Obrienp
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The Short Scale Bass Appreciation Society!
Obrienp replied to Baloney Balderdash's topic in Bass Guitars
I have had one for a few years now and I think they are great little basses but not without their issues and idiosyncrasies. Pros and cons from mine and other folks’ experience: Pro: 1. Very light weight and well balanced; 2. Slim fast neck (36mm at the nut); 3. Lots of tones available and it can sound massive on some settings; 4. The push-button presets give you instant repeatable tone (not to everybody’s taste); 5. Quality hardware but see some of the cons below. Cons: 1. Selecting the all-in (series) pickup setting can be very tricky; 2. Some reported issues with the longevity of the push-buttons; 3. First batch basses suffered from the saddles dropping on the Hipshot bridge. The official cure was Loctite and careful location of the string ball ends (not acceptable IMO). My second batch model has been OK in this respect; 4. The pickup screws go straight into the metal baseplate and the thread can strip over time giving the screws no grip, so the pickups drop. My local luthier has had to repair quite a few by attaching a nut to the baseplate. He says the pickups look very cheaply made, which is ironic as they are one of the few USA parts; 5. No body contouring. I haven’t found this as much of a problem as on basses like Mustangs and the Gretsch Junior Jet; 6. The upside down headstock is a gimmick that wears thin after a while and it can be confusing tuning it, if you swap from a conventionally configured bass during a gig. I am thinking of having a pickguard made to accommodate a strat style pickup selector, vol, tone and jack socket. Then I can do away with the buttons. I like the tone presets though, so I would replicate them with a rotary varitone control. Just a thought. There looks to be ample room in the cavity to accommodate this set up. Hope this helps your decision. BTW my experience is with a dual pickup model. -
I wasn’t aware of that one but I see it has a 42mm nut, which is too wide for me. Otherwise looks very interesting. Somewhat in the mold of the Watt Plower II with the pickup configuration. That leaves me still gassing after the Warwick Starbass (bit cheaper too). Hard to get hold of though. Anyway enjoy your new acquisition. It looks the business.
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The Short Scale Bass Appreciation Society!
Obrienp replied to Baloney Balderdash's topic in Bass Guitars
They have fixed the bridge and machine heads issue, that @BassApprentice refers to, in the latest Sonic version. I’m not saying you won’t want to replace them with higher quality items but it will be a lot easier to do the swap with a 5 hole Fender style bridge mount, etc. The pickup is still a Strat 6 string thing under the plastic cover. Most people want to replace it eventually and there are various options ranging from purpose made (expensive) replacements and cheaper Strat rail pickups. I had one of the previous models with the two saddle bridge and toy machine heads. After wrestling with the bridge and tuner replacements, I fitted a Tone Rider split P bass pickup with a custom scratch plate (off eBay). After these mods it was a very nice little bass. I imagine the Sonic versions will be just as much fun, with less hassle involved in the upgrades. -
The Short Scale Bass Appreciation Society!
Obrienp replied to Baloney Balderdash's topic in Bass Guitars
I’ve been thinking of giving that a try. Presumably you need to use the bottom 4 strings out of a 5 string set, or get hold of a single B. The reason I haven’t tried yet, is that it will require opening up the nut slots to accommodate the chunkier strings. It would then need a nut replacement to reverses the experiment. -
The Short Scale Bass Appreciation Society!
Obrienp replied to Baloney Balderdash's topic in Bass Guitars
They have a lot going for them in terms of ergonomics: light and very well contoured. Another benefit is the string clamping mechanism, which allows you to use standard length strings and cut off the excess. This gives you much more choice and keeps the price down compared to short/medium scale strings. I had a 4 string EHB that had quite a wide neck but it was shallow and the profile was graduated, if I remember correctly. This meant it was still easy to play. The only problem I had, was often landing two frets out when playing without looking at the neck. I think it was something to do with not having a headstock in my peripheral vision. This might not be as much of an issue with the multi-scale EHB 5. The benefit of buying used is you might get one that has had the pickups upgraded to Nordies, or Aguilar. The original Barts weren’t everybody’s cup of tea. However, if you like traditional, they very much fall in that bracket. I note the new model EHB shorties have Nordies OEM. -
The Short Scale Bass Appreciation Society!
