razor5cl

As others have said depends entirely on where you live. I live in London so it's possible for me to get to rehearsals or gigs fairly easily by public transport. Like others here have mentioned, our band has a permanent rehearsal room we rent and share with a few other bands, so all the bulky difficult-to-transport equipment stays in there. Which is just as well because we use massive 100W Marshall heads and I've got a Peavey bass head that weighs more than a collapsed sun. Plus cabinets, the PA, mic stands etc etc. We can even keep guitars in there so that we don't have to take those. I personally drive to rehearsals just because I'm lazy and it's easier than public transport with my huge pointy bass getting in people's way on the tube. The rest of my band members make their own way but I usually offer to drive two of them to the singer's house since it only adds about 20 minutes to my journey home. As others have said - it's possible to deal with by a combination of taxis, public transport if applicable, and lifts from other band members, mates, family or friends. It might be a lot of hassle but it could be possible. If you can fit all your gear into a bass case then you should be able to make it work. Having to transport more gear (like amps or cabinets or elaborate pedalboards) will be tougher but if you're clever with getting lightweight stuff you mayyyy be able to get by. At this point though you might have to start wondering if it's at all possible to think about at least learning to drive since it could be less hassle and potentially cheaper than buying new lightweight gear and getting taxis everywhere etc.

As the almost exact target market for a bass like this I'm seriously conflicted. It looks stealthy and super slick and cool, and I am a HUGE fan of the Jackson headstock over all else. Nice binding and luminlays too, real sexy. I'm also a big proponent of the Jackson "sharktooth" fret inlays, so sharp and much cooler than dots. But £1400, really? The body shape is nothing special and aside from the inlays and headstock shape I see no real benefit over a Fender Aerodyne or even something like the black Yamaha BB734a. Hell if you want something rock and roll get a used MIJ Charvel with the same headstock, real 80s heavy metal/shred heritage and made by the real Jackson before they became part of Fender. And most importantly cheaper too.

I hadn't consciously noticed this but I've been combing the classifieds for a while now and it checks out! I'm actually on the lookout for some cabs myself since my rehearsal space has two mismatched and rather knackered old boxes, a Warwick 4x10 and a Laney 1x15 and one of them is definitely blown since it makes an odd farty sound when I play hard with my distortion pedal on. It's a buyer's market these days it seems! Especially if you're not so bothered about lugging around heavy gear - my 90s Peavey head is heavy enough as is! Plus most venues we get offered to play have their own cabs these days.

You need to play like Cronos from Venom - make a total bloody racket and mainly use that fretless upper register for slides and making various ungodly noises

I also have an irrational fear of batteries dying! I'm just a miserable young scallywag. Thankful my bass only has two pickups though and no piezo volume knob! That sounds awful

It is an option I think but I'm not 100% sure. EMG seems to have thousands of wiring diagrams on their website and it seems that in addition to the handful they provide with the pickups there are also other options that they don't tell you about. They do sell an active blend knob I think but I'd have to check. Basically I'm too lazy to check their website, buy the parts, and figure it out myself/take it to my tech 🤣

I'd consider it for practice or in the studio but on stage I have an irrational (heh see!) fear of using pedals during a performance. I'm just paranoid that cables will get tangled or me or someone else will step on it by accident or unplug it. My tuner and distortion pedals live in front of the amp at the back of the stage and I strictly forbid any of my band mates from going anywhere near them lol

Someone here mentioned separate volume knobs and it's currently driving me mildly loopy. Just had the electronics swapped on my Jackson Kelly and I have two active EMGs with no preamp so separate pots it is. How does one deal with this? Having played for almost 9 years now and gotten used to having a master volume to quickly mute/unmute my bass with. I can quickly turn both down easily enough but turning them both back up is a faff. It's especially annoying since one of my band's tunes has a part where I do a volume swell up on a big power chord. So far I've been doing it with just one knob and then turning the other one up once it's already ringing out at full volume but sometimes I forget to turn up the other knob (like on stage this weekend oops!)

That thing looks really cool! How does it sound? I've Googled but can't seem to find a black one for sale anywhere. Each to their own but glam isn't really my thing apart from maybe W.A.S.P. I much prefer the cult classic German underground death/thrash metal band Poison! BC Rich are still at it today with their guitars! Look here for example, tonnes of purples and yellows and crackles: https://www.andertons.co.uk/browse/guitar-dept/electric-guitars/?cio_brand=BC+Rich A mate of mine has a crackle Ironbird and I just can't wrap my head around it. The over-the-top glam finish is totally not my thing anyways but each to their own. But on an Ironbird? A guitar shape famous for black/death/war metal bands? The mind boggles. I'm sure Suffolk is very nice but I think my band mates and musical friends would immediately disown me if I was caught dead with that thing lol. Really not my thing at all, and now I don't have to spend 4 hours before a gig getting my hair and makeup done.

