Boodang

I think the reason I'm learning toward the Stradi rather than the Shuker is that among their standard options is a carved top and chambered body, the latter of which I'm particularly keen on.

This Shuker Uberhorn is currently for sale on their site at £3400. Looks gorgeous and has a tri tone colour finish that changes in different light conditions. Interestingly it lists this as having the Headway Snake piezo installed which is Headway's budget piezo model. I'm sure Shuker know what they're doing but I'd want to know the reasoning for that before shelling that kind of cash. Shuker basses do look the mutts nuts tho.

Can't go wrong with a Squier but I did try out a Yamaha TRBX304 and was quite impressed, especially as an all rounder. And have to say, I haven't tried the Revelation basses but if I had 400 quid to spend I'd give one a go at those prices.

At the risk of repeating myself (but I'm going to anyway!), every Jazz should have a series/parallel switch... cheap and easy to do, still retains the original sound but unlocks a humbucking sound which is already sitting there waiting to be unleashed with a simple switch mod.

I changed my preamp to a 2 vol, 2 tone, early jazz setup but it came with the option of a series/parallel switch. Series mode really changes the character of the bass and has solved the issue you are talking about... at least for me anyway. Thicker bass tone, less brittle sound. I also put an alnico 2 magnet in the bridge position as that has a more mid emphasise, but left the neck as an alnico 5. A series/parallel switch will let you go from standard jazz sounds with the nuances of the pickup blend, to a wide spaced humbucker.

Plus some interesting finishes, including a thin layer of stone (some kind of slate apparently) which they can put on as a veneer on the body top.

The 'normal'version.

At this price it'll be worth a trip to Poland to try one out. Your right about the violin corners, they're custom made though so they'll change anything. Also they do a version with a 'normal' body but I like the look of this one!

That's basically how the KSM Foundation bridge works which I'm tempted to put on my jazz.

As a fretless player I'm quite taken by the sound of this bass, at least what I've heard of it on YouTube. Love the fact that the fingerboard is continuous and apparently there's a magnetic pup under the board. There's going to have to be some serious saving up for this one but I'm tempted.

This reminds me of the Ray Ross bridge and his 'tone pin' solution. I think the only reason to put one on a bass is to make it look different but they're not cheap.

... or an EUB with no markings!

As @Mudpupsaid, a source audio aftershock will give you loads to try out in one pedal. I'm using a TC Electronic spectradrive and there's a lot of toneprint drive/fuzzes to experiment with, but unlike a multi effects it's v simple to use and has a 4 band eq and comp.

To mis-quote the Shrek line to describe the jazz/groove trio I played in, it wasn't getting us to play that was the issue, it was getting us to shut up. The set was made up mostly of stuff from the 70s (think tv theme music), with plenty of improvisation. If we weren't feeling particularly inspired the set would still over run, but on a good night the improvisations could easily triple the length of a song and the keyboard player, as good as he was, would be in a world of his own. Playing a gig in Northampton, we were feeling particularly inspired, no break between sets, heads down and thoroughly enjoying our improvisational genius (well in our heads we were genius!). Then, all we could hear was drums as the PA stopped working. Management had pulled the plug and came over to sort of apologise but mostly to say it was the easiest way to shut us up given that it was closing time and we weren't paying attention to his gesturing. We were still feeling quite chuffed with our playing but the managements parting comment was that 'we were quite good but next time could we play more than just one unrelenting song'. We felt slightly less chuffed as we packed up.

Ah, the 'we've booked you by accident' syndrome. Was in a folk/rock band, there was a local festival which was quite popular, we submitted a demo to try and get on the lineup but we'd put it in late and wasn't surprised to not get selected. Then, with not long to go and thinking we were just going to be in the audience, we got a call saying there had been a last minute cancellation by one of the acts and could we oblige. Of course was the answer but was very surprised to learn that the organisers had put us on as the headline band. Now we had been around for a bit, so in our egotistical minds this seemed plausible. Come the day, the organisers were chatting to us so no suspicions about mistaken identities. Then, the MC announces us with the line 'we're really excited to have booked this band, we've been trying to get them here for years...', at which point we all look at each other with wtf faces, ' please welcome THE *****'. Turns out we had the same name but without 'THE' in front of it as the band they thought they'd booked. We had never realised there was a band out there with a similar name as the 'real' band were doing much bigger gigs than us and our paths had never crossed. Well, no time to think about it, we went on and the set went down well. The organisers were happy and said they really enjoyed our new material. We never told them!

Did you ever forgive said drunk band member?!

... under £200 and probably has a better bridge than the original.

All mahogany construction, set neck, body & neck binding... actually looks quite good. At this price I'm sure the hardware and finish isn't the best but still, looks quite serviceable.

Yep, Percy Jones was a huge influence, especially the Brand X days back when Phil Collins was playing proper drums!

I had one back in the day... lovely bass, wish I'd kept it.

Wilkes used to put 'percussive' plates on their fretless basses.

What were the reasons he chose Vigier?

The fretless I want to get is the Vigier Passion delta metal... but the through neck model not the latest bolt on (I much prefer thru neck). I played one many many moons ago at the bass centre, very nearly bought it but went and got a custom made instead. You very rarely see them up for sale s/h. For some reason they changed the name from 'delta metal' to 'iMetal'! As the current trend seems to be to put 'i' in front of everything.

Ah, that would have worked a treat!

It is v heavy! I play sitting down these days but I wouldn't want to stand all night with this around my shoulders. But the sound is great and I love the profile of the neck. I've got a custom creamery pickup in this one, i pluck the strings over the end of the neck and the sound is huge, a lovely woody tone i can't get with any other bass, even my most expensive custom.