Show Us Your Basses (Part 1)

Those things look super fun.

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Thanks guys. You are right @terb it is a Kala solid body Uke. Pretty amazing tone. I was planning on putting wound strings on it, but I am getting used to the rubbery ones.

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what is the exact model name ?

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It is officially the: KOA 4 STRING FRETLESS CALIFORNIA U-BASS, #UBASS-4KOA-FL

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Here are mine;

  • A Squier Vintage Modified Jaguar SS in candy apple red.
  • And… the Quest. I picked this up used a couple of years ago for very cheap. From what I can find on the internet it was most likely made in Japan in the '80’s by Matsumoku who were the parent company of Aria.
    It’s a basic p-bass type thing, has nice Gotoh tuners, what looks like good quality wiring and some 80’s hair-metal vibe!
    This one was barely playable with 10 or 12mm action at the the 12th fret, fret wear, some dead frets, and a dodgy output jack.
    I DIY adjusted the neck angle and leveled and re-crowned the frets with only a couple of standard files, a ruler, some sandpaper & masking tape and re-soldered the output and set it up with a new set of med/light pro-steel strings. Action is now 2mm at the 12th fret and the only remaining issue is a scratchy tone pot. :metal:
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bought this sbmm ray4 when I started the course. I love it! Butttt…

immediately started wondering if I should have bought something else. specifically, the short scale version which is only a little more $$. easy to fix, I said, as tonight I clicked on the link to order it :rofl:
gonna compare the two when it gets here and someone will get a slightly used ray at a bit of a discount.

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Thank you in advance for supporting the excellent used gear market :slight_smile:

In truth if I were you I would keep both for a while. I went through a phase where I was convinced I should have gotten a short scale, but as I got used to the long scale, it passed and now I am glad I didn’t.

Apparently this is very common.

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yeah, in all likelihood that is what I will actually do. because, long term, I have 3 dream basses that I want to own and they are all long scale.

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If you’re concerned about hand size, don’t worry, we all are :slight_smile:

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josh isn’t :grinning:

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My guitarist friend’s comment on Josh: “Those hands are like face-huggers from Alien. He was born to play the bass.”

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In the “Show Us Your Basses” spirit, here are my three main ones (I have a couple of others I leave lying around for “just-grab-it-for-five-minutes-practise”) … Left to right:-

  • my Ibanez GSR256B 6-string (usually my main instrument);

  • my Kala U-Bass (for those not familiar with U-Basses, think “double-bass-sound-in-a-uke-sized-body”; an amazing little instrument and, when I play it, people often come up after the gig asking “How on earth do you you get that sound out of that thing?”. It’s a 4-string bass in terms of tuning (and playing), but the main challenge for me is when quickly switching from the very-long-and-wide neck of the 6-string to the very-short-and-narrow neck of the U-Bass — you really need to concentrate, or you’ll be fretting in all the wrong places! :frowning:

  • my Artist VHYB5 5-string — this is a hybrid Precision/Jazz produced by Aussie company Artist Guitars, who make some VERY nice instruments!

In the middle is my Bugera BXD12 amp, which I absolutely LOVE for its tonal range and punch. In fact, I traded a Hartke HD150 for this beauty, and, IMO, it outperforms the Hartke hands-down. Bizarrely, the Bugera is listed as being 1,000W, but that’s just creative licence, and I guess it’s more like 150W-200W RMS. Nonetheless, a brilliant piece of gear, and one I might have missed had I not had it recommended to me. Yes, Bugera is associated with Behringer (which is an immediate negative in the minds of some), but I say playing is believing.

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Nice gear you’ve got there @alanjans!! Care to pop over to this thread (6-string bass anyone? ) and tell us (me) a bit more about your 6-string and your experiences with it!?! Why is it your main instrument?? Thx!

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that’s “cheap” but not necessarily “bad” gear. I don’t care anymore about all that, having a Behringer thing right in the middle of my signal path :face_with_hand_over_mouth:

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+1, love my BDI21.

I love my TC Nether also, which is a Behringer circuit.

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@itsratso I have the short scale and love it. I think it will be a hard decision…

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Nice collection @alanjans! :+1:

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I agree that there’s a “cheap” connotation that attaches to Behringer, and that has (unjustifiably, IMO) transferred across to Bugera by association after Behringer became the Bugera distributor. My own experience with Behringer has generally been positive — inexpensive, yes, but they work. … Bugera has had a great reputation in its own right, and they continue to build good gear. Strangely, I’ve found that often people who pooh-pooh Bugera amps have never even tried one.

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Pretty sure the same is true of Behringer.

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Some brands really get a bum rap.

Peavey got that. They’ve made some very killer things over the years (the Cirrus is maybe the best example) but have never really gotten away from some kinda name-brand-shadow.

Too bad. Their American-made, solid wood stuff (I love the 70s and early 80s stuff) is pretty killer.

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