Obrienp

Further update: so I tried the EQ settings suggested by @Phil Starr and (subjectively) I did seem to be getting a more neutral sound out of the Gnome/Monza. Having tried the bass rolled off a bit, I then put it back because I like quite a lot of low end. I will keep the treble control rolled off in future as suggested. The Gnome + Monza combination is still exposing that the Flyrig V2 is quite noisy. Using the compressor and amp modelling is really generating a lot of high frequency buzz. I guess it is like turning up a traditional valve amp, which to be fair to the Flyrig , is what it is modelling. No excuse for a noisy compressor though. Suffice it to say that I had not noticed this when using the BF Two10, especially when using the Markbass LMIII. The Monza literally gives you what you put into it. I guess an analogy is the old computing maxim: “garbage in, garbage out”. I am finding the LMIII with the Monza much more balanced than the Gnome at flat EQ but to contradict that last statement, the LMIII has an overall warmer tone out of the box. It also doesn’t seem to be as loud as the Gnome at the same Gain and Master settings. This seems a bit weird as the Gnome must be giving around 160 watts at 8 ohms and LMIII almost 300! I think the Gnome is more aggressive early: a case of showroom appeal? More reports after using in a band situation and hopefully a gig.

Nice! I regret selling mine about 8 years ago but I was wedded to long scale then. Now I’ve also got arthritis in my left hand and find medium and short scale, jazz style necks are best for me. I also put a DiMarzio P/J set in mine and some interesting wiring. Only issue I had was neck dive but a wide grippy strap cures that.

Shall do. May be in a day or two though. Interesting that the Boss WL-20 cut a lot of the noise. Obviously not transparent.

At the risk of keeping this hare running: in that case, I wish Ibanez had put a bridge with narrower spacing on the 5 string Mezzo. That way we could have had the benefit of the shorter scale without the extra neck width.

OK guys. I get what you are saying but in that case, why is the 4 string Mezzo neck slightly narrower than the 4 string SR? Shouldn’t it be slightly wider too? Regarding the P Pickup and spacing; the beauty of the split P design is that the top and bottom halves can be set to overlap a bit more than standard in order to compensate for narrower string spacing. I did this on a Bronco that I modified. It worked OK. I would also point out that the standard pickup positioning on my 4 string Mezzo means that the E string is not that well aligned with the pole pieces but it still works OK. This could be down to manufacturing tolerances on my example but it looks to me as though the bodies are knocked up on CNC machines, so they should be pretty uniform.

A little late and really first impressions but my NCD day was Tuesday when my Monza, plus cover arrived. Circumstances have conspired against me being able to put it through its paces but based on a few hours of use, I am very pleased with it. First impressions: it’s a very good looking cab IMO. The grey finish makes it a bit different without being as in your face as an Orange cab. I like the steel grill and being able to see the woofer, compression driver and port. The handle is excellently placed and comfortable in the hand. It is recessed enough to allow the bottom of most heads to clear it: e.g. my MB LMIII but not my Warwick Gnome iPro (280 watt). The cover is exactly what I expect from an aftermarket cover manufacturer: tough cloth with proper padding, nicely fitted, with exactly the right positioning of the cut-out for the handle and a discreet LFSys logo. Size wise, it’s taller and broader than some other 10s, e.g. a BF One10 but similar in depth (if I recall my One10s correctly). It’s almost as wide as my Two10 but not as tall or deep. OK; so how does it sound? Well everything others have said. You hear everything you put into it, which can be quite a shock, if like me you are used to cabs with a coloured tone. I tried it with my Warwick Gnome iPro first and thought that my basses had developed grounding issues. I also realised that the compressor in my Flyrig is quite noisy. Now the Gnome is quite an aggressive little amp and is sort of the antidote to the vintage tone of my BF Two10. I also had it EQd flat for this session. This created a rather nasty brittle top end and accentuated the high pitch buzzing. I just had time to try my LMIII next and that sounded much better. Much less high pitched hum and a quick tweak of the VLE showed that there is lots of potential to change tone characteristics. The next session was a few days later with the benefit of a quick email exchange with Stevie and some thought. I went back to the Gnome but this time used my Boss wireless system instead of a lead. This made a really big difference to what I had thought were grounding issues. Perhaps the lead I had used previously was the culprit. I also tweaked the bass up and mid and high down. This was a quite workable solution. Having sorted the noise I could start to appreciate what the cabinet has to offer. There is plenty of bottom end available and it’s distinct, not flabby. The mids and highs are very present. I then swapped to the LMIII and started to notice how every teak to the EQ settings is noticeable. You really do get out what you put in, including any fret rattle from poor technique. Last off, I decided to annoy the cabinet police and put the Monza on top of my Two10 (switched to 12 ohms). This should give a 4ohms load (according to the BF tech advice). It wasn’t very successful. The Monza gets 2/3 of the power in this set up and the Two10 couldn’t be heard. I would need an amp capable of 2ohms to make this work. That way the Two10 would get 2/3 (switched to 4 ohms) and the Monza 1/3. I think that would be very interesting: loud and full range with a big bottom end. I can’t afford an EBS Reidmar (even less a Bergantino) for the foreseeable future, so I suspect I’m not going to get the chance to test that one! Still on the messing around with different cab configurations, I tried the Monza as an auxiliary cab to my Peavey MiniMax 150 combo (12” speaker). Wow! I really didn’t expect this to work, especially as the Monza has to be alongside, as they won’t stack but it sounded really good. Very full and warm, with the Monza adding in the high mids and top end that is weak on the Peavey. I need to spend more time with the Monza but I am learning that getting the sound I want will require a little experimentation. I have the feeling that, whatever you need, it can give it. Provided you put the right source and EQ in, the Monza will deliver, whatever your tone and style. What you don’t get is a pre-determined tone. Next step is to try it at gigging volume. Early signs show it is loud and capable of taking a lot of bass without getting flustered.

