TheLowDown

I like the HB B550 progressive series. I rather like the tone of it, and it has both active/passive(on mine there isn't much difference), although I rarely use it. I'm not entirely sure but I think string spacing is about 16.5 or 17mm and it's very lightweight.

8 hours ago, chris_b said:

The replacement cost of the bass I gig with is £4500, and my rig tops £2000. My backup gear is approximately £2500. So I walk into every gig with about £9000 of gear. We had a blinder of a gig last night with a mostly originals band. The bass sounded fantastic (it was a good room) and I loved every second. I think I played better as a result.

I don't think I would adopt that approach being suitably risk averse. Maybe your hearing is so shot that the only way one can judge quality sound is from the price tag where you're only going to hear what you want to hear anyway (an inexpensive bass will, quite naturally, sound poor to your ears).

If you've got that kind of easy money, then as long as you're enjoying yourself and you think it makes the difference then that's all that matters, eh. I wouldn't want to be so dependent on the gear making me sound good.

RIP Mani. Far too young. They were one of my fave bands during the Madchester years.

When using short scale strings, the E string always sounds somewhat dead and disconnected from the sound of the other 3 strings on my U5. Yesterday I used an old long scale E string strung-thru the body, and what a massive improvement! 

I gave up FB over a decade ago after a brief period of trying it out, and I don't know anyone who actively uses it. The overall and overwhelming impression I get from others that have left, about to leave, and occasional visitors is that nowadays it's just a cesspit of ads, spammers, and scammers.

I bought a 5 string multiscale from Gear 4 music and found that I really do not gel with them at all. I only kept it past the return date in the hope that I would warm to it, but after a few weeks it remains unplayed in its box. 

I don't think you can ever go wrong with Yamaha unless you want something innovative. For a solid and reliable instrument, I would be much more likely to trust them than most other brands.

17 minutes ago, Suezee said:

Thanks all, think Im going for.the mint U5

Good choice. The mint version is also the only U5 with a matching headstock colour.

It's also worth appreciating that mods aren't getting paid and that they're giving up their own free time to do this.

The loss of an icon. He was one of those legends who was in everything, I have one of his studio sessions with Hiromi and Simon Philips playing Alive forever in my playlist where they were all fantastic together!

That's much of the appeal together with the speakers.

1 hour ago, Woodinblack said:

 

Looks great if you have the money for it. I got the Live 2 knowing that the live 3 was going to come out, I thought it was worth the risk, and it is, its great but no way would i have paid that!

Yeah it's a bit on the steep side for what it is. Many people still consider the Live II to be the best of the MPC devices, on balance. It only had 2GB RAM but it's enough for most purposes.

There's a MPC Live III now. Looks very good, albeit pricey

Best wishes, Hz :). I would still recommend keeping one bass behind, just in case. Stopping gigging doesn't mean that you can't make your own music by yourself with your bass and piano.

33 minutes ago, tauzero said:

π, although I'm comfortable with the square root of 2. π is just such an awkward number.

Quite tasty, though.

Well I'm another who wants to give it the benefit of the doubt. I'm quite looking forward to it but with realistic expectations.

When I was younger and had to do a class talk or something, Dad used to tell me to imagine everyone in the audience dressed as a clown. The reasoning being that it makes the audience a lot less scary. It didn't work for me 😄. Or you could look at just above the back of the audience, which gives the impression that you're interacting with the audience.

Something else that you may find useful is the fact that excitement and nervousness are exactly the same emotion, the only difference is the label we attach to them.

Best of luck anyway 👍

I would keep it. Not everyone stays with 5/6 string basses forever, so there will be a time when you will kick yourself for selling it.

I would go for either a HB, Sire, Yamaha or Ibanez.

Personally I would stick at 40-100 or 40-95 for short scale. I find that the higher the gauge the quicker the notes start to sound ill-defined on the E string

The P6 series is looking tempting, but the Z series are far too heavy.

The Harley Benton B450fl produces a nice tone and is lightweight.

It's unlined if that bothers you, but IMO they are preferable and easier to play than lined fretless because the side dots on an unlined are in the 'correct' position(ie where the frets are) whereas on a lined they are the same as fretted bass, which make playing more challenging as the lines are often very faint whereas side dots are brighter. I think it also teaches better habits with fretless too.

I have both fretted and a fretless, but I rarely play the fretless. I can see why people love the fretless but it's just not for me for the most part.

I agree with a lighter gauge string being used for a better B string tone. To my ears the heavier the string the less well-defined it sounds.

Hiromi is awesome! I was first made known of her from when she did Alive with Anthony Jackson on bass. It's quite a journey...