mcnach

As someone who preferred his VM4 with a passive circuit... in my case it was a matter of finding passive -> active conversions requiring more work than active -> passive, and not being sure what I preferred at the time of ordering I wanted a flexible option. I only experienced the preamp in the shop, and it's hard to decide there. Also, it was not the bass I ended up with (mine was built for me). I generally prefer the flexibility of active EQ onboard, but there's something I love about passive tone controls and I'm a little picky about preamps. Some preamps work well for me (like John East's MMSR and U/J-Retro) while others not so much. I started out playing the VM4 in active mode, but eventually I realised I liked it better passive... so once I decided that this bass was going to be played passively, it made sense to give me better tonal controls by removing the preamp and installing passive circuitry. While the VM4 has a passive tone control in the treble control knob, it's limited in its function. I suspect I could probably make it work a little more to my liking by locating and changing the right capacitor, but it's simpler to just remove the whole thing and install fresh, plus I had a Tonestyler passive tone control already, so this was a good candidate. I had a U-Retro preamp in my drawer that I thought I would install if I didn't gel with the Sandberg one... but as it turns out I prefer it passive, now I have two preamps in my drawer. Easily restored or preamp replaced if I choose to in the future. There's nothing wrong about the VM4 preamp, I just find most active onboard EQ a little 'meh' and the Sandberg unfortunately fell in that category, but it's only a reflection of my personal taste. I've got a friend who loved the bass and was remarking how good the onboard EQ was... The thing is, it's *my* bass edit: conversely, I have a custom Maruszczyk Jake with a single P pickup in reverse orientation placed a bit closer to the bridge than usual. I ordered it passive. This one ended up with a John East MMSR preamp. It's the problem with ordering a build: you may have an idea of what it'll sound like, but you can't control what you'll get exactly. Sometimes a pickup sounds great in one bass but it's very disappointing in another bass...

dangerous stunt! what if they turned around and said "hey! since we sound the same without bass, we can make a little more money if we fire this guy..."

Hmmm, you need to work on expanding that belly then...

True, but imagine the hassle if it came to that. I'd rather wait for a safer sale.

No brainer then, glad you got a safer option.

ooooh... I was doing it the wrong way around!

Same here! I guess it just doesn't work for ugly bass players 😛

This, this, and a thousand times this. I can't think of anything more soul destroying for a beginner than having to fight a poor instrument, on top of the inherent difficulties of the learning process. And yes, sure, cheap does not mean bad, but when you look at those starter packages and in general guitars aimed at beginners, you're not usually getting something nice to play straight from the box and very few beginners understand about setups.

yup... it doesn't look like we're rehearsing anytime soon. We're actually considering going to a park or another suitable and allowed outdoors place to get together and practice there. We've got the equipment, just need the weather (rainy and miserable today).

that one looks very nice

It looks like my 9-piece band will have to move in together then

and a whammy bar! oh yes That's beautiful!

Not really, unless Vintage have made EST96 basses with different shapes. The body of the SX is very close to the real thing, while the Vintage ones have a slightly narrower waist and the top horn is a little funky in the way it comes off (I have a way with words today, don't I? ). The Vintage body also looks a little longer perhaps? I remember there was a clear gap between the pickguard and the bridge on the Vintage, but it's very small -almost nothing- on the SX, or even on the SBMM clones that use the same kind of bridge. It's that slightly odd departure of the body shape which prevented me from buying one, years ago, and ended up with OLP. The Vintage I played (only one, in a shop) was actually nicer to play than the OLP I bought, but I just could not get on with that shape. Hey, I never claimed to be normal. But the hardware, pickguard, etc do look very similar. I guess all these budget brands get it from the same places.

I guess Prog Rock may just become very popular then...

I can't remember the original price they sold (or didn't, rather, it seems) initially at, but when SR decided to sell a lot of their stock, they sold at £60. That's when they became 'a thing' here in the forum

nice! I was actually looking at those SX Stingray clones years ago. I could only find them at Rondo in the US at the time... and before I was able to find one over here, they were discontinued. One thing I really liked about the ones I was seeing was that they lacquered the neck glossy. The John East preamp is really nice, but it's pricey. Personally I'd wait, save, and buy one. They appear for sale, used, from time to time, at around £100. Well worth it, in my opinion.

They're not the same, but they are of similar quality. Actually I rate SX a little higher if anything. Good low priced instruments.

Is this your experience, or what someone who knows someone who played one said I played one quite a lot for about a year and I can't say there was any sign of fretwear, and no, I don't mean the fretless one

Please let us know.

I'd disagree with that assessment. They compared positively to Squier Affinities and the like in my experience (had three examples in my hands). I do think that too many people who didn't need another Precision bought one, and eventually they let them go. That was certainly my case I bought three! I know I know. The first one was to see what it was about and because I fancied a cheap substrate for modification. It was white/rosewood. I liked it. I was very impressed. It actually was the first time I enjoyed playing a Precision style bass. I put a Wizard Thumper on it and used it as it was for a while. I bought a blue and another white one. The blue one had a maple fingerboard, so I swapped necks and turned the white/maple into the fretless I posted above. The blue one was stripped and became a project to turn it into a MM/P type bass. I only have the fretless now. I sold the white fretted one because at one point I had something like 5 Precisions (Squier CV, Fender Classic 50s, and a few others) so I only kept the Fender because I loved the wide fretboard on that one and it was maple. I never finished the project one and sold it as parts. The fretless remains.

For a £60 bass it was pretty decent, although I found the pickup a bit microphonic which is a shame as it sounded good. I still have one. I turned it to fretless and put a Model P pickup on it. I sold three other fretless basses and kept this one. It just works and makes all the right noises, so I'm pretty happy with it.

Nothing here yet, and not many places have big rooms which will be very much on demand. I play in a couple of 8+ member bands. It's not going to be easy.

I have no idea, and I find it uncomfortable to think in terms of 'tolerable' death rates, especially when you have a few people in your family that would be at high risk of severe illness or death if they catch it. A lot of it will be down to us, as individuals. We do not need to be 100% effective at avoiding being infected, but if we're mindful enough we may just reduce the transmission of Covid and other common viruses enough that things don't get out of hand. Hopefully there will be noticeably fewer people coughing and sneezing openly in the (near?) future. I once kicked someone out of our shared office at work because he kept coming to sit and ask people questions while constantly sneezing and often not even attempting to cover his mouth. I was the 'bad guy' for a day but I don't care even if it was 'just a cold'... and this is in a biology laboratory that works with viruses so it wasn't a simple matter of lack of knowledge. I can't imagine that situation will arise anytime soon at work again because now it's very much not accepted, socially, which is not a bad thing.

My first non-cancelled gig is on the first weekend in September, with an 8-piece band. I'm not entirely sure it'll happen.

I think that approach is just another way of saying "I give up, I don't have a solution". It may actually come down to that, largely, at least for this first winter. 😕