Henrythe8

IResurrecting the thread. I bought one, then a second one on a whim. Both are lefties. The first one has been dissassembled and will face some horrid surgeries. The second one will probably see more than a tiny nice bass should. I already reversed the nut (so easy) and gave it a setup, added a higher strap pin and voilà, it plays. Just a quick vid I made to illustrate a post about harmonics. I'm seriously amazed by the tone of those basses. I set it up very very low, and even had to add a shim under the neck as the bridge was already lowered to the max. Yes, the finish is quite poor, there are bubbles, the sunburst is ok-ish, it's not a slab neck... tons of small things that make this instrument a cheap one. But the tone... love it.

Busy Bee - Ugly Kid Joe

Joker and the Thief - Wolfmother

Dry County - BonJovi

The joker - Steve Miller

Eleanor Rigby - The Beatles

Memphis Soul Stew - King Curtis

No problem. I had a chance to play the Buz5er a bit longer, and most especially on different amps. It really found it's way with my SWR rig, and instantly regained some badassery.

Mint white on blue looks right.

Was looking for the "best" straps and thought I could share the experience. Of course, to each his own, as always. My priorities are comfort, sustaining the weight, length and ability to set the strap at the right height. Because of, you know weird shaped bass and buzzards. For quite a long time I was into the Levy M29, which is good quality leather, equipped with a massive shoulder cushion, but the strap itself is fairly narrow. The other main advantage is that the cushion part slides up and down the strap, and then if velcro fixed. That allows to shorten or lengthen the front part of the strap according to your bass' upper horn. Downside is that for me, the length was too short. being a bit tall playing low with short-horned basses made the strap too short. I tried to add some leather extension but it frankly looked too gross. I finaly found the "best fr me" with the GruvGear Ellefson signature Recoil strap. Very comfortable, heavy padded neoprene with a faux leather top. Not *too* heavy metal looking, but the black with rivet is not really country looking. The great part is that there are two straps, front and back, and you can adjust both at the desired length. That really helps if you play a more "vertical" neck, for example. I also have Minotaur and Richter straps, wide leather padded. They look cool, but they don't offer the right amount of comfort and adjustability for me.

Wow. amaing thingies, here. Just doesn't work because a bass plyeyr will always prefer to have two basses 🙂 The DiPiazza bridge is worth mentioning.

Zombie thread Alert. I am the proud owner of two buzzards Bolt-On, one 4 strings and one five strings. I have to say that although those instruments have the real Warwick feel and growl, they are not, in my opinion, to be compared with their NT counterparts. If the 4-strings can show some brutality due to the dual P, whereas the 5er has a somewhat tamer character. What you expect from those gigantic birds is something else than what any Corvette can do. I blame the Ovangkol neck. On the 4-strings, it had a 38.5mm nut width, baseball bat chunky neck. I couldn't get comfy with it and was almost going to sell it, when I had the idea to transfor it into an 8-strings. the 8-Strings bridge is a direct replacement for the 4-strings. I had my local luthier make a new neck, wider and thinner, out of hard maple and padouk. I also fitted two preamps, one per pickup, in the cavity. The result is something that tone-wise, matches the looks of the beast. The very resonnant neck transformed the bass into a much clearer, agressive instrument. As for the 5-strings version, I just got mine. Funnily enough, the bodies are exactly the same, but routed differently. I already know I'll change the pickups and neck, to make it a real, powerful rock instrument, and not just a "qualioty" one. Cuz I sure didn't buy a Buzzard to sound like a normal bass 🙂

Ahhhh, GAS is a wonderful thing. Being myself a small time haorder, I can relate to the conversation. I have only 14 basses, from the Thomann kit up to the Custom Stradi. not up to the point where my children's happiness is on the line, but see, I like the objects. ANd I love to play aound. and experiment. As a failed bassist and a failed luthier, I just have fun modding some bvasses in my garage. Some basses can be an investment, I old some basses 2000€ and they pop up at 2800e two years later, some trends make instruments go up in a short period of thime. I've witnessed it as always selling low and buying high, which is not the right way to call it an investment. Like cars.

The Tonepump is one of my favourite preamp. The first thing is that the very hot reputation is IMHO to temper a bit with the pickups used: I find the prempa to be fairly tamed with pasive pickups. Second thing is what has been said before : the mids are affected by the relative stance of bas and treble pot. I tried the tonepump with a lot of basses and pickups, and I found it makes wonders with Bartolinis and Delano pickups (which are both quite mid voiced). My Stradi bass has two Delano Extender, each has it's own Tonepump. It seems fairly complicated, but once you get used to the "find a spot where it sounds good" instead of 'id' like to boost the 70Hz by 10%", the versatility is amazing. The use of JFET also, in my opinion, gives a "tube-esque" quality to the output sound that I find quite appealing. Thanks y'all for the very informative and intersteting thread.