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My girlfriend bought me a bass! A Squier deluxe active jazz V in black. To add to it she also got the neck plate engraved bless her sweet heart. well pleased and its my new modding project which will hopefully pop up in build diary soon. I also got a 5 way stand, strings, schaller locks, rock and roll!

I looked into AC basses and they are a completely different beast from Sadowsky from what I have read and heard. I think the owner/builders name is Jimmy and the concept seems to be to create brand new high end basses that replicate 60s feeling Jazz basses. They use specific finishing and and types of Nitro Cellulose etc for the necks and bodies and are very fussy about how much laquer and paint goes on the instruments so they can breathe etc. They also use the very best and very expensive woods for fingerboards etc too. The EQ again from what I have read is designed to have a vintage Fender quality and not the super modern zingy sound found in many top line basses. Its basically as close to a 60's/70's jazz as they could get but with 5 string options and active EQ. As has been already said, they are made to order and there is only a very small team building them. From what I have read on Talkbass many people have ditched their high end Sadowsky's etc for Coppollo basses and they are just increasing in popularity. I want one more than anything on earth but doubt you will find one anywhere in the UK. To be honest If I was going to spend that much money on a bass I would spend an extra £300-ish for a last minute flight over to the states to buy/try it. defo check out talk bass, there is a mega thread with everything you would want to know and that would be the best place to find someone in the UK with one. Good luck and let us know if you buy one.

Probably mentioned this before but my local shop aroundabout sound are great. They have a bass room and are official Eden and EBS dealers. They always have a secondhand bass or two in, they will let you sit and play for ages no pressure and make you a cup of tea! they have fender, squier, Yamaha, esp/ltd, KSD jazz, and loads more. The owner Mark? also has a GB spitfire which I nearly came close to buying but lacked a string so couldnt really justify it. Great shop, great service and great prices and well worth a look if you are close (its in Cheltenham by the way). My friend came up by train from Cardiff to get his guitar amp from them, shows how good they are and how bad Cardiff is.

I am sure i may have mentioned this in another thread but I remeber back when I was 17 my friend and I went in Cranes in Cardiff to buy him a new guitar amp. He wanted a fender hotrod valve amp which was around £600 and he had cash on him. Cranes took no interest and when we enquired about fender amps the assistant just said "dont have any" and walked off, di dnot even try to suggest or reccomend anything. We then went to Gamlins down the street and they had an amp in stock and we played it and he was all set for buying it when the miserable old bag who owns/works there came over and told us to turn it off and put the guitar back because there were important customers which were a boy and his dad and were looking at a £100 starter pack. my friend was so annoyed he walked up to the one nice guy that worked there and told him he had £650 cash to buy an amp and because of the way the woman had treated him he would not be buying from them. We ordered online and got it next day delivery for £50 less than the shop. Just a note to anyone who goes to Cardiff, dont touch either shop with a barge pole, that was 8 years ago and th staff are still rude and ignorant in both shops. I went in to Gamlins a couple of weeks ago to ask about the Squier deluxe active Jazz V. They had one in stock and when I asked about getting a black or white one was told that Squier dont make one thats the only one, but its cool it looks vey Jaco.....great well done that man.

How tight are you lot? just buy new strings! JOKE!! (ducks for cover) No in all seriousness I have boiled strings for years and never heard of this, sounds like an idea worth trying, although I do use Ernieball Strings which are cheap as dirt and last me ages. right off to the shop for some Meths and may have a swig on the way back to the office.....well it is christmas.

MAC x Infinity... Bill gates can go rot in hell for the travesty that is Windows/Vista ( i have to use it at work) Macs are brilliant and the mac mini is superb and portable if you dont want to lay out for mac laptop. I used PC for ten years and when I got a mac I took a hammer to my desktop PC because it was just junk in comparrison. Garageband is so much more intuative than most programs, its the recording equivelant to a Tonka toy and when you have mastered it you can take it all over to Logic if you want to advance. Everything about them is better faster smoother and friendlier, and you can get office and all that rubbish on them as well for compatibility issues but saying that all my friends ditched their PC's and bought macs when they saw mine and saw the potential of garageband. Trust the Pro's my mate works for a very very prolific studio that work with the BBC radio 1 etc and they run two G5's in every recording room, even the receptionist uses a mac.

I had played 4 string for 8 years and had one brief fling with a 5 but we didnt get on. This year I decided to bite the bullet and give it one more shot before residing myself to playing 4 string. I bought a Warwick Streamer and instantly loved it. It was all I played for a month and packed my musicman away so I had to get used to it. I very quickly got used to dropping down instead of going up the neck and After 1-2 months I decided 5 was for me and flogged both the warwick and my musicman to get myself a better quality 5 string (with a bigger body as I am big and the warwick looked silly). I now own two five strings and oddly find it very difficult to play a four as I use the low B so much. A lot of it for me came down to the music i like playing. I play in a hard Rock band and the guitarist tune down a bit so its usefull to be able to go lower in the mix than them. I also really like a lot of new RnB and Pop and am hopefully going to be doing some work on a pop project with a friend so for that I find it really useful. I found I developed a kind of floating hand technique when playing so I was not anchoring on the low B or even on the pickup. Trying to anchor on the pickup on a 19mm spaced 5 and play the G is not good for you. To me it just gives me more range its the same instrument and even if you only use the B in 2 songs its worth having it there. As someone said, at the end of the day its still a four string. I say throw yourself in and just force yourself to use it. If after a month of constant use and practice you pick up a four string and love it more your descision is made.

