BillyBass

I would agree with you re the pre amp. Fender/Charvel would have built these to a price point and anything more than a couple of dollars on the pre amp would have gone over this, I presume. I also have a Charvel fiver, the pre amp in that was ok but I swapped it out for a Nordstrand. My first 4 string got sent back because the pre amp was faulty (amongst other issues that PMT didn't check before posting it). I would have been happy to spend another £100 on these basses if they came with a decent pre amp but perhaps the general bass buying public wouldn't be. Still, I paid £699 each for both my 4 strings and the fiver, which are bargains really, considering you are getting 'Player Plus' style hardware for 'Player' series prices. I have 8 basses and these Charvels are my favourites.

How does the neck feel to play?

I have two of these, one metallic green, the other metallic blue. I love the look and how they feel in my hands, the jazz neck on a P body is great. As its a two pick up active bass, the pre amp and pups enable me to get a multitude of tones. Yes, the G string is dull when used in passive mode but its an active bass, I would only use it in passive mode if I had battery or gain issues, and then there is a treble knob on my amp's EQ. The worst thing about the bass is the pre amp, so I swapped them out for John East preamps. So @How1 why did you buy the bass? if you didn't want an active bass and the appearance of the neck and nut width wasn't to your liking?

Have you got the ejector seat? Must come in handy if the wife nags a bit too much.

👍

I’m really happy with my band mates; we get along, are happy to compromise and are generally on the same page. We are 2 guitars, bass and drums, with one of the guitarists on vocals, standard stuff. We would like to cover certain songs but can’t due to the original having keys or sax, for example, and we have trouble converting that to two guitars. Sometimes our arrangements work, sometimes they don’t and we drop the song. I’m nitpicking here, our set is 33 songs strong and we are adding more.

Hic🥂cheers

I have a Mexican Standard Precision in CAR, I swapped the pick guard for a tort on and it looks lush. CAR body, rosewood fretboard and tort pick guard 😍

Nice! That does look like it’s crying out for a tort pick guard. I have one of these in Tidepool. Good bass, slightly heavy but not too bad.

I would love to be in a glam covers band; you lot must have a blast.

NYXLs are the first round wounds I've put on a bass that didn't need a couple of days to lose the extreme bright edge to them, they sounded great straight away. So, currently, they are my favourite string. To me they sound better than the standard EXL170s. I get the impression that XTs are EXLs with a coating but the NYXLs are an uncoated improvement to the EXLs? My current band has a 34 song set list, I play 33 of those songs with a pick and one with fingers. I'm a bit apprehensive about using coated strings as I believe my pick will just remove the coating. Whether this makes any difference to the sound or longevity I don't know?

Love the growl of that Spector!

I do sometimes drool over the Sandberg basses on the bass direct website; that looks really nice. How do you find the GR cab? I know they are meant to be really light but how do they sound?

The Flint Cottage, just by the train station. They put up an awful sounding clip of us on their Facebook page, so here is something better:

Two bags of salt. Our drummer complained about the bass drum gradually moving away from him during the first few songs. The floor had no carpet, it was just floorboards so to stop it slipping he acquired a couple of bags of salt from the management. The bass is a Balaguer Select series Goliath. I got it from Guitarguitar in Newcastle a couple of years ago. Lovely to look at and play, however, I don't play it as much as I should, generally preferring my Charvels, but yesterday I thought I'd put it to work. Here is the NBD thread I started when I bought it.

Coronation celebration in a pub in High Wycombe. We were supposed to be playing in the garden but rain stopped that. Not many punters in but we've been asked back so we must have done something right.

It wasn't ideal; our singer/guitarist got there first. The placing of the PA was worse though and when I wasn't on BV duties I shifted over to the left of it all. I could hear myself but not very well, though listening to videos of the gig the sound was ok for the audience. We were supposed to be playing in the garden but the weather put paid to that.

Rig for yesterday's Coronation gig at a pub in High Wycombe. Gallien Kruger Legacy 800 into a Barefaced Super Compact.

I like baselines that are busy but not difficult and that, perhaps, add a bit to the melody, rather than just being the rhythm behind the guitars. Losing My Religion - R.E.M. Cinnamon Girl - Neil Young Smooth - Santana Down in a Tube Station at Midnight - The Jam All I wanna Do - Cheryl Crow Echo Beach - Martha and the Muffins Pump it up - Elvis Costello

As @neepheid @Jonesy and @jezzaboy have mentioned, one of the G&L Tributes on sale at Andertons. It just so happens I gigged my G&L Kiloton tribute last Saturday and it performed very well, especially when our drummer dropped a stick during Basket Case, it held us all together. G&L necks can be a bit chunky, not one of my preferences but the Kiloton and the JB-2 have a narrow jazz sized nut, even though they stick out a bit at the back, so I'd probably get one of those JB-2s

Someone should start a forum 'bannedfromtalkbass.com'. There are loads of you! Sorry OP, back to Barefaced 10"s with tweeters...

Maybe on my birthday, as a special treat.

Pedant hat on: I've never had a Barclays in my life. I might have had one or two J Arthurs though

Our next gig will be on Saturday at the 'Flint Cottage' in High Wycombe. A day of celebration for the coronation, with us on in the garden from about 3pm, as warm up for the main event in the evening...Karaoke!

A short set of 12 songs as we were the openers of a 5 band punk night, at the Friars inn, Hemel Hempstead. Some of the other band members looked like they had started shaving, I think; so we were a bit out of place, being oldies doing covers and the rest were kids doing originals. It was nice to play on a proper stage with a backline and just have to DI out and let the sound guy sort the levels out. The other band members then had the privilege of hearing my bass through the PA 😀. I took my G&L Kiloton last night; it doesn't bring the thunder like a P bass but it certainly cut through.