Obrienp

Thanks for the details. It does sound worth investigating.

Quite a few questions bound up in this. The Monza is rated at 600 watts at 8 ohms. I have two gigging amp heads that I am very happy with:: a Blackstar U700 and a MB LMIII 500 but they are only capable of delivering 250 and 300 watts respectively at 8 ohms. While their max is as much as I am probably ever going to need, it does mean that they would be running at their ragged edge at this volume, which I don’t think is going to give the full clean sound I would like. My instinct is that I need more headroom in the amp, so that it can deliver 300-400 watts without being stretched, thus producing a full clean sound. Does this make sense, or am I just falling for an urban myth? I don’t want to be spending money on a new amp unnecessarily, especially as I like what the U700 and LMIII can deliver. If I was to consider an alternative it would need to be able to operate at 8 ohms for the Monza, 4 ohms for my BF Two10 and 2.67 to run both simultaneously. That seems to narrow my choice down to some pretty expensive hardware. If I was going to spend that sort of cash, I would want the amp to have some of the extra features that the U700 has like built in compression, variable overdrive and amp voicings, preferably controllable via footswitch. What do you folks think. Do I need a more powerful amp, or would I just be spending money for not much gain? If I do need to go down the more powerful amp route, what should I be looking at?

Well that’s a good way to confuse punters! Still doesn’t explain how it differs from a Lionel. It’s a lovely looking bass though and I’m sure it’s great to play.

I’m confused. Why is it called V when it’s a four and how does it differ from a Lionel?

I like the convenience of being able to roll off the top end easily and quickly from the guitar, without having to mess around with the EQ on my amp. There are only a few songs in our set that require the “British invasion” tone, so I’ve got to be able to switch quickly. I also find it is quite difficult to get that kind of top/mid cut at the amp. It somehow doesn’t sound the same.

Not come across one of those. I would like to know what the “cap” values are for it but it looks interesting. I wonder what the dimensions are: will it fit through the f-hole, I wonder.

I did think of a push/pull with a 0.047 and a 0.1 selection but I think I might struggle to get a decent sized push/pull into the body. The OEM push/pull on the volume, which does the series/parallel switching, has to be the smallest I have ever seen!

Nice! I did the series/single/parallel switch wiring too. Made the bass very versatile. I moved it on in the end because of the dreadful neck dive, even with a wide grippy strap. I guess lightweight machine heads would have helped but by that stage I had decided not to throw any more money at it. Bet yours sounds good with that Ibanez pickup!

To top and tale this. The varitone arrived a little while back but isn’t in my Starfire. I couldn’t get it into the body, even with the treble side pickup removed. It’s just too big. ☹️ I’m wondering what to do with the varitone. I think it may end up in my project 32” P bass, which is a touch on the bright side but that’s another story. I am left with not being very happy with the standard tone pot/capacitor on the Starfire. I think it should really give a deeper cut to fit the vibe of the instrument. I suspect it may be a 500k/0.022 combo. I think a 250K/0.047 combination would be better. I think I can fit a full size CTS or Alpha pot through the f-hole as long as I don’t have the Orange Drop cap sticking out too far from the base of the pot 🤞. I’m still psyching myself up to attempting it after the disappointment of not being able to fit the varitone.

I have a Thomann deluxe guitar gig bag for my Sire fretless shorty. It was recommended as a “perfect fit” on their website when I bought the bass and it is. There is a little bit of room spare above the headstock and plenty of room around the body, plus 25mm padding. Not bad for a tadge over £40. It is much better designed than the Fender SS gig bags that I have used previously. They don’t have any reinforcement at the bottom of the bag, so it doesn’t take long for the strap button to split the seam.

😀🤣 Do they throw in a truss with every bass?

The first link above says it weighs 5 Kg! Streuth!

Every P/J I’ve ever had and every replacement P/J pickup set (several different brands) has suffered from the Jazz having less output than the P. It would be great if someone does have an easy wiring fix for it but I’m not hopeful. At one stage I did think of doing a mix and match based on the output of pickups; I.E. seek out a really powerful Jazz and a less powerful P pickup but I am sure I read somewhere that it doesn’t necessarily produce the result you expect. Also a really powerful Jazz pickup is likely to produce a different tone to the standard. That may or may not work for what you are after. I decided in the end that it didn’t really matter for me, as I only use the Jazz pickup to blend in a bit of upper mids. I never solo it. I’m no Jacko! You might have different requirements of course. Probably irrelevant but one wiring trick I have used, is a push/pull to put both pickups on but in series. It sounds massive!

