Mrbigstuff

[quote name='ambient' timestamp='1383346592' post='2263572'] Maybe you just need to give the new playing style time, use a metronome and build up your speed gradually. Just check all your notes are consistent and smooth. [/quote] +1, build up the speed so it moves from conscious playing into sub conscious playing. Then it will be less effort. Also try playing with a lighter touch.

Disagree, VM's I've played have been good and well set up. It's mass produced though, some are always going to be crap and it's always been that way. If you didnt try any basses because they had one negative comment, you wouldn't have much choice.

Adams a great buyer, very quick payment and lots of communication.

[quote name='Annoying Twit' timestamp='1382338056' post='2250665'] Stafford is quite some distance away. I think I'd need to take a train to Birmingham and change. It would take me hours to get there, I think. [/quote] It really is! Even by car its near an hour and a half. If you're going for one off lessons it really has to be with someone quality and when I lived in leicester I only found one guy who used to teach at the Soundcontrol but he had to stop for health reasons. Might be worth asking in Sheehans if they know of anyone.

Dont know if this has been posted before. [url="http://www.musicradar.com/news/guitars/7-stages-of-gear-acquisition-syndrome-585947"]http://www.musicradar.com/news/guitars/7-stages-of-gear-acquisition-syndrome-585947[/url]

[quote name='mikeh' timestamp='1381146669' post='2234885'] Location? [/quote] Seems to be south. http://www.thefivebeats.co.uk/diary.php

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1380138830' post='2221496'] The teal ones are proper trans teal, I'm sure there are others? [/quote] My old teacher had a teal one and it was the same textured finish as the rest. I've never seen one with a proper finish. Maybe the one you saw was a prototype, or the body had been swapped/ refinished? I had a trans teal MM Stingray and it was the sexiest bass I've ever seen. Kinda regret selling it but it was expensive and wasn't the sound I like. [quote name='bassman344' timestamp='1380143228' post='2221571'] Are the new ones a patch on the older discontinued subs? I haven't heard much good bout them. [/quote] The new ones really lack the low mid punch the old SUB's had. The new ones are god value for money but to me sound a little basic. Whereas the USA SUB's had bags of character.

Slight deviation from the topic, but which bass do you find easier to play? Which has the lowest action or fastest neck? Are the vintage fenders very different in feel or quite similar?

[quote name='Prime_BASS' timestamp='1375782058' post='2165409'] For me it just goes to show that a jazz sounds like a jazz. The only differences really are between pickup spacings. The SX however sounds just as good as the rest, and the fodera doesn't sound like it cost 10x the amount of the SX. For me the it's between the SX and the 62 jazz. [/quote] [quote name='stevie' timestamp='1375799302' post='2165777'] Fascinating. Apart from the Musicman (which sounds different), the others are so close in sound that it would only take a tweak of eq to get one to sound like another. I liked the Fodera followed by the Yammy. The SX sounded a bit thin to me. There's a lesson in there somewhere. [/quote] I thought the jazzes had different sounds. For example, to my ears a maple fingerboard will always produced a slightly brighter tone to Rosewood, on a fender bass.

I've always found that vintage fenders have a certain "dark" quality to the sound, no matter what pick up configuration and where you play. Something that I've never found on a modern bass no matter the price tag. Still to check out an Alleva Copollo though. Really have GAS for the tone of a 70's J but I love the feel of playing a Sadowsky! So much GAS