kumimajava

Not that it's a universal solution, but I have also moved the strap button, from the edge of the bass, onto the back, and a few inches inwards (like Dingwall does in some of their afterburners and their take on the thunderbird). The bass in question is a Tune twb6, which is somewhat notorious for being neck heavy. The strap button move has improved both balance, and the first fret reach

Here's a leftfield idea, in case you also play fretless: just remove the frets, fill the fret-slots with the same material as your fingerboard, and move the bridge. Easy to then add position markers on the side using either paint, or a marker, even stickers. I have, in fact, done this on an (unlined) fretless that I have, to see how much change in comfort I get going from 34 to 33 or 32 inches - the bridge can be moved forward up to 2 inches (after that it hits the "rear" pickup cavity - I suppose I could also go to 30 inches, by skipping he rear-pickup gap & using the neck pickup only). Who knows - perhaps along the way you'll also find that the slightly (now) non-standard positioning of the pickups produces some interesting tones

Thanks - that's really helpful

Hope this is the appropriate place to ask this question - if not, mods, please move it to the correct one. A while back i regisered/bought Scott's "Practice accelerator" course, and recently got some mailings about a his new "Fretboard Accelerator" programme. I'm wondering how much of an overlap/difference there is? Would warmly welcome any input from anyone who's taken both courses - basically, is the "fretboard accelerator" worth the extra, if i've already subscribed to the practice accelerator from before Thanks!

Looks great - I'd have a quick question about the cover-mounted output jack (since I'm considering modding one of my basses this way): how does work for playing the bass in "classical" position, on the left leg? does the output cable get in the way, or do you find that there's enough clearance? Thanks - and will watch with interest how this progresses!

I had not seen that before - thanks for pointing it out, it looks fantastic! The Nova headless kit seems to be a nice fit, too!

Thanks for clarifying that - I'd be most curious to see how the headless-mod works out ... as a fan of headless basses, it's an idea that sounds rather attractive

Looks great - am just considering getting one of these myself - but there is precious little info on the 5-string variant. if you don't mind me asking: how does it balance? Any hints of neck-dive? The shape looks very Jaguar-ish, and both Jaguars that I had dived something fierce Hoping this one doesn't!

I believe there are fretted versions too. Nice basses and a great suggestion The extra weight of the frets allows them to remain grounded even on an instrument stand

It's certainly the lightest 5-string I've played, and balances indeed rather well. For me, there was no immediately noticeable benefit of the "Endurneck", though I liked the 35-33 inch fanned fret layout better than Dingwall's super-long-scale 37-34 inches. Then again, the Dingwall Super Series 35-32 inches, to me, feels better still. At the end of the day - it comes down a value vs ergonomics proposition. Weight-wise, I think the Strandberg was about 250-300g lighter than a Status Streamline 5-string, which you can get custom-specced for around £2k; plenty of definition on the Streamline's low-B too, given that it's all carbon, and build quality is miles apart. If you're after not super-long fanned fret basses, then the Dingwall S's come into the picture. Of course, if you want super-light + fanned-frets, then this is pretty much your only option - for now. That's my experience, so far, anyway - would be curious to hear what you think once you've had a go

I've played a few of these, and my comments are in the posts below, in the a thread from a while back, with other members' opinions too. Sadly - we seem to be broadly in agreement... A great shame, since expectations were high, and many of us were hopeful

This is fairly typical, seen it on my Modulus Sonic Hammer and a few Vigiers. In my case, superglue has worked well to fill in the cracks and restore a smooth feeling to the clearcoat. Had also, in most cases, stopped the chips getting bigger. Sometimes a visible trace still remains, if the superglue is too viscous to get to the very bottom/edge of the crack, but this is purely a visual issue. After appropriate sanding and polishing, the finish is fully smooth. Hope that helps.

Since my initial post above, having ambled through the various music shops in Tokyo, the picture hasn't changed much. More of the 4 and 5 strings have come into stock, and almost invariably they sit around for a long time. The 4-strings have already experienced a first round of discounts (15% or so?), but they're mostly still there. Every one i've seen, or picked up, comes with high action from factory, and the finish-quality is the same as the very first one I tried... so that was not a "monday morning phenomenon", but just the level to which these are finished. As a fan of both lightweight, and headless, basses - this makes me very sad. Waiting to see when the first one of these turns up on the used market, but given how few have sold so far... it may be a while.

A few fretless suggestions Tear down the walls - by the firm id you ever look so nice - by the samples

The Callowhill basses are indeed legendary, but hard to find in CITES compatible configurations. Very sadly, the builder has passed away so we aren't going to see any more...

Yes, very much so... unfortunately. Any commercial transaction is covered - private or not.

I saw Plini's live show two weeks ago, where the bassist (Simon Grove) was using one of these, and was disappointed by how much thinner & hollower it sounded compared to the tone he got out of his LeFay before. Even the Sandberg he had before that... Came across one (5 string original) in the flesh in a local shop in Tokyo, so thought i'd give it a spin - in part out of personal curiosity, in part, to share the experience with you guys . The price here is similar to the UK - around £3k equivalent. In this price bracket - sadly - it felt like the worst finished bass I've played. The fretwork was ok, but a few frets were sharp. The "out of the box" setup had action around 4mm - the guy in the shop said it came in like that & they'd not really adjusted it. He was averse to adjusting it much, but we dropped the action to where it was more playable. I also got told that the finish on these is so thin that it scuffs very easily and the other bass in the shop (a 4string) was already scratched, hence "please don't slap on it". That suited me just fine... but still. The knobs felt light and a few pots were mounted off-of vertical. None of this is obviously tone-relevant, but doesn't inspire a quality feel for £3k instrument. As a side note - I'm not writing this out of snobbish disregard for Indoensian-made instrument: i've played many Ibanezs that were great, and indeed even my Squire JagSS felt solid! The sound, despite the Nordstrand pickups, was oddly hollow. Didn't have much time to fiddle with the preamp, so played mainly passive - but the first impression wasn't encouraging. I'm sure that with more knob-fiddling & passionate EQ'ing you could get any modern sound you'd like - though given what I heard on stage with Plini - (i think the bassist uses a Helix rig?), I still preferred the tones from what he'd used before. I liked the satin finish, and the shape of the EndurNeck - and the low weight would certainly be a bonus in longer term playing. Given the body shape & general alignment, the bass sits very "close" to the body and it's easy to reach the top frets. The fret angles weren't much of an issue (i've owned a Dingwall combustion before), and the 35-33 scale did feel a bit easier to play than Dingwall's 37-34. However, given that for a comparable price a Canadian-made dingwall (perhaps even a Super P or J with a similar scale) is easily obtainable 2nd hand, for me this is a tough sell. Even the China-made Combustion, at half the price new feels like a much more solid instrument. In terms of new price - for less than the Strandberg you can get a Japan hand-crafted top of the range Atelier Z, Bacchus, or even an FCGR Dulake/Rhino, all of which are impeccably finished and will come (at least within Japan!) adjusted to perfection, with excellent follow up service. It appears that a few top-tier UK luthiers would also deliver similar quality at that price. So: at about half the current price, I'd consider this bass, and would happily mod/tune it to where I'm sure i'd be happy with it. At the moment, it's a hard pass from me. I wonder whether the one I got my hands on was (as we sometimes say) a monday-morning factory special, and i'm curious to hear what experiences other will have when you get the chance to try them.

yeah, this from me too. Use the B-string a lot, not just for low-note access