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As promised I have visited Moollon and It was a great experience and very interesting. I'm not a review writer so I'll stick to the facts. I am also not getting anything out of this. The Moollon workshop is tucked away in the suburbs of Seoul and would have been hard to find without the kind assistance of Andi Roselund who fronts the company to the Western Market. He collected me and drove me to the workshop. Super nice guy. First thing to say it that it is absolutely clear that the story that YJ makes all of these instruments himself is 100% true. There are other guys working on pedals and other projects buy YJ makes that guitars from scratch, metalwork, wood, wiring pups, everything. This is love. YJ was gracious and generous with his time and let me try out pretty much the whole range of basses but for me the stand out instrument was the new PV. I would say that I already have a JV which is frankly a tone monster. So I tried the 55 P type on flats, the hollow body 50's type ( you may have seen Michael League playing one), the B524 which is a modern passive twin hum bucker type but with a Les Paul type circuit with a PUP selector switch. So baseline........ Firstly I am no authority, I'm just an average player, not an expert nor can I claim to have any great skills to test these instruments to their limits. Having said that I am lucky enough to have a collection of Pre CBS basses that Include a 1960 Stackpot, an early 1962 slab board Jazz, and 1965 p. I'm not saying that to show off I am saying this because the Moollon niche is all about presenting sounds from that era in a usable and available form. I don't have early 50's instruments but I've played some. I have and have worn in a Moollon Jazz for over a year so I know it very well. Things to know about Moollon. Firstly the classics are finished are all Nitro. They chip and start showing wear quickly within months just like the originals. There are no plasticote under-coats so chips and finger wear appear quite quickly. Having said this its 20 thin coats of nitro and that's sweet if you ask me. I didn't ask about the sparkle finishes - sorry about that. maybe someone who knows better can fill in. He will distress for you so you get a vintage look. personally I'm letting my fingers do that for me. The one issue that I have with my JV is the lack of a notch for truss rod adjustment. YJ will put this in for but he makes a small charge for it. Its not period so he doesn't do it. If that seems fussy its just how he does things. His clear love for the original pre CBS sounds goes to analysing original metalwork and making all of his own hardware to that original spec - he can do that because he is a qualified metallurgist. If you live in a dry hot climate I'd get that done. 1955 P type. The one I tried had a V tech profile ( not too fat) and flat pup. It looked and felt and what is more sounded like the real thing. It was a 2 colour sunburst with white plate. This one of YJ's own and it was worn in and sweet. The sound was just right, neither too aggressive nor at all flabby. Its hard to offer any criticism, it was as good a representation of the real thing as I have found. As with all of the Moollon's i have tried eve with the tone right off there was definition. I get that with my 65P, its fat and warm but has just enough cut. This 55 type had that classic middle tone and played so well. Turn up the tone and you got all of that cut, with a pick even better. The hollow body type 50's shape, again was sweet but a variation on the theme to me its a cross over instrument and was a bit of both worlds, old and new. I don't really feel qualified to say much more that to say its playability and tones were sweet and the looks are all there. Just listen to Michael leave playing one, don't worry about my thoughts. The B524 is the double hum bucker type again passive but not a classic fender type. I thought of it as a passive Fodera type bass. I didn't get enough time with it to really get a proper feel for the instrument tbh. The tone control set up was a bit unusual in that it was based on a Les Paul type configuration with a pup selector switch. I was interested as it has separate tone and volume controls for each PUP so you can switch between a pup with tone rolled off or the other on and then have both. Its a bit like a stackpot circuit. It wasn't for me as I was looking for something to complement my JV. Having said that it was a very versatile instrument and felt great in the hands. I suspect in the hands of a better player some of the dynamic range of the instrument would come out. Goran Delac has a vid of his 524 on youtube. The outstanding instrument for me was the new PV. YJ has taken one of his soap-bar type 5 string pup's and put it into a P configuration. What he has managed with the J V type he has now done with the P type. This feels like proper P and the thick tones go all the way down to the bottom. This works. I had a moment getting over the idea of no staggered PUP but once I did it just sounded which and deep and like nothing else. I had a reel vintage vibe with bite when you dig and definition with the tone rolled off. Having said that the slap tone was also nice and this bass can be solo'd - its got bags of high end detail. The outstanding thing is that this has the kind of thickness of tone I get from my stockpot on flats. Not found it anywhere else on anything else - and here it was. That is the highest compliment I can offer and not one made lightly. Playability was great the neck was much more comfortable than I thought (bit of a J man here) and the body is a standard p size no increase in the size so the weight is kept low. Please don't ask me what all of the weights were because I didn't take scales with me. So questions. Will he make a PJ?- no. Fender didn't pre CBS and he sees no reason to do so. I also think it would be a lot of R&D risk without any likely additional return. Will he put a P neck on a J body - yes if you ask Will be put a J neck on a P body - yes if you ask Summing up. Both Andi Roslund and YJ were super nice and cool to deal with. They gave their time freely and were really helpful. Knowing what I paid previously for a Moollon I don't really think that they make a lot of money; this is about the love of doing what they do. YJ could easily charge more, perhaps market better, put a few dealerships out there with instruments people could test drive; the thing is he's doing ok, he's easy to deal with and he's the real deal. He doesn't have to with player like Tim Lefevre, Scott Devine and Rufus Philpot as clients. I like YJ and he makes some really nice instruments with authentic sounds. For the money I think they are hard to beat so long as you know what you are buying, that is pre-cbs tones, built in a pre-CBS way, in a modern instrument. For reference: I'm the fat guy in the middle YJ to the Left and Andi Roselund to the right. YJ is on his own holding the new and deeply awesome PV which I want......a lot.

