40hz

McCartney-esque, I love it. Wish I had the readies.

Regardless of whether you do or don't like Joe Dart or his music, the bass is a hard 'no' from me. I kinda dig that he's got a vibe he goes for and is true to it (I'll always respect people for that) but for me, that bass is far too basic/simple to justify that price tag (Yes, I know Fender sell Custom Shop P-Basses for more, but I wouldn't spend 2k+ on a P-Bass either!)

Elvis Impersonator: Blackpool Pier

A Design For Life

Kevin Carter

From Everything Must Go by The Manic Street Preachers. To think this is how the album after losing Richey starts, is just incredible. The swagger and confidence (and melancholy). One of the very rare true 10/10 albums, imo.

I used the Murphy's Oil Soap and it worked absolute wonders. The crap that came off onto the microfibre (from what I thought was a relatively clean bass) was scarcely believable! Finished with a wax on, wax-off (that stuff smells heavenly) and all is good in the world!

30 minutes ago, JoeEvans said:

What are you guys doing with your basses to get them so filthy?

The 2 natural finished Warwicks I've owned (Stage One and 95 Bolt-On) have both been quite clean, luckily, but it's quite well known that natural finished Warwicks don't wear their miles that well (cosmetically) in the hands of less 'studious' owners. You don't need to look far to find them for sale with numerous dark patches on the body or neck and the common neck pickup divot.

On the other hand, some people might dig that look!

37 minutes ago, Kev said:

Depends how brave you are.

 

With my old Thumb basses, I would once a year scrub the whole body down with extra fine wire wool to get all the muck and grime off, then reapply the warwick wax all over and leave overnight, before buffing up in the morning to make it look brand new again.

Not that brave! But thank you for the heads up. 

32 minutes ago, Rayman said:

Yes that would work. A citrus (acidic) cleaner will remove any surface contamination prior to coating with wax.

 

I actually used Muc-Off, the same cleaner I use for my mountain bike. It’s biodegradable and removed the dirt from my Streamer very nicely with no ill effects.

 

Also your assumption with regards to cleaning before waxing is correct. Overcoating the dirt with wax will just work it in not remove it.

Excellent - thank you so much for the advice. 🙏

Not sure if this is the right place, so mods feel free to shift around as you see fit.

I'm going to try and keep my Streamer Bolt-On in as minty condition as is possible, as I can't stand how Warwicks look when they get mucky, so have been looking at cleaning products for wood, as being a Warwick, it's unfinished and not sealed.

A lot of information online seems to suggest the Warwick wax cleans as well as protects, but IMO, that can't be right, you'd just be sealing in any dirt and oil already on the body. If anything you'd use it *after* cleaning the body with a degreaser or solvent of some kind.

I've heard that Murphy's Oil Soap might be just the ticket and just wanted to check if anyone else had used this on a Warwick to good effect?

I note Amazon have a spray bottle version of this ;

Murphy's Oil 1030 22-Ounce Orange Multi-Use Wood Cleaner Spray https://amzn.eu/d/5LlsFkx

Would this suffice?

FWIW, I dare say that being a demo/trade show bass, it's also probably been played by quite a few famous players! Cool piece of history!

I'd be having an honest (and kind) chat, but giving her the opportunity to rectify it - can't say fairer than that. "Have you ever considered vocal lessons to bring us on to the next level" etc.

The P-Bass by a mile, for me. It has a warm, fat growl and presence the others just don't have. Conversely, I thought the Stingray sounded the worst.

Looks like Gary Lineker. . . 

This has been my quietest year in 10+ years with regards to purchases and sales. I'd put that down to finally finding a bass that just does everything at a 9/10 level, so this gets my best purchase award.

A somewhat rare-ish 1995 Warwick Streamer Bolt-On 5 - the much higher end precursor to the LX's of the past 25 years. It's made from light, beautifully figured French Cherry wood and hand carved in the older, curvier, thinner and much, much nicer Streamer body shape. Twin MEC J's that give it superb versatility, and crucially, gobs and gobs of Warwick 'Growl'. 6 months with it and I've nary even looked at another bass, which has never happened with me with a Bass, ever - I've historically spent 99% of my time in the 'for sale forum' 🤣

Honorary mention goes to the Zoom B6 - Due to this wonderful little unit, I've done my first ever backline-less gigs in 20 years of playing bass. A true one box solution for the gigging musician. It's the best MultiFX/modeller for Bass I've ever used. It's so flexible and the quality of the FX engine is a whole new world compared to pedals of yore - the Synth engine being it's particular forte.

