WinterMute

Yeah, see above, I've been using some 3rd party IR's in a lot of patches.

Without doubt the ACG Krell fretless, what a fine bass it is. Honourable mention to the Quad Cortex, in any other year a hands down winner.

Generally, I'll play any bass that comes into the studio that I haven't seen before, provided the owner is happy for me to play it, I've played most makes and models in the mainstream market and quite a few custom builds, I decided to get Alan at ACG to build my last fretless after playing a Krell brought in for a session and absolutely loving it. Same with the EBMM SR5's, played a number in session, loved them, bought some. Really like the look of the 35th Anni SR5s, might go find one in a shop to give it a noodle, unlikely to see one in a session.

In the case of every manufacturer surely? Does this need saying? Everything is worth exactly what you're prepared to pay for it, if your new house/car/bass/puppy/shoes bring you joy, it's worth the outlay.

I've got 30 years in Aikido, I know some wicked thumb locks...

Yes, but you have to buy into the design and brand of that kind of high end instrument, hence my point about the limits of materials and workmanship. Once the luthier is competent enough to build a functional and good sounding bass, where does the money go? Materials, finish, design, after that it's all brand IMO. As I said, you pays your money, you takes your choice.

I bought a Thumb 5 string in 1987, one of the first, got it for £975 from the Bass Centre as I had a mate who "knew people" there. That was the most I'd spent on an instrument for a good few years... My Bongo came in second hand as a 50th birthday pressie but was just north of a grand, then I paid £1400 for my 20th Anni SR5, and I thought that would probably be the most expensive bass I bought. However, my ACG Krell custom was a commissioned build to my spec and came in around £3800 I think, and is worth every single penny I paid for it, not just in terms of the workmanship and materials, but the attention to detail to get me what I wanted. I can't imagine going back to a factory spec, off the shelf model. I can see why people would pay big money for boutique instruments now, but I think there must be a limit somewhere where quality and materials stops and brand takes over, some of those Alembics look fabulous, but at £20K+ seem overpriced given how good the ACG is. You pays your money etc.

One matt, one shiny... Bongo 5er in Stealth Black.

Meh, Jaco did it better wearing a silly hat...😀

I've never really thought about it, it just goes where it needs to to give me purchase for the quite aggressive string striking style I've developed over the years. However, all my long term basses have developed a mark/indentation in the body where the B string meets the front corner of the bridge pup, and the bridge pups always show a bit of wear, so I'm guessing that's where it goes when it's not muting the B. Now I'm going to be conscious of what I'm doing with it aren't I?

I've always had fretted and fretless basses, one of each usually 5 strings, and i've only changed them as I've been able to afford a better quality instruments or a particular model that I've wanted to own. Currently have 4 basses with the 2 older basses not being used very much for a few reasons, the Bongo was a 50th birthday pressie from my best mate, the "SR5" fretless is a mongrel of spares and other parts that isn't worth very much to move on, and more importantly, I no longer need to fund other purchases and I have the cash to spend if I need to. I may move the Bongo and the Frankenstein on to raise funds for another ACG at some point, but I'm in no hurry. As I've said elsewhere, it's not having what you want, it's wanting what you have.

Best to, no amp like running without a reactive load on the output. The DI will only be the Pre-amp, but again that won't matter much for a solid state head. I found the capture input level is critical, it's very easy to distort the capture by having the input up too high.

Best way to get your stage shapes right too, try for the classic "foot on the monitor" Iron Maiden stance, the Cliff Williams "like a rock" stance and a decent variation on the "bass by the knees" Ramones/Clash look. It's very important to look good whilst learning. Never miss bass-players neck day. 😆

It's a genuinely beautiful piece of work, can't fault the quality of the build, materials and finish. It's also, ergonomically, a joy to play, the body sculpture fits very well and the attention to detail Alan brings in the design phase means I got everything I wanted. I went with his suggestion as to the filter pre-amp too, it works brilliantly well. I'm still constantly surprised it cost less than £4k.

