Saul Panzer

Might be worth giving this a watch, sounds like the left hand muting issue he's talking about at 6 minutes (the whole vid's worth a watch though tbh, gotta master that muting).

I'm either thumb on the pickup or full floating hand if I'm going up and down strings a lot and want the extra muting from my right hand thumb. I looked at the thumb rests but I like the clean look of my basses and adding some chunk of wood or plastic would annoy me more than it'd add to play-ability right now.

The first lockdown is what prompted me to actually buy a bass instead of just thinking I might want to try it some day. So 100% improvement, I've gone from not having a bass to owning a few, paying for resources to learn from and practicing almost daily.

The preamp is pretty sweet for sure, I think the P7 has the same one my V3 has which is super versatile. Part of the reason I wanted to play around with the precision option is that my V3 spends 95% of its life in passive mode with a 50/50 pup split and flatwounds to get a naturally thicker sound. While I didn't specifically need the extra jazz pickup and preamp you're right in having it but not needing to use it..the options are there if the mood hits. I'd assume that the P5 and P7 in passive are going to be similar beasts in terms of sound.

I was in the market for something with a precision pickup and I'm already sold on Sire basses being my go-to brand for now after getting the V3. I had a look at the P5 and gave it some serious consideration..opted to preorder a P7 instead, time will tell if that was a good move.

I haven't read that specific book, I was impressed with their Reggae Bass book and the downloadable backing tracks that came with it. They seem to have a good selection of books and resources judging by that.

I wonder if they're the default strings Thomann ships out on their HB basses, the ones that came on mine where very bright and crisp. More so than I wanted so I changed them straight away but kept them like the string hoarder I am. To my untrained ear they sound a lot like the Ernie Ball set I've used since, and those were around £20 I think so that'd be a bargain getting several HB sets for the same price.

Double humbuckers is the setup I've enjoyed the most so far, I haven't tried a straight P or a P/J yet though. I've been considering getting my HH modded with splittable humbuckers to see what that's like.

It's from 2010 so I'll cut them some slack, those were simpler times when a cover didn't need to match the Amazon title for it.

I had an Amazon voucher laying around so I splashed out on a book..'How to Play Bass Guitar'. I want to get good enough to feel I've earned blowing £2k on a Sandberg at some point later this year. Not exciting but a decent buy for £9 if you want a thick little book covering a lot of theory, musical styles, sight reading, techniques and such.

Jumping on the Sandberg wagon, I've been eyeing this for a while on their configurator..bit more than I want to pay for a bass tbh. Never know what the year will hold so who knows. On a more affordable wish, just to get more fluid at playing so I can do more without constantly looking at my hands or having to think about what I'm doing.

Long but I'm enjoying.

I'm toying with the idea of a P or P/J Sandberg, their configurator thing isn't helping the urge.

I figured the rolled board was just a gimmick until I tried it, weirdly the strings/neck feel wider to me than the BZ-4000 does, not sure how they manage that. As for the colour it's really not as obnoxious as the pic makes it look, the tidy headstock decals and hardware make it kind of classy in person..though there's some bright 9 screw pickguards available that could definitely make it obnoxious if that was your aim.

First year learning bass so it's just basic buys for me. Best purchase (purchases really): Harley Benton BZ-4000 - First bass, great buy imho though in hindsight I should've gone with something more basic. Sire Marcus Miller V3 - Impulse buy but it's pretty much my go to bass now, that thin rolled neck feels so good to play on. Worst purchase by far: RockJam GA-20W practice amp - not a bass amp, horrible constant grounding buzz, barely working knobs..just not good at all.

Fender Rumble 15 has been a good little practice amp for me, loud enough for around the house. It's not super fancy only having 4 knobs for volume, bass, mid and treb but you see them around second hand quite a lot..even new I think they're close to your budget.

Looks pretty great as it is, if I was going to do anything with that it'd be a graffiti scribbles job like Leland Sklars bass..covered in signatures and such. Either getting it signed by people you care about (messages from the kids/nieces/nephews/friends and so on.) or replicating signatures and quotes from musicians you like.

Thought I'd just throw in how impressed I've been with the Sire Marcus Miller V3, I picked it up last week for £299 (so the very highest end I'd consider "cheap"). So far it's super rock solid value, I can see it being a lifelong keeper so in the long run that probably counts as cheap or value for money at least. When I take materials, build, electronics and finish into account it's up there with my Harley Benton which I completely love imo.

I get some shoulder pain playing my cheap Cruiser jazz bass when I play it without resting my wrist on top of the body. I don't know how much of it's actually due to the body shape, it's not weight I think..my Harley Benton is probably twice the weight and feels fine. Without analyzing it I'd guess the issue for me is the playing position, my newest Sire jazz has an identical body shape to the Cruiser, weighs more but so far hasn't caused any shoulder pain. With the newer one it feels more comfortable having my right hand completely free floating instead of anchored to a pickup/pick-guard, I think that's stopping me locking my shoulder up so much. Another thing which may or may not be linked is overall fitness, at first I was getting back pain which gradually ended in neck pain and a headache as I got more and more tense. I started doing more exercises to strengthen my back and core muscles (more for work than bass) which seemed to help out a huge amount. As overall strength increased I was able to relax a lot more instead of straining to keep my back, arms and shoulders in position.

I'd planned to order a new bass from them last week but I guess it was lucky I opted for one with Andertons now, that turned up the next day.

The last 4 sets of strings I brought were all from Amazon, all arrived and all sealed and good. They were all "dispatched from and sold by Amazon", even if they weren't I'd be pretty confident of getting what I paid for..amp, straps, strap locks, grow lights, clothing and so on all arrived fine. I can't think of a single time I haven't received what I ordered actually, some turned up a little later than expected but that can happen to any online purchase.

Not strictly a fixed band but I've been impressed by some of the groupings put together to cover songs on Postmodern Jukebox (and Robyn Adele Andersons personal channel) on Youtube. Also some of the older Arctic Monkeys stuff is pretty tight imho.

I grabbed my first bass, a Harley Benton once Thomann started shipping again around the end of the lockdown. There were a few weeks just watching bass vids while I waited for stock/shipping to get moving again. I picked up a cheap used Cruiser jazz before the second lockdown hit, that's my DIY upgrade project..between those and a Fender amp I'm set for things to do.

Starting a new job and it's stupid O'clock in the morning and I need some J-rock to get my brain awake and ready.

Some Magic Numbers, this song was top 3 on my need to learn list when I picked up my first bass. My fingers are finally getting fast enough to start learning to play this, she uses a pick and I don't so it's a finger workout getting to her speed..song's on repeat.