TIM'S BASS GEAR

​I seriously doubt anyone will read this blog post so it’s really just for self-aggrandisement! I love my basses and rig so I’m going to dedicate this post to them in all their maple, alder, rosewood, walnut, mahogany, steel, nickel, plastic, circuit board and neodymium glory.
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I own five bass guitars. A lot of people tease me about that (my wife and parents in particular) but compared to most guitarists I know it’s not that many. One of my basses was bought from a guy near Liverpool who owns almost forty! This is what I’ve got:

Fender (USA) Marcus Miller 5-string Jazz 2002
Fender (USA) Select Series 4-string Jazz 2014
Fender (USA) Precision FSR 58
Musicman Stingray Fretless 4-string 1999
Ibanez SR1700B-NT
 
I like having a few basses to choose from because it makes me feel like a real man. Ha ha, just kidding! I tend to play one for a month or two then freshen my playing up by switching to another. I’m definitely a jazz man as I love the sound of the dual pick ups and narrower neck (the Ibanez has an incredibly fast neck too by the way).
 
For slap you can’t beat the Marcus Miller Jazz with the scooped EQ – it sounds like so many of the classic recordings that we bassists grew up listening to! Plenty of tunes in the Stone Groove set call for the fifth (low B) string so it’s good to have that too. 
 
I use an Aguilar rig which I absolutely love. The sound is as clean as you can get and the head and cabs are incredibly light. The head is a Tonehammer 500 which gives 500 watts of power in a 1.8kg package (consider my previous head was 600 watts in a 12.5kg package and you’ll understand why my arms are so long). The cabs are SL112 (1 x 12in) and, again, are super light. I use two of them unless the venue is very compact.

Is anyone still reading this? I doubt it! So how about strings? Well my favourites are Dunlop Super Bright Nickels and D'Addario XL ProSteels - both handle the funk really nicely. 

​From Tim (Big T)……with love x