grayn

No silk ends I'm afraid.

The American Performer has now been to band rehearsals and gigs. It's funny how I thought I'd got used to the short scale, playing at home but when you play through a couple of hours, doing songs you been playing for years on a long scale, it does feel slightly odd. But I have loved the A.P. and it is definitely my main bass now. The weird thing is, on long scale, I always used 45 to 100s. But the A,P. came with 40 to 95s and I like the sound and feel of them so much, I am sticking with them. I'm even sticking to Fender Super 5250s, although they need a week or twos playing to get just how I like. I didn't like the flatwounds on my Vintera and so have put the same strings I use on the A.P. May try flats again some time though.

Lovely bass there. I love my Fiesta Red Vintera Mustang. Great to learn on and will be good enough for gigs too.

Cheers, that's good to hear,

I've been using my trusty bass rig for years. A Gallien Krueger Backline 600 head, through a 4 ohm, MarkBass 2x10 traveller cab. Always got a very reliable sound. A few months ago I bought a new practice/back up combo, a Fender Rumble 500. Then I got the urge to have a slightly bigger rig and got an 8 ohm MarkBass 2x10, to run with the Fender Rumble combo. It sounded OK but kind of lacked focus/punch. I thought about replacing the Rumble with a MarkBass combo, so I tried the Mini CMD121P & CMD151P combos, with the additional 2x10 cab. I didn't like the sound at all and came to the conclusion that I'm not keen on Markbass combos, although I love their cabs. So I decided to stick with what I know, and got myself a Gallien Krueger MB500 amp head. At the same time I swapped my 4 ohm Traveller cab for another 8 ohm one. So now I have 2, 2x10 cabs with my new amp and kept the old Backline 600 as back up. Oh, and I sold the Rumble. The new GK head is a real belter and is around a 3rd the weight of the old Backline head. They share most of the same inputs and outputs and equalisation controls. Where the old Backline has an overdrive channel, which I never used, the MB500 has a foot switchable boost facility, which to me is far more useful. The MB500's front panel has the usual Gain, Master, Boost, 4-band EQ and Contour controls. And the conventional passive/active dampener and mute switches, are also present. The rear panel also follows the tried and tested conventions of dual speaker outputs, return & send for effects, footswitch input and tuner output, direct out with pre/post EQ and a ground lift switch. When I tested the amp, I used it with everything turned to 12 o'clock and immediately liked the clear, punchy tone that is natural to this amp. The 4 EQ controls worked well and gave me some superb and massive sounds. The MB500 is far louder than the old Backline head and sounds really good through 1 or 2, 2x10 cabs. Very pleased with my new set up. It's light, simple to operate and sounds just how I like.

That looks really nice and in remarkable condition. Congrats.

Cute Mustang, congrats.

Looks a real monster. Congrats😎

If you want the more traditional Mustang sound, the Vintera should be fine. The bag has a little padding, it's not just material but it's all very minimal. If you want to take it to band practice or gigs, you might want to invest in a reasonable quality bag. The Markbass gigbag isn't specifically for short scale but is very stiff and holds the bass very snugly, so I am more than happy with it. And it matches my cab.☺️

No. The Vintera, American Performer and JMJ have through the body stringing and the PJ has through the bridge stringing.

Tonally the difference is pretty much as you'd expect. Th A.P. has a lot more variety and blending the 2 pickups is producing some lovely results. I usually leave the tone on passive basses full on but just taking the edge off, with minimal tone reduction, again produces some very useable tones. The Vintera has a more traditional Mustang tone, which is again, as you'd expect, like a short scale Precision. Not quite as much thump as a P but nice and round, with a good middle presence. The bag with the A.P. is no better than the Vintera, IMO. Fortunately the shop gave me a great MarkBass gigbag, gratis. And I already had a decent gigbag at home for the Vintera. I would have gone for the JMJ over the Vintera but I hate relicing and TBH I'm very chuffed with the Vintera, although the A.P. is a definite step up in quality. I slightly prefer the A.P's Yosemite Split Single-Coil, over the Vintera's Vintage-Style '60s Split Single-Coil but that's my taste. They both sound great to my ears.

On the string length subject, both of these basses come with short scale strings as stock and I've just put some short scale flatwounds on the Vintera and they fit perfectly.

Sweet looking bass, congrats.

The Vintera has through body stringing, as well.