Spotted this one on Reverb a week or two ago and it's been on my mind constantly. Killer looking bass, love the RG shape - hardly ever see it in bass but the guitars are just so timeless, reminds me of the 80s shredders. PJ pickups and a nice looking neck, Gotoh tuners too. It's got my name written all over it, and I'd already be thinking of buying it but for one fatal flaw. What on Earth is that finish? Glam went out of fashion almost 40 years ago! https://reverb.com/uk/item/89622765-ibanez-rg-bass-1989-feline-limited-edition

When I picked mine up from my luthier he mentioned how if they made a reverse version of the body then it would maybe balance a bit better since the strap button would be closer to the headstock. Yours looks like a lefty but actually if a righty were to play it upside down it might balance pretty well! Would also have a reverse headstock which I'm particularly partial to but I know some pointy guitar aficionados hate them haha

I think if you don't look at least a little bit ridiculous on stage then you're doing it entirely wrong! Preferably more than just a little too...

It's odd how my Kelly is one of the biggest basses you'll ever see, and is actually surprisingly very light. My Yamaha BB feels heavier! And comparatively that Jackson bird looks like a smaller body but weighs a ton. Is it made of mahogany?

She's an absolute beauty! Looks extra mean in black. Also probably in better nick than mine - if it's sitting in storage then you can't bang any of the pointy bits on anything 🤣

Ooooh I have been looking at some Charvels online recently, mainly for that headstock! That and they seem like cool basses. Is the Charvel headstock much different? It looks the same in photos and AFAIK they were made in the same factory no?

The points aren't the uncomfortable part, the body is actually quite nicely shaped. It's a big old thing but I'm 6' 4" so it actually looks and feels fairly natural on me! And I've managed to wrestle the neck dive under control too so it's really not too bad. I can certainly say that the very pointy headstock is fine for me but not very comfortable for my singer's head, both my guitarists, my drummer's hi hats, or my mates who came to watch us rehearse. Ask me how I know...

The Kelly shape really is quite cool - like you said it's like an even cooler Explorer. The curves make it look oddly kinda classy too as well as extra pointy. Those Kellybirds always looked a bit naff to me, almost like a "worst of both worlds" half hearted attempt. I always lusted after a Kelly bass and never ever saw one for sale so just assumed they never made them outside the custom shop, until this one popped up! Now I can prance around on stage pretending I have half as much talent as Marty Friedman lol. That Jackson Thunderbird looking thing is very very slick though, it's like a smarter looking version of this Fernandes Nikki Sixx signature: Much nicer headstock on the Jackson though!

At least 25 years ago - so that might've been before I was born!

Hi fellow Basschatters, this is my first post under this new account but I had an account here with the same name a few years ago. I've played a Yamaha BB for years and whilst I absolutely adore the thing, playing in a fairly extreme metal outfit always made me want something a little....edgier for the stage. I lusted after several pointy basses for a while and then happened to see this beauty listed for sale on Reverb for an absolute steal - think it cost me £350 in the end? I knew I just had to have it immediately - I'd never seen a bass in this shape before and the mere sight of the thing had me going absolutely crazy! Just look at that beautiful old school Jackson headstock. Couldn't find much info about it online but I've managed to ascertain that it was made in Japan around 2001-2002. Since it was so cheap I decided to splash out on some mods - most notably the gold Gotoh bridge, Wilkinson tuners, and some new knobs. I was going for the Subaru Impreza blue and gold kinda vibe there. The stock "Duncan Designed" cheapo pickups didn't sound awful, but the electronics were a bit dodgy when it arrived, the preamp had some kind of grounding issue. When this decided to die on me just as I was about to step on the stage for our debut gig I decided I'd had enough and swapped them out for an active EMG set, a 35DC in the bridge and a 35P4 in the neck. They really pack a huge punch and especially with some nice crunch they absolutely sing. This thing looks absolutely killer and sounds great to match. I've read this on here and various other places but it's amazing how different instruments make you play and even act differently, with this thing I just feel more lively and energetic and I even stand and move around differently while playing. The elephant in the room is the neck dive - it is pretty bad and is probably the only thing stopping me playing this thing week in week out. I've managed to tame it a bit by running my strap in front of that big wing on the body rather than behind it, and by attaching some car wheel weights to the end of my strap below where it meets the strap button on the body. But if anyone else has any tips on how I can tame this that would be amazing - it's a very light bass but the added weights do take their toll a bit... The other "small" issue is that this thing is absolutely enormous, the body is huge and because of where it sits on your body the first fret feels like it's in a different postcode. The neck dive doesn't help this either. But all told I'll happily accept these things just to feel as powerful as you do when wielding one of these things on stage.