Paul S

Bought two pedals from Shaun - good comms, friendly guy, well packaged immediately dispatched - he even sent me some free patch leads to hook them up with! So yet another thumbs up for Shaun - cheers!

For me it wasn't an cumulative thing but a single life-style changing event. After spending most of my adult life being fit and pushing heavy weights at the gym it came as a shock - one minute my back was fine, the next I injured it, went into spasm and, although much improved, haven't been the same since. I am sure a lot of people can tell similar stories. My initial thoughts were that anything I was able to do bass gear-wise would end up being a compromise - I never thought that lightweight basses, amps and cabs could deliver the kind of sounds I was used to but the reality is far from that and I am slowly edging my kit towards Nirvana.

All points taken on board, thanks for the input chaps.

Thanks for that - it is exactly what I was wondering might be possible. I just need to make some decisions - I am going to do away with my multi-effect pedal which I use mainly for distortion and the tuner. I could keep the Classic 450 and use stomp boxes for these or change to an RH450 with a footswitch and have it all in one box. ta.

That is what I have been doing and it isn't quite enough. I recently started trying with added overdrive from a stomp box. And it is ok - I am just exploring other possibilities.

I was thinking maybe the tubetone would do this - have it dialled in to, say, 2 for the quieter passages then much higher for the loud bits. There are a number of tracks that would be useful for if it would work - combined with a footswitch.

That's useful - thanks for the replies. So you could set it up with two presets for a song that has passages of quiet, with little overdrive, and loud with lots of overdrive (like, say, Boulevard of Broken Dreams, Green Day)?

I have the classic 450 and I love the sound of it. But I was wondering about the presets on the RH450. What can you alter and save - just the EQ settings or other stuff like the tubetone, gain, overall volume and compression? Ta!

For a couple of 'off the peg' skinny necked Fender Ps that I am currently enjoying: Fender Precision Lyte has a P-Bass body and a very slim Jazz neck. Or, more accurately, a Stratocaster-type body as it is nearer that than a P. Fender Power Jazz Bass Special - Precision body with skinny jazz neck. Mine is mid 80s with SD quarterpounders and is the best bass I have ever played or owned - every time I have gigged with it someone from the crowd has commented on it afterwards. The Fender Jazz Bass Special is the passive version. These do have the single split coil pup but an additional J type pup at the bridge - and so are going into slightly different territory in terms of their sound capabilities. Also rear control cavities with no scratch plate gives them a different look, too.

Learning by ear is fine, say pro bassists.

+1 for try as much as you can to find out what you like. Some basses are extremely heavy, some are extremely lightweight, some have fat necks, some have skinny necks - not everyone can get on with all types. In broader terms, if you pay £300 for a secondhand bass you will get something that is good enough for absolutely any situation. Some makes/models are unpopular at the moment so if you aren't a concerned what is written on the headstock you can get fantastic bargains - SGC Nanyo Bass Collection basses go for next to nothing and are superb quality. I recently bought a mid 80s Yamaha RBX800A for £150 and it is just as good. I paid a lot more for a Fender Precision Lyte and it is no better, frankly. Westone Thunder basses, in their various guises, represent incredibly good value for money - £300 would probably get you a Thunder IIIA, which would give most £800 basses a run for their money. Somewhere in the for sale section there is a MIJ Fender Precision for £225 - but scruffy but an absolute bargain IMO. Lots of deals to be had - a buyers market at the moment but it helps if you know what you want.

I put a Kent Armstrong pup and a J East P-retro preamp into my Westone Thunder Jet - now it is the Mutts. I think that if the rest of the bass is of decent enough quality to get the most out of the upgrades, and it feels comfortable to play, then it is worth doing. It won't increase the value - that's not why I have done it - my intention, when I eventually move it on, is to put it back to stock and sell off the bits separately or stick them into another project. But for now I am enjoying a unique bass that is lightweight, comfy, sounds the biz and has a fantastic neck.

How about trying a Westone Thunder bass? They have a decent P-bass sound, similar simplicity with a single split coil pup (well some of them anyway) and the 1A gives you a simple active EQ. Necks are absolutely superb - as good as anything I have owned or tried - 40mm at the neck and, for a fellow skinny neck lover, extremely comfortable. I have the Thunder Jet, which was passive. Added a J. East P-retro, Kent Armstrong pup and am absolutely loving it.

Bought Ad's Yamaha RBX800A. Paid for it then collected it many weeks later, not a problem - totally smooth transaction, good comms, nice fella to deal with (but when he says 'you don't mind dogs, do you?' he means the huge monster at the top of the stairs. That is in fact a big softy Cheers, Ad - pleasure doing business with you.

I have a Zoom B2.1u and initially I found it useful - mainly to actually discover which effects I wanted to use (not many, it turns out). Like you I am completely happy with the sound produced by the bass/ amp/ cab combinations I have so now find all the modelling redundant. I used to have one or two cheaper passive basses that needed 'beefing up' and one of the presets was perfect for this. Now I don't and, apart from some of the distortion, I am struggling to find useful effects. This is with the caveat that I haven't spent lots and lots of time fine tuning the various patches but, when I have tried fiddling found it difficult to get on with. For example, I don't *think* (but would love to be proved wrong) you can do a straight pedal wah, only an autowah that the pedal changes certain characters of. I only need it for one track so probably won't bother. The chorus/flange is rather unsubtle and I ended up buying an EBS Unichorus. So havinglived with it for a while I currently use it purely as a tuner and for some extra distortion beyond the Tube Tone on the amp if I need it. I suspect I soon will ditch the Zoom and get a Boss or similar for distortion and be done with it.

Thank you muchly, sir. Too wide and heavy for me, as I suspected. One went for not very much on eBay this morning - £84 - and collection only from just up the road in Basildon. I think someone somewhere is happy!