Paolo85

Hi @rasher80 may I ask you out of curiosity how is the neck in terms of chubbiness and what is the string spacing at the bridge?

If bassists in her favourite bands often have P or J basses then you are lucky because you can get a precision or a jazz bass, or a precision with an additional J pickup (a PJ). They are the safest bet in terms of sound and aesthetics. To date they are the most commomly used basses, and you can pretty much make them work in any kind of music, they come in many brands and many versions, you can get great value for money, and I believe they sell fairly quickly if need be. The only risk was if she specifically did not like the traditional aesthetic (as in my case when I started at 15 as a metalhead). Other people are probably better than me for advice. For a beginner I would much rather get a passive bass as you do not want to have to deal with five knobs. And it's not like an advanced player then does need active. Passive is fine, possibly better according to many. On the other hand, many active basses within the budget have an option to switch to passive, as well as a passive tone control, so one can start from there and keep the pream (the "active" part that leads to knob moltiplication) sitting there as a nice to have. I have tried some jazz basses. They are very flexible in terms of sound and I love them. Still, they are more snappy and less fat and rounf than a precision. Theytend to have slimmer necks which for beginners may be helpful unless they have big hands. I currently have a £150 fretless Harley Benton J that is great but stupidly heavy and you can do better, and a Sire V5 which gets amazing reviews, is just within your budget (I believe some 400something new) but I never managed to fall in love with it (too much high mids and very chunky frets with which you never touch the wood - not that it is a difect, just not my thing). I also had a Sire V7 fretless for a few days, also super appreciated by bass players, also within your budget and comes fretted as well. I like it more than the V5 (but is active - although with passive switch, and a somewhat weak passive tone control for what I have seen). Then you have the Squier basses. You can get a Classic Vibe jazz bas 60s (I suggest 60s over 70s as 70s has a slightly more peculiar sound and as we are not even 100% she's a jazz bass person maybe better 60s). Squier is a Fender brand. Fender invented P and J basses. Squer CV are really loved but reportedly quality is inconsistent. I tried one in a shop and I did not like it: lacquered neck and something was not right I am not sure what, I am no expert. But I would give it a second chance. I would second the reccomendation for a Jaguar CV (looks like a classic Fender bass, is PJ so superversatile, and 32" size is easy to start). On the other hand I personally would feel very unconfortable giving an adult as a first bass a bass that was not "standard" (so 34" scale), unless they asked for it. As for precision basses, other people can help more than me. Even there though my impression is tah Squier CV and Sire are the most recurrent names for a P within your budget (for new), unless you want to go for a different aesthetic. Hope this has been helpful. Finally: the advice I wish someone had given me when I started: budget some £50 a professional setup. That could make a big difference. And if the tech/luthier strongly reccommends, have the strings changed as well.

Any idea about specific bands she may like a lot, or even better she may like the bass player? Say for example her three favourite bands have a bass player with a precision, then you definitely wanto to go for a P bass. Once you have narrowed down that way it is much easier to help

I have seen them in the new Andertons video. It seems the body is Nyatoh. Has anyone tried them? I have a Nyatoh Ibanez and it is superlight, although the body is way smaller than a J. Could this be a rare example of lightweight jazz bass on a budget?

In a way yes it just means you play without a thumb rest. But it has specific advantages the most visible and from my point of view helpful is that as the thumb floats up and down it can mute the strings you are not playing

Right, I am in shock for how good it is for the price. Many people said that but it is hard to put your mind around it before you try it. It is a fretless jazz bass. Sounds like a fretless jazz bass. You can play your Jaco stuff (or try unsuccesfully as in my case) and get the sound. There is no cardboard effect from weak pickups or anything like that. There is no bridge in the wrong position preventing intonation. The tone control does what it's meant to do. The neck is chunkier than a normal j (but with the same nut width so it's not like playing a precision), but it is still confortable. Fingerboard is well done, I pretty much achieved the same action as with the Sire. Tuners are cheap but eventually you do get that E in tune. I would say the Sire gives definitely better results with the bridge pickup. Could be the pickup themselves or maybe also the ebony fingerboard of the Sire, I am no expert. With the HB when you switch from neck to bridge you feel the bottom end going away quite a bit, but it does not mean that looked at in isolation the bridge pickup is not good. You get a good snappy Jaco sound which I am having lots of fun with. Obviously passive only (which is ok for me, I prefer it), you do not get treats such as the roasted maple neck or coated fretboard so I guess more frequent setups and, in time, my fingerboard will be eaten by the strings. On that note, I was planning to switch to flatwounds but the roundwounds the bass came with are surprisingly good and are a perfect match with the bass so they are staying. The problem with this bass is the weight. My scale is not precise but we may be talking 5.4kg. Certainly very heavy even for a jazz bass. I would not buy it if I had to gig with it.

