at present you are alienating them by getting defensive. I think you have an interesting design but would need convincing of any benefits. I would be willing to test one for you (and return it subsequently- I am not after a freebie) and provide feedback. I have access through work to equipment where I can accurately test intonation, sustain, noise etc and my best mate is a sound technician with a superb ear. I also repair and maintain guitars and basses for a music charity in my spare time so am used to setting up kit. Whatever you do, just relax as people will only invest In a product they believe in and upsetting people is the fastest way to persuade them to keep money in their pockets.

KMA Cirrus, just ‘kin awesome and ridiculously flexible. Nothing I tried came close.

It’s an observation not a generalisation, most people on here play 4 strings, most basses for sale across the market are four string, most professional players use 4 strings. If they weren’t happy with 4 strings they would change surely?

I am sure you are right, but looking at the number of them for sale/ in use, I think most players can be happy with the four. I tried five purely to cope with a few songs we do in odd tunings. I also restrung a precision BEAD but didn’t find any advantage for me. There will always be those with 5/6/7 strings and use to them to great effect but I am not one of those and the drop pedal does what I need and is an option that easy to try at minimal expense. Like everything, some will love them and you can only know by trying.