Although small, my worst purchase would be a set of DR Hi-Beams, purely because I've never once bought strings that have been faulty out of the packet (until this year). There were two G-strings in the packet and a missing D in place of the extra G. The A-string was as also as dead as a dodo. Total Rubbish.

I'm 37 and already have a very dodgy left shoulder/Rotator cuff injury from jumping about on stage 5-6 years ago. I remember leaping in the air, and as my Modulus Flea bass distributed it's weight on the strap as I landed, it just went, and was like someone had set fire to my entire shoulder and back. It's never been the same since and due to it, I suffer from impaired mobility/range of motion in that shoulder/arm. Due to this, my entire rig is based around being mobile and lightweight.

I have two Trace Elliot Elf 2x8 cabs, which weigh about 11kg each. They're extremely loud and very capable things and easy enough to ferry to and from the car, while taking up little space. I have a Little Mark 4, which goes without saying on the portability front. But most of all, I won't touch a bass over 4kg anymore, it's just not feasible, no matter how much I might like it. Case in point was my recent Musicman Stingray - 4.7kg and I couldn't stand up for more than 30mins with it on. Having sold it, I struck extremely lucky with my 1995 Warwick Streamer Bolt-On 5, it's 3.8kg and supremely comfortable.

In relation to the above, it still utterly boils my p*** that so many shops do not weigh their instruments, save for Bass Direct and Bass Bros. It really limits potential basses.

The only thing I can think of that is an absolute no-no under any circumstance is anything finished in Sunburst. Absolutely horrendous.

Stephen Amazing. Not well known, but whenever I think of the Jazz Bass tone, I think of him.

https://youtu.be/zj8zstKDrvw?si=mN8zueSYUb-Z9GIx

Anything 'aggy'. 

I still absolutely adore bands like Rage Against The Machine, System of A Down, Soundgarden, older era Incubus, etc - it's all I listened to up until my mid 20's, but I can't listen to it anymore. It makes me too anxious and edgy. I still love the bands and the songs themselves, it's just never on the playlist these days at 37 years old.

The older I've got, the more electronic music speaks to me - give me a nice Ambient Chillwave instead!

Genuine question, because I can't tell - is this played straight faced, or is he a supremely talented musician electing to use a comedy persona?

I've been wondering if TC have, more or less, pulled out of the Bass Market as you don't see anything apart from the smaller, cheap, micro head/cab stuff anymore. I'm assuming this is something to do with the Behringer ownership steering them in a differing direction?

Either rate - all TC gear I've used has been absolutely superb. My BH550 head has MVP status, from doing 200+ gigs over nearly 8 years and seeing off every head I tried to replace it with! (I assumed that higher end stuff 'must' be better. It wasn't.).

Sadly it started getting temperamental recently with volume drops out of the blue, so I replaced it with a Little Mark 4.

1986 Kubicki Factor Bass, in my favourite colour, Coral Red.

Dear lord, why am I too poor.

"RARE" (nearly always applied to something absolutely, in no way whatsoever, rare).

I actually saw yesterday, on Facebook marketplace, a guy describe his standard 2006 Musician Stingray as 'RARE' because he hasn't seen another 2006 Stingray for sale - therefore his must be completely one of a kind.

What a world we live in.

Fwiw, I've had two prangs in cars (neither I was at fault for, both cars written off) and neither time was the subject remotely broached as to where I was going/what I was doing/purpose of travel, with either the police or insurers.

Flaunt The Imperfection - China Crisis.

Really pleased to see Rob back in good health and seemingly not ready to give up. My chances of being able to order a new Kingbass went from 0%, to about 1%. So, it's progress at least.

14 minutes ago, Chris2112 said:

It looks like the new Bass Direct website is up. First impressions are that it looks way more generic than the old one and way less user-friendly. 

I had a quick look at it on mobile and PC. While it looks a bit snazzier, I think it is less clear to use, and seems to mean you flick through a lot more 'pages' to find things, whereas before, everything was laid out in one 'area'.