NJE

Although relatively simple in appearance and construction (no multi laminate bodies or neck through etc), Tom Stenback seems to build some incredible instruments from fine materials and I believe he even makes his own strap buttons, bridges and pickups/pickup covers. They are by all accounts built to incredible tolerances and sonically brilliant. I have never seen one in the flesh but watch the videos on youtube, its like the people playing them have some sort of epiphany. If I had a huge chunk of money to carelessly blow on a bass a Stenback and Fodera would probably be top of my list to try but that doesn't mean to say there aren't other builders that make incredible fancy wood, neck through basses. Actually I will add another to that list, I remember playing a single-cut Rob Elrick which was just out of this world quality and tone and playability.

Ha ha, don’t we all know it 😄. I remember the pre bass forums days, when I was happy with my gear and I spent more time practicing than looking up what bass I needed next.

Passive Sterling perhaps? Maybe a coil tap on the bridge pickup to go single coil? Musicman made a single knob black Sterling for Nine Inch Nails once, so this isnt breaking new ground really. I can’t find a picture of the NIN bass now. I remember reading a Q&A Joe did and whilst he is seen with the Jazz (apparently it’s the only bass he actually owns) he used a band mates bass which has a MusicMan pickup in it and they use sterlings and stingrays for recording, and I seem to remember him saying one of his favourite recorded Vulfpeck tones was a MusicMan bass. Makes sense for MusicMan to jump on it and give him a signature, he’s well respected and it’s about time they did a signature bass, there are loads of signature guitars now.

From what I can see that is a quick fix with some wood glue and on you go, however....that isn’t the point, if this was a new bass then the problem shouldn’t be there and I would either be asking for a replacement or at least some sort of refund to compensate for the damage and to get it fixed. Im Sure they would be happier letting you hold on to it and giving money off than having to do it all themselves.

I am already a fully paid up member of the NYXL fan club. I have been waxing lyrical about how good they are on here and to friends so I think you need to send a set to someone who is on the fence and hasn’t tried them yet. If you have any of those lovely D’Addario mugs going I wouldn’t say no though 😂 my Ernie Ball one looks awful now.

I have no interest in travelling hours for band practice. In fact now I only rehearse if there are gigs on the horizon that are financially worth it. Even then I only expect to do two at most before gigging as everyone should have learn their stuff at home and should have gone over the band recordings for structures etc. I just don’t have the desire to stand in a room for hours at my own expense with people who can’t be arsed to practice at home, week after week for a gig down the whore and trumpet for £40 each, life is too short.

Wow, that’s looks good, go Fender!

I know several musicians and general studio engineering and mixing folk who use Senngeiser HD-25 headphones. Apparently great natural flat response and not earth shatteringly expensive for headphones.

As above, coil them properly, Velcro cable ties and store them so they don’t get scrunched up. I do also believe that most of the branded cables you can buy from shops (fender, planet waves, Ernie ball, monster etc) are pretty hopeless most of the time. For 15 years I have been using two Klotz/Neutrik cables my dad made. I have one more I bought custom made using Van Damme cables and Neutriks and that has done about 5 years so far. For some reason all my guitarist friends go through cables at a ridiculous rate but they keep buying overpriced shop cables, they won’t bloody listen....😂

I have a Harley Benton Fretless sunburst Jazz. Silly cheap new and even better deal secondhand if you look around. Plays great, well made (neck joint is tighter than I have seen in 2k Fenders) and I think it looks superb. For the price you can use it to fend of drunken idiots on a Saturday night and not worry.

I have been using Strings Direct for over a decade and never had an issue. Once an order got lost in the post and after a few days I queried it with them, next morning I had a set on the doorstep, very professional and good prices. Bass Direct have been great the couple of times I used them too. shame about Stringbusters, used to use them for certain strings and never had an issue, but I doubt I have used them in about 4 years.

Yes to some Star Wars in there 😄👏🏻

I would definitely go tort or find a cool black and white image to go underneath a clear guard like Gail Ann Dorsey does.

I used to play in a soul/disco band with brass etc and it was a reasonable sound. Our guitarist and sort of promoter and general gig-getter is harmless but a shameful liar when it comes to getting gigs and would feed venues all kinds of nonsense unbeknownst to the rest of us. He booked us out as a “top northern soul band” at a venue and they had promoted the whole night as a Northern Soul event so it wasn’t a good start. There were maybe 25 people in a very big bar/venue and you could hear everyone moaning between songs that we were playing Chic and sister sledge etc as well as the obvious Commitments type soul songs and the organiser wasn’t happy either. To add to the horror, we had a new-ish drummer who was in his 60’s and taught drums. Rehearsals had gone well but when it came to the gig he didn’t know the tempo or rhythm for any of the songs. Before each song I had to remind him and seeing as I was on joint lead vocals it wasn’t conducive to swift song changes. To my utter embarrassment on several occasions I had to stop him after the whole band had started because he was playing way too fast or basically rock beats under disco. On one occasion I had sang him the start of the song, he said he remembered and played it completely the wrong beat. I stopped him again and played the beat and tempo out to him, on my leg and he said “I’ve got it” and then played the exact same WRONG beat he had just been doing. I tried him once more as it was normally our best tune and he still fudged it so we moved on. I just wanted there to be a sniper in the back of the room to just put me out of misery right there and then.

