Russ

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.

US G&Ls use better wood (usually lighter wood too), have quartersawn necks (as opposed to flatsawn like the Tributes) and are available with a much wider range of finishes and various custom options are available. Other than that, the hardware is the same and the pickups and electronics are the same. Tonally, they're very similar. Compared to a Sterling By MM bass, a G&L Tribute is a much closer facsimile of its US-made sibling.

There's a high-mid/treble bump that you get from a G&L that's quite reminiscent (to my ears, anyway) of the Wal sound with the pick attack setting activated. It's a lower frequency than the characteristic biting MM "thwp" sound (which is at around 8kHz). That rubbery Wal tone you mention is what you get if you run the filters between about 30-60% - if you run them wide open, you get a flatter sound that a G&L can do a decent facsimile of. To me, the main drawback with a G&L with the L-series electronics is that you only have a 3-position pickup switch and not a proper blend control. I do maintain that a G&L is one of the best rock basses out there though. The M-2000/M-2500 basses had a more conventional blend and 3-band EQ setup, and they had a more MM-like sound - the treble boost was higher up the frequency range. The sound, when dialled just a little off centre, favouring the neck pickup slightly, and scooping the mids a little, was one of the biggest rock bass sounds I've ever come across. I used to own an SB-2 and it was one of the best P-style basses I've ever played.

G&L are great. Their electronics package is unique, versatile and powerful, the build quality is excellent (even on the Tributes) and I like the hooked headstock - it's one of the better ones out there, it's distinctive, and it's a damn sight better than the Sire headstock. I agree with those of you who have mentioned that they just don't seem to set themselves apart from other manufacturers - yes, they have great sounding instruments, but nothing that's really new. Their idea of doing something new was to reissue the older, uglier design of the L2000! And yep, the stuff about lacking name players is a big issue - the only people I can think of who were knowing for playing G&Ls were Jerry Cantrell of Alice In Chains, Cass Lewis of Skunk Anansie (who now plays Alusonics) and a few country guys whose names escape me. And, these days with everyone looking for bass information on Youtube, there's not all that much to be found. I think Lobster and Nate Navarro both covered G&L relatively recently, but, apart from the occasional Youtuber, they seemingly make no effort to put their instruments in name players' hands, and they put nothing out themselves in terms of media or video. Their website is also over 20 years old and looks it. If they're going to get taken over by someone else, they really need to put a lot more effort into creating visibility for their instruments. The brand has massive potential. And they could have occupied that same niche that their founder's previous company, Music Man, now occupy, if they'd just adapted to the times a bit better. EDIT: Given the popularity, and insane price tag, of Wals these days, a G&L will give you probably the closest tone to a wide-open Wal that you can get in a production instrument, especially if your taste in Wal tone is of the crunchy, Justin Chancellor variety. And a Tribute will do it too, so you can get 95% of that tone for £500... the law of diminishing returns applies, I think.

I guess I must have been using the Bass 400+ wrong for all those years I had it. Not going to make the same mistake with this one! Played with it a bit more today. Volume issue seems to be sorted, so I retract what I was saying about the volume! The challenge right now is to add volume without adding much in the way of additional "fur". I like a bit of fur, but not loads. The EQ controls add fur-free volume, it's just a case of balancing that with the input gain, I think, so I'll be playing with that some more. I'll get there!

Mohini is the real deal. Absolute monster player, and she can do a lot more than just flashy Youtube-oriented onanism. She's in Willow Smith's band and they do some very interesting stuff - Willow has obviously moved on significantly from "Whip My Hair". And her other band, DarWin, are pretty bloody good as well, if you like melodic prog rock.

Not going to get any more time to mess with it today (kids, bedtimes, etc ) but I think I'm starting to get the hang of it. And it is sounding rather good now. Back when I had the Bass 400+ I mostly EQ'd using the graphic rather than the main tone controls, which were mostly left flat-ish - I'd adjust them for the room, plus, since I was using the 1516 which was up on casters, I'd dial in a bit of additional bottom end to compensate for the lack of coupling of the cab with the stage / floor.

If I use the high gain switch position, it gets very furry very quickly - can't turn the input gain above about 3 without it getting hairy. I'm using an active bass with pretty high output though. I'll keep experimenting. I've got the EQ controls all pretty much centred right now at around 5, but, again, I'll play with it some more and see what I can come up with. It's still early days, basically. EDIT: I dialled down the HPF a bit and dialled up the bass and mid controls, and left the shelving switches off. Kept the input on low gain, and it's much better. It is starting to shake the doors a bit now.

