Ou7shined

I'd do it.... but then I'm certifiable.

[quote name='silddx' post='1090803' date='Jan 15 2011, 07:56 PM'] And wood tones. I think a few people are going to start digging in their heels and diss the GC. Of course they will have commissioned their £2.5k custom basses with carefully selected tonewoods and five sounds that they're stuck with. And of course they'll say tone's in the fingers, and 'Jamerson didn't need all that sh*t' etc.[/quote]

As far as I know G&L serials are not deemed to be accurate and therefore should only be used as an approximate indicator. They buy in a job lot and pull them out of the box until they use them all up then get in more. A guy goes to assemble an L-2000 and pulls a late '92 neck, an early '93 body and a '91 neck plate from stock, doesn't seem outwith the realms of possibility in a smallish factory such as G&L.

[quote name='Musicman20' post='1090549' date='Jan 15 2011, 03:51 PM']....Same with a P bass. Simple passive P bass? [s]Fender[/s] G&L L-1000 every time.[/quote] Corrected.

[quote name='KiOgon' post='1090534' date='Jan 15 2011, 03:39 PM']Shouldn't need to - the pots & jack socket will be mechanically earthed to the pick guard - so as long as they're earthed with their black wires, you won't have a problem. Cheerz, John[/quote] +1

Hi Rich and welcome. Most of what you want to find out about this is readily available if you take advantage of the search button. In fact there are a couple of very relevant threads running right now. You may soon realise though, that asking if different types of wood produce different sound characteristics is opening up a big ol' can of worms around here and you will hear passionate arguments from both side of the argument and from people who are talking from experience and those talking from their arse and then a lot from those regurgitating other peoples facts or hokum they have read somewhere. Wood is a natural material therefore exact consistency is not always present - similar woods may have different densities of grain, knots etc. For me a nice piece of wood for a musical instrument resonates clearly if you knock it with your knuckles (I've read somewhere that a really nice bit of wood sounds the same painted as it does unpainted - which makes sense to me too) so that should be up there with choice of wood. Hold the phone though, a solid chunk of well made ply can also resonate successfully too... try and get a guy who has invested a lot of money in a bass to admit that a ply bass can sound almost as good as his exotic wood bass... and then try and scientifically prove it either way. At the end of the day body wood can only reasonably be accountable for at best only a tiny % of the tone you hear from the speaker cab so don't sweat it.

[quote name='jimmyb625' post='1090200' date='Jan 15 2011, 10:22 AM']If you're using it in a live setting, you haven't got gazillions of options to switch between. The idea (as far as my understanding of it goes) is that you spend some time prior to the gig, recording session, practice in your bedroom in front of some bored family members etc, playing about and finding tones you like. You then load these 10 presets into the guitar and away you go for world domination. The quotes about all of them sounding the same are interesting. Pretty much every guitarist (and quite a lot of Bass players from what I've seen) obsess over 'their' sound. Sound men get criticised for wanting to DI and control levels of bass in the mix, people embark on life long quests to find the perfect combination of amplifier, cabinet and effects, some people even spend huge amounts on cables (ok, these are mainly Hi-Fi enthusiasts who buy from Russ Andrews!) but you get the point. Don't get me wrong, I think there are going to be some truly awful sounds within the various combinations and I also think there will be some that I won't notice the difference between, but I'm still not ready to write off something I've never even heard for myself, let alone tried. You can't base anything off the Namm video as far as audio goes though, it's difficult enough to hear that they're actually playing the bass, never mind individual settings![/quote] Good call

[quote name='Doctor J' post='1090006' date='Jan 14 2011, 11:39 PM']The P sound comes from the P pickup. Anything I've ever played with a P pickup [b]in the P position[/b], regardless of neck size, body material or size, has sounded like a P.[/quote] Very good point that's often overlooked when this debate comes up. The position of the pup has a very influential effect on tone beyond just the type of pup used. My favourite P tone comes from a 'bucker (not split P) in the P position.

[quote name='Fat Rich' post='1089956' date='Jan 14 2011, 10:44 PM']....By the way this all started in the Fender Factory Tour thread, in the video (3 mins in) it was stated that the choice of wood has more effect on the sound than the pickups and electronics.....[/quote] People believe this because (as consumers) they want to.

[quote name='mcnach' post='1089731' date='Jan 14 2011, 07:32 PM']maybe if the MFD runs totally passive? I'm not a P-bass fan, but the neck MFD has some of what I do like about the P-bass, without all the stuff I dislike, and a dollop of its own character that I really dig. Passive sounds nice.[/quote] Aye totally. L-1000 = passive all the livelong day.

[quote name='mcnach' post='1089565' date='Jan 14 2011, 05:25 PM']...The Stingray seems a bit more "raw" to me, and the G&L powerful yet in full control of itself... if you know what I mean...[/quote] Nicely put.

