dmckee

13 minutes ago, JohnDaBass said:

Heads up

Ibanez  TMB 100 on offer at Amazon. £120

Can’t see it. You got a link? 

I’ve had this bass for around 5 years now I think. It’s a cracker so it’s a very reluctant sale…. Just the usual GAS attack that I may regret later….

I’m told it was one of the first Maruszczyks to come into the UK, in 2015, and originally belonged to @wateroftyne. You can read its origin story here: http://basschat.co.uk/topic/263423-nbd-maruszczyk-jake-pj-fender-sandberg-lakland-killer/

It’s very well made, very light – chambered body, around 7.5lbs – and balances perfectly. Since I bought it, I’ve replaced the pickups with a DiMarzio Model P + J set, changed the bridge to a Hipshot KickAss, and fitted Dunlop strap locks.  

It’s an alder body with flame maple top, cool block inlays, cream binding, USA Hipshot Ultralite tuners, and a neck profile based on a 1971 Precision bass. Controls are master volume, master tone, and a 3 way pickup selector (the change from 2 volumes was done by a previous owner). I think a new Maruszczyk with this spec would be over £1500 now?

In term of condition, I would say it’s very good. it’s got the light surface marks you’d expect for a bass of this age, and there’s one tiny ding on the neck, again by previous owner, on the treble side of the neck around the 9th fret that I’ve tried to show in 1 pic. (I’m very picky about stuff like this but I have never ever noticed it while playing, due to its location).

Not really interested in trades – I have my eye on a couple of specific things – unless it was part-ex for a G&L CLF L1000, maybe a JMJ Mustang, or maybe a nice unlined fretless. 

Local pickup in Edinburgh preferred, but can meet halfway within reason, or ship at your expense if necessary.

26 minutes ago, admiralchew said:

Did Andertons say they weren’t going to stock L-1000s or just that particular colour? Mine is match green, so a bit odd and I wasn’t surprised that I needed to specially order that. The more standard core colours were in stock at the time though.

 

I’ve only ever heard people say good things about the Tributes too.

I didn’t specify a colour and they said: “These basses will be special order items only, I am afraid. We will not get them for regular stock,”

GG said “I'm afraid we no longer stock G&L so we will not be getting these ones back in stock.

Sorry we cannot help on this occasion.”

I wrote to Andertons and GuitarGuitar today, asking if/when they were anticipating getting any L1000s in. 

Andertons says they weren’t going to stock that bass again (although they could do a custom order that’d take 4-6 months), and GG says they no longer stock G&Ls at all. 

SO, the current dearth of G&Ls in the UK doesn’t look like changing anytime soon. 

On 12/03/2024 at 23:33, admiralchew said:

I ordered mine (matcha green rather than ash) from Andertons. It wasn't on the website so they did it via special order. It took a while but all worked out well.

Just out of curiosity, how much did that cost? I quite fancy one too but there seem to be no G&Ls anywhere really just now…. 

This looks nice. What’s the weight please? And the nut width / profile of the neck? Any idea where the neck came from? 

I had a Dimension USA Deluxe HH for a while. Loved the tones (the 5 position switching was great), loved the neck, but found the body shape a bit odd, like there wasn't quite enough of it. It was also a little neck heavy. Extended the strap button on the front horn to fix that, but that annoyed me too. 😬  If money was no object, I’d have switched it all to another body. Have Fender used those pickups anywhere else? 

Works for me, although I’d still prefer a master volume and blend. 

G&L body shapes:

I tried an LB100 recently and discovered that the body was a bit bigger than the L2000, when I’d assumed they were the same. How does the CLF Research L1000 body shape compare? Is it the same as the L2000, or bigger?  How many different body shapes do G&L actually have anyway? Just curious……

(I actually bought a Fullerton LB100 and sent it back because it was a bit neck heavy, which I was surprised and disappointed by). 

I’ve had a G&L kind of year - 2 new USAs and a second hand Tribute. All great. The L2000 is my favourite. Absolutely love it. 

On 07/11/2023 at 07:34, Baloney Balderdash said:

It's not a novelty bass at all judging from the demos/reviews I have watched and read.

 

What makes you think that?

 

I watched LowEndLobster’s review: 

Not saying I necessarily agree with him but I can see why he’s drawn that conclusion.  V2 probs better? 

Quite tempted by a very well-priced, pre-owned Acinonyx on Bass Direct just now: https://www.bassdirect.co.uk/product/nordstrand-acinonyx-lake-placid-blue-pre-owned/?fbclid=IwAR3pv1fUJwRc27ss566ByyefDJGaOiVRwY6kd9BM7F-g_wLKAYqrZy9jTjo_aem_AWMYV7XgJaaI5UR3bzDzXgD2ZpAV274vvcBFKjs6H6MAVMHRTftS7zEUxeya7_YpDos

But is it too much of a novelty bass? 

