OutToPlayJazz

KingBass Mk-II 5-string for me

[quote name='GЯДИК' post='872214' date='Jun 19 2010, 10:09 PM']Cool sound and a nice build quality but I hate how far out the neck feels on a strap. I have long arms too... I traded mine to OutToPlayJazz on here[/quote] Good to see you again, GЯДИКФЯ. I also had a brand new $$ a while back. One of the best basses I've ever owned. As an all rounder, you can't beat the Corvette $$.

It looks like an Affinity, yes. No bad thing, either. Whatever the origins of these, you can get them for as little as £99. Would make a good project Jazz bass.

[quote name='Linus27' post='872083' date='Jun 19 2010, 08:05 PM']Thanks for the clip. Very nice although I do prefer something a little more woody sounding. Still very nice though. I have thought about Status although not totally convinced about the shape. Are they still British made? I also thought about a Yamaha BB614F although not sure if these are good instruments or not.[/quote] Hi Michael, Yes, Status are still 100% UK made in Colchester. I keep thinking about another S2, a fretless 5er, but don't have the finance as yet. I'll drop you a pm with another possible suggestion... Rich.

The man at his best - The Bass of Doom has it's fretted neck with maple fingerboard on for this one. Sounds great!

I use a little added bass & treble at 75% on my amplifier & have the bass' preamp treble & bass controls on full. I play at relatively low volumes, so it's the quality of sound I go for. It's the sound I like. If I have a graphic, I always set it to the old "smiley face" - Lots of treble & bass with the mids flat. Scooped heaven!

I suppose in a lot of ways I'm lucky in that I don't have to play with guitarists very often. In the musical areas I play even if there is a guitar, they're forced to be very subtle, which can only be a good thing. I'll be working with my old trio in July and the guitarist is very good, but I will need my earplugs in order to deal with the barrage of nasty noise he'll make. I liked Daz's comment in post #68 - Yes, we are always hearing from people that our basses are just a "guitar" - No, it's not a guitar you moron - It's a bass! And that it must be an easy job - Nope, it's as involved as any musical instrument if you learn to play it properly. It takes years of practise, a good teacher and a lot of experience to become a good bass player. So I hereby declare that anyone calling our magnificent instrument a "guitar" from now on should be deserving of a slow and painful death...

Bigoted? Me? Too damned right! Basically, with all instruments, there's a correct way to play them and a myriad of totally wrong ways. Unfortunately, the popularisation of our chosen chariot has led to a lot of sloppy players. I shall eradicate them all - MWHAHAHAHA!

Nice - Minimalist and very black - You would seem to be in a very dark place at the moment How does it play?

Wow! New bass and amp day at the same time?! Excellent Enjoy playing with your excellent new toys!

I usually have my double basses and Triumph EUB set at about 5mm (between string and the end of the fingerboard.) Being as you use pickups and amplifiers, there's no need to hit the thing hard, so you'd be as well to have a nice easy action and a pain free life

No problem, Graham - Just to be clear, I only work as a consultant with the MD of G4M & I don't get any money if you guys buy a bass or anything. What I've said on here today is purely from personal experience & the Archer in particular is well worth looking into with some common sense modifications for the base price. The last two Archers I reset the soundposts on had the same deep boom mine does, so they're definitely building them consistently.

You can always spot the guitarist trying to play a bass - They always hook their thumb over the top of the neck, play with that slanty hand (shockingly bad technique!) & have no clue what their fourth finger is for! Strangely enough, violinists look the same when they try to play cellos or double basses. To save the embarrassment, when someone who plays a soprano/alto instrument wants to play your cello/bass/electric bass, JUST SAY NO!

[quote name='PerryJ' post='866107' date='Jun 13 2010, 04:17 PM']Sorry, when [i]they[/i] sell out. I do appreciate the advice however, the main problem with the Archer is the price. Once set up properly and with the improvements you suggest, the cost ends up being about double my £500 budget.[/quote] Just thinking on that one... Obviously, you're not going to get a well set up new bass for a £500 budget, but you can get pretty close with the "Deluxe" 3/4 model. let's see... G4M Deluxe 3/4 Bass........... £420 Tail wire ............................. £ 12 Bridge/setup ....................... £ 60 These basses come with both a semi-hard (stupidly large) and soft cases, so you could ebay the coffin for a few pounds, say £50 & put that towards some good strings. You're not a million miles away.

[quote name='Beer of the Bass' post='865973' date='Jun 13 2010, 02:31 PM']I've read that the "Made in Europe" Thomann basses are made by Strunal. I've seen one or two Strunal basses in the flesh - they're good for the money and would be preferable to the Antoni. They start at £625 though...[/quote] Yes, the Thomann "Kontrabasse 1, 2, 3, 4" range are Strunal models from the Czech republic & the Thomann "Kontrabasse 11, 22, 33, 44" range are all made by the Hora company in Romania.