Another vote for ACG, Alan's a proper gent and his work is absolutely first class. I've spent 25 years thinking about getting Wal to build me something, but the cost and the waiting list always put me off, last year Alan built this beauty, and I really can't imagine getting anything done of that standard and utility by anyone else now.

Stealthy Bongo, Frankenstein Fretless SR5, 20th Anni SR5, ACG Krell Fretless. Run out of wall-space.

There's a good list in this article, that's where I started https://makemusicwith.me/best-guitar-impulse-responses/ The I found a couple of threads in Gear Heads and (I think) on Basschat talking about IRs generally. I use the Celestion 12s and a great 8x10 from one of the libraries, but I'd have to check to find which one. Good IRs are the secret to modelling I think.

Pleasantly surprised, the usual multi-string runway type tappers leave me a bit cold, despite loving a bit of Levin on a Stick. Good tone composition and technique. You'd not want to have to retune the drone strings between songs though...

Warwick Thumb maybe, although that was around all through the 90's... No single model springs to mind, there were a lot of guys on Super Jazzes, Sadowskis etc, as you say, EBMM Stingray is pretty ubiquitous. Something boutique? Wood n Tronics? Are they a bit later?

Make use of the Cortex Cloud for captures, some of them are very good, the patches not so much, people seem to want to use everything at once... The other improvement can be in the cab IRs, particularly stuff like Celestion's offering, which is brilliant for the 12s and 15s, but does cost a bit. There's a ton of good free IRs out there for an hour or so on google. It's quite a step up from the Stomp, and does take a bit of getting used to.

This is called marketing, everyone who makes money off a product that isn't in some way iconic does it... 😀 There's simply too much noise in the signal to find good music by accident these days, almost everything new I've liked has been recommended, often by the good people of this very parish. I'm lucky enough to have the skills and the tech to do 90% of our production work at home, we go to a friendly studio for a long weekend to record drums, everything else is in-house. It's a hobby, not a profession any more, and like all hobbies, you have to put some time and money into it. Some people paint, some knit mittens, I record songs with my mates, it's as good a way to pass the time and spend the money as any I think. It's about the journey and not the destination now. Our last album is up on the usual streaming services, we did 50 CD's for friends and family and, as someone else on the thread said, to make it real. It's cool, we're not getting "discovered" and no-ones going to offer us a support slot on a world tour, it's good to be able to make music for fun and not have the pressure of trying to be pro. That said, it's always a buzz when someone listens and gets in touch to comment, but I feel for those of us trying to offer something to the genuine fans to listen to.

Always thought it was a dumb concept, exposure to any music or literature for that long would render them meaningless. I guess the bible and the shakespeare would make decent kindling. Luxury item: a phone/iPod loaded with my entire music collection, a power source and 1980's era Kate Bush, am I doing this right?

Never got it, always preferred other peoples covers of their work, thought both Lennon and Macca were utter c*cks and Ringo did his best work narrating Thomas the Tank engine... However, I know all the bloody words, acknowledge their place in musical history and watched Let It Be with increasing admiration for all of them as musicians and people. Macca is/was some sort of genius I think, and Ringo was a machine. Lennon's Above Us Only Sky documentary very nearly changed my mind about him as well, although I still think he's a second rate Dylan who is himself a second rate Cohen... I work with Eddie Veale a lot, the guy who engineered Imagine and built studios for Lennon and Harrison, he speaks very highly of both of them. I bought the Let It Be stripped back mix album and will tolerate a few track when they come on the random playlist, although Lennon's "charming" interjections still fosters me off. Same with the Stones, and a lesser extent, the Who, who just seemed a bit more modern to me. Not a fan.

A piece of bass history right there, I had absolutely no idea that was a fretless bass till I saw that listing... John McVie was, quietly, some bassist.

I think you and Fretmeister are right about accuracy, in the end these boxes are a stack of possibilities of tone, and you use the parts that you need to in order to get the tone you want for the music you make.