Why do almost all Mustangs (and Mustang copies like this) have the slab body and not contoured like the 70s ones were? Each to their own and all that, but I’m not sure why anyone would choose slab over contoured…. Just curious. 

You can buy them from the online G&L store in the States. I had a pal visiting from the US and he got them for me. 

I definitely need to get out more..... Just bought a set of the CLF knobs for my L-2000. Totally unnecessary, but nice.... 

Fretless short scale seems like an untapped (albeit possibly quite small) market. I’d like one. 

Nice! My first ‘proper’ bass was a Thunder Jet, bought for £100 from pawn shop in Glasgow in the mid 80s. Very fond memories. I heard a 1A getting played at Belladrum this year (by someone younger than the bass!) and it sounded great. 

11 hours ago, jezzaboy said:

The necks on these are less of a handful than the L`s. Nice bass!

I think it’s the perfect size. Are the current Tribute L2000s still 1 3/4”? The USA L2000s have been 1 5/8” for a while now….. 

I just picked up this M-2000 Tribute from eBay for £300. It needed a wee bit of TLC, but a fret polish, new batteries and strings, and a set of Ultralites, and it’s good to go! Similar to L-2000 obvs but a bit smoother/more polite, tonally. A really nice bass and a real bargain actually. They don’t seem to pop up often, so glad I grabbed this one. 

23 hours ago, ezbass said:

I was watching some of the Belladrum festival coverage yesterday. The sound was mainly thin and favouring the top end. Fatherson (guitar, bass &drum, 3 piece) came on and the bass player was using a P, nothing remarkable during the first song. For the second song, the bass player switched to a Player Mustang PJ and suddenly you could hear the bass. Unfortunately, I couldn’t make out which pickup/s were being used, but it sounded great, whereas the previous P was fairly inaudible. Certainly a win for the short scale in this instance, looked cool too.

 I was at (and played) at Belladrum. Surprisingly, one of the best sounding basses I heard was a Westone Thunder 1A, by a band in the Seedlings tent (Nani maybe?). And worst were the 2 basses, especially the semi acoustic, played by KT Tunstall’s bass player (the bloke from Gorillaz apparently). All thump and no note….

1 hour ago, gjones said:

I do believe we met at a Sunshine Delay gig about 10 years ago. I recall you were waiting for a US G&L L-2000 to be delivered and were very excited (I think you may have been playing a Tribute on that day). I'm glad you've now got over your obsession with G&Ls

 

I actually ended up buying a G&L L-2500 Tribute and they are great basses.

 

😂😂 I seem to drift away from G&Ls periodically, but they pull me back in! I do now have 2….. I was probably also just excited to be talking to someone about basses! 

4 hours ago, SurroundedByManatees said:

Got this one in last week, a nice fretless in see through blonde finish. Probably late 80s.

 

 

 

Love that. You don’t see many fretless L2Ks around. Where did you find it? 

On 04/06/2023 at 14:48, scrumpymike said:

 

Mmmm, can't believe that the ergonomic mistakes made on the original MIM, custom-shop Fender Rascal have been repeated on this Squier variant!! As with the original Rascal, the phrase 'form over function' springs to mind.

 

I quote from the Squier model description: "Other player-friendly details of this model include a short and easy-to-play 30" scale length..."

 

For me, this short-scale 'player-friendly detail' is completely cancelled out by the quirky body shape that adds needless weight, makes lower-fret access too much of a stretch, and places the plucking/picking hand on top of the bridge.

 

Which is why I got our Andyjr1515 to transform my Fender Rascal into this. That was a few years ago, and it's still the best s-s bass I've ever played 🙂

 

 

That’s very cool new body. 

22 hours ago, BillyBass said:

Classy indeed, good description.  Ordinarily, grey would be my last choice of colour for a bass, there is too much grey in my life as it is, when I look up at the sky.  These basses, however, really do look classy.

I totally agree. I’m not sure I would ever have chosen grey for a bass, but now that I have them, I think it really works for both of them. There’s a very subtle sparkle in there too. 😃

A couple of other early observations:

- the L2000’s neck is just lovely. I think the 1 5/8” medium C shape is perfect, as is the satin finish. (Interestingly, I don’t notice much difference between that and the Fallout’s slim C). 

- with previous L2000s I always ran with both pickups on, but since getting the Fallout I have discovered the joys of the neck pickup on its own, in passive mode. Like an L1000 I guess. The difference in tone between just neck or both pickups on seems more pronounced on this bass than I remember it being. Both are great sounds, but right now I wonder under what circumstances I’ll opt for using both pickups on…. 

4 minutes ago, snorkie635 said:

A classy looking pair indeed. Good luck with the new purchase. Could be that someone in Anderton's is lying trapped under the 'beastie-bass' in some dark corner of their stockroom. Looks like you came out on top. 👍

Yeah. I don’t think this has always been the case, but from the limited ‘research’ I’ve done, the current batch of Tributes do seem to be VERY heavy.  This Fullerton one though - perfect.