Super jazz seems right to me. Emergence of new active electronics and popular use of more exotic woods. Thinking sei, good fellow, moon, east, Bartolini, Sadowsky etc. Memories of bass magazine with glowing reviews of these sort of instruments.
https://www.julienslive.com/lot-details/index/catalog/443/lot/196287?url=%2Fauctions%2Fcatalog%2Fid%2F443%3Fpage%3D1%26catm%3Dany%26order%3Dorder_num%26xclosed%3Dno%26featured%3Dno%26key%3Dbass
Advertised as a rack with some orange terror amps in it. Also has 2 x svt2s inside it!
My only experience is trying 3 different pino signature basses over the years, all of which were top drawer amazing. Sounds like I had a better experience than most with the CS.
I love seeing a signature instrument that’s truly original and unlike anything else. It suits the player down to the ground, might not suit everyone but that’s ok!
I think body wear generally looks great on any classic shaped instrument. Where I get put off is too much wear on the neck beyond discolouration and light finish wear. Anytime I pick up a bass with proper chips in the back of the neck/ side of fingerboard I just want to put it back.
Grados have stunning detail (got some 225s), but I find them fatiguing to listen to compared to my hd600s which I could enjoy all day. It’s very personal and absolutely worth a trip to a shop to try some. Any hifi retailer worth their salt will have demo pairs of these that have been properly run in to demo. You might be surprised with what you prefer! I’d add audio technica to the list as well.
Great guidance above.
I wonder if your bass is too low an output to push the amp to overdrive.
If you can get hold of one/borrow etc. I’d try running a preamp in front of it and see how much of a difference that makes. It’s clear you’ve got a sound in your head you’re trying to get to.
If not a darkglass fan, sansamp or something similar.
I’ve got a jazz bass I want to wall mount horizontally. Not on a vertical hanger but a sideways one.
Can anyone recommend one? Ta. Not sure about the plethora of £15 ones on Amazon.
I used one of these for years with a prog trio and it was a huge part of our sound. I used to love the bits in songs I got to use the fuzz with boost.
One thing to mention, I found it responds really differently with a hot signal into it. I used to run a sansamp vt bass always on in front of it, loads of really satisfying natural compression from the bass juice. A very underrated device.
I picked up a bargainous bb414 on Facebook marketplace a few months back.
Fitted a gotoh bridge (after pic was taken) I had knocking around, new strings, setup and it’s surprising excellent.
Light, well balanced and very high output. Nice variation and even the bridge pickup sounds good soloed.
I had some friends over who thought it was a mid level bass, it only cost £120 + strings! Very pleased and ridiculous value for money.