@Hacksawbob thanks for that, I found it helpful, even if nobody else does 😀. It reinforces my point though: why make the 32” neck wider than the full scale? The Mezzo neck even looks chunkier in the side by side photo you posted. The extra 4mm probably means nothing to most people but if you are cursed with short fingers, it just makes that stretch up there at the dusty end too much. TBH, I’ve decided to wait to see what Nordstrand’s 5 string Acinonyx is like. The 4 has a very narrow neck, so I am hoping that concept is carried over to the 5. Shame, I would have liked a 5 string Mezzo, all things being equal. Although my experience with the 4 is that the preamp and pickups need replacing, so that expense needs to be factored into the cost equation.

That’s the identical twin of my Cat bass. Only thing I have changed is the volume knob for a Hipshot knurled knob in the same brushed aluminium effect as the machine heads. I actually get on with the push button tone controls. Very predictable and very quick. My only real gripe with it is that it is difficult to hold down all 4 pickup selector buttons to get the “all in” position, which I think is just both pickups in series. I would swap the mute button for a single button “all in”. Occasionally I get confused by the upside down machine head layout and start tuning the wrong string.

At the danger of getting off the Ibanez topic: what about the parallel universe series (or whatever it was called) and some of the reintroductions in recent years? I know it looks like they just take their parts bin, throw it in the air and wherever it lands introduce that as a new model, however rubbish, rather than the thought through designs released by Ibanez. Fender and Gibson seem to be able to sell as much of these as they can churn out. The really cynical marketing ploy IMO, is the plethora of signature models, which mostly seem to be based on bog standard models (perhaps from a few years back) with somebody’s name on it, made in Mexico but sold at USA made prices. Nothing you couldn’t do yourself by buying a Squier, or standard MIM and fitting some aftermarket hardware. BTW isn’t it the beanies who kill the innovations if they don’t sell? Bottom line controls everything in US corporations. Executives are focused on “shareholder value” and the three month reporting cycle.

I think Ibanez had innovation forced on them to a large degree. They started off making Fender, Gibson and Gretsch clones but ran foul of US brands’ legal departments: hence the sought after “lawsuit” models. That forced them into coming up with designs which wouldn’t attract litigation. Ironically, the US brands inadvertently created a genuine mass market rival to their own products by pushing Ibanez to innovate 😀. Perhaps we should all be grateful to Fender, Gibson, etc for that!

I have enjoyed playing my 4 string Mezzo so much that I have been wondering whether the 5 string might be a 5 that I can play comfortably. The problem being short fingers and arthritis in my left thumb, which forced me to give up previous full scale and short scale (Talman) 5 strings. The stretch just caused too much pain, whereas I find that medium and short scale 4 strings are manageable (compared to full scale 4s and 5s). I apologise if this has been covered earlier in the thread but I was having a look at the specs for the 5 string Mezzo on the Ibanez website. I was surprised to see that the neck width goes from 45mm at the nut (pretty standard for a 5) to 73mm at the heel and that the string spacing at the bridge is 18mm. I thought this looked a bit wide and compared it to the full scale SR305, which is 68mm at the heel and has 16.5mm string spacing at the bridge. By contrast the 4 string Mezzo is 1mm narrower at the heel than the SR300. Why would Ibanez make the medium scale 5 string neck wider than the full scale? It just doesn’t make sense to me and makes me wonder if the extra width would negate the benefit of the shorter scale (compared to a full scale). I know it’s only 5mm (around 1/3”) but it does make a difference in playability for me. While on the subject of “why would Ibanez do that?”: there is less than a £20 difference in price between the 5 string Mezzo and the SR305EB. The SR305 has different pickups, a 3 band preamp, 3 way coil tap switch and a better bridge. Economies of scale (pun intended)?

Nice bass! If it seems reasonably balanced across the strings, I would leave it where it is. Generally pickups are set a bit lower under the bottom strings than the top but there are bound to be some exceptions to the rule. You might be able to find some guidance on the recommended pickup height by searching online but that will be based on all other things being stock: i.e. string height, gauges, etc, which takes us back to: if it sounds OK to you, I would leave it where it is. You won’t do it any harm by experimenting with the pickup height though.

Thank you for the offer but I’m trying to keep myself away from anything that might induce further GAS at the moment. I have an LFSys Monza on order….. I lasted about two months after selling my two Orange 12s, before deciding I needed a single as well as my BF Two10. 🥴

Another one I had never heard of! Quite a bit cheaper than a BF 2x12 as well but a bit heavier.

Have you tried any of the Barefaced 10CR based cabinets? They are designed to have a more vintage sound while combining the benefits of compact size and light weight. They also have amazing power handling, so although they do an 8 x 10, I can’t imagine a situation where you would need that much power handling and such high SPL. I have a Two10 and it is goes loud, while giving a nice vintage sound. It also weighs less than 14 Kg with the cloth grill.

I tend to buy mine off fleaBay. Possibly not the cheapest way of doing it but there seem to be plenty of suppliers on there. Outlets that sell components, like Northwest Guitars, also carry it but their prices can be a bit steep.

With through body stringing 👍.

Amazing looking venue! Enjoy!

I just bought a Bass Flyrig from Patrick. A very smooth transaction and he even delivered it to me on his way to Sunny Hunny! You can’t beat that for service. A really good bloke and a pleasure to deal with.