NJE

I seem to remember reading that Carey kept the pickup and bass guitar sides of the businesses separate by using the different names. I know he has effectively stopped building basses but perhaps he still wants to distinguish these from the pickup business? His new pedals are under another name as well, Rocket Surgeon.

I could be wrong but I thought a lot of the sound was down to it being on fretless.

I’m sure there are loads of folks out there that are far more organised or dedicated than me, but when my son was born 2 years ago, I just naturally gave up most of my playing anyway. It doesn’t help that my wife works nights a lot of the time in the NHS and I obviously need to be around. I just found I would rather be with him or getting sleep than in a smelly rehearsal room or playing loads of shitty pop/rock/blues music to drunk people in the local watering hole for £50 a night, life is too short and they are only young once. I just felt like my band/music life was like a cross between Phoenix nights and a musical equivalent of the office.

What strings are you using? I find certain brands very rough and unpleasant to play. I have been playing for 20 years and I don’t have hard skin or calluses on my fingers. I used to think that this is what you needed to play for long periods but it really isn’t. like others have said, it’s sounds like you playing too hard and it’s hard to change that overnight. I found turning my amp up louder than I needed it made me play so much softer and then it just became part of my technique.

Sounds like you just have a duff string, it happens sometimes. I would just contact Rotosound and explain and I am sure they will send you another.

Yeah I had it too, obviously no second run.

I use Elixirs currently, never had anything but hugely positive things to say about them. They outlast everything else and make the hefty initial outlay well worth it over the course of a year. D’Addario NYXL strings are also incredibly long lasting, especially as they do not market them as a ‘long life string’. They don’t stay super bright, but they have kept a good level of brightness the months I have had them on, which is amazing considering a set of Ernie Ball Slinkys (which I do love) last me a couple of practices and gigs and then need replacing. I hate to be controversial and potentially antagonise any fans, but I personally find Rotosounds strings dreadful.

I have had many occasions over the years where I have thought a combo would work best for me, but luckily I snap out of it quite quickly. You already have two superb cabs which are pretty powerful alone and all you should need together for bigger gigs. Head wise I really like the Ampeg but I remember it being a bit hefty. It depends on whether you have PA support and what size band/gigs you have, but I have a Aguilar TH350 and never needed any more. I have used it in an 11 piece soul band and a loud pop/dance band. It’s cheap secondhand and so is the TH500. If I was really flush, I would love to try the Vandedkley head, or some Mesa heads, but to be honest most of the new class D micro heads are decent. You won’t go wrong with MarkBass, EBS (I had one and it was amazing) or Genzler etc

I have used external drives daily for saving graphic design files and I use HDD drives for long term storage and backups, but my day to day 1TB drive is a Samsung SSD and it is so quick and reliable compared to the various HDD drives I used to use daily but corrupted.

It’s amazing how we all perceive sound differently. I have always struggled with passive instruments, particularly P basses because if the room wasn’t right, I struggled to hear myself and cut through. In contrast a Stingray set pretty much flat with small adjustments here and there for the room (never understood how anyone could just boost the bass and treble all the way) gives me some of the best results live. The room and stage has always been the biggest factor for me though, had moments where a P bass was perfect in one venue and then sounded absolutely awful the next weekend somewhere else. I still aim to have the Leo Fender Holy Trinity one day so I have the main bases covered (excuse the pun).

I have used a couple of broker services over the years and always call the main office and ask if they will ship instruments and are there any special requirements. I ask for the name of the person I spoke to and make a note. I have never had any issues posting without a hard case (only done it twice) so long as you use an appropriate amount of packing. Now this is a vague term, but in the cases (excuse the pun) where I didn’t have a hard case, I used the original shipping boxes plus a ton of extra bubble wrap and reinforcement. I take photos at ever stage of packing as proof and have the fall back that the instrument made it from China/America/wherever in that box so it should make it across a few counties in the UK, especially with the extra packing. I also insist on sending instruments full insured for their replacement value, not secondhand value so that I and the buyer are covered. I have to say that I have never had to pay anywhere near £85 for delivery, even sending a NS Upright to Europe. Luckily I have only had to claim once, I bombarded them with photos and emails about how/why the damage had been caused and got a full payout for what I asked for......happy days.