This is great. They all sound great depending how/where you use them.

It probably helps if you clean the case occasionally.

I rout the weight relief chambers once I've carved out the back and know how deep I can go. It would be embarrassing to rout through into fresh air! Starting with the lower wing, I started with a No 5 Stanley plane: Then started the curve with my Veritas pull-shave Then put my newly acquired Ibex thumb plane into action. They are diddy and quite expensive, but they are brilliant! That's got the bulk out. Tomorrow, I will deepen the curve, then start on the upper wing. Finally, I will smooth it all off with a swan-neck cabinet scraper

proto bass is being shipped overseas this week for initial review with the manufacturer. It is a super fun bass!! here's some pics for ya!

**Retraction** I have just bought a Shuker fretless 5. **Retraction Ends**

No need to harp on about it.

Have you had a little morning drinky?!

Why have an affair with someone who is Phrygid. Much more fun if they fancy Aeolian 😉 I'll get me coat...

I think he was rather referring to a certain Mrs Jacko, whoever that may be.

if you're talking about Mrs Fleabag, she's not. 😃

Because that's what they are being employed to do.

"Tenement Symphony" is a fabulous album, but it was a long time ago. The version of "Say hello wave goodbye" he did with Jools many years ago gave me goosebumps, it's beautiful. I saw him live a couple of years ago by chance at a festival, and I was told by my friends, who are fans, that he was amazing... I don't remember, for various reasons. I guess he's marmite, but he's a very flamboyant character and a very lovely chap, I'm sure Dave Swift would concur. There's room for everyone, even Nickelback.

It was NBD last Tuesday. Many thanks to @ead for answering my call for a wenge necked ACG on the Facebook ACG owners group. It's an understated, but absolutely stunning bass. Spec and Alan's original pics here: http://archive.acguitars.co.uk/portfolio/0178-recurve-4/ Pics: Must get a pic with both of the ACGs together...

Howsit? Been a silent stalker of this forum for a while but thought I’d join and contribute if/where I can. I’be been playing bass on and off (between 6 string stints) for the last 30 years. I play a late 80’s MIJ Fender Jazz and am an EHX bore.

Fcuk off 😀

Just ordered a PF-50T from Kenny's. 😎

...is it good for metal??

I fully intend to roll over to this. I might bring @Christine and @Jimothey with me. They know nothing about this idea.

Brilliant. How simple does he make it all sound? Even my overstretched brain can handle that...

You guys are just takin the P outa me now. I looked at the graph Andy and as much as i laughed at the VID clip i still think they are ok. Maybe a bit baw-heided but songs are OK. I quite like that old American soft rock tho. Doesn't make me a bad person.......just suspect Dave

I agree, I always get rid of white plates too. i’d go with the cream, it will suit that burst really well.

Dammit - have you got binoculars or something ??

well the inlays arrived, and wow they look stunning, the pictures don't really bring out the colours but they really loads on the pressure a bit to get it right... but a bit of pressure is probably good. in other news - i managed to get the fretboard off the old neck with no major hiccups, as well as doing some research about the preamp that is going to hopefully go into this bass steamy steamy... as for the preamp, the idea at the moment is to go with a setup along the lines of the "anderton super tone control" from craig anderton's book "electronics projects for musicians", albeit with a couple of modifications. (anyone bored by electronics can switch off for this part) its an SVF based preamp, wired up with 6 controls: High pass, low pass, band pass filters, frequency control, resonance control (basically Q control) and a high/low resonance switch. in the config above it also has a volume control wired in, but this is either going to be omitted completely or replaced with a trim pot that is just set and then left alone. there will have to be a couple of changes to make this work well as an onboard preamp though. the circuit in the original book was rated at 7ma power draw, which is a little more than i would like. so "IC1" which is the quad op-amp is the low noise version, but there is also the TL064 available, not as low noise but much lower power draw. i guess we'll see, im going to build one of these things outside the bass and test it first, then make any of the necessary changes after that.

