dub_junkie

I read somewhere that one  rosewood and one maple Sledge Sabre were officially imported but that's not to say there weren't any brought over here privately.

Case in point being I know of one other Sledge Sabre with a maple board which has come up for sale a couple of times the last few years as well. 

Sledge is a brilliant colour - under lights/sunlight it really pops. 

On 02/08/2025 at 08:58, warwickhunt said:

 

I was convinced that I had to have this bass back (I sold it 10 years ago) and that it'd do a different job to my 88 Sabre but tbh they are in the same ball park for tone so I don't need both... maybe sell my Sabre if this doesn't sell.   

I think that Sabre used to belong to the bass player out of the 80s band B-Movie. It was pictured on the FB MusicMan Sabre Appreciation page a few years back and then traded against a pre EB Sabre iirc. Its a beautiful looking Sabre. Sterling no too shabby either!! Love the burst on both of them 😍😍

Absolutely love the look of them just wish I could get on with the neck profile. Seriously amazing looking basses though. Hope it serves you well 🙂

I think the Neve on the John Taylor 5 sounds absolutely brilliant especially with the master tone control there to tailor (taylor🤪) the overall tone further. Preamp sounds strong/full bodied with no unusable extremes.  Dont know the frequencies but wouldn't be surprised if these were kept secret.

Unfortunately I haven't owned a Dingwall NG or Combustion to compare it to but Waynesworld on here lives local to me and he has just bought an NG3 five string so I will hopefully be doing a comparison over the coming days. 

I feel I have been very late to Dingwall but better late than never as these basses are sooooo good!!

18 hours ago, krispn said:

Was this the one in the Edinburgh shop? I was planning on having a rip on that this weekend 😀

Yes it did come from the Edinburgh store.  

7 hours ago, LeftyJ said:

Latest rumour (as quoted from an unnamed source on The Gear Page and the GLGuitars subreddit) is Fender did indeed buy the company, will keep the Tribute line alive and possibly even amp it up, but is going to shut down regular USA production. There will only be small batches of premium US "Collectors" models from time to time, at premium prices. 

If they offer a Tribute Asat bass and a Tribute Kiloton 5 all will be forgiven. 

I've wanted one of these since they first appeared so seeing a used one at Guitar Guitar the other day I had to have it. Anyway the bass arrived at tea time and I took it straight to band rehearsal and unsurprisingly it acquitted itself brilliantly.

What a bass - tonally its right up my street and the Neve 2EQ sounds terrific - though GG shipped it with a couple of dud batteries so I noodled around on it in passive mode till I could put 2 x9v in there. Love the magnetic battery cover btw! 

Love the neck too - and the fit and finish is top drawer. 

Whats not to like? 

So I got the amber LG3005 above from E Sharp and now have a pair of Roscoes. I've owned some wonderful instruments over the years and for me, this brand has been amongst the very best. 

Traded my Sadowsky with Paul for his Roscoe. Met up halfway at a services on the A14 this morning. Bass exactly as described and Paul is a top fella. Deal with confidence! 

Many thanks Paul

Cheers!

Keir

Hi John, your Sabre sounds like a keeper!  I had a 1990 Sabre which was 9lbs.

The 2013-2016 Classic reissues were from my own experience as well as what I've heard from other owners, mostly on the heavier side of things.

Keir

7 hours ago, HeadlessBassist said:

If you get the Bartolini preamp and pickups you're getting a good all-round bass. Some of them even have MarkBass preamps.

 

 

 

 

The C5 Deluxe has the MarkBass preamp. Pickups are the usual offshore Bartolini Mk1s

I love my C5 Deluxe. I got the candy blue one after watching Dood's review on it. fwiw I've always liked Cort basses and have ordered a number unseen (mainly GB75,90F and 95s) and always been happy with them. I set up to my own taste and I'm happy to do that. 

The neck on the C5 Deluxe is fairly modern in profile and flattens out on the back of the neck the further you go up.

Re the candy blue (if thats the finish youre looking at) no picture or video ever has caught this finish properly. There is what appears to me to be a slight green element to it that's never picked up and the colour is way,way nicer in person.

Amazing basses! Superb playing and uncannily even sounding across the entire length of the board.

Loved mine.

GLWTS!

I've done gigs with one of these and a set of IEMs and to be honest it makes everything so easy for a lazy arrse like me. At that price its a steal. 

Met with Paddy at Carlisle for the umpteenth time this year and traded my Mayones Jazz bass for Paddy's Overwater. Absolutely delighted with the OW and Paddy happy with getting his Jabba back again. Thanks again Paddy! 

Musicman Stingray 5 always seems to have a great sounding B string from my experience owning them. My USA Std Jazz 5 from about 20 years ago had a fair to average sounding B as did a couple of their MiM jazz basses from that same era. I owned a few USA Dimension Elite and Std 5 strings and the B was better but not quite as defined as an SR5. The L-2500 I owned also fell short of the StingRay 5. 

Lakland 5s are imo a good choice for a good sounding B. I've owned a

55-60,a 55-AJ and a 55-02 which I still have, and they've all been great in this respect. They're 35" scale length but dont feel any bigger to me than a SR5. 

And like fretmeister said, I do find it a bit annoying that I have to generally buy a 0.045 set to get a .130 B string. I prefer 0.040 on the top but something with a bit more meat on it than a .125 for the B 🤨

Lovely Special.

I'm sure lighter ones are out there but I had three Classic Sabres and the lightest was 10lb 😐

Congrats! This was my old bass judging by the serial number. I had it and a 2023 Raspberry burst at the same time. Great basses! 

Not till this Sunday when I pick it up but just got the pics from Alan of my newly built RSK 5/35 and the weekend now can't come quick enough!!

I played this bass the day Paddy picked it up as he did a round trip to drop a bass off with me straight after getting the OW.

I was super impressed with it, it's a quality bit of kit.

Deal in confidence with Paddy as well, he's a top chap and seller!  

6 hours ago, kwmlondon said:

The thing I've mulled over would be doing a swap for a Stingray 5 string. That has an appeal.

There's your answer! The Stingray 5 is such a great five string imo. You cant go wrong with one.

(My 1994 blueburst is not for sale and posted for purely the purpose of inducing GAS)

It was the Canon that had me drooling for an Enfield for a very long time. 

I ended up with a Lionheart Air which ticks all the boxes for me but if cost was not a consideration I'd have this in a heartbeat. GLWTS! 

On 12/08/2025 at 15:33, Russ said:

The Sterling ones look nice enough, but I'm not massively enthused by them. They won't have the sound, plus the full-size tuners look weird and make it look like one of the dreadful AliExpress Bongo copies

The Bongos had full sized tuners for the first 20 years in production. Not sure why it's a weird look as it was the only look all that time.

Very close to mine which i picked up off here a number of months ago. Beautiful bass, I hope it serves you well 🙂

I had a 133 series StingRay about 15 years ago. Bought it new for £999 from Nevada music iirc. The choices were Black, Candy Apple Red and Pearl Blue. I got black with rosewood.

They were advertised at the time as these three colours only but with the choice of a maple or rosewood fretboard. As said before they were all 2EQ and came with a gig bag. 

The '133 series' reference never came into the conversation until discussion on the EBMM forum used this nomenclature on account of it being part of the build number