NJE

I'm afraid it would take a lot for me to go back to a standard USA Fender and even then I would never buy one new. I have not played a single USA Fender bass that I thought was worth £600 let alone what they charge. Nasty looking neck, funny finish, bad neck joints, sloppy pickup recesses and bad fret jobs. In comparison I have played a lot of Squier classic vibes and they have all been perfect! Don't waste your money on new Fenders IMHO, get a squier or a Mexican classic Precision. They are not all perfect but 4 out of 5 have been incredible to play and well finished. Good luck with your decision hope you find something you like.

I cant believe I have never heard this band before, gutted as they have already split up but I have two good albums and their previous bands album to work through. This is a bit middle of the road for them but a great band and when you work through the albums you can hear massive Stone Temple Pilots, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Velvet Revolver and Wildhearts influences. [media]http://youtu.be/xlLF-Dr_Vzs[/media]

I did a search but found nothing, it seems Aguilar are doing a 350w Tone Hammer Head: [url="http://www.aguilaramp.com/products_amplifiers_TH350.htm"]http://www.aguilaramp.com/products_amplifiers_TH350.htm[/url] It looks even smaller than the 500 watt version, might give it a go if its cheaper than the 500.

Loved the look of Dave's bass last night. I have enjoyed the Dingwall's I have played and if I ever gave in to my GAS and went after a 5 string Precision this is likely to be one of the first places I would look. Personally I love fender designs, he got it right IMHO but I am quite happy to have as many companies as possible build their own versions but with their own innovations and a huge range of custom options. Unfortunately due to my experiences over the years if I was looking for a good quality well made Precision or Jazz the last place I would look would be Fender, I would take my Squier over a USA build P any day of the week and if I had a lot of money it would go on a Sei or a Nordy Jazz.

Well Im just off to snap the neck on my bass and cut my hands off, because compared to that its all I deserve for my crimes against music......

I have only ever heard positive things about ishibashi but you need to wait for something to pop in their U-box as I believe they dont ship new stuff to the uk link: [url="http://www.ishibashi.co.jp/u_box/e/"]http://www.ishibashi.co.jp/u_box/e/[/url]

One more vote for Apogee here, I have a lot of friends in music production and session work and they all swear by Apogee. I used one for ages and when the new mac and ipad finally get here I will be buying apogee all the way. Best friend had an irig on his iphone and it was useless, went in the bin.

I got this Squier Classic Vibe a couple of weeks ago, been in a case since I bought it, but recently dug it out for a proper play at home a few days ago. Phenominal bass, just mind blowing quality and playability and my first precision for 10 years. In a different class to my ex 2010 USA Jazz and a quarter of the price. One thing that blew me away was the crazy maple figuring on the neck, its got a weird holographic/3D flamed heavy grain going on. Its not great in the pictures but you get an idea. Best bit by far though is that it makes me feel like Pino when i play it (unfortunately the ability of Pino doesnt come with the bass). [attachment=95414:DSC_0171.JPG] [attachment=95416:DSC_0179.JPG] [attachment=95417:DSC_0184.JPG]

Im interested in the Warwick Alien Korean but cant seem to find anyone who sells them, Thomann only do the really expensive one. The bass will be amplified so it needs to have a good plugged in sound but no real need for it to be loud acoustically. Still toying with an NS Design Wav or NXT as it would look great in a trio and I have always fancied an upright, new challenge and all that....

To be honest most of Mayers stuff is quite middle of the road. I love a lot of his stuff but some of it recently has got a bit bland. The first proper album room for squares is superb, great acoustic guitat work and lovely basslines. For rockier type stuff the only album really is Try, by the john mayer blues trio which is Mayer, Pino and Steve Jordan.

ooh you big tease! ha ha. Would have been a nice option, currently looking at some Ibanez acoustics but noone seems to stock any and they look a bit plastic. A few Tanglewoods and Takamine's about but all fretted which is annoying.

Hi all, Just wondering if anyone out there has any recommendations for a fretless acoustic bass? Just to set the scene a guitarist friend and I are thinking of doing some acoustic arrangements of classic pop tunes with a girl singer and he will obviously be on acoustic and spanish and I want something that is not a electric bass. I was thinking about a NS Design NXT but they are expensive new and I cant find a used NS EUB anywhere so thinking about a fretless acoustic instead. I have been around a few makers I know but not many seem to make a frteless model, either that or I am just not finding the bit where it says 'available fretted or fretless'. Can anyone suggest any particulars models on a rough £3-400 budget?

[quote name='waynepunkdude' timestamp='1323011736' post='1458244'] [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VX8K2Y6hiPE[/media] Tune!!!! [/quote] Yeah that is a great tune but sadly very little to do with McFly. It was written by Daniel P Carter who does Radio 1's rock show and his writing team which is basically the song writing members of the band 'A'. So the story goes he was asked to write a song that sounded like the band Jellyfish and came up with star girl. McFly also covered a Jellyfish tune called babys coming back. Daniel P and Jason Perry from 'A' pretty much wrote all of that McFly album and recorded and produced a couple of their albums I think. They are a brilliant writing and production team and have done some brilliant albums with various bands, coincidentally they also wrote and produced another 'King of the jungle's album, Matt Willis from Busted. The whole album basically sounds like a watered down 'A' album with some massive nods to bands like Jellyfish and Def Leppard. Sorry for the lecture, I only mention because I love spreding the word about 'A' I think they are vastly underrated and I also like McFly and Jellyfish, and Matt Willis album sadly!

