Doctor J

Oooh bad mistake. I went to see him in Cork and then again in Dublin the next day. Both nights were fantastic.

Oh yeah, on a strap the Orion balances beautifully. No neck dive whatsoever. Edit -> and forgot to say how it sounds. It's very clean, very clear, but it's high output. If you need to drive a gain stage you will have no problem at all. The slightly wider gap between the pickups means you can get very bassy to very growly and everything inbetween, due to the blend. If you've heard the Won't Get Fooled Again isolated track, that's the basic sound but you can go far meatier than that but still keep the growl. I have a couple of "Monthly Challenge" tracks I did with it. I'll bounce down mixes with the bass turned up and upload later.

If you wanted to dip your toe, an Epic or Orion might be a reasonably priced place to start. They're the budget models (yes, I know 😂), generally set neck, no back facings and have a bass and treble cut/boost rather than filters. I got my one via the forum here a few years ago. It's a 2004 Orion with a walnut top, maple and purpleheart stringers on a mahogany body. The neck is five-piece maple and purpleheart with the standard ebony fretboard. The Epics and Orions have MXY pickups, which are humbuckers and don't need the phantom coil you see on basses with the single coil AXY pickups. The neck pickup is pretty much where a P pickup is, relative to the 12th fret, though the bridge pickup is slightly closer to the bridge, even compared to the 70's J position. I play with fingers 95% of the time and didn't have a problem adjusting to it or finding places to anchor my thumb. The string spacing is 18mm, slightly narrower than standard but easy to get used to. The electronics are very high quality. The blend is particularly useful. Minuscule changes on the knob position result in big changes tonally. I have no other bass which responds like that. As a result, the blend is fundamental to getting different sounds, moreso than the EQ, even. I find I rarely play one pickup solo. I usually use the blend to get what I'm looking for and then the EQ for fine tuning. The nut is 40mm, narrower than a P, wider than a J. The nut height is adjustable and can be locked in position. I like this a lot because I like a very low nut, basically I like the height of a zero fret. I prefer J necks, generally, but this is very comfortable to play for extended periods. One caveat, I did find the neck edges quite abrupt so I rolled the edges. That is a personal preference, though, not everyone cares about that kind of thing. It's built immaculately, as you can imagine, and the action can go as low as you need. I like low action, no complaints from me. When I got it, I put my preferred strings on it, adjusted the truss rods for very slight relief and haven't needed to touch them since. They're not cheap, let's be very clear, and I would never buy a new one. I couldn't afford to. You'll pick up an Epic or Orion for much less than a late 70's P, though, which just makes no sense at all in my head. If you buy second hand you're never going to lose money either, if you choose to sell it on. I can't see myself parting with this one, though.

I was thinking about it a lot at the time but didn't have the cash and, like you, it popped into my head every now and then so I asked if it ever sold when I bought the Blade B4 from him. When the answer came back negative, I felt it was time to scratch the itch and we worked out a deal later in the year. I've swapped out the EXB control, found it quite unusable, and put in a passive EMG tone. That, with some new strings, and it's a winner. The neck is really nice, in particular. The guitarist in my band in the early 90's had a Chaparral guitar with the holoflash finish, so it feels like it was meant to be, somewhat.

Yep, the very one.

Calling Talkbass...!!! 😁

Tort headstocks... ugh! 🤢

I think they stopped doing anything at all after Fender ran them into the ground. This one is 30 years old.

My Orion. It's one of the "cheap" models but it's still something which is a joy to play every time. You can see where the money goes in them.

This arrived in late December and it's very nice indeed.

Let's hope the sellers don't take the... mick.

It's a surprising amount of fun. You can have all the dirt you could wish for without ever losing the huge low end.

I've had the Ashdown ABM rig in the above picture since the early 2000's. It has done everything I needed of it. I picked up the little GK thing to see what they're like but it doesn't have the balls of the ABM. I now use the Ashdown into the 1x15 for meat and the GK, fed by the line out of the ABM, for filth into the 2x10, something it does very well, actually. If I had to choose, though, the ABM wouldn't be the one to go.

It happened a few days ago 😉

There's a time and a place for playing requests.

I've had my ESP 400 Series since late 92. At the time, I was deciding between a 75 Precision for £250 and the ESP for £300. Financially, I made the wrong choice and went with the substantially better bass.

Nice money to be made in the preaching racket in the US.

It doesn't stop manufacturers of higher quality equipment from doing their thing and customers will go to the product which suits their budget and tastes. Millions of Squiers and Epiphones don't stop the sales of Sadowsky and Fodera.

It's like the FA Cup draw. They pull a few numbers out of a bag, see what parts the numbers correspond to and screw it together. Hey presto! Parallel pawn shop universe thing!!!

It's Fender's design team at their best, take a random selection of parts out of the bin and make s guitar out of it.

Wack, son.

The revelation of the mechanialilitiness of the elephant has disappointed no-one more than me and has changed what might have been quite pleasant music into some kind of noise-prog. Drums are done. Bass needs filth.

I've got lots of respect for her, have her solo, Smashing Pumpkins and Hole albums, but that doesn't mean she's above talking jibba jabba 🙂

That green certainly isn't quiet.