Dood

One word. Lush. 😍

That’s a great question actually! Are the 21/22 fret fretboards using an extension, thus they will bit a standard 20 fret design body rout? Also, do we have any indications of the exact headstock shape @Kiwi? And yes, I’d love one but I’ve 30 years of debt that says it ain’t gonna happen any time soon. Wanna buy a 7 string?

(This will give a maximum recommended string spacing over the pickup of 66mm moving up to 77.2mm spacing for the E6W version).

For a brighter tone, D'Addario Pro Steels work really well on my Ash bodied Precision bass. The bass has quite a full sounding pickup on board so those strings pair well. The thing I like about using steels is that you can turn the tone down a little to find a sweet spot - but you can't coax zing out of a string that doesn't have those qualities. That said, I like the brightness of the D'Addario NYXL and even the XL Nickels fresh and crisp out the packet! "Ready to go" tone!

updating now. I'm actually really looking forward to the Cory Wong modules!

I've had no indications to that end at the moment. They sound great, like active EMGs in general, popping the passive tone back a bit gives a great "more familiar passive tone", but there's the clarity if thats what you're after on tap too.

The ExW is indeed a wide aperture ceramic pickup. 12.2Khz res frequency, "giant stacked square coil". EMG say they have essentially filled the entire shell to accomodate the design. It will do 27 VDC like other EMGs if thats your bag. E4W: 32mm x 101mm E5W: 32mm x 109mm E6W: 32mm x 119mm

GainStage Pro didn't win me over - but it was a freebie, so hey-ho. There's a great little plugin by Hornet (It might be called AutoGain Pro) that offers the option of selecting what you actually want your output to be and it does the adjustment for you. (It's not a limiter)

I wish I were in a position to snag a Luminlay 22 fret version. WOH!

I use Claro in conjunction with Smart-EQ4 (Sonible) either for quick and dirty mixes or for being a second set of ears when I need a different perspective. Smart-EQ is great as it listens to other selected tracks (busses for example) and you can decide what needs to sit forward or back in the mix. Clever stuff. I've dropped Arc 4 in to Listen Hub along with corrective EQ, great for just enjoying music in general but, yes, I'm new to this app, but loving it! I had trial versions of Ground Control, Caster and Room by Ginger Audio trying to make them do what Listen Hib does, so, I'm pretty pelased with my silly cheap snag!

I bagged Claro and Listen Hub for silly pennies the other day after snagging IK's Arc 4 for £25. I have a reference mic already so this has been a super nice upgrade to my studio along with some ridiculous deals that have been appearing on https://audioplugin.deals such as Sonible's smart plugin series. Deals! Everywhere!

Meep Purple

As a teenager, figuring out where bass fits with other instruments, the Queen back catalogue offered a great deal of insight. I learned to play unison with that piano left hand, move out of its way or make room for striding lines. In later life playing in prog bands, it was noticed and some of the fattest riffs came not from distorted guitars but rock solid piano and bass

GOOD LORD SIR!!!! 😍 That's a stunning bass! Congratulations.

There was this one time.. oh, no.. wait.. NSFW... What would folk like from a mini-clinic / talk / nerdy ramble / tech lesson / theory and technique teaching workshop?

There is no doubt that I need to be around my tribe more, I miss y'all, the bass shows and the like. Living up here isn't exactly conducive to a life in the thick of the bass world!! I'm about three hours away from the venue, so at the moment I'm not sure. I'd love to be there otherwise!

As a professional gear reviewer, I'd say brands are better than they used to be, but there have been times when even the manufacturer has gotten the specifications wrong. It's all too easy to cut and paste information on to a website without checking it these days that many (especially shops, online or physical) don't bother to check or sometimes don't even know what they are selling. A good way to spot lazy (and AI) review writing though ha ha.. That said, we're human, sometimes we make errors and for Sandberg they seem to be far and few between.

Did you pay by credit card for the (dis)pleasure? I'd have requested a charge back for failing to deliver the service you were paying for, language or otherwise.

Off topic but, OMG Matt, that P type tone on your insta is to die for. Sounds so good through massive studio monitors! Great playing!

I definitely favoured those raspy mids and punch low end. I’d love to find this P bass again. Fullerton ‘62 neck on a 70’s body, dimarzio P pup and a pair of 15’s delivered some warm lows too. My secret weapon (not pictured) was a converted HiFi preamplifier with a “loudness” control on it which paired very well with the punchy mids for a BIG tone@

Wow! I've just had a search through the archives and have found 'photos from that gig in 2004! In one you can make out my guitar stand and no! There are no other basses to be seen! I have no idea why, but I'm definitely sat down on a stool witha broken bass ha ha! Probably learned my lesson!

You know what, that is a really good question and, on typing the post, I'd completely missed that very obvious point! What the hell was I thinking? Did I really only bring one? Which is very odd as I had two matching Tobias 6ers and a gorgeous Status fretless 6er for that band too. The screws breaking happened, but where was my spare? 🤯 #AgeRelatedMemoryLoss lol...

Ok, I'll admit to making a rookie error. It may have even been an album launch show, I can't remember as it was 25 years ago this happened. I had my wide strap, I had my well known brand strap locks and everything else meticulously installed and set up. Our band were a well oiled machine and were able to overcome most things going wrong in a show, as was the case this time. The screws that used to come with strap locks were woefully short (I am sure you can guess what came next...) So, I sought out a couple of long screws that had heads small enough to fit in to the strap buttons so that the straplock mechanism still worked correctly. Come the night of the gig, our drummer counted off the first song and with an enthusiastic leap in to the first note, the bass flew away from me with the same energy. I'd.... used.... brass.... screws 🤦‍♀️🙈🤦🏻🤦🏻‍♂️🤦‍♀️ I played the rest of the gig on a bar stool that as if by magic appeared next to me mid song!

I've been having a really good session again today looking at the Silverstone II. Today's progress has been really interesting, using the Silverstone as a pure FRFR solution (I've also been playing with the cabinet from a "standard rig" point of view too). As I have one in for review, the Darkglass Anagram has been providing front end duties along with my beloved and rather ancient Alesis 24 band programmable EQ in to my fave Bergantino B|Amp or my EBS 802. I have to say that Silverstone II takes effects and amp sims admirably! I've dialled in a killer tone on the Anagram which sounds brilliant through both my studio monitors and the Silverstone II. In a live setting, I have the option of sending FOH a different signal, so there's plenty of options for doing that but it's nice to know that what is coming out of the cabinet behind me is a fair representation of what FOH is also getting. For me, this is really important. A very capable and portable solution with plenty of beans on tap! More later