[quote name='The Funk' post='341745' date='Dec 1 2008, 11:34 AM'] :wub: *smitten*[/quote] +1 I think more than a few gentlemen feel the same, surely a serious contender for best looking Basschatter in the other thread?

[quote name='Sean' post='335278' date='Nov 24 2008, 08:17 AM']Hi My band need to get together this week to rehearse and for the first time in years we don't have our rehearsal space available. Does anyone know of somewhere we could try maybe for Wednesday this week. Contact number and name much appreciated by PM. Newport/Cardiff/Pontypridd would be ideal. Cheers Sean[/quote] Hello, This is the place my band use in cardiff, tidy enough and they are improving it all the time, Its used by some big welsh rock bands but they charge £10 an hour at the weekends (may be cheaper mid week) and there is a discount after 3 hours. Great rooms with good PA and free kit and amp hire so no need to lug your cabs if you dont want to but i always take my head. [url="http://www.musicboxstudios.co.uk/"]http://www.musicboxstudios.co.uk/[/url]

+4 I have a thread on here"I bought a new bass...." I have just taken delivery of one of these and it is simply brilliant! I cannot sing its praises enough. Great bass great neck well assembled but could do with a new bridge and machine heads if you picky like I am. The neck is wide with full 19mm spacing but it is comfortable to play and the neck is flay but wide. I would seriously recommend trying one. It may also be worth visiting talkbass, there is a huge thread there about them and loads of people singing their praises! Let me know if there is anything else you want to know, I can talk all day about this bass.

[quote name='Old Horse Murphy' post='329341' date='Nov 14 2008, 06:56 PM']"It's like, how much more black could this be? and the answer is none. None more black." Good man. Nigel would be proud[/quote] Ha Ha......Genius! well done sir! I want to watch that now.

I have to say I was originally all up for black everything but then had the same thought as Ped.....would it be tooooo Black? After looking at the talkbass forum one again though I think Black will be the way to go, and yes i will be looking for a black switch, in fact you get a free black swith with the aguilar pre I have been looking at...... I will be ordering the new parts as soon as possible, the bass is great in every way but the tiny tiny issue I have is that it does neck dive a tiny bit so some black hipshot lights are the solution. Thanks for all the comments, some more playing this evening has confimed how great this bass is and the EQ is nowhere near as bad as some on TB have made out, in fact i was all up for changing it but i am not going to bother. I have to say I do fancy some Nordstrand big singles or fat stacks but that is way off, hardware is whats needed. Black it is then! watch this space, I will do another "build/mod" thread like I did with my warwick as soon as i get my hands on the bass.

[quote name='ped' post='329203' date='Nov 14 2008, 03:49 PM']Sexy :^0 ...is that an ebony board?[/quote] No its "ebanol" I dont know what that is but it has a very nice feel to it and it adds to the look because it is very black! (quick google) its phenolic, so plastic to cut away the rubbish but it feels good and very snappy sounding great slap ton eon this thing.

[quote name='benwhiteuk' post='329183' date='Nov 14 2008, 03:23 PM']That is very sexy (probably the sexiest Squire I’ve seen in a long time), and you’ve not got long to wait till you're allowed to play it I'd sneak a couple of cheeky minutes here and there when the missus wasn't looking though [/quote] I was not too worried when the missus said I wasnt allowed to play because I thought " how can she stop me, its in the house" yup she outsmarted me! she is giving it to my Dad who is visiting, to take back to Wales with him until we both go back there for Christmas. NOT FAIR there is no icon for stroppy!! Squier really have upped their game a lot in the past year or so, I hope Fender are watching, Imagine If they made a MIM or MIJ special like this, they would have their hands bitten of up to the elbows! Anyway some pictures in the mod thread as soon as possible it does need some hipshot upgrades.....STAY CHROME or GO BLACK WITH THE HARDWARE.....I CANT DECIDE!!!!

Well its not groundbreaking and its not a £5000 custom fodera or anything like that but I am happy. I bought a Squier Deluxe Active Jazz V from a fellow "chatter" who was extremely kind and delivered it to Cheltenham all the way from Wigan. For those not in the know its this bass: [attachment=15977:fender03...506f_big.jpg] I have to say i have had it for 30 minutes and its absolutely cracking. I cannot believe more people do not own these it is simply brilliant! I have been reading some write ups on talkbass from our cousins across the pond and thought they were over dooing it a bit, but it is seriously good. The hardware as expected is not all that but a few quid will sort that out. The neck and the frets are brilliant and the profile feels just like my Roscoe Beck V but without the slight thinning towards the treble side of the neck. Its flat and quick and I love the spacing. So anyway its my christmas present from the missus and I am not allowed to play with it til christmas but in the meantime I am planning the "mods" What does everyone think, new chrome hardware, or go black across the board? here is one from talkbass which has gone all black: [attachment=15978:squierdone2.jpg]