Kiwi

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No, not at all. Just sounds different because of the filtering by the electronics. EMGs are quite bold sounding and have their own flavour. Acoustically I can both hear and feel the amount of upper mids that are dampened by the amount of wenge and bubinga in the neck. In particular the wenge fingerboard will absolutely dampen some treble content. You could try your Thumb bass against a Status Series II at some point acoustically and see what differences you can hear. We've occasionally had discussions in this forum about the sound of backline and I've played through some bass rigs where it sounds like there's not just pillow over the speaker but a complete four poster bed. I've been at a loss to understand how the owner can actually hear themselves on stage amongst all the cymbals and guitars. And the answer is they can't but they are so used to it that playing based on hand position and the movement of their trouser legs is their normal and a yardstick for what sounds good to them. Perhaps "good" really means normal.

I'm tempted to be coy as I'm negotiating a guitar build with him at the moment and have another in the works which will be a 5 string version of my Alembic. He exhibited at the Shanghai guitar show in October and came away overloaded with orders and I have already been waiting two years for the guitar build. After he's priced my build, maybe I'll reveal who it is. The craftsmanship is outstanding and he's entirely self taught. His instruments are priced at the same level as a UK custom build as well. I wonder how many of his customers are in the US though.

I think the point I was trying to make, perhaps poorly, is that there is a huge difference between how the Thumb sounds AND FEELS acoustically and what it sounds like amplified. Perhaps I"m still trying to get my head around the difference and I need more time with one to reach any kind of lasting insight. I can't think of any other bass where I've felt like that.

To be fair, there is a certain amount of micturational extraction by Aliexpress sellers. I have found the sales people are often obsessed with commission at the expense of everything else, including their jobs. In their minds, so long as they are selling something that looks like the photo, any deviation in materials from the agreed specification isn't important to them. Their mindset is opportunistic, irresponsible and at times disingenuine...a bunch of cowboys. I had dealings with a company called Shenzhen Grand which left me out of pocket and with a bitter taste in my mouth at the games they were playing. They were good at making amps but their instruments were less playable than a wishbass. The good luthiers in China (and I have found one that could rival Fodera) don't need to sell on Aliexpress.

I've played them in shops and they sounded and felt a little lifeless acoustically. But the amplified sound is pretty good. I've ummed and ahhed over getting one but really need more playing time to decide and it's not like I can walk into a shop where I am and find one so it might have to wait until I'm back in the UK. In the meantime, the Moon MBC5TN I picked up a couple of years ago is virtually identical in construction apart from mahogany body wings so that itch has been scratched more or less.

I don't think Reverb can be judged on the people who use their platform, they can't really take action without just cause. Last experience I had on Reverb was trying to land a pair of Alembic pickups for an upcoming project and the guy was pretty unreasonable just because I was in China. I could arrange and pay for my own door to door shipping and he still wanted 30 bucks. He eventually sold them for $100 less than he wanted from me. Similar situation with a rare Carvin FS77 footswitch for a guitar preamp I sold just recently, the seller kept flip flopping until he got a US based buyer. I've had good experiences with UK and European sellers though and the one time I needed support in dealing with a transaction that went a little awry, they stepped in promptly and chucked some Reverb credits at me to compensate for inconvenience.

Times when a Smith BSR5 was 2500 quid. Halcyon days.

I have had one sitting on my desk for two years and I have tried to start figuring out how to use it and then other things have taken priority (family usually). I've had an open tab on YT showing the introduction video for probably about the same time.

Hey everyone, Just wanted to share that we've had a couple of incidents recently involving 'middle man' scams. This is where someone has joined the site and registered a username that is almost identical to the name of an existing member, apart from changing characters in the name for ones that look similar but are different. For example, they might replace small L with a capital i, they might replace O with 0 or they might add a full stop at the end of the name. Changes insignificant enough to allow the scammer to take a punt on a buyer not noticing when they make contact via PM and eventually get them to send money. In our situation we believe that the scams are from one individual who has registered two accounts that emulate the names of existing members. We have already taken steps to ensure their accounts are frozen and we have accrued enough information to help us identify if that individual if they try to register more accounts in the future...they won't be able to hide behind a VPN either. We are also going to raise how to prevent spoofed usernames with our forum software provider as a future development suggestion. So...if you are PM'd separately by someone about an item they claim is for sale in the marketplace, check their user name carefully and if you have any doubts based on I or 0 or . in their username, maybe reply to them initially from their post in your thread rather than direct to their PM. That way you can check if your message adds to their message or starts a new one. Also if members spot anyone masquerading as someone else, feel free to use the report function to flag it with the mod team and we will take a closer look. It's probably also worth reminding everyone to avoid using bank transfer or Paypal F&F to a seller. These payment methods don't offer refund options in the event of there being an error. (Although if you are quick enough, sometimes your bank might be able to reverse the transaction but it depends on your bank and whether you can prove deception as opposed to a lack of vigilance.) Thanks in advance for your help in making life difficult for these scumbag parasites.