Just chuck the original neck and put a pattern maple Jazz neck on. Job done. 😀

Yes, QC is a bit dodgy but it makes an excellent modding platform. With a little bit of work (shielding, etc) you can get a decent bass. Just ignore the jazz pickup, it’s pretty weak and doesn’t add much, so not a priority for replacement IMO (if I remember correctly it’s not full size Jazz bridge size either, so difficult to find a direct replacement). The chunkyness is what made me move mine on but would probably suit the OP well. They do vary a bit in weight also: mine was a boat anchor but I’ve seen other reports of examples that weighed less than 8lbs.

Interesting looking bass. Wonder what the bridge string spacing is? It looks like 19mm, given the standard parts bin type bridge. The only let down for me is the slab body with no contouring (as far as I can tell from the pics). Reasonable price point though.

@ead I have hand issues too (after rugby and motorcycle accidents) but tend to go for the Jazz shape necks (narrow and deep-ish). Huge generalisation but a lot of shorties do tend to have quite narrow necks. There are exceptions around but I don’t think many fit your price/weight criteria. If you can find them used a JMJ Mustang might be a good one as it has a chunkier neck. The Reverend Watt Plower also but both are a bit pricey. I think there are other chunkier neck Mustangs and I am sure others can advise. The new Vintage Callan seems to have a fairly wide nut and it’s quite keenly priced.

I bought a 32” Jazz neck off eBay recently, direct from China. It worked out much better than I had expected. Block inlays and binding. Frets were all good. The nut needed a little work. The heel was actually a little wider than Fender standard, so I needed to ease the neck pocket of the body I was putting it on. Also the profile was more C than D but that might suit some folks. It wasn’t sealed but was pretty well sanded, so it only needed a little prep before applying the finish. The supplier’s name was “car-mall” on eBay. It only cost about £65 all in and took about a month to arrive. Here it is in action.

Good luck coming to a decision. Let us see it when you’ve got it.

Matter of interest: did you find what you were looking for?

Just to finish the story off, Andertons have issued me the full refund. The last comms I had from them said that their tech department was going to see if they could fix the noise problem (presumably with the last returned cab). I haven’t heard anything further, so I assume they couldn’t fix it. Bit of an indictment of Positive Grid I feel. Anyway good on Andertons and I have to say I was impressed with their after sales support.

I think I may have my answer to my noob question, as the C24 has already arrived, which is amazing: less than 24 hours from placing my order. A nice little unit. Very nicely made. You wouldn’t know these are a small production item. I have had a brief play with the unit, putting it after a Battalion preamp, before my power amp and then into the LFSys Monza. I tried a P Bass (32” scale) with Tone Rider pickup and then a Guild Starfire 1 (the p pickup one) tuned down a semitone. Setting the HPF just under 40 Hz and the LPF a bit over 1KHz is interesting. It has an apparent reduction in volume, which is cured by the boost control. I’m still not sure whether I like the HPF effect but it does seem to make cabinet response clearer. The LPF is certainly doing something to get rid of the brittle overtones, at the risk of making it all sound a bit muffled. It does get rid of the huge transition I was experiencing on the Guild between the A and D strings. With the LPF engaged, I don’t feel that the top two strings are competing as much with the guitars. How that will affect the bass in the mix I’m not sure. Obviously more experimentation is needed. Also the Monza is known for having a very tight bass response already, so perhaps the HPF is having less effect at the lower end. I am guessing the HPF/LPF combination may do more for the BF Two10 that can sound pretty muddy on occasions. Also I haven’t tried my amps yet, or any effects beyond compression and drive (from the Battalion).

I was thinking of the LPF in the C24.

Actually your first point was very much on my mind. Both my main gigging amps are not really driving my LFSys Monza anywhere near its max of 600 watts into 8 ohms. Now as it happens 300 watts is probably more than enough for any of my gigs but I don’t really like the idea (or the sound) of these amps flat out. I could do with more clean headroom from the amps (no problem with the cab). If the HPF avoids me having to shell out on an amp that can get closer to 600 watts @ 8 ohms, all the better. Its sounds like some experimentation, on placement in the signal chain, is going to have to take place.