SumOne

Thanks, yeah I spent a while with an unmarked fretless 4 string that almost felt like a new type of instrument - was good but I figured it'd be a few of years practice to play well. The MTG AG5 had an excellent neck and string spacing, the tones I was getting from it weren't quite what I'm after though (and there seemed to be some issue with the preamp picking up electrical interference type noises and humming), and it's a bit heavier and more cumbersome than my TM5 and would've cost me a few hundred £ extra so I wasn't sold on it. Nothing else seemed much of an upgrade either - the Rickenbacker's strings felt a bit close and clanky, old P and J's felt heavy and un-balanced (and usually lacking a 5th string!), Thunderbird types look cool and play okay but don't balance well sat down, Dingwall don't have pickup blend, the music man Basses all seemed good and were the closest I got to a trade. I did stay clear of the £3k Mike Lull and Sadowsky and Dingwall custom type Basses though, I'm sure they would've been an upgrade but I knew I couldn't afford them.

There isn't a stoner thread though but doom is close enough!

I went to Bass Direct today and must have tried about 20 different basses. I went in knowing I had a good part exchange offer for my Sandberg TM5 SL so I fully expected to leave with a different Bass.....but I'm going home with the same Sandberg! Turns out that 35", 19mm spacing, mid eq and 24 frets are all things nice to have (which I still kind of wish the TM5 had) but they don't make much difference and the TM5 SL wins on comfort/weight and tones so is staying.

My new pedalboard: ..... although I haven't fully committed just yet - still have quite a few pedals/pedalboard just out of shot. If I wanted to add one other pedal (M82 envelope filter) would it be fine to just add a daisy-chain connector to the Helix power supply? The supply is 9v 3A but the Stomp uses less than 1A (I guess the XL just slightly more) so it would still get plenty, and as I understand it excessive current shouldn't harm the M82 because only as much current as is needed gets drawn. Is that correct?

Nice, the Mike Lull PJ5 looks like a great Bass. I mooch about the Bass classifieds so will keep my eye out but generally with Basses I've gone to shops as I like to try out lots side-by-side for a few hours rather than travelling around the UK for private sales of individual basses that I can't directly compare. Added bonus with bass direct is that they give decent part-exchange prices so it does away with any faff of selling my only Bass privately beforehand to raise the cash (or getting desperate to sell quickly to pay off the credit card after getting a new one).

Yeah, I really don't 'need' a new Bass and am actually quite happy with my current one and I'd be fine keeping it - it's just I've found that there are these small things that I think would make a Bass perfect for me. I'll certainly stay a while at Bass direct and try a lot out, it's good there that I've never experienced anything resembling a sales pitch- just get handed the Basses I ask for and get left to it. I've generally bought second hand or ex demo and always sold/exchanged my previous Bass so it's never been a huge financial hit (but they have gradually got more expensive as I get more spoilt). The way I sell it to myself is that good Basses don't really get worse with age, they hold their value so it's basically an investment on something I'm going to play for possibly 1000's of hours over years so I might as well try to get as close to perfect as I can afford - if I go off it or get skint it can probably be sold for similar.

Bass Direct have given a fair estimate for the Sandberg TM5 SL part-exchange so perhaps by the end of the weekend I'll be the owner of a Bass that has 1mm wider strings, 1" longer scale, two more frets, and a mid EQ.....marginal gains!

I don't think I'd be leaving Bass direct with the same Bass I went in with: https://www.bassdirect.co.uk/bass_guitar_specialists/MTD_AG5.html That's a beaut and also fits the wishlist of 5 string, 19mm spacing, 35", 24 fret, 3 band EQ (not sure about weight though), and is £1 under maximum budget!

I'd never considered semi-hollow basses before but from reading up and listening to a few clips I think it'll do nicely for the sort of warm and fat tones I'm after (one slight domestic issue is that I do often practice at home in the front room with headphones on - I'm not sure if my wife will be happy to hear my noodling always being semi-acoustically amplified!)

Ah yeah, I've just been zooming in and was sure it looked like frets.

Nice. I now realise they are fretless though (although there are fretted versions)....I'm sure semi-hollow fretless sounds great but I'm not sure I've got the skills to cross that bridge yet!

Nice one! 35", 24 Fret, 19mm spacing, lightweight, 3 band EQ, cheaper than budget....it's got it all! I've never played a semi-hollow Bass before so I suppose that might be a stumbling block- or might be exactly what I'm after. I think a trip to Bassdirect is needed.

Ah yeah, I'd forgotten that Sandberg have a custom building thing on their website. I'll check that out.

Cheers. Yeah, none of the things I'm after are really a deal-breaker on their own, more of an ideal wishlist. Fewer frets is fine, nice to have 2x octaves if it's playable though (and perhaps I have a bit of OCD for the symmety of it, 24 kind of feels right). I'll check out the Mike Lull Basses, If I could find the ideal dream Bass then I wouldn't mind going up to £2k as I only evert have one Bass and will play it for a couple of hours a day for many years, and as far as I can tell expensive Basses tend to hold their value - so it's not a cost, it's an investment! Then again, I've got nothing against just having one <£500 Bass if it fits the bill and plays nicely

Thanks, yeah all of the things I'm after are just minor changes to TM5 which does do nicely, so this is mostly a case of me trying to justify getting a new Bass! Marginal gains though, I guess quite a few small changes add up.

Cheers. Yeah I think a trip to Bassdirect might be on the cards soon, they have always given me decent part exchange rates too.

Nice! I'll be spending some time on that

Is anyone aware of a Bass that fits this description:? 5 string 35" 19mm spacing 24 frets Lightweight (or at least not a back breaker) Tone: I guess it'd be described as P bass type tone - not bright and modern 'hi-fi', mostly to play stuff like 70's Reggae and Funk and 60's Motown, big solid thumpy low mids, fingerstyle, there won't be intricate tapping going on and no need for any clanky plectrum riffing. I use tapewound strings at the moment which I really like. If it's got active EQ then a mid control would be good but I mostly play in passive. Price: Up to £1,500 Similar sort of Basses I've owned: Sandberg TM5 SL: This ticks most of the boxes so is probably what I should stick with but there are a few little things that I'd change for my perfect Bass: It could be slightly longer (it is 34", 35" would fit me well), ideally I'd like 24 frets (it has 22) and slightly wider string spacing (aparently it goes up to 19mm but it seems more like 18mm if you want them evenly spaced and not sliding off the fretboard). It has active EQ for Bass and Treble - having mids too would be ideal. I'd be selling/trading this if there's anything out there that fits the bill. Dingwall Combustion was good and sort of fitted a lot of the bill other than being relatively big/heavy (I don't think they all are, but I had a relatively heavy one) and very 'modern' sounding and not having a blend between pickups so the tone didn't really change much (just active EQ rather than changes in timbre), and it doesn't have many string options to do things like put tapewounds on it to change the tone. Ibanez SRMS805 was good but the string spacing was a bit tight and the Bass generally felt a bit too small and cramped.

I had one of these little 7 band EQ pedals from Amazon, its okay - good eq points for bass. Small issues are a bit of crackle when moving the sliders and tiny amounts of slider movement making quite a big difference.

I miss it! I've had one sat in my Thomann cart for months waiting for when I need something else from them to save a bit on postage.

. Page 35 to this thread I had the same issue and it's seems there are a couple of solutions-perhaps just closing chrome before plugging the FI in.