Delberthot

I have a theory that these have been put on the websites as bait or testers as it were. The company have had a few ideas about what would work next so they post pictures of different potential models. They then sit back and wait for the ensuing debate amongst us here and over on Talkbs. They gather the information and then decide on the design, layout etc of the final product. No focus groups or test groups to pay for, they merely let us decide what we want. Then again this could backfire as very few of us know what we want 😂

I was on the way to a gig with our guitarist and he put this on. I didn't recognise it so I asked if it was John Meyer. His reply was "John Meyer wishes he was this good".

In the past I would go through basses so quickly that some basses wouldn't even make it as far as their first gig before I had sold them and bought something else

I always change my strap buttons to Gotoh EP-B3, with a touch of superglue on the screw threads before screwing them in, plus Fender rubber Grolsch type washers

Thanks for the recommendations - I'm in Falkirk so most of these places are within a short car or train journey away.

That's very kind of you. I am going to be in Aberdeen in a couple of week's time but I don't have space in the car for all of the gear and 3 basses.

A couple of times now my EBMM Sterling's jack has stopped outputting sound and instead emitted a high pitched squeal. I've found threads on the sound cutting out but not squeeling. Is this likely to be the usual failed jack socket issue? It happened during the first song in the set last night so I unplugged it and used my Sire D5 for the rest of the night. I've changed the battery and tried different cables but it's definitely something wrong with the bass itself. Secondly I ma terrible with a soldering iron so does anyone know anyone in the Central Scotland area who could repair this for me?

for me a song is always going to be easier to learn if I actually like it and harder if I don't

leaning towards... dipping a toe into... pedant alert

We've been doing Le Freak for years now and I was starting to get bored with it. This has given me a few ideas. 😀

I received an email at 3.30am a few nights ago asking to confirm my Facebook account with a code so I immediately changed my passwords for Facebook and Instagram just in case. Looks like it was a similar scam to this one.

I have a Sterling HH but only use the bridge pickup. I only wanted a single humbucker model but this one came up for sale at a good price The best two HH basses I ever played were these. The G&L was stunning and the Warwick almost played itself it was so good

I'd echo the comments above about having it set up, new set of strings etc then play as much as you can. My first bass at age 12 was a Marlin Slammer which was, like yours, a precision copy. I never changed the strings, cleaned it or anything until I got a new bass at 16. All I did was play it as much as I could to the annoyance of the neighbours 😂 Unless the bass is unplayable, don't be in too much of a rush to change it. Just play the hell out of it as much as you can to learn as much as you can. During that time, use the forum to learn as much as you can about playing, bass players to listen out for, what gear is hot and what is not then when the time comes further down the line, by all means treat yourself to something else. At 48 I have had around 160+ basses pass through my hands. the expensive ones aren't always the best and the raved about ones aren't always the best for you either. To illustrate this, I currently have the following: Harley Benton JB75 - for practicing in the house Warmoth / Status Graphite Jazz bass EBMM Stingray HH Sire D5 Squier 40th Anniversary Precision bass The Squier was the cheapest and the Musicman Sterling is worth the most but I happily gig both of them. I am currently looking into getting myself a Sire fretless as well. If your Encore was set up with my choice of strings, I'd happily gig that as well. I think that if most of us were to be honest with ourselves, the main reason we buy more expensive basses is because we can afford to. Lower end / Budget Basses are infinitely better today than they were when I was young - for example, the chrome peeled off the bridge on my Marlin Slammer.

