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The only ones I have seen are around £4250, so seriously top end instruments, but if I am not mistaken he makes pretty much everything except tuners, even strap buttons. That's why I am guessing there is a cheaper range coming but I could be way off.

I don't know if there are many followers of Tom Stenback but the site is down and they have announced that you can no longer place orders, the demand is too high, so there will be basses sold on a first come first served basis on the website. He also says there is exciting news so I'm intrigued to see if there is some kind of development in the business plan, perhaps some out-sourcing of some manufacture to produce a cheaper range whilst he works on the top end stuff like Sadowsky? I'm excited anyway, I love what Tom Stenback is doing.

[quote name='Machines' timestamp='1472212140' post='3119478'] I think the 'overpriced' accusation is based around their generally understated looks. [/quote] Yeah fair point I do get that to a certain extent, some of them don't look like 2k worth of bass.

Lakland US basses are very high on my 'to try' list. I have a Lakland Skyline 55-02 which was bought as i needed a solid 5 string active bass after selling some of my more expensive kit. I am not a massive Lakland fanboy by any means, it was bought because it fits teh musical situation at the moment and it was bloody cheap for the spec. I find the Skyline models considerably better than offerings from other companies that cost a lot more. I have been left incredibly underwhelmed by 2k Sadowsky Metros and Fenders and I was desperate to love these instruments when I played them. I still crave a Fender CS, I am definitely a fender fanboy, but cant find a decent one after 5-6 attempts. If the US Laklands are even 10% more refined than the Skylines, then I cant see how anyone would say they are overpriced compared the the stupid amount Fender charge for CS stuff and how much Sadowsky charge for Metro basses. I would take a skyline over a Sadowsky Metro any day, mine is even on a level with my old Overwater basses. Some of the finest bass players talked about on these forums have and still do use Lakland US basses, even though they have other high end endorsements, which must mean something. It just surprises me that a lot of people say how overpriced they are and 'not worth the money' when they have never even played one in the flesh. I tried £3000 worth of secondhand Alleva Coppolo once, I put it down after about 2 minutes, dull as dishwater IMO but I would never have made that assumption without playing one first.

Mine definitely have their places in the house and they are not tolerated for long periods of time in the living room on the sofa for instance. I do usually have a gig bag and kit lying around the dining room (where I usually practice with the laptop) and that is fine, plus I do have my own 'guitar room and an office, so no reason for them to be lying around. My wife has always known me as a musician so she knows its part of the package.

I have to give this a read. My friend is a studio musician and between us we have loads of antics and stories about people and situations that we both desperately want to write down. Most of ours revolve around actually 'being there' and seeing what happened so when we are both old miserable buggers we are going to write a sitcom along the lines of The Detectorists.

Hi all, I gave up on bass magazines a few years ago but does anyone know if any have done any interviews with Pino? I seem to remember Ibass magazine did one at some point but I can't find any reference to it which makes me think I may have imagined it. If anyone knows any back issues that have an interview please reply.

I gigged and rehearsed with one full time for just over a year and it was incredibly well made and an absolute pleasure to play. Clarity wise, I would say it was fine, it had that big round P bass sound, the B was never going to be that clear with just a P pickup but I found it incredibly useful for all of the soul I was playing at the time. We used to change keys on everything so I was using the B string in every song and it worked well. Mine sustained well especially with Elixirs on but I also have a fairly high action which I believe gives the string more room to move. Tension was good with Elixirs, I guess it depends on your normal strings. I certainly wouldnt have wanted anything lower in tension so wouldn't have gone near some flat wound brands. It is a really really good bass, great soul tones and great with a pic, its not going to have bell-like clarity as its P bass with 34" scale at the end of the day but I loved mine to pieces. I only sold it as I moved back to playing more funk/dance/electronic music and wanted something with a bridge pickup.

Oh dear lord, I might need to find some money from somewhere very quickly!! That is basically everything I would want in a Jazz bass and I already know the quality of the other road worn stuff.......I think my wife might be getting very angry with me soon.

Some people like relics, some don't, it makes life interesting when we don't all like the same things.............next subject.

Watching Squeeze and although I am not a huge fan, all I can say is, that's how its done!! Great bass sound too, she's a great player.

I watched 4 acts this morning and the bass sounded fecking awful on all of them, Verdine White's bass sounded horrendous to me but the band were amazing as always. Then I watched The 1975, guitars drums etc sounded great, bass was a clanky distorted mess from the P-Bass, then I watched CHVRCHES, ok an electronic band predominantly but again a clanky horrible distorted mess, Precision again and then Finally Reef, you guessed it, clanky horrible distorted mess and you guessed it, a Precision again.......do I see a trend emerging.... yet to watch any more, I may have just picked the only 4 acts with an awful bass sound. I am presuming it is not the bands and more the way the bass has been recorded.