It is a less seen model from MusicMan, basically a passive P bass, but to add to the confusion, I believe the Cutlas was also a graphite necked Stingray in the 80s. I didn’t get the concept of a passive MusicMan bass initially but I live this and would snap one up if they made it available to the common people.

I was just having a mooch about on Instagram and spotted this Cutlas bass made for Zach Cooper of Coheed and Cambria. I have seen him use a standard sunburst model but this looks amazing. This combination of wood and colour is perfection for me, I WANT ONE!! I wish MusicMan would release the basses they make for artists, there are so many cool colours and combos us common folk can’t get.

I just think these days we are really fortunate, some of the really cheap gear is really playable and solid compared to when I started and the encore basses were just beyond awful. We are also lucky that you can buy old amps and combos, that were great quality back in the 90s for little money. I have a early 150w Ashdown combo that’s superb and it was £90. It completely obliterates all the TC combos I have played (although again they are a lot lighter). I guess it’s just a great thing that you can go and make music with little outlay if your on a budget. I love ‘nice quality’ kit but also love that I can go make a good sound with a Harley Benton and a £100 trace combo. Good times!!

I know gear can be a bit more important with recording because of the nuances and clarity with recording equipment. And yes the lightweight gear makes a huge difference in a practical level so that’s really justified to me as well. It just hammered home my thoughts and suspicions I have had for a while about playing live and being a general gigging musician. I could get a good sound from a cheap combo and a Harley Benton bass and that’s a cool thing in my opinion.

Glad to help, I just wish I remembered things that are more useful that how to swap a bass tuner. 😂

Did you buy hipshot tuners by any chance? I think you can reverse them quite easily if so.

I did a gig last night with a shared backline and multiple bands playing and had a good night. It’s a long time since I have done this and it was really nice to see some other bands and bass players etc and everyone was really friendly and relaxed, a good gig! We all shared an old Trace 1x15 combo which was the same amp I had when I was starting out, and it sounded good once I tweaked the 7 band eq. In fact everyone sounded good through it, it sounded like a nice fat bass tone, nothing not to like. So I was basically sat there thinking all the bass players sounded good and punchy, with the same amp and different basses; Sire, Hohner, Ibanez Talman, and two Stingrays. None of them sounded bad, in fact in the room in a band context it was very difficult to tell the difference. So why the hell do I worry so much? I can’t say my Aguilar sounded greatly better than an old Trace (it’s a lot lighter though) and my Stingray was probably no better sounding than the cheap Ibanez. Yes I like a nice bass, but I am not going to delude myself I want nice basses for any more reason that it’s snobbery and aesthetics (and a little bit of playability to be fair). Although the Ibanez was very well made and felt great.

He is brilliant, he does an amazing medley on YouTube with one of his songs into all kinds of famous tunes and his voice is like butter.

For those with a bigger budget I would say look for the Pre Ernie Ball stingrays, very desireable and apparently have a sound of their own. For me the best years are the late 80s 90s rays with the bigger bridge plate, spoke wheel truss rod, contoured bodies and a lot of them also had figured necks as standard. Saying that even the early 2000s rays had some lovely figuring on the necks, just before they all seemed to get the really bland, pale, maple necks and the figuring only came on more expensive models.

That looks perfectly legit to me, it just looks like the owner/seller isn’t fully aware that there was a name change, that is just an American Standard so the same bass essentially. He/she probably just looked up the fender website to check the model name and got it a bit wrong.

I have a very close friend who is a ‘pro’ musician/writer/session musician, and he uses Harley Benton Jazz 60% of the time. Companies need to make money and they will feed off your insecurities and bombard you with cow poop, to make you part with more money. There are times when it may not be appropriate to do a session for someone with a £100 bass (mainly down to other people’s preconceived ideas and ignorance) but using one for other applications doesn’t make you an amateur. Use your ears, if it sounds good it is good.

Placed an order as it was rude not to for £15, that’s a couple of coffees in most places. Happy to wait a few months if need be.