[quote name='mcnach' post='1089555' date='Jan 14 2011, 05:18 PM']Well, I thought it look kinda similar, having never seen one "in the flesh", and enough people ask about differences between L2000/SR4 etc that I thought they must be somewhat similar in some form The truth is, as you know, they aren't. You can make a noise with the L2500 that kinda overlaps some Stingray tones, but it does NOT sound really like one. Nope. Having said that, it's a sweet bass. It's early still, but the first impression is really good. The preamp is "odd"... nothing like any other preamp I've worked with before and I don't find it as intuitive... I feel I would probably use both treble/bass maxed most of the time, with slight cuts only. But it's a really comfortable and good-sounding bass. I have to play with it more, but I think I'm keeping it (and the SUB5) despite rarely needing a 5 string. Last night I was playing along to some Sade and it was so full, round, rich, defined... yum! You know what's happening, 'though... it's only a matter of time until I find a 4-string (L2000) that will tempt me. [b]Stingray Jazz and L2000 sounds like happiness to me [/b] (a fretless L2000, hmmm)[/quote] I briefly planned that my latest project would have a MM pup in the sweet spot (just happen to have a 'ray '09 in my parts box ) and in MFD in the neck position. The twist would be that you couldn't mix them, you would either have the choice of Stingray (with proper pre) or L-1000. The 2 most awesome basses built into one. I shelved it though when I decided that the 2 completely different circuits sharing the same knobs would be a nightmare to design.... besides the 2 pups side by side looked pish.

I think there would be just enough for you to trim a mill and a half off each end - best thing would be to have a look though. Here's wee a tip for you before you start getting too hands on, trim and wrap some tape around the windings (I use masking - for that vintage look ) so you don't feck them up at all in the handling process.

[quote name='MB1' post='1089505' date='Jan 14 2011, 04:32 PM']MB1. Dickies Son?[/quote] Showing your age again.

[quote name='dub_junkie' post='1089089' date='Jan 14 2011, 11:12 AM']Rich, is your bass running with the preamp on or bypassed?[/quote] There's no pre in my design at all, it's completely passive. The pic might be misleading - I'm using an old L-2000 chrome control plate on the project and the pic I used was just as an example of one. It's still all theory at the moment ([url="http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d67/ou7shined/Lofa%20bass/wiring-diagram.jpg"]wiring diagram[/url]) as although I've got most of it [url="http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d67/ou7shined/Lofa%20bass/Lofa-bass-22.jpg"]wired up[/url], I'm waiting for my "on-on-on" switches to arrive from Japan.

Reverse P is the way to be.

I was just reading about this last night.

Yeah G&L switching options can be daunting at first. I think there's a temptation, when you are first presented with such options, to keep flicking until you are totally lost and that's where it puts some folk off. I think the reason all those options are there is so you can find "your" sound out of all the possible ones being offered I came up with this set up for my latest project..... .... It is inspired by early G&L L-1000 wiring with additional switching options for a split P in the bridge position but I'm banking on just one particular setting (P in parallel mode with the humbucker set to OMG) being "the sound" I'm looking for from this bass.

[quote name='icastle' post='1088811' date='Jan 14 2011, 12:51 AM']Mole is a misused brand name (just like 'hoover' and 'biro') - the first one's were designed by a company called... Mole.[/quote] Riiiight. Anyway.....

[quote name='mart' post='1088474' date='Jan 13 2011, 07:23 PM']....P.S. Talking to my wife about mole-grips, she mulled over the name: "Hmm, yes, moles do have a good grip. I remember when the cat brought in a mole, and somehow the mole got loose and then bit my mum's finger. She naturally pulled her finger away, but found that the mole was still attached - now dangling in mid air. How I laughed."[/quote] Seems like a fair assumption. I mean, I've got a few sets and not one of them looks like a mole. Most look like a bit like Ridley Scott's (H.R.Giger's) Alien to me. My most useful set are long-nosed and look like a pterodactyl and another sort of unusual set I have looks more like a big fat turtle's head. So I don't know where moles come into it.

Top bloke is our Owen. I bought a bass xtender off him (with paypal) and it dropped through the door before I'd even forgotten I'd bought something (which doesn't take much theses days - usually I'm like "what the hell is this" ) A pleasure to deal with and will do so again without hesitation. Cheers. Rich.

[quote name='neepheid' post='1088683' date='Jan 13 2011, 10:16 PM']Set up a keyboard macro, mannie, it's going to be a long haul.[/quote] Maybe [b]that[/b] could be my NY's resolution.

How many more times am I going to say on here that G&Ls DO NOT do Musicman. It's impossible - the pups are wrong and the eq is just "hell no". I think just because Leo did MM that people think they must be similar. MM was a major departure for Leo and his magic inventive mind. G&L was a return to Fender style thinking with a veiw to improve on everything, hence the oft quoted "P on steroids" line. Anyway Jose, how you digging the L2500.... besides not sounding like a SUB?

Will it affect the sound? Yes. By about 0.001%. You should be able to sand it back and re-paint it but if the dings are too deep then you'd be as well taking it back to the wood. Some guys like the lack of effort that paint stripper involves but personally I'm a sander. Paint stripper can be messy and inaccurate but it is quick. If you choose to sand it off you will be accurate but it could take a couple of sittings to get it all off depending on the finish. An orbital sander is fine to get through some top layers but for me nothing beats using a sanding block and some elbow grease. Once you're done, a couple of coats of clear lacquer or primer and paint and Bob's yer auntie.