Basses in the 1980s

[basexperience]

On 18/02/2025 at 20:12, shoulderpet said:

I only used Elites once and they literally went dead overnight, I was 15 at the time so wasn't playing gigs and was tbh a bit lazy with practicing so between the time they were fitted and when they went dead they had all of 20 mins play on them, how they went dead overnight is a mystery but it's the only set of strings that has done that (I killed a set of Rotosounds in 1 gig once but tbh the venue was so hot I don't think any set of strings would have survived)

I played Elites for a while: still string my 1986 Aria Pro II JTB-2J with them!

 

these days, though, after using Warwick strings for a while (they’re awful btw, I just didn’t realise it!) I use D’addario XL nickels. They’re amazing. 
 

btw washing strings in methylated spirit / denatured alcohol works wonders. 4-5 uses out of one set, come out sparkly and played in. Lovely. 

[HeadlessBassist]

On 18/02/2025 at 00:31, crazycloud said:

I won't tell you what I paid for my, admittedly well used, S2000 then.

I don't think it has anything to do with the preamp, it's just the extremely rigid construction of the monocoque.

I just always preferred the two-band, as that's what I had in my original 1988 Series-II and also later in a couple of Streamlines.

 

I have board 302 and 303 in the current ones. 

[Jerry_B]

I'm on holiday and so have been giving this 1985 Aria Pro II Laser Electric 'Heritage' a bit of an overhaul. Despite playing around with the pickup height I still can't seem to get the bridge pickup to sound less thin and reedy. The neck pickup is really good, but when the two are combined the bass sounds a bit compressed. Anyway, aside from that, this is a very nice bass.

 

 

[TrevorR]

1 hour ago, Jerry_B said:

I'm on holiday and so have been giving this 1985 Aria Pro II Laser Electric 'Heritage' a bit of an overhaul. Despite playing around with the pickup height I still can't seem to get the bridge pickup to sound less thin and reedy. The neck pickup is really good, but when the two are combined the bass sounds a bit compressed. Anyway, aside from that, this is a very nice bass.

 

 

Oooooh, lovely!

[matski]

I have a bass from the Bass Centre in Wapping too. At that time I was attending Saturday classes at the music school that used to operate from upstairs in the same building and afterwards used to pop downstairs to drool over the gear in the Bass Centre.

The one fateful Saturday I saw my dream bass hanging on the wall: a MusicMan Cutlass 1 with the Modulus graphite neck!

My grandad had recently died and left me some money in his will and it was exactly enough to buy the bass so I put a small deposit down on it and returned on the following Monday to collect it. I still have that bass and it is still my most prized possession.

Fascinating factoid: I recently found out, thanks to Gavin who runs the MusicMan serial numbers website, that my Cutlass was previously owned by Mark O'Toole from Frankie Goes To Hollywood. He bought it new from Manny's Guitars in New York CIty in 1985. I know this as Gav send me a pic of the original sales receipt and some backstage shots of my bass - how he got hold of them is anyone's guess!