bnt

According to this, they're made by a company called Jolana in the Czech Republic. I can't see any basses on that site, though.

I wouldn’t want to overstate it, but pickup placement is one of the things Leo Fender innovated. The central position is awkward in some respects, compared to other instruments of the period, including Fender’s own, which were mostly all the way back or forward. Even post-Fender, he developed the Music Man Stingray with its “sweet spot” pickup placement. There’s another thread on Reverse P placement, where the coils are swapped left/right as in Sandbergs etc. Details! 🤓

This video is a pretty good review, which comes down pretty hard. It looks like the OEM has changed the neck joint entirely, it’s down to 5 bolts with no more body cutaway for upper fret access. G4M says they have 20+ in stock now, but if I was to buy one, what would I get? 

I’ve never played any Fender bass, since I’ve never been able to afford one, and I’m not the kind of player who can take a random bass off the rack, plug it in, and sound good. 
 

edit: if you mean P-style basses, my first bass was one, and I’ve posted about the HB MP-4EB I have, now with added EMG-ness.

Or “suspenders”, as they’re called in the USA. Tony Levin wears them because they help support his Stick, and he told the story of the looks he got when he tried to find some in a shop in England. 😌

Tony Sales used a Vigier with Tin Machine around their second album, and live - sounded really good. 

Thanks, folks. This year I expect to see packs of antiseptic wipes all over the show too. 😷

Possibly silly question: at a Bash, do people play each other's basses? It won't bother me, since I have a cheap bass, but if I brought a Fodera along, I would be paranoid about belt buckles etc. One major reason why I'm hoping to attend is to see and possibly try a variety of instruments, since the music shops here are not great at the best of times.

To me it looks like one of the Fender Vintera 50s P from a couple of years ago:

Ugh. So first we had the hype, now we have the inevitable "backlash", do we? Predictable, and neither tell us anything useful.

I can't see myself buying either of those basses, not even if we got affordable Sterling versions, but I don't have any complaints about Joe's sound in its band contexts. I think it works well with guitars and drums, but then I'm not a fan of bass solos at all.

1 hour ago, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:

This whole thing smacks of some kind of weird practical joke. The tuning, the similarity to the other JD sig model, Stratton claiming to have financed it, all of the promo video in fact, the selling out in a couple of hours - the whole thing has an aura of extracting the P about it. 

Is this the same guy who said, on the launch video for the original model, "no more government subsidies for active basses"? He's a motormouth with a faulty head gasket, he's tossing a word salad in these videos.

It's definitely tuned down: listen to the video, at the start he's hitting some open low Cs. I was wondering too, but checked against my own bass, and it's an octave below C on the A string.

Another factor affecting the bass tone in the video: it's tuned down to C standard (C F Bb Eb), and so those short scale flatwounds are slack. EBMM's website says the bass comes tuned that way as standard.

We have video:

Nice Rutger Gunnarsson namecheck there. 💪

I've been wondering about this amp too, since I saw that video and others. I don't mind the low power out, since that would be fine for practice use, with the option of going in to a powered PA speaker or system if more is needed live. Only three amp models, but they cover the main vintage & modern areas.

One point of concern for me: it uses a 28V external PSU. That's an odd voltage that would be hard to replace if it goes wrong.

I still hope to bring my EMG-swapped version of my Shamberg to the Midlands Bass Bash in September, where people can check it out. I find the reverse P tone to be very consistent between strings now, even without processing. But I don't have an amp (because I have housemates and neighbours) and so don't really have a feel for how it would translate in to moving air.

EMGs installed after some drilling to expand the wiring tunnel & sounding pretty good, though the bass has a new string set and rattles a bit. It needs a setup, probably tomorrow, to reduce the rattle. The dual nature of the MMTW means I have three good tones to play with. VVT controls: the planned switch is too big for the control cavity. Through the Brainworx Ampeg SVTVR plugin I'm getting tones with a odd Rickenbacker quality to them, for some reason. Though the P tone is still there if I want it only. Some quick pics:

edit: just noticed that missing paint chip - must have happened during installation. Touchup required.

Chapman made this 4-string multiscale model, which you might be able to  find second-hand. I believe it's 32.75” to 35".

