GrammeFriday

My Jazz twins: 1) sonic blue MIJ 62 reissue, dating from 1993-94, bought from eBay in July 2012 2) oly white MiA, 2010, bought via Basschat in Sept 2012 As is usually the case with twins, it was not part of the plan to have two - the story is that I bought the first one and enjoyed playing it so much that I thought I would upgrade to an MIA and flog the MIJ. So, as soon as an MIA in my favourite Oly White/Tort/Rosewood combo appeared in 'Basses for Sale' I pounced. And it was indeed a superior instrument in every respect: high mass bridge instead of BBOT, much better pickups, much better taper on the tone control (the MIJ is either on or off, basically), better fretboard radius and thus lower action, alder body rather than basswood or whatever it is the MIJ is made of ... etc etc. And yet ... I keep coming back to Sonic the Wonderjazz (as it is now known in my family) and am now even contemplating selling the MIA on again, as it is hard to justify having both. But whenever I get the MIA out again I think 'Oooh, this is nice, maybe I should revert to plan A and sell the MIJ", and here I am a year later, still in possession of twins! I'm so weak ...

This sounds pretty good: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shHywjPn_I8 £246.00 from GAK - enough change for a couple of sets of strings too!

'Apocalypse' by Thundercat.

[quote name='grahamd' timestamp='1359621471' post='1957553'] Thundercat! Nice scoring yes, evocative [/quote] +1 Have a look at: [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBpwKNbcuMA[/media] Interesting line up in this live performance - unless I am mistaken, there are 2 basses and no guitars. Thundercat plays the 'guitar part' on his 6er, and the other dude plays the 'bass line' on a 5er. Sounds fantastic.

MTD 635-24 MTD Kingston AG5 MTD KZ5 fretless Roscoe SKB 3005 Elrick Gold 5 or 6 Mike Lull PJ5 Mike Lull M5V Y.O.B. Jazz or Precision (1964, if you must know...) ££££££££ ... oh dear ... think I need to go and lie down for a bit ...

[quote name='Angel' timestamp='1377291590' post='2186024'] [b]Actually, I've just had a thought [/b]........ I assumed that a 5 string bass body would be bigger than a 4, but a quick photoshop test looks pretty darned similar, in which case I could get a standard body blank and rout it myself! Sounds like a better plan, I think I'll look into that. [/quote] But then you will run the risk of ending up with a very different sound, which you may not like as much as the sound you get from the current body.

Yeah, do it.

[quote name='Muzz' timestamp='1377081244' post='2183026'] Our band leader will say to me "Oh, aren't you using the Stingray? I loved the sound you got from that on the album." I recorded 2 of the 11 album tracks with the Ray, the other 9 were the Fender P. I asked him which were his favourite bass sounds, the three he picked were all the P. 18 months later, he still fondly remembers the Stingray sound. Or not, as it happens...hearing with the eyes again... [/quote]

Yes, that should keep him busy for a while!

[quote name='chris_b' timestamp='1377081107' post='2183022'] I think Mark has a T5 at BassDirect. [/quote] Yes, seen it in the flesh - drop-dead gorgeous it is, too ... oh dear ...

[quote name='GrammeFriday' timestamp='1377080417' post='2183011'] Er.... Lull doesn't do Stingrays. But in any case Lull and Sadowsky are very different propositions. Sadowskys [i]look[/i] like Fenders but [i]sound[/i] like Sadowskys. They have their own tone. It's a really, really nice tone, too, but not really very Fendery. Lulls tend to sound more like the originals. (Which makes me think that if Lull did do a Ray it would be awesome!) [/quote] But on reflection, there's probably no need for Lull to do a Stingray anyway - what Lull is trying to do (as he says in the quote above) is improve on the J and P designs in subtle but clever ways, and thus offer the buyer a 'great pre-CBS' sound without having to pay £10,000 for a good (i.e. playable) example of the real thing. This is also the reason why he is now doing Thunderbirds, as mentioned by thodrik above. Hey presto, no more T-bird neck dive! But with Stingrays, in contrast, there is nothing really much to improve on. Never mind what people say about Pre-Ernie Ball MM, the quality of EBMMs is amazingly good and amazingly consistent for the price, IMO, so there is no need for a Lull-type builder to step in here. ... Unless he could figure out a way to deliver the Stingray sound whilst keeping the bass at Mike Lull weights (i.e. well below 4kg). If he could do that, I might even consider trading in my beloved Stingray, which has Death Star levels of sonic power, but which weighs a friggin ton! (Not a trivial issue for me as a chronic back pain sufferer!)

[quote name='thodrik' timestamp='1377079239' post='2182988'] I prefer the look of his boutique Gibson Thunderbirds myself. Nobody else is really doing them. [/quote] Yes, a T5 is on my lustlist as well!

[quote name='Musicman20' timestamp='1377078956' post='2182977'] I'd rather have a Stingray. Funnily enough, I've seen and heard samples of the Sadowsky custom version of a Stingray 5, and it just doesn't have the balls of a Musicman. [/quote] Er.... Lull doesn't do Stingrays. But in any case Lull and Sadowsky are very different propositions. Sadowskys [i]look[/i] like Fenders but [i]sound[/i] like Sadowskys. They have their own tone. It's a really, really nice tone, too, but not really very Fendery. Lulls tend to sound more like the originals. (Which makes me think that if Lull did do a Ray it would be awesome!)

Interesting quote from Mike Lull, who many folks say makes the best 'Fender 2.0' basses, on what he is trying to achieve as a boutique bass builder: [left]"Bottom line, I’m a Fender guy. I have owned hundreds of basses. In the mid-seventies I collected everything. The prices back then made these things affordable. As a pro player, for me there is nothing better than a great pre-CBS Precision or Jazz Bass. There is no better bass to record or play live with. If you could compile a list of all the recordings made with these basses, it would be staggering. I wanted to take all the goodness, along with all the idiosyncrasies, and build a better bass. Leo was a genius, but the basses were built to a price point. I want my basses to sound as good but play better and be more consistent."[/left] A Lull PJ5 for me, please!