FDC484950

I love mine (a 5HH). That’s some lovely birdseye maple on the neck! String mutes as well. Needs the original knobs, though

What has a subjective opinion on taste and value got to do with an objective assessment of quality? In addition, what has the price of a Wal or Fodera got anything to do with whether people buy them or not? The same applies to any consumer object - if no one bought it, it wouldn’t exist. You’ve answered your own question anyway - the law of diminishing returns is linked to individual assessment of value and what they’re prepared to pay for something. The only additional factor with a musical instrument is the player’s ability. Very good musicians may appreciate an instrument differently and see nuances that a less capable player would miss or disregard, and therefore have a different concept of value.

I had the same response with the NG3 I briefly owned (basically the same as a Combustion). It felt nice to play, if a bit generic, but the neodymium pickups and preamp didn’t do it for me at all. Very twangy and a bit rough, and no way of dialling it down (active or passive). IMHO 50% more for a Canadian ABZ is (if you want a Dingwall) a no-brainer.

This is an underestimated subject. It’s one of the main qualities that separates a good bass player from a great bass player (or musician). Control and consistency over every note you play takes close attention and quite a lot of work, but as you nicely demonstrated, the result is music rather than a racket

Canadian Dingwalls have the best B string I've played by a long way, and the most consistent feel across all the strings. The issue with other basses is with a long scale length for all the strings. I've played 2 different Fodera Anthony Jackson Presentation basses over the years (now well over £20K!) and the G and C sounded really thin and tight, being stretched to 36". Same applies with Overwater Progress (it was also 36"). I've also played quite a few shorter scale basses with a low B (including ACG, Shuker and Fodera) and in every case the B string was clear enough for the first few frets but quickly lost real definition. Dingwall often sound very ordinary at first because hearing a properly consistent, even range of strings sounds wrong as both our ears and hands are attuned to hearing something different. I nearly returned the ABZ I bought last year for that very reason, but I stuck with it and I'm very glad I did. It's passive with series/parallel toggles and it is so versatile and organic sounding. The only downside is that palm muting is virtually impossible due to the angle of the bridge.

I’ve had several very poor experiences there, which just goes to show that threads like this might make people feel better to get things off their chest, but don’t really serve any useful purpose. I’ve had plenty of excellent and very reasonably priced repair work done on my basses in the last 10 years and none of it has been done by the Gallery.

It surprised me, but from my conversations with them the vast majority of BDs customers are either not on Basschat or don’t post here actively and couldn’t care less about online forums (shock horror!) Really big multi billion-pound companies like Virgin Media, who can afford to employ entire customer relationship departments, have appalling customer service - I wonder if the common thread is a captive audience with few alternatives open to customers?

Not wishing to criticise you, or others on this thread who have complained of poor service, but why not call them out on it? No-one likes poor service, but if you don’t make a point of telling the, how and why you’re getting poor service (and that they’ve lost a sale, or even lost a customer!) nothing will change.

Fixed

There nothing wrong with opening an old thread - In many cases it’s far better than starting another thread and I’ve come across some great info on revived threads. Just prior to Christmas I opened about 15-20 threads that were all bumped by different people, all of whom appeared to have joined, just to bump an old thread. It was a bit odd, and in several cases pointless because they were asking the OP a question when that user hasn’t been on BC for years. From a quick search this is the only post any of these new users made. I gather BC wasn’t the only music-related forum where this happened, hence me asking on another thread whether it was some kind of weird spambot. And whoosh! if this is what you’re all joking about - I couldn’t see through all the sarcasm

SLO?

Bought a bass off Michal. Very securely packed - bass was protected inside the hard case and the case in a solid cardboard box - and got it posted very quickly. And the bass is exactly as described and works perfectly. I would not hesitate to buy from him again.

MM do make me laugh with their naming conventions - a series of US basses called Sterling, then a cheaper range of basses called Sterling, none of which (now) is the same design as a US Sterling I’ve tried a couple of the cheaper Sterling models and they’re fine instruments, but didn’t feel quite up to the quality of finish (or weight) of the current range. Sound was pretty much indistinguishable (US ones were a touch louder and punchier, but very little in it). You used to be able to snap up a US Stingray for well under £1K but prices new have crept up over time. I seem to have become a bit of a brand snob over the years so only like the “real” thing now (and I prefer The US Sterling so don’t have a choice, anyway - but if they made a Sterling, er, Sterling then I’d certainly consider it).

