I have several bass guitars, all 4 strings, and I love them all for different reasons.

My usual weapon of choice these days is a Warwick Streamer LX Jazzman. It has a small body and is lighter than my others.

It’s not as growly as my Musicman or as velvety smooth as my Fender Jazz. You can never have everything in one bass, but it has a lot!

For some songs such as 'By The Way' by the RHCP, I swap to my Musicman Sterling - partly because I change the tuning, but also because it has such a lovely growly sound.

It has a beautiful figured maple neck too. The access to the higher frets is not so good though, and it is sooooo heavy!

My amp, a Pearce B2p, was bought second hand in Chicago. It has two channels and more knobs than I can twiddle, but at 600W has all the power I need and plenty of versatility in sound.

I believe these amps were built for professional use – just what I need (hee! hee!) They were rated very highly by a guitarists magazine I read, but sadly the company went bust. Funnily enough in that article, the speaker cabinet that was used to test it with, was made by David Eden.

I was forced into buying a new speaker cabinet after blowing my beloved Hartke cab whilst playing The Stranglers, ‘Hangin’ Around’, with a distorted sound. To be fair, the cab was not rated with a high enough power rating, so I was asking a lot!

After much deliberation, I ended up buying a 4x10 Eden cab and have never looked back. The only drawback is that it’s so heavy. Despite everything you just sometimes need a man!I think it weighs in at about 98lbs – not great for your back or your independence!  

At the moment I don’t use any pedals though I do own a Boss Chorus pedal.

My mic is a Shure Beta SM58