BillyBass

I've been putting off buying a 5 string for a while now. Every time we learn a new song in some form of drop tuning I consider it again. From Monday I'm going to be stuck indoors for two weeks while wifey is away in Turkey and a conservatory is being built on the back of our house. So I thought this would be a great time to buy a 5 string and knuckle down and learn how to play it, and I've also got 2 weeks to think of an excuse as to why I have just bought another new bass. I don't want to spend more than £800 unless there is a good reason. So, I'm thinking of perhaps the Charvel Pro-Mod San-Dimas JJ V, or a Sadowsky Metro express JJ or PJ V, all of which are in stock in Guitarguitar in Camden. Bassdirect has a great range of fivers in stock but that's a fair drive from North London, so I would only consider it if their stock was much better (the MTD stuff looks interesting though). Any advice would be appreciated.

Kiloton Tribute acquired a couple of weeks ago; alongside its matching rig.

Thats bad news. By all accounts their compressors are very good.

The Marcus Miller Markbass amps have EQ points at 1.4KHz and 3.8 Khz and dialling them to 3pm does really remove the blanket. Mr Miller, presumably, came to the same conclusion as you and asked Markbass to alter the amps accordingly.

Certainly

My main peeve about pedals is how much I have spent on them.

You would also have to check which tonefabrics the hats were made of. I reckon wool with a P Bass would not be a good match.

@wintoidOne of the mods got back to me. They have the 'Fretboard Accelerator' course starting soon but no Technique Accelerator course is planned for Q1. Beyond that they haven't got any plans.

They still have a couple of the older brown ones in stock but it's mainly the new CAR finish. G&L do a black Tribute too with a rosewood fingerboard and inlays but no one seems to have them over here yet. I suppose if there were more finish options the price would rise.

They do, and they sound great too. Andertons were flogging them for £379 but they have just put the price up to £499. Guitarguitar still sell them for £399 though.

Fantastic artwork, shame they aren't bass specific.

So, half the price of cheapest new Stingray! And it's made in Germany I presume, not in Cortek's factory in Indonesia. Considering how everything is going up in price, that's not bad really.

GAK sent me an e-mail today announcing that they have some American Stingrays back in stock. Lovely looking basses, starting at £2750, up to £3k if you want a matching headstock and a white pick up! So I'll be interested to see how much these are. I bought a G&L Tribute Kiloton last week and I love it. The pick up placement looks about the same as these Sandbergs.

I'll ask one of the mods on SBL and get back to you.

Im not a fan of their video reviews either. I don't care about the attempts at humour but they are a shop selling stuff and the videos they produce are designed to promote GAS, consequently, all the stuff is great and very little gets criticised. Occasionally certain products are preferred to others but nothing ever gets really ripped apart. Most YouTube reviewers get paid to review stuff and generally focus on the positives and omit to mention anything negative. There are a few YouTube bass reviewers that aren't remunerated for their reviews and are prepared to call a spade a spade, 'Low End Lobster' for instance. He buys or borrows the basses he reviews and is quite comprehensive in his judgements on gear. He called a Charval San Dimas bass 'Fender's turd'. As a online shop though, Andertons are pretty good. They generally have high stock levels and their online ordering and delivery is excellent. I have bought quite a bit of gear from them over the years.

I compared the Bf 110 to the TE 208 both through an Elf at the Bass Gallery a few years ago. The Barefaced cab sounded much better, the TE cab sounded thin in comparison. I don't think the Bass Gallery had the TE 110 at the time. I bought a second BF110 from them 6 months later.

Its a tough life isn't it😉 Mine would look better with an inlay at the first fret.

Wifey gave me permission to spend £379 on the tribute kiloton but $2399 (roughly £1750-£1800) would need some serious house cleaning and washing up. I notice that Sweetwater and Guitar Center sell the Tribute Kilotons for $650 in the U.S. which is considerably dearer than over here. Normally American kit has quite a mark up when crossing the pond but I suppose we must import these directly from Indonesia. I'm not complaining!

I've just had a look at that. Nice bass!

Welcome to Basschat mate 👍

SFX sell niche products and they don't look all that sexy. I bet the likes of Jam Pedals and Fuzzrocious sell way more kit. The market for distortion and fuzz pedals is, er, saturated, so if you want to stand out you have to make them attractive. I will admit, the appearance of a pedal is a factor in whether I choose to buy or not.

The Tribute Kiloton I have has a 4 bolt neck joint but you are right about the resonance. A plucked E string does go on and on. Not as much as my string through Yamaha BB434 but still long enough for, say, 2 bars at the end of a section of song.

Its the same as your SB2. No finish! G&L refer to it as 'satin' finish but it doesn't seem to have had any oil or lacquer put on it. The back of the neck is smooth enough so if I was so inclined I could rub in some oil myself, which would possibly improve it, or make a sticky mess. I would have to look into suitable oils for rubbing into the back of bass necks.

Is that another PMT B stock bass?

The neck would look a bit anaemic without them. Ideally I'd have the CAR finish with the rosewood/pearloid inlays but the rosewood/pearloid only comes with the stealth black.