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Bass gear reviews

ANDY'SBASSMENT

Bass gear, tested downstairs.

No sponsor scripts. No spec sheets read out loud. Forty-plus years playing, a few of them running my own store. I plug the gear in and tell you how it actually sounds.

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What's going on down here

Three rules, every single review.

Played, not recited

Every piece of gear gets played in a real room through a real rig. If it buzzes, you will hear the buzz.

Priced how you buy it

Street price, not MSRP. A $199 bass gets the same bench, the same mics and the same scrutiny as a boutique build.

A verdict, always

Every review ends with a straight answer. Buy it, borrow it, or walk away. No fence sitting.

What's coming

First on the bench. Subscribe and episode one lands in your feed the day it goes live.

Andy in the BASSment studio at the desk, with the Andy's BASSment site up on the monitors Watch now

On the bench

Building the BASSment Theme Song

Before the first review, the channel needed a song. From a bass line to the finished theme, all done right here at the desk downstairs.
Andy on a stool in the BASSment surrounded by Fender basses and amps Coming

Up next

Sanding a Bass Neck

Taking the finish down on a neck for that broken-in, played-for-years feel. What to use, how far to go, and how it changes the way the bass plays.

Andy with a Martin BC-16E acoustic bass next to the SWR Redhead combo Coming

In the room

Martin BC-16E Acoustic Bass

Martin's acoustic-electric bass, unplugged in the room and plugged into the Redhead. How much real bass an acoustic body gives you, and how the onboard pickup holds up when you dig in.

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Who's down here

Andy McLaughlin. Bass player for 40+ years, songwriter, and a lifelong maker of things.

I have bought a whole lot of gear over the years, and for a few of those years I ran my own store. So a great deal more has passed through my hands than any one player has business owning. I have bought the thing that looked incredible online and let me down the moment it was in the room, and I have found the cheap one that quietly outplayed the expensive one.

That is the whole qualification for this channel: enough years behind the instrument, and enough gear through my hands, to tell the difference. No reason to pretend otherwise.

Basses, amps, cabs, strings, pickups, interfaces. If it shapes low end, it comes downstairs.

Get in touch

Gear to send, a question, or a request for what to cover next.

Or email info@andysbassment.com