LeftyJ

Yes, Fender keep surprising me with their regular pricing increases. Used prices can be quite wild too, but you can still get lucky sometimes. I paid €1200 for my 2023 Am Pro II Jazzmaster and €1300 for my 2020 Mod Shop Jaguar. I don't think any brand's pricing exploded the way Warwick's did though! I still remember seeing new German-made passive Corvette Standards in stores for €600-650ish for the ash body, and slightly more for the bubinga ones. A new one in ash now costs €2899 at Thomann. For a basic passive, bolt-on, CNC-made bass. But they call it "Teambuilt" now. A Thumb is even worse... The Pro Series (Teambuilt) Thumb BO starts at €3299 at Thomann, or €6199 for the Masterbuilt one (that's not all too different). And the neck-through now starts at €7299 They were once THE brand of choice for many (nu) metal bassists, but I guess their aimed demographic is dentists now.

I guess I had that coming

...and taperwound double balls please.

I didn't know Michael Tobias made harps! TIL As @BassApprentice pointed out, please provide the scale length and whether the bridge is toploading or strings-through-body. That would help a lot with finding you the right set. The model name should probably be enough, as 535 = 5 strings 35" scale, 534 is 5 strings 34" scale, 532 is 5 strings 32" scale and so on and most will have the excellent Hipshot style B bridge without string-through-body option unless specified differently with the order. Edit: sorry, you said headless, so that would be the Hipshot 5H500B bridge and no strings through body. Just comes down to the scale length then!

I had a Varitone on a (righty) Ibanez ST924 I was given by a client. It was much like the Tonestyler mentioned several times above, as it switches between various capacitor / resistor values (I don't know a thing about electronics) and doesn't function as a regular treble rolloff. I thought it was incredibly useful on that bass, and had a LOT of impact. That bass has a regular passive tone control too, and combined the range of sonic possibilities was ginormous. Wonderful bass! It now lives with my (righty) guitarist, who's very happy with it and uses it in his band with other teachers at the school he works at.

I use Status Hotwires strings on both of my Status Graphite headless basses, and all but the G-string are tapered. I can't offer a good comparison because the graphite neck on both is very snappy and gives a wonderfully quick attack, but it definitely feels like the strings contribute to this. They sound tight and clear, with none of the muddiness I get from the B-strings on some of the other 5-strings I have owned and with a well-defined "space" between notes when I've had trouble distinguishing the notes on the first 3 frets of the B-string with some other, more rigid strings when I played in a full band mix. When I still had my Yamaha TRB5II I used Elixirs with a taperwound low B and had a similar experience: quicker response, fast attack. I think @Kev is onto something with the cleaner break angle explanation.

LOL, accurate! I've heard singlecut basses being compared to sperm whales too, and I do see the resemblance I must admit.

I'd like to add there briefly was a Stingray neck-through, and there were some wonderful limited editions and anniversary models that are hard to come by. 20th anniversary: The 4-string got a mahogany body, quilted maple top, red tort pickguard and no control plate. Quite sexy! Stingray 5 20th anniversary (yes, specifically for the 5's birthday): this one really hit the ball out of the park in 2007 with a flamed or quilted maple top, natural maple faux-binding (just veneer-thin but enough to add a beautiful contrast). To me this is the sexiest Stingray ever built; 30th anniversary: like your regular Stingray 3EQ but with a mahogany body, and a gloss finished neck in matching colour (dark red); 35th anniversary: arguably the second-sexiest Stingray ever made, at least in my opinion! Based on the current Stingray Special, these have an ash body with a spalted maple top in sunburst, with a natural faux-binding, ebony fingerboard with "copper pearloid" block inlays and they look business; Stingray 5 30th anniversary: white, tort guard, roasted maple neck and fingerboard and white fingerboard bindings; The elusive 2001 NAMM 100th anniversary silver Stingray with Status Graphite neck, harking back to the pre-EB 1981 Cutlass 1 basses; Many, many very nice limited "colour of the year" limited editions, Premium Dealer Network exclusives and Vault-exclusive finishes that could only be ordered directly through EBMM's own webshop.

Can confirm. (I'm assuming autocorrect messed up the word "Detuning" here - putting a Stingray in drop D definitely made me play RATM)

I understand the idea of the singlecut bass is to build a more rigid neck by having it meet the body earlier. This should mean a tighter, more focused sound - but that won't necessarily be a good thing for many bassists. I've always thought singlecuts can be very sexy, ever since seeing Edsel "Touché" Eusebius with his Elrick in Intwine. I didn't like the band but that bass left a lasting impression with me. And I've always loved the look of Benavente, their SCB and SCD shapes look amazing to me. Sleek, elegant. The SCB is very Fodera-like, but the SCD's upper bout is just different enough to look unique IMO. SCB: SCD:

I'm curious about that as well. Someone on a Dutch bass forum that I frequently visit has just imported one of the Indonesian SB700's from Japan in a sale and I'm looking forward to his review. He hasn't said a lot about it yet, other than it's a good and very solid bass, plays great, but the ergonomics and the way it balances require some getting used to (coming from mostly FSO's). Looks very authentic, appears to have the same barely-tapered string spacing as the original (he measured 17 mm at the bridge and it's not exactly narrow at the nut).

Cool! Is the magazine related to the Dutch magazine "De Bassist" and its sibling "Gitarist" in any way?

Agreed! I also associate Cliff Burton more with the SB Black 'n Gold, and not with this more "plain" SB reissue. There have been earlier signature models and tributes, and they were all based on the Black 'n Gold.

I had to double-check if this was an older thread and if I had already replied to it, and lo and behold: I did, in july 2024. Maybe somewhat to my surprise (as it can change quite often for me) the above is still accurate I did grow more and more curious about fanned-fret basses, and would love a combination of fanned frets and headless at some point (an Ibanez EHB1005L is on my "to try-list"), but deep down I'm sure I'd prefer something more traditional.