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Absolutely right Cato and I think my reference to 'made in Mexico' was probably misleading. I think what I meant to say (badly) was even for a MIM guitar it seemed cheap.  I've got a 50s player strat, and a 60s player strat and they are both as good (IMHO) as any MIA Custom Shop. I've also got a MIJ tele and my go-too bass which I will go to my grave with is a 1995 '62 reissue MIJ Jazz bass. For my money Japanese Fenders are the best bang for buck you can buy, closely followed by Mexican.  I think I currently have something like 25 guitars and basses and out of all the Fenders none are American. I  always laugh quietly to myself when our 'murican cousins claim the only real Fenders are made in California (usually by Mexicans).

horrible. simply horrible.

https://shop.fender.com/en-GB/electric-basses/precision-bass/deluxe-active-precision-bass-special/0143412300.html?rl=en_US

Are these any good. I know they are made in Mexico but it still seems like a lot of bass for the money, particularly as the street price is quite a bit less than the one quoted by Fender

Blimey, Korg buying Spector and Yamaha buying Ampeg - when will it end?  

no definitely Ampeg. That's what caught my attention, because I use ampeg myself. I think it was someone on the No Treble forum

but yes of course there is always the third option  you suggest 😃

Didn't say the post was on here but I definitely read it and not for the first time

I have about a garage worth of pedals bought over the years for guitar. Am consciously not buying pedals at all for the bass - can't see the need. Just concentrating on developing a good natural clean tone

Cheers buddy. Yep, really happy with my gear and not feeling any inclination to change at all. Just curious to know why people seem to either like or dislike ampeg

Two part question. First part: I'm fairly new to bass having played guitar most of my life. I reckon I could recognise the tone of most guitar amps blindfold - they either fall into the Marshall, Fender or Vox tone camp. Those are the three seminal tones (IMHO). I have very little experience with bass amps. I am playing through an Ampeg PF500 and find it more than capable and pleasing for the low bedroom levels I play at. But here's the question - yesterday I read a post about someone who had switched from Ampeg to an Orange Terror Bass and was loving the amp giving him everything he wanted 'without the Ampeg tone' and its not the first time I've read things like this. So it seems there is something about the 'Ampeg tone' that people either love or hate and I'm at a loss to detect that myself. I know its not the easiest thing to describe tone in words but give it your best shot - what is it about the 'Ampeg tone' that divides people.

Second part to my question: If, as I think guitar amps can be roughly divided into the Fender, Marshall or Vox camp in terms of tone, is there a similar distinct group of tones that bass amps fall into?

yep, I reckon it would 😁

Solid advice, and that is exactly what I've done for the last twelve months - however I'm not asking what I should do personally. I am interested in these sort of hypothetical quandaries and wondering how people would approach them. Their reasonings behind choices will also help me understand the function of basses better

…….two basses, but you need to have maximum flexibility. As someone fairly new to bass I'm thinking you'd want a four string, a five string, a fretted bass and a fretless so I'd maybe go fretted four string and fretless five string. I haven't a clue whether they'd be active or passive - I've only ever played passive basses so I have no idea what active basses bring to the table. Which way would you go, and I'm particularly interested to hear your reasoning. Hopefully goes without saying I'm not asking what make or model you'd go for.

What's the difference? Asking for a friend 😁

Hi,

apologies if this question has been asked many times before - I have tried a search and not really found anything. I have an old Vox Tonelab LE from my guitar playing days up in the attic somewhere. I'm wondering whether this could be used for bass or whether there are any specific reasons why a guitar effects unit might not work with bass? Just wanted to ask the question before I risk life and limb looking for it in the attic. I'm, interested in the things like chorus, reverb and delay on it more than the amp modelling and overdrives

Ok so to recap, and I'm sorry if I'm asking really basic questions but in all my life I have never done anything more complicated audio-wise than plugging a guitar or bass into a combo. If I got an Alesis SR16  and a small mixer that has an XLR socket do I connect the mixer to the XLR input on the Ampeg  and then plug both the bass and the alesis into separate channels on the mixer with quarter jack leads?

I am tempted to get a basic drum machine for practise as I never really get on with metronomes and I'm looking at the Alesis unit. Just wondering what peoples thoughts on it are. I know there is an updated SR18 but at nearly twice the price I'm not sure it offers enough extra when all I want are basic drum tracks. Are there any other rival units that are better? One thing that does confuse me is hook up - there seems to be all sorts of connections on the back to go through a midi or a mixer but can it just be put in a direct signal path between bass and amp the same way you would hook up an effects pedal?

Michael Kiwanaku - Love and Hate. Was actually released in 2016 but I didn't discover it until this year so it's my best album of 2017.

Bluewine, where are you playing in the present day pic. Looks very much like the MAC arena at Canon Hill  Park in Birmingham

lol, top man

Apologies if this topic has been discussed before  - I've done a search and can't find anything but if it has please forgive me and point me to the other thread.

I  imagine most of us could reel off the names of the most influential bassists in the last fifty years but if you were to build a music collection featuring the best examples of their work what would be in it? As an example, Adrian Ashton in his book 'The Bass Handbook' has a section on artists and recommends Led Zeppelin II as the best album to hear examples of John Paul Jones' bass work so I'll start off the collection with that album. What else should be in there - all genres of music welcome:

ambient, he's probably the most dedicated because he recently gave up chasing women and has more time on his hands 

I first played bass in a college band when I was 18, because the other guitarist was better than me and we didn't have a bassist. Did a few gigs then we split up and I moved back home to raise my family. I've just started again with the intention of learning to play it properly - I'm 58 so I'd say your 15 year hiatus is more of a little break. Think I'm probably too old to have aspirations about joining a band again but I'm having fun

take a look at the Vox pathfinder 10

Never realised this topic was going to be such a hot potato 

Anyway, ordered a speakon to quarter cable from OBBM and it arrived in next to no time and top quality as always. Can thoroughly recommend him to anyone.

Just to throw the cat amongst the pigeons though I was reading through the quick start guide that came with  my Ampeg PF-500 and here's a curious thing for you. The Ampeg has both a speakon and a quarter jack input on it. In the hook up diagrams they recommend the standard set up should be speakon to speakon and also daisy-chaining using speakon as well. But they also show the possibility of a parallel setup with speakon to speakon connecting the first cab and quarter jack to quarter jack connecting the second cab. Now I'm guessing that with two cabs connected they feel the load to the second cab will be low enough to get away with quarter jack connections but surely if it is such a no-no Ampeg  should have put two speakons on the amp instead of a speakon and a quarter?