Lucky lucky bastard. Welcome aboard I spent some months in NH many many years ago...during the Summer.

Legend has it that when Geoff Gould was focussing on setting Modulus up around 1983, he left oversight of the neck production to someone else and they got the mixing of the phenolic resin (aka Bakerlite) wrong. This affected his agreement with Alembic and impacted on the necks made for Musicman as well. It's also affected all the 90's Quantum basses I've owned by Modulus but not the other models (Sonic Hammer, Flea). And also every one of the four Cutlass basses I've had featured overly flexible necks (but I know earlier ones are OK). Rob has done a huge amount of R&D on his necks, and his basses still sound like Status basses even when the electronics are completely replaced. So the sound is very much in the necks.

When I had a conversation with Rob Green about this specific characteristic, after he had done some work on a Modulus bass for me, he told me the fingerboard had quite a big impact on the rigidity and sound. Ken Smith also mentioned the same thing to me in a separate conversation and explained this is why they use such thick slabs of ebony for the fingerboard. He wants the necks to be just rigid enough for the mid range warmth which is so characteristic of his instruments. It was an idea also inspired by the upright basses that he collects.

Me too. It's not theory.

What makes you think its a theory?

I see where you're going with this - it seems potentially contradictory. I should probably clarify that it depends on construction and fingerboard material. Not too stiff because an overly stiff neck and phenolic fingerboard creates a very brittle sounding instrument. I've played early to mid nineties Status Empathy and Modulus Quantum basses with this quality. For extra context, other bass makers like Ken Smith aim for a neck that is just stiff enough because it introduces some warmth into the lower mid range and tames the highs a little. Overdesigned means designed far beyond what is needed to resist string tension. That could mean the number of layers of weave used (typically more than three layers), the orientation of the weave in selected locations and the choice of unecessariy thick fingerboard material. Purely based on observation alone, in the late 70's necks seemed over designed. Super rigid but also very easy to fret dress and achieve incredibly low action. The problems with aftermarket Modulus necks in the early to mid eighties were apparently due to Geoff Gould delegating the mixing of phenolic resin while he was off setting up Modulus operations and the person responsible not paying sufficient attention. It was why Alembic ditched graphite necks as an option. However, I've played early 90's Modulus basses with floppy necks too - just had a 92 Quantum 5 pass through my hands for set up and restoration with a neck that wasn't stiff enough to resist string tension and there was no way to set the bass up with reasonable action. I've also owned a 94 with a neck that was brittle and a 96 with a banana neck. And a 96 Sonic Hammer that was just fabulous in action and sound. QC seems a little inconsistent to say the least. Ironically the Modulus basses with flexible necks sounded great - really growly and warm.

I've found there are Steinberger replacements being made by a one man operation in Guangzhou but they are available domestically only in low numbers and for over 600 quid a pop. But it has to be said there's a huge difference between a simple structure and something that has to be stiff but not too stiff. Early necks from Modulus, Status and Vigier were over designed (which I like). Later in the nineties there were issues with stiffness and many still didn't have truss rods.

Drop me a PM if you would like to change your email. We've had to remove that ability from members due to accounts being set up and sold on by scammers.

Is it possible that people might have reported BC emails as junk instead of unsubscribing?

There's nothing here that we need to worry about. This advice is aimed at people who sell on Ebay, not Ebay itself. As Woodinblack says we are also limited to whatever information can be provided by the third party software we use which, currently, doesn't allow monitoring of successfully completed transactions.

This is a transition model NS5CR. It has the 35"scale, fingerboard linlays and slimmer neck profile of the LX not the 34" scale, dot inlays and chunky neck of the first edition NS5CR. Otherwise it's similar to the US made NS5XL in having brass hardware and all maple construction. But it has four controls instead of stacked eq and a rosewood fingerboard instead of pau ferro...which isn't much of a compromise TBH.

Click and hold on the title for a couple of seconds, the edit field will open up and you'll be able to amend it then.

2013/14-ish, I still have the photo somewhere.