Hellzero

Neither was Leo Fender...

To answer your question @mhoss32 I've only played the old Alembic's with the Q switch. That said the continuously variable Q is certainly working even better... And most of the Alembic's are clear sounding because they are using single coil pickups with a dummy coil (like my favourite basses which are the Leduc's) to cancel almost any unwanted parasite noise. The single coil pickups also have to advantage of sensing the string at only one point avoiding the typical (light) phase cancellation of humbuckers and their tendency to be muddy (stacked humbucker is another story).

I love Atlansia basses, but these Oxford are certainly at least ... ugly. Thanks for the reminder. 🤮

Percy Jones played an EDA which was Ibanez next move on the AFR design made with composite material instead of wood. He also had a piezo only custom version of an EDA made with wood and not composite. He certainly played an original defretted AFR too... but that doesn't seem to be him...

Thanks for the feedback and I hope you'll love this "new" bass that you bought back.

Come (back) to Europe. 😁

I know, but it's a two way relationship and your title isn't clear. That said, it will be interesting to know the real costs for incoming items too, don't you think ? 😉

The early 90's Argant Stallion guitar with interchangeable necks :

1984-85 Roland G-77 bass

Do you really want me or @cetera to put our list of basses here again ?

With a friend of mine, we sent a high value (declared and insured) bass to the U.K. from Luxembourg on the 8th of January, which cleared the local customs on the very next day as all the paperwork was perfectly filled and only went out of the U.K. customs on the 18th of January. The parcel has arrived today at the local facility, so it should be delivered tomorrow. Now let's wait for the total fee amount for the import thing...

Regarding the OBP-3 bass boost at 18dB, I think nobody has ever tried this as even with just a pinch of boost, it's already too much, so all the way up, it will destroy your speaker for sure. This preamp is known for being a kind of "too much of everything" and I can confirm. I've played basses with the 3 above mentioned filter based preamps and my favourite has always been the Alembic approach which sounds more "natural" to me, but again it's a question of taste. I like the Wal preamp because, with the Wal pickups, it sounds massive and powerful. The ACG is certainly the most complete of all...

The magnetic pickup position is quite perfect. You can get that Jaco tone without any problem or that pino tone too and even a more acoustic one too as the preamp is quite powerful and versatile.

He is here too. He is @skelf

La Bella White Nylon's are really amazing, very low tension too. So use the 760 series as it's the highest tension. The core is stainless steel.

My newly acquired original early 90's Ibanez AFR A104F. These are very rare basses, only around 90 ever made mostly as 4 strings unlined fretless, but there were some fivers made too. Rolf Spuler was a true genius. Alan aka @bamboscha owns one too, which I sold him last year, but then had seller's remorse. This is my third or fourth one over the years... This is certainly one of the best ergonomic terrific sounding fretless around. Don't ask, this is definitely a keeper ! And thanks to Chris aka @chrisbass13 for helping me buying this very bass.

Distorted fretless groove. And a young, but already talented Steven Wilson...

That's just the opposite, Mick. Leduc idea since the mid 80's... But that's not the point as it's, to me, the best location for the output jack as it works perfectly sitting or standing. The bad positions are on the side pointing to the ground, at 45 degree or 90 degree. The Fender output jack on the table is a good one if there's a metal plate holding it. An excellent position is on the side pointing up à la Ibanez AFR, which is my favourite design ever for a bass. Look at the ergonomics. Yes it's mine. Original one from the early 90's.

The lower horn pointing outside will help prevent slipping towards the head and allow total access to the 26th fret. 😉

One of the best placement is, to me, this one. And I've owned and played over 300 basses... 🤦‍♂️ :

Are you sure ?