I'm not really a Flea fan anymore (I was obsessed in my teens) but that bass represents most of the things I love in a jazz bass that can only normally be found on Fender CS or other boutique/custom builders. Custom colour, relic, tort plate, stacked pots....well done fender! If it had lollipop tuners which I am obsessed with, it would be perfect for me, but that is easily remedied. I know the quality of the road worn instruments so this should be great. Off topic slightly, my friend had a RW strat and had it set up and some new pickups put in it (fender vintage reissue jobbies) and he swears it is better than his two CS strats now, much to his dismay.

So fender are making a Mexican road worn version of Fleas 61 jazz in shell pink with stacked pots. Looks amazing too, I want one! Andertons have them on their site but I can't find anything else so far apart from a picture from NAMM on Instagram.

I am sure I have commented on Bass Direct before having done a few commission sales with them and bought some amps and general bits and bobs. The last time I was in the shop it was only Mark working there and I found him challenging but in a very enjoyable way. Let me explain, I guess most of us go into shops with pre-conceived ideas of what we want, basically whatever is causing us GAS at that moment in time. I would guess that a lot of the time we are basing these desires on images and hype rather than physically playing the bass/amp/cab. Look how much stuff gets churned around on the for sale thread here. I was in Marks shop trying things I thought I would like and ended up very underwhelmed, Mark grabbed a load of basses, sat me down and made me play stuff I wouldn't look at normally. It worked, I needed up being blown away by and Elrick and a Roscoe and a Nordy at the time and was on the verge of buying the Nordy. It was also fairly early days for Dingwall in the UK and the one I played was incredibly good too. While chatting to Mark at that time, he told me how he has guys coming back over and over again buying and selling the kit they so desperately wanted a few weeks earlier. They didnt listen to any advice from someone who spends their life around the gear and a lot of these people ended up not happy with the purchase. Yes it was probably good for business but he was more interested in finding the right bass/amp for me and customers in general than have people trading in and swapping gear all the time. Yes he has some heavy preferences on gear, Bergs and Roscoe at the time, but that is (I'm guessing) based on experience and probably a result of him seeing those instruments come back for trade-ins and re-sale less than a lot of other brands. Its simple, if you don't like the way he does things, go somewhere else, but I liked what he had to say. My final example of something simple Mark said to me. At the time I had a 5 string and a 4 string bass, and was swapping between for some reason, I think I felt like I had to have a 4 string. In conversation he just said "why have you got a 4 string and a 5" I honestly couldn't give him a sensible reason. He smiled and said that you can do everything you need on a 5 but not the other way round (for my particular playing situation) so I basically gave up 4 string after that.

[quote name='wateroftyne' timestamp='1466421133' post='3075623'] My PJ has a chunky neck. And they would have made it even bigger if I'd asked... far cheaper than a CS or Lull, too. [/quote] I wasn't very clear sorry, by custom build I meant custom spec from other builders not just the Fender CS. I know Lull make a big neck as 'standard' but I am not sure where Lull fit, are they custom built? I suppose they are custom spec'd by some shops. It all depends on whether you want Fender on the headstock I guess. There are some good cheaper options to get a P neck on a PJ if you look elsewhere. On a budget I would probably go secondhand Lakland Bob Glaub and get a pickup installed. Saying that, the Jake above is a bloody good option too!

I was looking for PJ with a big old P neck for a while and there are limited options from Fender, basically all I found was the old late 90's Hot Rod Precision and now the new Vintage Hot Rod 60's precision. I love the massive 50's Precision neck that you get on the road worn but you wont get a neck that big unless you modify a standard model, get a custom build or look at a Mike Lull.

That looks tasty!! I have to say I have become a Lakland convert after getting my 55-02 and I really don't need the temptation to get a 5 string Jazz. They do it with Tort pickguard as well.

I absolutely love playing budget instruments, I have no idea why but I just seem to grin ear to ear when a cheap bass plays and sounds way above its price point. It almost gives me more pleasure than playing my more expensive instruments. I have a £150 Squier 5 string which is incredibly good and sounds superb, yes a little neck heavy but still so much fun to play. I had a £200 Squier Precision 5 string which was superb as well and I used that above my Roscoe Beck for a while. I have also just bought a Harley Benton Fretless for £115 and I LOVE it so much, its mind blowing how well made and how good it sounds. Yes expensive basses are nice, but it doesn't mean to say you can't really enjoy the cheap ones that often get left in cases as backups.

Our band leader/owner of all the PA/drummer was really keen to try IEM but it meant an investment in a digital desk for him to make it work well so I think we as a band have kind of given up on the idea now. Its a shame as I think it would be the best option to keep volume levels low in smaller venues, especially since our drummer started using the top end Roland drums. The main issue I have, is that I have my amp fairly loud on stage as I can rarely hear it because often I am so close to it or even beside it. This then means that my amp is very boomy and loud and competing with the front of house sound which said band leader and drummer moans about, fair point though! I am not really in a position to go IEM for the time being but I am debating either losing the Aguilar cabs and getting a floor monitor for my bass amp pointing back at me, or getting one cab to sit on a flight case much higher than my Aguilars normally are so that I can hear my bass without using huge volume. Possibly looking at a powerful 2x10 or 3x10 or a 15 with a 6" horn. I need to de-couple my bass from stages and keep the speakers closer to head height. I used to use a Auralex gramma but it doesn't give me the height. Really I just need to hear bass on stage and at the moment the Aguilars, which are phenomenal when I have a big stage, aren't working in the current situation.

