binky_bass

They look like 'if IKEA did basses'. I really like the concept of the fully movable magnetic pickups system, that's great, but the look is very love or hate for sure.

Well, these are a bit different! I don't really like the design, but I do like the idea for fully movable pickups. All very interesting. https://versoinstruments.com/en/gravis-bass-guitar/

Yup... I have a cupboard of shame, a drawer of shame, two boxes of shame and some miscellaneous shame scattered around various other places in the house. A few examples below...

So long as you enjoy it, that's really all that matters!

Get an Ashdown B-Social. You can pick them up for £200ish second hand as and when one pops up for sale. Fantastic sound quality for anything Bluetooth, and also doubles as a bass practice amp with built in wireless. I have two of these little gems and wouldn't be without them. IMO these are hugely underrated and one of the best things Ashdown has put out.

I'm sorry, but that's not quite true. Prestige may potentially have bought the license from Galveston (or whoever owned Galveston) and re-branded it 'Prestige', but it is exactly the same. The headstock, body shape, neck construction, bat inlays, neck fixing etc etc are identical to Galveston. Perhaps it is made in Korea, but for all intents and purposes, it is the same instrument that Galveston produced. See the below picture of an older UB8000 and UB7000. If it works for you, that's all that really matters.

Sold a strap to Mr Pants, quick payment, good communication, another credit to basschat! Would be happy to deal with again.

@Billy Bongo - that's not an Ibanez Prestige, that's a re-branded Galveston. These are cheap Chinese made basses that are now sold under the brand name 'Prestige', unfortunately having owned a fretted 7 string Galveston some years ago, they are not particularly good at all. I hope you have a better experience with the fretless 7! But... absolutely nothing to do with Ibanez!

Richard bought a cheap beater bass from me today, he drove down and arrived exactly when he said he would, we had a quick chat about basses, and off he went with the bass! Another credit to basschat and I'd be happy to deal with him again!

Not tried the GR AT212 but as you may have heard I'm very happy to sing the praises of the GR AT410+, 15kg, 1200w, exceptional sound. I imagine the GR AT212 would be just as good. Do bear in mind that these are specifically built to be as light as technically possible so it will feel 'less sturdy' when you pick it up and move it around, that's not to say they aren't extremely sturdy and well built, but it does trick your mind a bit when you lift these cabs.

In the design world often less is more and this, to me, is a classic case of more being less.

Better illustrated here... The red line is my visual line of sight, the side marker appears one fret forward forward of the true position. I added the stickey Abalone dots to counter this and it makes playing much more enjoyable.

Purley based on personal opinion. My first custom ACG only has side markers, and when playing complex chordal or tapping sections, especially down passed the 12th fret, having fret markers makes playing much easier. When you're tapping/chording passed the 12th fret on a 6 string neck I tend to find my eyes line of sight skewes where the side marker is vs reality so my hands are often 1 fret passed where my visual perception of the fret marker is. You don't get that visual skewe from front inlays on a 6 string when playing in those positions.

Good call! If it helps visualise, my latest build (that's maybe a month away from completion) has triple dots on the 12th and 24th fret, I think it suits the width of a 6 string neck over the usual 2 dots.

That's exactly the kind of W&T I like, and the Zoid.

Beauty is of course in the eye of the beholder, but to me these are incredibly ugly... I love the original W&T basses, but these just look far too busy, not for me! I'm sure they play and sound great though!

In my personal opinion you'll potentially regret not getting the fret markers, but wouldn't regret getting them if you got them!

My one was actually a bass that Alan was building for the NAMM show last year that never materialised due to COVID so I had a chat with him and snagged it midway through build. The one I ordered as a full customer build from Alan the year before took about 10 months all in. From my own personal experience, I much prefer some kind of position marker on the fretboard, it just makes navigating the fretboard far more pleasant than having to concentrate on your position like on an unmarked board. Plus, with the buckeye/resin off cuts from that top you could get some cracking position markers out of it!

My fingers are constantly coated in a thick layer of butter in anticipation of playing your basses...

Tis good of you - I always take a spare set of strings and two basses to gig just in case.