I'd reccomend Bass Advisor for reviews of cheap basses. It's in Spanish but most videos have subtitles. Although the guy seem to be sponsored by a shop, he's very frank. I love how blunt he is in pointing out things that do not work in a bass such as fretwork being "frankly bad" or pickups that he "honestly do not like the sound" of. That's all normal stuff for cheap basses but surprisingly you do not hear that very much in other channels.

I'll keep you posted!

After sliding up and down a string for 10 minutes you'll find the name is appropriate😁

From what I have seen from videos it would seem it is amazing value for money at least in terms of sound. I also love the active-passive switch: I have two slightly more expensive basses and they do not have it. Let us know if playability turns out to be good. I am a beginner myself so nothing to teach. People say pay attention to fretting-hand posture as it helps intonation, I found this to be good advice. Also I am finding that "vomit" exercises (sliding up and down a scale with a drone playing the tonic) help.

I went for the '75. It will face a hard task: replacing a great-sounding Sire V7 which I sent back for minor faults and, as it was on its way back, I realized I did not really need. I'll see

Very helpful thanks!

Hi all, has anyone tried both the Harley Benton JB-75 fretless and the JB-40 fretless? It seems most people buys the JB40fl, with good feedback. I would jump on the bandwagon no problem but the JB40 is out of stock. While I can wait, I wonder if the JB40 is seemingly more succesful because of differences in build quality or maybe it's mostly the Jaco looks. Looking at the specs the only difference is the fingerboard: pau ferro for the JB40 and laurel for the JB75. What sort of difference should I expect from the two woods? Thanks!

While I do love Frnder designs (more than Ibanez's for the most part) I was thinking/wondering whether the Ibanez SR design is the only design that is now a standard, seen in the hands of tons of people and copied by others (eg some ESP, Cort) that does not come from Leo Fender. I may be totally wrong (eg forgetting other designs that are as succesful, or maybe Ibanez got the broad shape of the SR from something else)

No, I cannot undo them either. I gather from the answers that this is not normal really I was already sending it to Thomann to fix because it came with a wonky tone control that works intermittently. I guess now I'd just ask for a replacement..

Thanks! No success unfortunatley

Hi all, I have one question/issue for which I'd love some advice. I've recently got a Sire V7 fretless from Thomann. Tonight I tried to adjust pickup height but I could not turn the screws. Granted, my screwdriver is not a very good one but my experience with other basses was that the screws are very easy to turn - which makes sense as there should be foam/springs underneath so not a lot of pressure on the screw. Is that normal? I definitely don't want to force it unless I am sure it is normal on this bass..

Without the pickguard I suddenly find it very attractive!

Right, so I have decided to give it a try in the end. And I must say I am very happy with it! The bass is beautiful. In pictures it seems a bit wonky but in person that's not the feeling at all. At first I was disappointed. The sound acoustic seemed alright but when I plugged it in it sounded all muffled. I thought preamp and pickups must be horrible. Then I replaced the strings with D'Addario tapewounds and it started to sing. Exactly the sound I was hoping for. The neck is just great. Not as slim as say an Ibanez, but feels very confortable. The tight string spacing helps. The neck is maybe a bit sharp at the edges, but that's not the same as having sharp metal frets. The bass was playable out of the box, just I decided to lower the action for more mwah, and I must say I really got what I wanted. Massive mwah through the entire neck. Even too much for what I want to do I may increase the action a bit after all. There are obviously downsides - I would be surprised otherwise as it is £245 for a 5-string fretless. The pieces of wood used for the body most likely were not chosen because of the beauty of their patterns. Wood finish seems not to be there in a couple of spots. The bridge positioning is probably not ideal. I was not able to set the intonation for the 12th "fret" in between the two spots on the side of the neck. I had to align it with just one of the dots (the one closest to the neck). Ultimately side dots will provide a rough guide and I wil have to familiarise with the neck. Most importantly, it is heavy. I haven't weighted it but it's proper heavy. In fact, there is a slight chance that I might return it because of the weight. But it is very very sight because I like it too much and because I do not see any other options of interest in the market anywhere near this price (and the fact that I want tight string spacing restricts options even further for second-hand). So, yes, I believe it is a great bass for the money.

Right, so I have checked with Andertons and it looks like it was marked as limited edition by mistake

Thanks!

Hi all, I have just noticed on Andertons that the Ibanez SRH505fl is marked as "limited run". That's probably a dumb question but.. should I assume Ibanez will discontinue the 5 string? Thanks!

Right, so I brought it to the Gallery. They said there was no visible bump, that level of difference in sound with the other frets is fairly common, but dressing the fretboard could help. I guess I'll leave it as it is for now and see if it continues to bug me😁