So I got mine yesterday. Only just had a chance to plug it in and put it through its paces. First impressions - it does sound like a Bass 400+. In that regard, job done. It's got that little bit of inherent dirt from the valve preamp, and a very similar character in terms of the overall frequency curve (a bit middy, but in a nice, smooth, detailed and slightly furry way). Here's a pic of it sitting on top of my Ashdown RM800 - you can get a good idea of its (small) size. Downsides? Sadly, it does seem to have a big one - it just doesn't seem very loud. My RM800 is louder when turned up to about 9:00 (see pic) than the Mesa is turned up to about 7 or 8. This is with it going into my Barefaced BTII (which can handle 1600W). Maybe I'm doing something wrong with it, but that could potentially be a dealbreaker - if I can turn it up to 8 in my house and not shake the doors off their hinges, then there's something not quite right here. The Ashdown is too loud for the house once it gets to about 11:00, with loads more volume to go. Which is weird, because they probably use the exact same ICEpower modules for their Class D power sections. I'll keep playing - will report back with more findings.

Gigged with Fury several times about 10 years back, but that was before Becky's time. Great band. Even had to share sleeping space upstairs from a pub in Coleford with them! Becky's a good player and a great bass ambassador, and she's brought them some valuable additional publicity.

Mine should be here on Tuesday. Gives me a few days to put it through its paces at home before taking it to rehearsal next weekend...

Harley Benton do a Brian May "tribute" guitar, which is supposed to be rather good, and better than the official models if you don't want to be dealing with all the fiddly phase switches, etc. They also do a bunch of "tribute" Strat-a-likes, includng a Hank Marvin one in Fiesta Red with gold hardware, and a Dave Gilmour one in black, with white pickups. They're all pretty cheap on Thomann too. I've not played those particular HB Strats, but I've played one of their regular ones and it's a bloody good guitar for £150. Basically, you could have a decent collection of tribute guitars for some of the UK's greatest guitarists for under £500!

When it comes to gear, especially amps, I like to be able to go with companies where I have a point person - I've been using Ashdown for so long mostly because I've known Mark and Dave for a long time, and I know that if I have any issues with anything that they've got me covered. Luckily their gear is good. Mark arranged tour support for me on a couple of occasions 20-odd years ago at no charge, and Dave has been brilliant when I've had technical questions about the gear. When I've flirted with other amps over the years, I've never felt like I had that level of support - I'm actually comfortable with the idea of using Mesa though, because we have @agedhorse here to speak to. Never underestimate the difference the personal touch can make. So thanks so much for that - you got a sale out of it!

F**k it. Broke out the credit card and ordered one. This I have to try.

My old one. It has to be said though, whomever decorated this rehearsal room in Sainsbury's colours needs to be humanely destroyed.

From my experience, they do have a noticeable seismic impact on the surrounding area. My neighbours hated me when I had the 400+ and the 1516! I just think that this head deserves a matching cab, complete with the Mesa/Boogie logo, the grid plate grille and so on, but in the Subway style - ie, lightweight and portable for people who don't have a big car and who value the integrity of their vertebrae.

Didn't click the link. This is Ellen, isn't it? She's phenomenal. I have a bit of an issue with kid YouTubers in general - it feels horribly exploitative most of the time, like their parents are trying to make bank from their kids (especially the likes of Ryan Kaji and his parents, where there's no talent or anything involved, just cute kids playing with toys). But Ellen and her dad both seem to genuinely love music - her dad's a guitarist and he jams with her in some of their videos. She's got a pretty bright future ahead of her, I think.

Mesa has a custom shop, does it not? Might it be worth having a word with them as an interested party? Personally, I just love the idea of a complete, downsized version of my late-90s/early-2000s rig that’d be a bit easier on my pentagenarian back! And Ampeg have made a mint out of downsized SVTs for years… just saying.

Temuera Morrison. Yes, I remember noticing that at the time!

Just saw this. As someone who owned a Bass 400+ back in the day (probably the best-sounding bass head I ever owned), I love the look of it and I'm looking forward to trying one out. Now, how can I persuade Mesa to make a lightweight version of the old 1516 cab? @agedhorse How about a downsized version, with 1x12”, 1x8”, 2x5” and a tweeter, with lightweight neo speakers? With the proper Mesa/Boogie badges, not the Mesa Engineering ones.

There's also the American side of 80s music - glam/hair metal, swingbeat, early rap, all that kind of thing, as well as all the stuff that was big on the eastern side of the pond. Regarding the image, yes, I agree - there was a lot of enormous hair, bad fashion and inappropriate makeup back then, and their photo spreads in the likes of Smash Hits and Look-In sold as many records as their music did. But the surviving bands from that era who are still out there playing their stuff are now the same old blokes as those who would be playing that stuff in cover bands, just with a larger costume budget. Duran Duran are all in their mid-60s now, with their audience not too far behind, and they're still selling out tours!