Another vote for Elixirs, I have said several times on various threads that I have some potent body chemistry and eat through normal strings at an alarming rate, a few practices or a couple of gigs and they are gone. Elixirs however remain consistent for a very long time and I love the soft feel the strings have as well, win win. I was also sad enough to work out what I would spend on uncoated strings in a year against the price of Elixirs and how long they last me and I was comfortably saving money over the course of a year. I will also throw out a very honourable mention to D'Addario NYXL strings. I have a set on my Stingray and they had done incredibly well considering they aren't advertised as a 'longer lasting string'. They feel good and have lasted a lot longer than my old favourites Ernie Ball Slinkys, the 'regular' D'Addario Strings, and Dunlop Super Bright.

I have played a few of the British custom basses mentioned on here and I can honestly say that the two Sei Basses and GB Spitfires I have played have probably been the nicest instruments I have ever played and are not the benchmark for feel for anything else I own. Actually I also need to give an honourable mention to the Overwater J5 I had, the neck was just phenomenal but it was someone else’s order so not 100% what I wanted in a bass. I found the Sadowsky basses I have played to be impeccably built and nice to play but soulless, just very clinical and the ones I played (metros I should add) didn’t have the nice rolled fretboard edges I like but that’s a personal thing. They were great but just a bit clinical. I would also rate the three makers above over an Alleva Coppollo I played as well. I tried two Enfield basses as a show once, beautifully made but the G string kept rolling off the edge of the fingerboard when I played it, god knows why, never happened to me on any other bass. Not sure if your after a 4 or 5 string but there are used examples of both GB and Sei at the gallery.

It’s difficult to try some of the brands we are talking about, but if it was me I would be looking at the following: Pensa, Stenback, Suhr, Moollon, Lakland, Celinder, and actually of your ok with passive (although you say super jazz so maybe not) Fender Custom Shop. On a side note, I have played Sadowsky, Alleva and various other high end jazzes and the best two I think I played were Sei and Goodfellow. I have fallen madly for two of Bernie’s GB Spitfires, phenomenal but I know that in a secondhand market they won’t hold value like a big US made jazz bass.

I get stuck into a mindset occasionally that I should like most basses and pickup configurations. I have owned about 5 p basses now and I just can’t gget on with them. I just can’t find a position where my hand is comfortable. It’s the same with jazz basses, I have owned a few but I just can’t get on with the nudge width. I got round this by playing 5 strings for a long time but I’m back on 4 string most of the time and have settled on a Stingray which gives me what I lack in a P and J. Am I content? No, I have it in my head I need a custom Jazz with a bigger nut, a PJ precision and I still have undwindling GAS for a Pino signature knowing full well I can’t get on with P basses. I think my heart says the Pino will cure my P bass issues....deluded 😂

Just tried it, it doesnt seem to work ☹️

Stop wasting your teenage years playing bass in bands thinking you will ‘make it’. Work harder at school and study something useful that will give you a good career and make you good money. The best it gets for you is playing weddings to drunk people who just want to listen to crap music, and you won’t earn any more from it per night at 35 as you do at 16. Excercise more, don’t waste your money on guitars.

I have had my fair share of USA Fenders and unless you can try one secondhand before you buy I would stay clear. I think all of mine have had quality issues of some kind and never felt very responsive. I don’t think they are worth the money new at all. If it was me, I would go Lakland or a chunky necked MIM 50’s (both the normal and roadworns I have played are superb) or I would look at the Nate Mendel precision secondhand. I don’t think anyone has much bad to say about them, they look great and Scott Devine seems to play his a lot more that a Fender Custom Shop which says something to me. We all like different feels and look for different qualities though, so really it’s the same old advice of try a load and see what sticks.

Yeah my dad too. He was in London at the start of the rock n roll explosion and ended up unwittingly rubbing shoulders with a lot of the big names in music now. He grew up and played in bands with Ian McLagen of the small faces, did sessions with Manfred Mann, had The Who support one of his bands, saw the stones before anyone cared about them, bumped into a “weird kid” called David Bowie at some parties.....and so on. All of this and a bit more I have draggged out of him over the years as he kept the fact he was even a musician hidden from my mum and I for about 20 years. He turned his back on it and gave up until I was about 15 when he started playing guitar again. I adored music before he showed any ability, but he stoked the fire in me to learn to play and instrument and taught me my first chords and encouraged me so much to play bass when I showed a genuine interest. At 16 I was gigging in pubs and playing functions in his band earning £70-150 a night, good times!