I know its a slightly odd question but I am interested to see if anyone has given up using 'normal' bass rig? By that I mean has anyone stopped using a traditional cab and amp setup designed for bass and moved to using PA cabs power amp, preamps and graphic EQs? I have found myself in a situation whereby I DI and use the PA all the time for front of house sound and my rig is just there for me and the band as a glorified monitor. I could just as easily have my bass pumped through the bands monitors as well and not even really bother with an amp at all. I do however like having something a bit more than a monitor on stage but I find that I often struggle to hear my amp on stage as I am standing so close to it, that it just flies past my legs. I use two Aguilar DB112 cabs and a tonehammer 350 and when I DI I send pre-eq so I am not really using the Aguilars sound. My idea is to switch over to something like an Avalon U5 Pre and go straight into some powered PA speakers which have some tone shaping and eq and just use them on stage, perhaps even as a wedge in front of me firing up to my ears. Has anyone done anything similar? I'm really interested to see if there is a reason this will or wont work.

I played a few of the American Vintage range last year and they were all phenomenal instruments, CS quality in my opinion, and great tone from all three. I tried a Adam Clayton a few months ago and whilst it was all put together well it was dull as dishwater. Like most brands you get some good ones and you get some great ones and occasionally you get garbage.

I have an irrational soft spot for Fender and the Custom Shop in particular. When I was a kid all me and my best friend did was look through fender frontline catalogue and dream about our own custom builds and signature guitars. There is still a pet of me that wants the logo on the back of the headstock and the daft certificate to fulfill a childhood dream. In general I like fender, I have had a couple of good ones but also a complete dog of an American Standard and played some incredibly dull instruments. I find them over-priced for what they are (I find this with other brands too) so custom shops seem ridiculous to me but saying that I have played some top end basses from Overwater, Sei, Alleva and to be honest they were really not worth the money to me either. One huge pull for me has been the experience with some friends who own CS guitars, all of which feel incredible and just have this amazing vibe about them. It's probably all in my head but I can't ignore it. Not everyone will understand but for me at least, although it may be daft, there is a little bit of magic to Fender Custom Shop and it is linked with their history and my history with Fender. Despite owing some superb high end basses over the years I still lust after a CS, in particular a Pino 😄.

I was a dedicated hard case user for 10 years and then when the Mono bags came out I thought it was worth a look. By chance one popped up on eBay for stupid low price so I nabbed it straight away as an experiment. I gig quite a bit and practice a lot with a few bands and moving over to a heavy duty gig bag has been brilliant. The main difference to me is that I do not worry about scuffing car trim and tearing car seats as the basses always lay along the back seat. I never put my basses in the back of vans etc and wouldn't dream of putting a gig bag in the back with a lot of heavy PA, but then again I never have to so no issue there. I also have an issue with my old Hiscox case. If I bump the case I can actually hear the strings of the bass vibrate which to me makes me think that any impact on the case is actually being transferred to my bass which I don't like. So I have given up on Hiscox until I need something heavy duty. My Mono M80 is superb, it has been abused and dropped and dragged and it still looks good and absorbs every knock from a banister/door frame/car door I subject it to with no damage to my bass. I do think they are hugely expensive though which is why I am just about to try a Protection Racket case which I will review when It arrives and do comparisons on.

I was at a guitar show years ago and left the main hall for some peace and a cuppa and was sat on the benches outside the main entrance. There were a few others doing the same and a couple of seats away was a chap who looked like he reluctantly brought his son/daughter to the show. He had a scruffy rucksack and some jogging bottoms and trainers on, a bit scruffy looking and I said hello politely. It wasn't until he walked away that I caught a clear look at his face and it was Bruce Dickinson from Iron Maiden. My friend and drummer went to do a job recently and got talking to the client and her husband. It turns out she was a singer and song writer and he was talking about music/gear and gigs with her. He was talking all about our band etc and didn't really chat much about her. He goes back a few times and a week or so later he was talking to the husband and asks does she do much music/gigging etc. The husband smiles and says "yeah she plays all over the place" and does some tours etc. My friend asks if she has done anything he would have heard, and the husband says "yes have you heard of Sade?...... my wife is Sade". His dad is a huge fan and he was so embarrassed that he had been jabbering on about our band. My drummers dad (who I also play in another band with) sold a piece of machinery a few months ago and the chap turned up to collect and they chatted a bit and he left. My drummer had spotted him and after he left, he told his dad that the chap in the van was Steve Winwood.