Russ

It appears to have longer, somewhat less "lumpy" horns than the regular bolt-on Thumb. Might be the angle though.

They did do a limited edition one a couple of years back that did have the proper Thumb body shape, where the horns were the right length - they should have changed all the bolt-on Thumbs to look like this: My dream Warwick would be a Streamer set up like a Thumb, which they've done. I'd just want a sixer! Sorry for the digression... back to Bongos now.

I've always found the original, through-neck Thumb to be a lovely looking beast and have done since I first saw one back in the early 90s. The bolt-on version, like in this image, is a funny looking thing though. I wonder why they couldn't exactly recreate the body shape in bolt-on form?

Mark G just confirmed on FB that there's going to be a gig bag coming. So that's cool.

The alternative is getting a camera case or an actual rack, which, to me, seems kinda pointless if you’re reducing the bulk by ditching the wooden sleeve! Surprised about the weight - it only has one more metal panel than the normal version (on the top) and that has to weigh less than the sleeve. Has to be a mistake.

I like the look without the case - it's smaller, and probably substantially lighter too. But they should sell it with a gig bag, like they did with the first-gen Rootmasters. Although maybe not with the wool lining!

I'm looking forward to trying them out. I'm just hoping they're not otherwise generic (and not very good) bass amps dressed up with a badge with some historical brand cachet, like Guitar Center did in the US when they brought back the Acoustic brand about 10 years ago.

The current NS Radius range of basses are rather nice - I was surprised. The higher-end ones have a graphite/maple sandwich neck, but even the cheaper wooden-necked WAV models are really nice and apparently super-stable. They're more a spiritual successor to the 1990s XQ series than the good ol' cricket bat though.

Epiphones, despite having lower quality hardware, pickups, electronics, etc, were a lot more consistent than US Gibsons. You got some great Gibsons, but a lot of bad ones. A friend of mine was after a new Les Paul and tried out at least 20 in order to find a good one. Supposedly they've got that under control now though.

Gibson seem to be on a bit of a path to redemption in that department. They're doing well with Mesa/Boogie, they've resurrected Tobias, and, by all accounts, the new instruments are excellent, and they have apparently addressed a lot of their QC issues recently. Having said that, I still can't see it happening.

At one point, I had four. I sold three of them thinking I was wanting to go in a bit of a different direction, but I miss them! Here's three of them. I still have the red 5-string.

What Owen said. In addition to the Mule, Alan’s been experimenting with a few interesting new designs lately, including a “skeleton” bass that’s basically a solid top and back, with a hollow, sparred interior. Shuker will also make you more or less anything you want - I saw a nice, Leduc-style floating top semi-acoustic from him recently that was rather nice. I’m sure he could make something similar in short scale.

They became independent from Fender in 1991 and started producing the Factor basses themselves again. They're still going and are producing Factors on a to-order basis, although Phillip Kubicki himself died in 2013.

It's basically going to be an updated version of the Nemesis heads, not the WT design. They don't have valve preamps, for a start. The Nemesis stuff was great though, and was probably the first ever proper lightweight range of bass gear. The FET preamp sounded reasonably "valve-y" too. The Nemesis 8x10" combo (yes, combo) was one of the coolest bass rigs I ever tried, and it sounded massive.

Personally, if this comes to pass, I'm expecting that Fender will re-release the range under the Fender banner, but rename them the "GL-2000", "GL-2500", etc as a nod to where they came from. If they did that, hopefully they go back to the cleaner look of the non-CLF versions, with the rear-mounted controls and without the weird lumpy metal control plate. I'd love to see the brand survive as G&L, but I'd be alright with that, I think. I'd actually be OK with the idea that they might do what they did with the Jazz Bass Plus back in the 90s after they acquired Kubicki, and use the G&L pickups and electronics in a Jazz Bass.

I think that may have been the case maybe 5 years ago or so. You're starting to see a lot more interesting stuff showing up these days - headless and multiscale (and headless multiscale) have taken off in a big way, to the point where almost every major guitar manufacturer (except the dinosaurs like Fender, Gibson, etc) have added them to their ranges. I think Ned has come in with this at the right time. The people who like his NS stuff *really* like it, and are prepared to pay for it, to the point where nothing else will do.