1x Harley Benton HB-50 Cherry Red Availability: Available in 11-14 weeks (so it might take a bit longer than I posted) Harley Benton HB-50 Cherry Red Vintage Series; Semi-Hollow Body Electric Bass; Set-neck construction; Maple body with arched top; C-shape neck made of Canadian maple; Laurel fingerboard with DOT inlays & sidemarks; 22 nickel silver 2.7mm frets; 864mm scale length; 43mm saddle width; ABS groove; Cream Body & Neck Bindings; Double Action Truss; Artec MMC4 Vintage Alnico 5 Humbucker Pickup; Controls: 1-Volume, 1-Tone & 3-Way Switch; DLX Chrome Hardware; BK5 bridge; DLX Die-Cast Tuner, HB 45-105 strings, color: Hi-Gloss Cherry Red; Optional matching case: 263559. 11-14 weeks would take us into January which wouldn't be bad as it's the quiet time for the band and gives me time to do some fettling 🤔

Yes they have blue silks at the headstock end but they're not as "fluffy" as some.

I was trying to think back as to whether I'd owned any blue basses in the past when I realised that I actually own one now. D'oh I think that it's an alder chambered body with mahogany top, EMGs and a Status Jazz neck. It hasn't had much love recently as I've been using my EBMM Sterling 4HH and will be using my new Sire D5 for the next run of gigs but I will get it back out at some point

Love it - I've been after a cheap semi acoustic for a while now and I'm not averse to tinkering with my Harley Bentons so I'll keep my eye out for these becoming available next year

Yes 👍 One I had forgotten about - Desert Gold SR4 with matching headstock. I love Stingrays but always prefer the sound of a Sterling

Thing is that if hip hop and rap were bad then they would have fizzled out. Just because some people don't like it doesn't mean that others feel the same. Personally, the thought of paying good money to have Eminem shout at me for 2 hours doesn't appeal to me Dreary doesn't appeal to me either so you won't find me at an Ed Sheeran, Adele or Coldplay gig either but millions feel otherwise

I've lost count of the number of basses that have passed through my hands. Some great, some good and some absolutely terrible. Thing is that something that didn't agree with me 20 years ago could be something that I'd use now. Don't regret any of it as it was all a huge learning experience (in the case of Rickenbackers I had to buy half a dozen of them over the years before I learned my lesson 😂) plus there's nothing that I can do to change what I've done so chalk it all up to experience

Overrated - everything Underrated everything One man's pot of gold is another man's POS If you buy based only on good reviews then you're setting yourself up to be disappointed. Likewise if you only read about the bad you could be missing out on something that could've worked for you.

Bohemian Rhapsody, Queen - "He's just a poor boy from a poor family, Spare him his life from his pork sausages" "Beelzebub had a devil for a sideboard" Dazed & Confused, Led Zeppelin "I've been Dazed and confused for so long it's not true, a one legged woman never bargained for you"

Having just taken delivery of my Sire D5 I was keen to fit a set of flats to it. I checked out my usual D'addario Chromes and a few others but ended up stumbling on the Ernie Ball Group flats. I've been using Hybrid Slinkies for the past couple of years, having found them to be fuller sounding with more bite than the D'addario EXL165s I had been using previously. As we all know trying out different flats can be an expensive business but I was surprised when I came across Ernie Ball Group V flats for £24.95 on Amazon. These are the 45, 65, 80, 100 group III set with a 130 B string. However, the Group 3 set was still coming in at £46.80! It was a no brainer - buy the 5 string set and keep the B in it's packet to either sell on in the future or until such time I have a suitable 5 string. I've just fitted them and they sound and feel amazing. I won't be using a Hipshot Xtender on this bass so I didn't need the slightly heavier 105. They're very smooth, I would say even more so than Chromes, and very bright. Time will tell what they'll be like when they settle down but from reading online reviews they should mellow out nicely while still retaining the mid-range grunt. Anyway, I've just ordered a second set to keep in my spares drawer for either another bass or when I change these in about 100 years

Apart from the odd one-off set here and there, since I was about 16 my strings have been: Rotosound Nexus (the black coating came off the strings) Elites Nickel (Nathan East Signature set on 5vers) Ernie Ball Slinkies D'addario Chromes D'addario EXL165 Ernie Ball Hybrid Slinkies

I think I had my Righton vegan strap on my one last weekend and as someone who tends to play with my bass at a 45 degree angle I never noticed and neck dive which was surprising