Obrienp replied to Baloney Balderdash's topic in Bass Guitars
I missed that. Just looked at their website and couldn’t see anything about it but I’m sure you are right. They had quite a lot of challenges with their Far Eastern manufacturing. It’s a shame as far as price is concerned but perhaps a bonus in terms of build quality. -
The Short Scale Bass Appreciation Society!
Obrienp replied to Baloney Balderdash's topic in Bass Guitars
People have already mentioned the Ibanez EHB models. They now do a standard 30” and a nicer looking version of the multi-scale but those are both well over the £1k mark now. Bass Direct have a MTD 5 string 32” scale at just under £1K. It looks like an upmarket version of the discounted Ibanez SRMD Mezzo medium scale but with better appointments and build (you would hope). Nordstrand have been threatening a 5 string version of their short scale Acinonyx for some time. That would probably squeeze in at around the £1K mark and might just be the fiver for those, like me, who can’t manage the usual neck width. It was meant to imminent but no doubt Trump’s clowning has caused a delay. Neck width was what caused me to part with the Talman 5. Mine had a neck like a cricket bat, as well as a body made of lead. I understand they vary quite a bit in this respect. A reasonable bass otherwise but you will end up spending so much on upgrades, you may as well look for a used EHB. -
I’m out. Gave into the temptation of a second LFSys Monza, having considered many alternatives, including sticking with just the one. I have a significant birthday this year, so I decided on an early birthday present and I needed just a few more DB for the blues/rock band I play in. Life’s short, etc…. No excuse.
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Ah! Sorry, didn’t notice that this was in the EUB and Double bass section, in which case my comments above are irrelevant. Have to say, I didn’t know they did nylon tapes for upright. They must cost a fortune!
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I put LaBella black nylon strings on a large bodied fretless acoustic (Guild) and they suited it extremely well. It was short scale and they had the right amount of tension to prevent it from being too slappy but still give a bit of that upright sound. That’s where they excel IMO: fretless and acoustic basses. However, that’s based on one set of LaBellas, I haven’t tried any other makes and I haven’t tried them on a fretted bass.
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My first and worst amp was a FAL solid state 50 watt thing in the early 70s which I played through a homemade cabinet with a Fane 18” driver. I think the cab was probably OK but the FAL …. euch!
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I used to view folk club sing-arounds as creeping death. It really winds up your stage fright waiting for your turn to come around. I much prefer a jam.
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How many publicans would be happy with you asking for free beer all night in return for the great publicity? Not to say I am not very sympathetic to their issues. It’s a real struggle to break even for many and paying a band means that it has got to lead to greater takings. Playing for free is fine for charities but in no other circumstances IMO. It undermines those who make a living from music and depresses the value of music in general.
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Thank you for the explanation. I think that definitely puts the nail in the coffin of my idea to upgrade the drivers. it’s not that the Two10 isn’t loud enough, it’s that it starts to break up earlier than I would like. This happens particularly in the blues/rock band but also in another covers band that I dep for occasionally. What I would like is a clean, deep tone at medium volume, which happens to be around 12 o’clock Gain and Master on my two class D heads (500 watts at 4ohms), normally with no bass boost (the Two10 provides the vintage voicing out of the box). I’m coming round to the view that I would be better getting another LFSys Monza: the two would give me ample headroom and I can get to my preferred tone through EQ and amp voicing. I just wish I could turn the horn down a touch on the highs but I can get the same effect with a LPF. A plus is that adding the second Monza would give me a 3 db boost, over the single. It would also raise the output nearer my ears, making it even more audible. I’ve been told this several times by various people but I was trying to explore cheaper options.
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Thank you for the offer. Generally I would be up for a self build but I have a DIY duty list as long as my arm at the moment. It might be something to consider for the winter, if I haven’t sorted my cab requirements by then. At the moment I don’t want to jeopardise domestic bliss by “getting distracted” 😏.