As I understand it, the VB is made mostly from hardwoods (koa?), which would account for the weight. I played one once and it sounded great, but not quite the same as a classic jazz bass. Is it just weight you’re looking to lose? A Japanese Sadowsky should be good quality, and the Will Lee is the only model with any mid control, which doesn’t bother most as they prefer the scooped sound of a jazz. There was until recently a 5 in GuitarGuitar (might have been a German one, but IIRC it was one of the last Japanese ones) and it was over £3K, so €2199 sounds good.

Yes, it’s now like buying (new or used) from the USA. You’ll pay 2% import duty on the declared value of the instrument from the EU (3.5% from the USA I believe), including shipping, then 20% VAT on the total (and possibly customs clearance charges as well). 25% is a decent rule of thumb - which, together with poor exchange rates can make a cheap instrument expensive!

Or maybe Rotosounds? I saw “ready” on tour with Steely Dan a few years ago. What an absolute monster. Incredible groove. One of those players where you can’t help but tap your foot.

God knows why Bilbo, you (and a few others) are almost single-handedly helping bass players to learn to read music. Keep up the great work

1. Don’t noodle. It’s a waste of valuable learning time and helps reinforces old (bad?) habits. 2. Always play music. It doesn’t what you’re learning, make it a piece of music. No-one listens to a performance where someone is practising, we listen to music. Make everything you play musical and every note meaningful 3. Learn new things - new styles, songs, ideas etc. 4. Concentrate on things you can’t play, break them down, slow them down and build it up piece by piece (also see point 1 - noodling is often playing things you already know). 5. Don’t kid yourself you understand something or you’ve got it down when you haven’t. If you can’t play it purely from memory without stumbling you don’t know it well enough. 6. Good time fundamentally comes from within but can only be improved by playing with other (better) musicians. 7. Allow yourself to fail and to learn from failure by getting to the root cause for that failure. In fact don’t even call it failure - call it experimentation. 8. Whilst there are many approaches to technique, simple physics dictate that there are better and worse ways to fret and pluck notes. There’s load of info online - go with what feels comfortable for you and give you the sound you want - but aim for a sound where the bass is strong, clear and precise and makes the band sound great. I’ve seen some bass players on gigs who are sloppy, have poor time and make a band sound worse. It’s not hard to not be that bass player

It’s an extension of system like the MM Big Al, with individual switching system, just with a lot more combinations. TBH I’m quite surprised at just how different the settings sounded - I heard at least 6 very usable sounds and I love the versatility of my Big Al. I guess the market for something like this is non-existent, given that apparently all any bass player needs is a P bass

Love that blue sparkle! I wish MM would make the Special 5s with the same pickguard and control plate as the 4 (like the classic range) or like the Sterling. It much cleaner to my eyes.

Many bass players get a 6 to play chords on. I took a different approach and just thought of it as a regular bass with extended range. You’re really limited to 3 note chords due to the low register, unless you use two handed tapping (and then it’s more like a Chapman Stick than a guitar so the advice might be different), and far fewer options with voicings. You don’t say whether you’ve had a 5 before so I’ll assume not. Get everything you play today and explore playing it with the new range. Play lines you played on the E string in the B, and stuff higher up on the G, transfer to the C. The quicker you stop thinking about a 4 string plus 1 extra string each side and see the fretboard as a whole the better. I found not swapping back to a 4 for a few months really helped. One potential issue is that the vertical range is so big that many players get stuck playing in one position. Break out of that by playing one octave scales and intervals over two strings so you get to move up and down the neck horizontally. In terms of literature I would just get some jazz standards, learn the melody then record some chords and try writing down and learning the solos, you can prep for this by playing chord tones all over the instrument to get used to that extra range. Something like Musescore is great because you can just put chord symbols in and it’ll play them back on piano (albeit not with the best voicings). Jamey Aebersold book/CDs are an alternative. I’d imagine there’s a ton of great videos on YT but take a look at players like Anthony Jackson, John Patitucci, Todd Johnson, Steve Bailey, Alain Caron etc. Finally, pay attention to your technique. There’s a lot strings more to keep quiet and the wider fretboard can put extra stress on fretting and plucking hand.