[quote name='PerryJ' post='866049' date='Jun 13 2010, 03:34 PM']So, I should buy a gear4music bass, but not until you've sold out of the current stock!?[/quote] Well I don't sell them, I'm only helping them out with the quality control, but in my own personal experience, yes they're a lot of bass for the money. Just be prepared for getting some setup work done & changing a few bits (as you would with any budget range DB.) I put a Werner tail wire on mine & had it re-bridged, re-strung it with some nice Thomastik Dominants & I've re-sanded the neck and beeswaxed it. The Archers are a fully carved Canadian maple bass, so the core instrument is very good. The £500 one you're looking at is also a good core laminate bass with a solid top. Again, factor in getting a decent tail wire, strings and a setup from a luthier and you're getting a lot of bass for the money. The current batch of Archer basses have a massive shove to the sound as well - I was in a few weeks back re-setting the sound posts on the latest batch.

I've been working on and off as a consultant for G4M in York & their Chinese manufacturers for the last few months, working with them on the orchestral string range. Basically, all of these instruments come (at the moment) in quite a basic state. Remember that you pay a very cheap price in the first place & G4M is not a luthier or specialist dealer, so expect to spend a bit on a decent bridge, decent strings & a tailwire (a must!) before your bass is up to spec. I'm playing one of the Archer models which I've worked on extensively & it's holding it's own in the country's top big bands - A band mate asked if it was my twenty-grand bass, it sounded so good! - so with a little modification here and there, you can get a great bass for not much money. We're working with the Chinese manufacturers (I met the factory owner a few weeks ago) to improve the state in which the instruments come over, so after a raft of proposals, I'm hoping the next couple of batches will be arriving with some of my suggested improvements.

[quote name='dave_bass5' post='865990' date='Jun 13 2010, 02:40 PM']And i still need ot decide what pups to put in. Im sure Wizard 84's would work (and Andy has recommended them based on what i asked him) but im still not sure about the dirty term used. I prefer a smoother tone.[/quote] I'd go for the Nordstrand hum cancelling ones. I played a set in a Japanese Jazz and it was exquisite!

Hey Dave, By the description of the neck, you just need to do an eighth to a quarter turn anti clockwise on the trussrod. Sounds like it needs a little more relief. Technically, you should have a little more give at the twelfth compared with the 20th & 1st, giving the slightest of curves as you look down the neck edge from the tuning end. Jazz necks seem to settle happiest when you just have that slight bit of relief in them. I've had to learn all of this via trial and error in the last few years, as my Status necks never move a millimetre!

[quote name='LawrenceH' post='865975' date='Jun 13 2010, 02:32 PM']How many different pickup positions are there then? I thought the VMJ was 'standard' rather than 70s, is 60s different again?! The VMJ I tried was heavy, and not amazingly well finished, but the acoustic tone was incredibly 'warm'. A lot of people seem to rate those Duncan Designed pickups , but to me they lacked bandwidth and sounded a bit cheap. If you could find one that was well finished and had as nice a sound as the one I tried, then with new pickups you'd be on to a real winner IMO. I do prefer the white/pearloid blocks & binding on a maple board though.[/quote] Well traditionally there are only two on Jazzes - The original 60's position & the 70's position (one quarter inch further back towards the bridge.) They originally did it because the rear pickup peeked out from the chrome bridge cover, but the happy coincidence was that the sound became brighter and grittier on the back pickup. If you look at most high quality twin pickup basses (particularly with soap bar humbuckers), they nearly always mimic the 70's spacing. Some get the back pickup even closer to the bridge, but there's definitely a trend there. The 60's spacing gives you the traditional Jazz burp on the back pickup, whereas the 70's spacing sounds a bit angrier and grittier, but has an overall brightening effect on the sound when you're using both pickups. I keep thinking of patenting a design where you can slide the back J pickup around, between both positions. Wouldn't that be cool?

[quote name='EdwardHimself' post='865971' date='Jun 13 2010, 02:31 PM']Yeah, but do you think you would have noticed had he not told you it was a digital amp model?[/quote] Quite possibly true, Edward - I would have still picked up on the bass being too quiet and lacking note definition, though.

[quote name='silddx' post='865945' date='Jun 13 2010, 02:05 PM']Does any of this sound "digital"? What is your opinion of the tones? Does it sound pleasing or irritating to the ears?[/quote] That's a lovely recording, Nigel Is it some of your stuff? I found the bass was too buried in beneath the mix for my tastes, but it did sound tone modelled, yes. Can't quite explain why, but the notes felt a little too 'fuzzy' around the edges. Not very clearly defined - Some kind of delay in the digital processing or something like that? I used to find the same thing with my Zoom B2 effects unit. The sounds were all of excellent quality, but there never seemed to be the immediacy you get without any form of effects. The Line 6 system I had solved the delay problem, but the sounds were all very artificial to my ears. Hence, I don't use effects or modelling these days. Just a great quality bass with a great quality amp Rich.

[quote name='doctor_of_the_bass' post='861655' date='Jun 8 2010, 11:32 PM']Nice one! Bro Richardus - did not realise ye had boughteth oneth! Nick x[/quote] Oh yes Brother Nikoluss, I actually bought a batch of two as orders for pupils, but one got cancelled. Sounds great and a dream to play as well! [quote name='dave_bass5' post='865868' date='Jun 13 2010, 12:30 PM']I giged my new CV Jass last night. Very impressed with it. It was a boomy stage but I got a nice off stage tone. I'll be getting some wizards for it this week but only becuase I want a slightly punchier tone, I could live with these pups if I had to.[/quote] So was I right then, Dave?