Mr Cougar

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

I don't have any sound clips but to be honest you can make it sound like a load of different guitars cos its so versatile anything from the classic Gibbo thump to a sort of Jazz and P Bass set of sounds plus some really odd ones. Sound engineers love the low impedance setting so long as you remember to tell them.

The scale length is 30" 3/8ths and it is a very thin neck which makes it really fast to play. Low E has a bit of a dead thump but you don't really get it when amplified.

2 Pods makes a good point (especially about marking the starting point) but I would point out the following:

1. I have a 79 and a 93 Stingray and as such they don't have wheels.

2. I still think that you are better off making minor adjustments from the saddles than constantly altering the stress on the neck, I know modern truss rods and necks are very robust but part of me still feels you are playing with fire if you arse around too much

------------------------------------
Mr Cougar - hates the cracking sound of an ill considered truss rod adjustment

[b]Steve Harris [/b]-fastest fingers I ever saw, inspired me to play bass, I still like to get a foot on the monitor when I can.
[b]Cliff Burton [/b]- Anasthesia!? Took me bloody ages to learn and still the only thing I have ever used a bass wah for
[b]Paul Simmonon [/b]- don't know if he wrote the lines but I would give it him just for the cover of London calling
[b]Danny from the Wildhearts [/b]-basically not great but once played the whole of the Reading festival set sitting on a flightcase with a dislocated knee which I think is an example of dedication beyond the call of bass duty.
[b]Me[/b] - you have to love yourself -right? I wouldn't have made it without me!

For what it's worth here are my four main instruments, need to get my others on here but here's a starter, 93 Stingray, 71 Gibson LP Triumph, 79 Stingray Fretless and a Sandberg California JM. Also my rack which I had to customise myself to make sure there was enough space to allow ventilation between the units.

Well what a great thread you have all started here for my 2 pence;

All the good musicians I know have one thing in common -none of them sit down and think 'right I'm going to practice' most of us (and I'm sure this goes for all of you) want to pick up their bass as soon as they see it. I'm sure you all have got in from work and picked up your axe started playing with the intention of doing something else only to 'come round' 4 hours later standing in the dark, desperate for the lav and starving hungry with sore fingers!

For me the greatest aids to developing technique are;

A single minded determination to get it perfect (you've all practiced the same thing over and over again for hours until it's right and until everyone else within 60ft is sick of hearing the same 20 notes again and again)

Joining a band (playing with a drummer whose understanding of your technique becomes almost telepathic over time is an awesome feeling)

Learning that timing is the holy grail, not fancy technique or speed(many still ignore this and are worse for it)

Improvising Live (learn your scales or just what sounds right and get up at the local club and jam, any bass player worth his salt should be able to jam 12 bar as a minimum, oh and it's super cool)

If you do these things your ability will develop almost without you noticing and all of a sudden after 13 years of playing you will think 'blimey I'm actually pretty good!'

All these fancy chops are great they are like a little sideline for bass players to wow each other with; but to use and analogy the World Footballer of the year is Fabio Cannavaro (a quietly effective central defender) not Ronaldinho or Cristiano Ronaldo despite their flicks and tricks. Cannavaro won this cos' he got the job done and his team and won the World Cup. As a bass player you are the central defence, you'll never get that much praise but when you and the drummer do your job right you will sound awesome. Let the lead guitarist and the singer do the musical equivalent of stepovers and Cruyff turns whilst you do the real work. If your not satisfied with doing that role exceptionally well then my son, you ain't no bass player, go and learn the guitar.

Finally, despite having learned every style I have been able to; fingers, slaping popping, tapping etc etc, when I come back to playing with the guys I have played with since I was 17 out comes my plectrum because that's the sound and style I want, and no amount of mocking about playing with a plectrum not being proper will stop me.

For me what makes a bass player good is when he understands the right part is the appropriate part to the music as a whole, played in time,in tune and tight, nothing more; get this right and everything else is just a bonus.

I found Napper a good man to deal with when I bought my Gibson Triumph. Having said that after the transaction was complete someone cloned my card and started buying phonecards from Nairobi!!

The other thing is that they sold it to me as a 1974/5 Gibson Les Paul Triumph, when I got in touch with Gibson themselves they told me it was a rather rarer 1971 Triumph in a custom finish with a custom bridge from Schaller, neither of which were mentioned by the BC.

I may have to shamelessly rip off your instrument Bass Monster. Purple is my favorite colour and that maple neck is so striking with the colour of the body. Love the lines of that instrument. Definitely gives me that elusive 'bass horn'. I'm sure she's a great player as well, guess that goes without saying when it comes to one of JS' instruments.

If you don't mind can I ask how much it cost, PM me if you don't want it to be public knowledge, think my spec would be similar so you would be doing me a favour.

---------------------------------------

Mr Cougar - has so much GAS you could strap a basket to his ass and use him as a hot air balloon.

I rue the day when I would tweak the truss rod on my Stinger everytime I would want to make a minor adjustment to the string height.

Hey guys, finally got round to signing back up on Basschat, have dealt with a few of the regular guys in the past and it's nice to see most people have made the jump from BW.

Rocket Stu - hope you are still getting on with that Warwick

Dood - after months of running them against each other the V-amp finally came up short against the Line 6 Pod, but was still great for the price.

For the record my kit is as follows:

1979 Musicman Stingray Fretless (Black)
1993 Musicman Stingray (fretted) 3eq (Black/Rosewood)
Sandberg California JM (Redburst/Rosewood)
1971 Gibson Les Paul Triumph (Walnut w/Shaller Custom Bridge)

Gallien Kruger 700rb
Bass Pod XT Pro
Behringer T1952 Tube Composer
Behringer Rack Tuner

Bugger! Just when you thought it was safe to go back on the forum... I thought I left my GAS at Bassworld.

(looks up the shuker website details)

(calls to better half) "looks like we won't be getting a new bathroom this summer sweetie"

---------------------------------

Mr Cougar - is wondering if the Maestro will do him a Jazz with a pair of MM humbuckers