The bass player on the early stuff I believe is David "DeLa" LaBruyere. I first saw him on Mayers first live DVD and he is a monster player. His bass lines on that first album Room for Squares and on that live DVD are busy but so melodic and in keeping with Mayers writing on that album it really makes the music for me, really drives it along. Check out the concert if you get a chance, I think DeLa is on the last live DVD as well but got a bit over shaddowed by Pino. Shame really as he is a great inspiration to me and a superb bass player.

Went to bath today and stumbled accross vintage and rare so just had to pop in. I have to say it was great even if the bass selection was not that extensive. The two guys working there were so friendly and chatty and eager to give me basses to try, even the 2k Jazz bass. I had a go on the Fender Modern Player Telecaster bass and have to say for £400 it was a wicked bass. Great big beastly tone with lots of depth and the additional pickup at the bridge really cleared things up. Solo, the bridge pickup was suprisingly barky and had a nice rounder jazz sound and on the whole it was a really nice bass, well put together and a lovely neck profile much like the classic reissue mexican Precision. The interesting thing I spotted (may not be news to some of you) was that it was made in china and the bridge was the same as the Classic Vibe basses. Apparently teh guy was saying they are made in the same factory as the classic vibe and that the quality is so good on the classic vibes they are now discontinueing them and having these fender models. I may have paraphrased what he said and it could be bulls droppings, but sounds like the kind of thing fender would do. Anyway great bass and great folk in the shop, definately go back in the future and worth checking out if your in Bath.

[quote name='Bill Fitzmaurice' timestamp='1321973106' post='1444961'] Oh, now I see where the problem lies. [/quote] Normally I would be 100% behind that but unfortunately this is the first clued up, on the ball drummer I have played with. [quote name='Opticaleye' timestamp='1322007356' post='1445520'] [url="http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f15/noisy-thin-sound-di-amp-mark-bass-content-367337/"]http://www.talkbass....content-367337/[/url] Start reading at post #15 [/quote] Cheers for that, interesting read. I am heading to practice early tonight to go through the rig and have a fiddle. Hopefully we can find the issue and solve it. If not DI box for me.... [quote name='paul_5' timestamp='1322047128' post='1445711'] You could do a whole lot worse than a Dave Hall DI/EQ. They can be phantom powered from the desk and will allow you to EQ the DI out and the feed to your amp independently. I love mine. It's always with me on any gig just in case. [url="http://www.davehallamps.co.uk/page42.html"]http://www.davehalla....uk/page42.html[/url] [/quote] I know Dave's stuff but didn't think about looking to him for a basic DI (I used to have a one of his all singing and dancing preamps)

Cheers for all of the feedback a lot to think about. I have a practice tonight and we use the full rig set up in our studio so I am going to spend some time with it and see where the problem lies and what our drummer/engineer is having issues with. As some have mentioned, I dont want to go spending money or changing my amp if it is something that could be sorted all along by just properly EQ-ing on the desk. If it doesnt work tonight I will think about a solution like a DI box or switching the head (thanks shambo) but I need to properly see what the issue is tonight. I will let you know how we get on.

Just to clarify the rig we are using is ours (well the drummers). It's a big rig, very powerful and he has spent a lot of money on it, but I dont think he has ever really thought about needing or buying DI boxes. He always used the DI out on his last bass players amp and the keys player always used his own crazy complex mini rig/desk system. We will always use this rig as we do weddings etc and I cant really ask him to fork out for a DI so I am going to sort it myself and it will be used at every gig so I think I should get something reasonable if I am spending money. If only I had not got so excited by a new shiny amp and thought about the features, oh well.... Interested in switching the 'jumper' though, currently googling that so thanks sk8.

It's a real shame MarkBass didnt include a pre/post DI, monumental fail as far as I am concerned but it's my fault I should have checked rather than presumed it would have it. They have, of course, solved this problem with the LM3 from what I have read. Looked at a few good DI's and they seem to be around the ballpark figure of £100 (except for top stuff like the Avalon and RedDI) so just toying up whether to shift the head and change to a head with pre/post EQ. Just wondering if an external will give me a better signal to front of house though? I guess that unless you pay a fortune for a head the DI will just be basic and cheap to keep costs low. Im not pro (yet lol) so dont need a super duper DI but would like to get the best I can, especially as I am running active and passive basses.

Cheers guys, just searching on here and getting info about DI boxes, its only been 5 minutes and I am already confused and have a headache....active/passive arguments etc

So I did a gig on Friday, big place so the bass needed to go front of house. I have a MarkBass LMII with DI out and have used it a few times but never with big volume front of house. The engineer was my drummer (froim a different band) and is very experienced and has worked as a sound engineer so I trust his opinion and he generally knows his stuff. The issue basically was that the front of house sound from my MarkBass was shocking and I put this down to the fact that the DI is only post EQ and the EQ was set up for me onstage. My question is a three parter really 1. Do I sell the amp and get another with a better DI with pre/post switch? 2. Do I get a seperate DI/splitter 3. Will a 'outboard' DI be better quality than what amp manufacturers include in their heads? Any thoughts and ideas would be appreciated. NJE