Mr Cougar

Apologies to Snap for Hijacking his intro-post for this Lincolnshire nonsense. By the way if you aren't old enough you won't get this, but; Snap, do you have the power?

Hey Muppet do you still start every sentence with either "tell ya' what" or "now then"? If you do you are a definitely still a Lincs man.

Bassplayers Popular Front of Lincolnshire.....Pah!! Spliters!!, up the PBFoL.

This big cat's in Scunthorpe so at least 4 of us in Lincs - can I be the family pet?

Alright Chaps, the big cat is keen on taking up the EUB and I am trying to get one that is good quality but nothing stupidly expensive, I like the look of the NS CR4M anyone got any other suggestions what might be suitable?

That's got to be a far more worthy cause than buying some guy in Togo a fishing rod surely?

Yeah! a peavey cab - I still use a 4x10 with horn as my main cab even though I can aford anything I want, really not bad at all, everytime i have thought about replacing it the differential in sound really hasn't been large enough to justify the expense.

Damn it! I thought this thread was going to be about communism and the failure of the solcialist experiment in Western Europe in the late 20th century!

That Jazz is the balls, I love the custom tweaks. Bet you get some comments when you play it live.

You need only check out Bassmonsters avatar to know he is an authority on custom options, £100 seems pretty reasonable

It's a bit like you're a kindly man who takes in a dog that's been abused by some knucklehead, I can see the heartwrenching advert on TV now for abused basses now: (barbers adagio for strings plays as background music on a vintage fender) '(voicover) "just £2 a month can help prevent abuse by drummers, we found a 1992 Stingray that just want's to be loved that hadn't had a set up in over 12 years, it's kneck was so bowed it may never be free of fret buzz"... "Your £2 can help stop drummers ever being allowed near a bass. This poor Rickenbacker 4001 was abused by a drummer during a break in practice whilst it's owner was having a roll up outside, the drummer left it leant against the amp with the strings un-muted until the feedback got so bad all the paint fell off" I just nearly made myself cry...

Get over to Bass Porn and let's have some pics lad

I've said it before and I'll say it again, the best bass to start off with is IMHO a Fender Precision Bass. They are great general instruments, suitable for any musical style, they have never really gone out of fashion and aren't likely to and you could pick up a japanese one for less than your budget (check the for sale section on Basschat). I would question the wisdom of buying anything more expensive or 'niche' since you may regret it after a couple of years when you understand more about the sound and type of instrument you want. I started on a Squire (cheap fender licenced copy)Precision played it for 4 years by which time knew enough to know exactly what I wanted from my next instrument. Incidentally I have no agenda here, I don't own any fenders anymore, but I stick by them as a great starter bass. Also save some money on the bass and you could buy a funky little amp (Mr Cougar recommends one of the small Mark Bass amps they are very good for the size and money) Good luck with the Bass - you are now officially cool regardless of what your guitarist mates think.

Thanks BRX I shall give some a go... will let you know how I go on.

Cos it is an edit and I forgot to update that part. KO- Thanks very much, I had to order it specially - longest 6 weeks of my life.

Cai - thanks very much, my Sandy plays really well to the point where my Stingrays are starting to get a bit jealous. Ped - bearing in mind that the Behringer compressor only cost about £80 I am very pleased with it really, good responsive bit of kit and looks very cool with the illuminated tubes. I'm sure better ones are out there but I find it very useful and I also use it for the two channels when recording the drum kit when I put it into my Roland VS880 EX. It has a 'warmth' feature on it which does, in my approximation, the sum total of f**k all, but thats the only thing I could complain about. Luke - I also love the 'Pod. Because the GK 700rb is a very modern sound, I use a variation on the standard tube amp setting for a rich warm vintage sound, then depending on the type of stuff I'm playing I put it through one of the many cab settings. I also have a very cool wooly mamoth type distortion sound which I put through the SVT simulator. That said if you have the rack mount version you need a seperate foot controller which is not cheap.

Could be worse, my entire E string on my Gibson LP Trumph is a dead spot, can' hear it amplified. My Stingray had one but a bitof messing around with the action etc seemed to sort it out. Fluke rather than skill though!

Updated with some new pics for y'all

Alright Martin. Nice basses.

Correct me if i'm wrong pop pickers but a spanking new MIJ aerodyne would only be about that much. Who the hell is going to pay £375 for a MIM P-Bass?!

Muppet is right of course, what I should have said is: [i]'I find[/i] my stinger better for rock etc... It goes without saying that with anything anyone says about something as subjective as the sound of a bass and it's appropriateness for different types of music is an opinion, but the penguin is right. I have always found the P bass to be a real jack of all trades, and I had trouble making mine cut through the mix as much as I would have liked it to. That said it is hard to deny the appeal of a classic P bass, something almost mythical about them. Sorry to disappoint ngombe but the Gibson basses aren't really in the same league as their smaller 6 string cousins, still good but something of a 'marmite' bass. As far as the neck width goes I also have stubby hands - welcome to the club Muppet!- I agree that there isn't much difference but surely a thiner neck is always gonna be easier for say, a small handed beginer than a fat old P bass or stingray neck. Unless your fingers are so fat the strings are too close together!

I would like everyones opinions on the wood used for making basses; what different characteristics do different woods have, I'm thinking mainly tonal qualities rather than weight etc. For example ash, walut, mahogany etc I'm plotting to have one made at the end of summer and I want to gather as much opinion as I can.

Now you mention it guitarnbass the control panel has dated rather badly in the intervening 35 odd years. I imagine it was the balls at the time. I love the retro look though, although it does weigh a bloody ton.

I have 2 stingrays and I have to say that my Sandberg JM is really just as good. The Califonia PM is also very good and should have a pretty similar neck to a stinger, unless you have one with a shiny satin finish from the early 90s type neck in which case you have rock all chance of getting one with a finish like that, cos that finish is the greatest ever neck finish IM(not so)HO. ---------------------------- Mr Cougar - will stand for no argument when it comes to neck finishes

Personally my first bass was a P-Bass, they are an awsome rock bass and you could beat a rhino to death with one then play it 20 minutes later. That said they aren't too versatile, they have a wide-ish neck which makes them a bit harder to play than a Jazz. If you were to look throught the thread where everyone has picked their top 5 bassists I wouldn't think too many play a precision. Steve Harris comes up a lot but even he isn't that conventional a P player (flatwounds!) I love them; but I don't have one cos Stingers are better at rock, my Gibson sounds better for vintage sounds and my Sandberg jazz is more versatile and beter for slap