The Ibanez EHB range are also very light - one owner on this thread weighed his as under 7lbs.

I thought I mentioned that I was going ahead with the EMG swap, but it looks like I didn't. I ordered EMG P and MMTW pickups a couple of months ago, they finally arrived earlier this week, and I started the installation process today. I'm currently off work recovering from heart surgery which was a long time coming (see the "falling apart" thread), and thought this would make a nice project to keep me occupied, but to no-one's surprise, it's not that simple.

• First of all, I can't install the MMTW yet, since the channel between pickup cavity and control cavity is too small to accommodate the cables; so further woodwork is required. That's a job for another day, maybe tomorrow.
• Getting the old pickups out was a nightmare, since I'm short on "core" strength at the moment. The standard pickup mounting screws are crap and some already had stripped heads when I got the bass. They must have been installed using a power tool, and it took me hours of work with knives, pliers etc. to finally get them out.
• I had to wire up the EMG power connectors to the existing battery compartment, and the ground wire was too short, so I had to extend that, which meant soldering. I also soldered up a 3-way Les Paul type switch and hooked it to the EMG switching block, though I'm not using it yet. The plan is to have the individual pickup volume controls, then switch, then master tone.
• The standard jack plate on the bass is threaded in metric. I have to use the EMG 3-pole jack socket, which is American. So I had to replace the jack plate entirely. Thankfully, I was prepared for this, having bought two new jack plates, since I still have ideas for dual outputs in the future. Actually doing dual outputs will require more woodwork, a job for the future.
• Once all the above prep work was done, it was no trouble to install the P pickup, volume and tone, with solderless connections, and it worked first time. The supplied mounting screws are much better quality, though it is catching on the pickguard a little - nothing a few minutes with needle files won't sort out. That will also help with height adjustment, which isn't quite right yet.
• The sound? I hear a solid P tone so far. A bit more "polite" than the fire-breathing standard Roswell, and the supplied passive tone control isn't as aggressive with cutoff as the old one. It's a lot quieter, of course.
• I'm disappointed I couldn't get the MMTW installed today, since that has the potential to make this bass even more versatile. It can operate in two modes: MM-style humbucker, or (via pull pot) as a J-style stacked humbucker. (Yes, it actually has three coils internally.)
• As for the old pickups, I have a vague idea of making a "balls to the wall" P bass with the Roswell P and the above-mentioned Artec Mudbucker. The Roswell MM pickup might be OK in a Stingray-type slap bass, but I don't know.

The Electra was remarkable for having modular effects in cartridge form that could be swapped in or out. Chris played it on Tempus Fugit (Drama), some nice Phaser there. 

On 01/03/2021 at 19:12, bnt said:

I’m heading for a few weeks off work, recovering from surgery, so one thing I want to do is get better at bass repairs. I have two instruments with high frets, so I have a Thomann order in for miscellaneous tools & bits: fret rocker, string height gauge, fret file etc. A couple of EMG pickups for my HB Clonedberg, and an adjustable nut for my fret less. 

I got out of hospital on Monday and the EMGs were only shipped on Monday too, six weeks after I ordered them. The rest of the order arrived weeks ago, and the fret rocker has already flagged several high frets on the HB, so I can address those if I have the energy. (I’m still pretty much in hit-by-a-truck mode most of the day.)

I don't know if you would gain that much by ordering in from Germany, and would also consider ordering from the UK e.g. Andertons have instruments such as the Ibanez Talman for a decent price on their beginners page. In your shoes, for travel, I would have a look at the Talman short scale TMB-30 in particular.

VAT only applies to first sale, so that would not be relevant for used instruments. I'll check before I travel, but I'm fairly sure that a single instrument for personal use, not being imported, doesn't attract customs charges.

There is such a thing as a musical instrument certificate, but that has to do with CITEs and there are exemptions for musical instruments, so you won't get fined over e.g. a Bubinga top.

PS: no carnet needed for portable instruments, says the MU.

I have the 4-string version of this, which is well-constructed, though I wasn't happy with the passive volume & blend -> active EQ wiring. I call mine the Shamberg, and it's currently wired passive 2V2T with some EMGs on the way in a few weeks.