Easy, they just add waveforms together. The real question is, how does our brain manage to pull them back apart into their components? So far, the best answer that we've got is "magic". S.P.

Ours does, he's always changing something. Fundamentally, he and anybody else who changes gear regularly thinks the perfect sound is just round the corner, it never is. The number one rule about gear is, it nearly always sounds better when someone else is playing with it

Just a quick note guys due to previous legal threats and posturing by Rickenbacker Corp, please keep any personal feelings about John Hall to yourselves and make sure you don't accidentally post any links in here to any Ricks for sale, home made or otherwise. Otherwise go for it - we love seeing home builds! Cheers

No contest on that front. His voice makes me want to headbutt a spinning lathe though 😉

Thank you, TripleB67! A great time was had by all! Here's wishing a long future to your bass endeavors!

Neither have Gibson 😞

Didn’t they fight with the Daleks on Phrygia?

Yeah, this being Basschat, that happens a lot......always entertaining though

Not quite in the sense that statement suggests. As used by the Ancient Greeks, modes were altogether different from what members of this forum will be used to. I won't bore people with tedious detail (if you're interested you can check out the original articles that I wrote in the Theory & Technique forum), but as with so many musical terms we have taken from the Greeks, the word effectively has different meanings. Modern modes are descendants of the Ecclesiastical Modes, which as the name suggests were first formulated in the Christian church. Edit to Add: Clarification. In fairness, the Greeks did lay the foundations for what became the Ecclesiastical modes, but they didn't think about them in the way we do is the point. It wasn't until the medieval period that the modes as we know them today were formalised. Further edit: The ancient Greeks actually had no word for 'mode'. The word we use comes from the Latin word 'modus'.

Cracking gig at The Old Wine Vaults in Eastwood, Nottingham. It's a new venture being run by the former staff/owners of the popular/well know music venue The Greyhound in the Beeston area of the city which was forced to close it's doors due to a 200% increase it rates by the council. Great little venue, smaller stage than it's predecessor but the venue has a lot going for it and I wish them every success. A few new tracks crept into the set, notably Republica's "Ready To Go" which went down an absolute storm - I have to admit that I'm preferring the variety and flexibility of a true cover band rather than a tribute act. A few pics for you all

Don’t you mean “...my memories of highly desirable premium price point vintage 70s Fenders leave me reminiscing about what amazing instruments they were...” It makes me laugh/weep when I see late 70s early 80s Fenders described in these terms in ads these days. Like you I’ve been around long enough to remember what we really thought of them at the time and through the 80s and 90s. And before anyone gets all flamey... yes I know that your 70s Fender is the best built, best playing and best sounding bass in the history of the brand but 90+% really, really weren’t.

On the subject of repairs, yes, a friend of mine repaired a huge hole in an acoustic guitar and I couldn't see where he'd done the repair when complete. But of course the Tacoma story was a bit different. It wasn't Andy's responsibility to fix something that UPS destroyed. Get well soon matey!

Ah, my mistake; thanks for clarifying. I shouldn't post when I 'm not feeling well, eh..? Still, the principle remains; it's repairable, I say.

Now I’m not one for dissing music/artists usually but will someone tell Marc Almond to fvck off.

All very well, but no Hofner Verithin..! Also a Douglas 6-string fretless and an OLP Baritone guitar, plus Our Youngest's 5-string Cort.

No, I keep the butterscotch thing just for Fenders😉 Ric is a year 2000 jetglo, pics below soon after I got it in 2002 (1 careful owner, £800). It's got a few road scars on it now but nothing major and some of the binding has turned a bit beige/off white but basically as it was.

When it comes to bass, I'm reminded of this, as a wise man once said;

BIG shout out to Tom (manager) at Wunjos! I bought my current Ibanez SR1800 new off him 14 months back (and he chipped the price to reflect it being a tiny bit shop soiled). The new prices for the SR1800s have since fallen since they first came out and are around £899 new. He agreed with me that he'd taken a mark-up on the original sale and would also get a mark-up on a new replacement 5er, and so he's just agreed to match the best online price available for a new SR1825E and offered me £750 for my old SR1800 in part-ex, which means that he will at best break even when he sells my old Ibby on. Dunno what anyone else thinks but that sounds like a bloo*dy good deal to me!! Tom really is a guy who has his customers' interests in mind as well as his own. I couldn't ask for anything more from any retailer frankly. They've just moved out of the basement btw and into a new store across the road in Denmark St. ....oh and that's gonna mark the end of an era for me. Apart from my EUB, that's the last of my 4 strings out the door.

It just so happens. Room 335 bass.pdf