They do come across as very inexpensive - I'm just wondering what they cheaped out on. It says they use Eminence speakers, so it's not there, and solid state amp PCBs are kinda much of a muchness these days, especially for Chinese-produced class D amps (it doesn't mention that they're class D, but they probably are). Based on the controls, inputs, etc, the PCB design for the head itself is probably still the solid state David Nordschow design that goes back to the old Nemesis heads. The Terra Nova range used this too. My concern is that the biggest head is only 500W, and that's really not all that much these days. Those cabs are going to need to be pretty efficient to get much volume from a 500W head. I'd be more enthusiastic if they had an 800W head.

If they do what they did with SWR, they'll keep them around for a while, then, after a few years, take the bits they like, add them to the Fender range under the Fender badge, and shutter them.

Seems Gear4Music have actually done something with the Eden brand. There's a whole new range of amps and cabs called the Novatone series. They look good, and they're very keenly priced. I particularly like the cabs - the rounded corners are very reminiscent of the old Nemesis stuff. No idea how they might compare to the old World Tour heads or D-series cabs, but it's nice to see that they've actually been given some attention. This is more than Marshall ever did with the brand! https://www.gear4music.com/Bass_Amps/Eden?page=1

Actually, I retract what I was saying about G4M not doing anything with Eden - seems there's a load of new stuff, including the Novatone range. https://www.gear4music.com/Guitar-and-Bass/Eden-NovaTone-500-Bass-Amplifier-Head/5JUR (sorry for the derail - back to G&L now )

I watch the prices of Bongos on Reverb quite closely (I'd like to rebuild my Bongo stable) and, in the US, they're still $2k-plus most of the time, if you want one that was made in the last 10 years. You do get the odd older one, before they started using the lightweight hardware, going for less, but not all that many. I'm after two 6-strings - fretted and fretless, and fretless Bonge sixers are as rare as rocking horse s**t. Considering they get made fun of quite regularly, you might think they're not desirable or in demand, but the people that know, know. They're keepers. Plus, they've had some good visibility in recent years from the likes of John Myung, The Omnific, Nothing More and various others who have gravitated towards them.

What they did to SWR is a lesson in how to completely waste a valuable, much-loved brand. I really hope they don't do the same with G&L. Although I am curious to see how they would sell a bass with L-series electronics - if they put them into a Fender-branded bass, would it be a P or a J, or something else? Would they continue to use the G&L brand at all? Personally, I think they'd have been a much better fit with EBMM, alongside their other "post-Fender" designs. Apparently there's a hell of a lot of SWR DNA in the current range of Fender bass amps - from what I understand, the Rumble series' electronics are largely based on the SWR Workingman electronics, which were a Steve Rabe design. The brand itself was considered innovative, desirable and high quality by bass players everywhere, even post-Fender takeover and shuttering it was a bit misstep for Fender. I think Marshall had a similar issue when they acquired Eden - they wanted a separate "bass division" but didn't bother putting much effort into it. And it's not like Marshall have had any presence in the bass amp market since, where the designs could have lived on. I think G4M currently own Eden, and have done precisely nothing with it since their takeover.

There's some big changes happening in the musical instrument manufacturing world right now as a result of all this tariff f**kery. You're going to be seeing a lot more US brands opening factories in other countries. Many US brands already have manufacturing in other places, but do all their distribution from the US, ie, the outsourced instruments are shipped to a US-based logistics hub for worldwide distribution) - that's going to be changing too. And yes, I have insider info on this.

Are they? That's new, quartersawn used to be the default on US G&Ls. In which case, I agree with you. They're not doing themselves any favours if they're cheaping out on what are supposed to be their prestige products. I wonder if a merger with Ernie Ball could be on the cards? It'd make sense to consolidate all of Leo Fender's post-FMC instruments into one company.

I'm sure the djent crowd will lap these up. And I like the idea of the flip-out "wings" so a regular guitar stand or hanger can be used. Only problem is, to my eyes, the aesthetics look wrong. The body shape is the same as the Combustion shape, and the proportions look wrong without a headstock. The body should have been downsized to compensate.