fretmeister

I'd buy a Sandberg TT4 above a Fender.

Here you go 

ian goes through how it works as well as his rig.

That’s not part of a Sandberg relic. 

Is it a Washburn?

I'll send you a vid...

I reckon my avant garde creations will really work for the Tuesday 3pm slot  

I like a compressed direct sound, but most drive pedals were built with a cab in mind and without they sound like shit.

So in my helix when I have a no cab tone for clean when I hit a drive pedal it turns on a cab sim as well. And often an EQ adjustment with a view to making it sound like an overdriven version of the original tone.

4 hours ago, Obrienp said:

No good for someone like me: if you are going to draw that much attention to yourself, you’ve got to be a very good player!

I'd play it.... because I'm delusional! 

I have one and it's huge fun.

I do wish the filter control knob at the top was shorter though - feels very exposed there and could be damaged by a stray foot.

I wonder why they just didn't use a regular pot like the other controls. Bit of a weird choice that.

Line 6 have excellent customer service.

Put in a support ticket and maybe also mention it on the massive Facebook Helix group and they'll get it sorted out fast.

First one in general.

The second one might be amazing when sitting but crap when standing and so on. It might be comfy for a fewer amount of people.

They are definitely my favourite bass amp.

I moved away from them a few years ago and went through loads of different heads and cabs from a variety of makes at modest and stupid price points but then came back and it felt like home. I've used them in big band jazz and in power trios.

99% of the time I just want a touch of compression, an MB head and cab and I'm happy. I find they take pedals well when I need a bit of grit.

MB heads work well with a variety of cabs but I'm not as convinced about MB cabs with other heads. That way round seems to miss something to my ears.

All the heads have the MB sound, some with some valve flavouring, and others with a different EQ set up with different number of bands and centre points of the bands.

Most of the time I leave them all at noon or reduce the bass a little to stop any booming if the room is a bit crap.

I am not that precious about "tone" - as long as I've got a good compressor then I'll plug into pretty much everything, but MB kit makes me smile.

'Arry has his own Seymour model now as the QP wasn't really anything to do with him. That just happened to be spec'd for the first Japanese signature.

But this pile of arse should have had at least the sig pickup in it. And the right bridge.

1 hour ago, martthebass said:

I think I'm in the minority of Lionel owners in liking the more modern sound of the stock pup, I haven't missed having a Jazz.

If I did get another one, then the other would get an EMG P-X.

That's my other favourite P pickup!

In my ongoing quest for the perfect shortie strings I stuck a set of La Bella IMA signatures on my Lionel.

I really like the feel of these on my 34 scale Sandberg but the tension of the set is a bit high in regular tuning, but on a shortie they feel perfect. The Lionel has full sized machinehead posts so there's been no string damage winding them - the strings are groundwound rather than a flat and still very round feeling to me, but with much lower string noise than most others.

Very reasonably priced at Bass Direct as well - I will be getting more of them. I asked IMA himself on IG about other options and he tells me that there won't be other gauges coming (boo!) but short scale versions are expected (yay!).

So for basses with smaller string posts it looks like some will become available.

On 24/11/2025 at 19:47, Lozz196 said:

Well the SL TT might end up for sale, great bass that it is I think this new Lionel will fit better for me.

I play my SL Lionel a lot more than my SL TT4 these days. Sometimes I wonder about selling the TT4 and maybe getting the TT Lionel version instead so I still have P and J options.

Or just another P Lionel. I seem to be moving away from J sounds in general.

I like him a lot.

Nice to see irreverent and often self deprecating stuff in an age of “I’m the best” shite.

I put a set on a shortie as well. Also very nice!

Sandberg’s online shop won’t ship to the UK since the “thing” so if you want a different ‘guard it will have to be a special order via a UK dealer.

Or get someone else to make one.

Thank you!

Forgot to say: trades.

I might be interested in guitar fuzz and drives with cash adjustment as necessary. Or maybe a mini-wah like the Dunlop mini bass wah.

I have cravings for a ThorpyFX Warthog at the moment.

10 minutes ago, neepheid said:

Opinions aren't facts.  That's it really.

My youngest daughter likes to wind me up by expressing "her personal truth" about things.

I blame her mother.

3 minutes ago, KingBollock said:

I’d have added:

 

3: Music that you don’t have an opinion of and don’t really mind if it’s playing in the background.

4: Music that you’d leave a pint in a pub to get far enough away from the building so that you can’t hear the music.

4: I nearly have that reaction to The Beatles - but it's not the music as such, it's JL's whiny voice. I think L&M were stellar songwriters and I have a massive collection of covers by other artists. I love the songs.

I just can't help thinking how much more popular they would have been with a real singer....  

Everything sells if the price is right for the current market conditions. Everything. Even a Lost Prophets album only signed by the singer (who shall not be named) will sell at the market appropriate price.

That may not be the same value as you place on the item so you have a choice of dropping the price or being patient or adding value - such as tuners.

There's loads of strat and tele type necks on ebay - a quick look will show that the ones with tuners are only a little more expensive - not really covering the cost of the tuners themselves - but they do sell a lot easier because it reduces hassle for the buyer.

The ones without tuners often sit there for ages or sell for a pittance.

2 minutes ago, Dad3353 said:

 

Just as Farage, Trump, Putin and others 'speak to the souls of a million strangers'..? There is an objective 'some stuff is light-weight, 'throw-away', dross, whether popular or not.', I say. Who gets to judge..? Any and all of us; I have firm ideas on what I deem to be 'rubbish' (despite its popularity, not because of it...). 

Send it back.

It doesn't seem to have the things that would actually make it a bongo. It's just a 5 string you don't like at this point.