Beedster

One that enables me to create the sound I want to create

No, it can't do flat in any simple way, sounds great with all controls at 12.00, but it ain't flat, it's that lovely baked in Boogie tone

Which means that you love it's baked in tone, which is why we choose the gear we choose. But it's not flat, if it was flat why would you love Handbox flat more than Ashdown or Ampeg flat?

I appear to live in a low end wasteland

Absolutely, play to what it sounds like to you, your bandmates and audience, the settings on the amp or bass are entirely meaningless. Certain neural signals trigger certain responses that we like or don't like. Flat perhaps suggests the latter but simply doesn't exist in any real sense. The 'baked-in' thing is as much product/market differentiation as anything else, as with all audio and instruments 👍

Human audio sensation and perception are very far from 'flat', and are also highly variable between different individuals and within the same individual over time (as is evidenced by audio fatigue in recording), so the rest is probably moot 👍

The Buster combos, even the more standard upright version, are the only time I've felt beaten by amplification, too big and too heavy for normal use these days, and given that I found an SVT-II manageable..... I think it's that they look small enough to be portable but they're just too big to be easily portable, and they are a one person lift but only just. They're just too close to the limit, and after a long gig getting one of them down one of those metal spiral fire exit stairs is just a little too much for even the most dedicated Boogie fan I suspect

I reckon you'd need to find something else to like! All joking aside, I think part of my initial reluctance with Yes was that EVERYONE who I played music with in my formative years loved them (mostly folks a few years older than me). This I'm sure meant that they were always going to disappoint just as I found with Genesis and a lot of the other bands at the prog/art interface in the 70's (e.g., Floyd). I found that I wanted to like the bands that the other (mostly rock) muso's didn't like, so I found myself listening to Kraftwerk and a few of the other German bands (Amon Duul II, Tangerine Dream etc), to Hawkwind, Man, ELP, all of whom seemed a little more accessible. I think it started some long-standing biases re Yes and Genesis

Questions here rarely define answers here

Absolutely, I don't think anyone's saying it isn't 👍

i used to wonder if they simply picked out the lighter and/or better instruments from the standard-run production line and allocated them to some CS treatment and price hike, but that theory was trashed when I bought a used CS Jazz about 20 years back, as it weighed a tonne and was about as resonant as a sponge. I have to say I quite liked it when I first got it, but as much out of a warped cognitive dissonance as appreciated of the instrument itself (it was after all an FSC instrument, it must be good, I'm just not a good enough player to realise it yet etc). When I sold it and replaced it with an early 90's MIJ Jazz I couldn't believe how much better the latter was, well over a pound lighter, sustained for hours and played, dare I say it, like butter 👍

Well it’s my opinion, others will no doubt not share it 👍

Since around the mid-90s 'Custom Shop' has simply been a term meaning 'our most overpriced items generally aimed at people who need to feel that the gear they own is better than the gear most people own'. It's the gear version of flying First Class, in real terms a high price for a small difference in process and emotions, but ultimately arriving at the same destination via the same process s everyone else 👍

And therein lies both the irony and the business model

Lovely units but monstrously heavy and my memories of the combo are of the most awkward shaped unit to move ever. Heavy, fine. Odd shape, fine. Heavy plus odd shape, nightmare

https://gearspace.com/board/search.php

I'd be surprised, but then I've been surprised by many things over the years Having said that, get onto Gearspace, there'll be a thread there for sure 👍

Crikey

Most Fender Custom Shop basses are a farce, there are a few gems but the majority as simply of the quality you'd expect a standard factory run bass to be given the ludicrous prices. You can build a bass of equal if not better quality using off the shelf parts from Allparts, Warmoth and sometimes even their lower priced competitors and in doing so you not only get a much cheaper instrument of the same quality but you get to choose your own spec re wood, finish, hardware, electrics etc. I've picked up a few used CS models over the years, I have no idea why anyone would ever buy one new given the prices and the apparent lottery regarding good bass/bad bass

Don't bin it, but be prepared for a battle unless by luck you have a set of compatible software and hardware. I used mine quite happily until I moved to UAD about three years back, not only as an interface but also as a mixer. But you'll need to do a lot of reading and trial and error if you want to use it with anything vaguely recent in terms of software/hardware

Isn't it about time we had a dedicated courier rant forum, or even a new site 'Courierchat' (CC), because it really is entertaining, certainly more than 'Show me your blue basses" threads The below still makes me chuckle, in part because it was mad but also because the guy who finally dropped it off was so completely befuddled by everything, as only a courier at the top of his game could be Come on Ped/Kiwi, we need Courierchat

Yep, either that or a pedal, just don't think you need overdrive per se, in fact it could result in some loss of authentic tube tone 👍

Love it 👍