kumimajava

1 hour ago, Maude said:

That's a a good solution for trying out new tones with the new relative pickup positions, but, although it technically is a shortscale, it won't feel particularly shortscale-ish to play as the first fret will still be the same distance from the body, meaning it still has the stretch of a 34" scale. Some semi acoustic and acoustic 34" scale basses feel very long because the bridge is quite far up the body. 

It depends on the reasons for wanting a shortscale I suppose. 

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

1 hour ago, grapefruitmoon said:

I've got both and would say there is a lot of difference between the two. Caveat - I'm still only a few weeks into the Fretboard Accelerator. But it is very, very focused on a that single topic. There is a little bit of crossover from Module 2 in the Practice Accelerator as the topics are similar, but it certainly expands much further on that.

Really enjoying the Fretboard one but it does need a lot of dedicated time every that I just don't have right now. It's also quite repetitive - you can see what's coming up in each module, but think the concept is to bake these ideas in.

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!

[removed  - double-post, sorry!]

Can you please tell me what is the scale length? 34 or 35?

Also, what is the string spacing and weight? 

Thanks! 

6 minutes ago, Mikey D said:

Have you seen this? Real Things Mezzo Mod 

Not a TMB but you get the idea.

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!

13 minutes ago, Mikey D said:

Hi. Tbh there is neck dive no doubt about it. 

....

Although I can’t say im not intrigued by the more extreme mod of going headless

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!

20 hours ago, TheGreek said:

Spectorcore?? I have to keep mine in a case to stop it floating off. Not sure whether they're available fretted.

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

8 hours ago, visog said:

I think this is a case of try one to see if it suits you. On paper it doesn't look good: £2,900+ for an off-shore build and a shape that looks like garden implement. But I suspect the standing weight, and sitting positions, together with that compound neck and fan frets will tell a different story.

If your value proposition is ergonomic - you have to try one! Keen to hear feedback from that perspective?

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

15 hours ago, mattbass6 said:

Ahhhh right. Fair enough. Cheers. I think I’ll now just have to try one for curiosities sake ☺️

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. 

What's the scale length? 34 or 35 inches? Thanks! 

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 

Two quick questions:

Does it have a truss rod? 

And what is the string spacing? 

Thanks 

14 hours ago, Dazed said:

I’ve been looking into shorter scales for a while now, a recent obsession after stumbling across Callowhill on Talkbass. He built quite a few 30” 5 and 6 strings. I couldn’t find a bad review and no issues with scale length, playability. 

 

Back to plotting. 

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... 

What's the string spacing at the bridge? Thanks! 

5 hours ago, thebrig said:

Does cites affect private sales from outside the EU?

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.

25 minutes ago, Horizontalste said:

I use it loads, I think the fretboard on a five makes far more sense in terms of visualising shapes. With two octaves under your fingers the standard forms we all use are less broken.

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

Liking the looks, and saw him play it live today.

Definition & clarity is fantastic - didn't hear of the very low end of the range often enough to comment on it. Most of the night James East was playing the lower register (and sounded absolutely colossal on his InnerWood 5-string ). Given how the bass sits, it looks like the access for upper-register playing is very comfortable. 

Would very much welcome it if Yamaha made this into a production model - though a lighter weight would be welcome.

On 07/02/2019 at 20:50, TrevorR said:

 

 

So if you were to melt a Bongo... Now we know what it'd look like.