dub

I watched "standing in the shadows of motown" last night. It's an inspirational documentary on the funk brothers who were all of the instrumental musicians that played for the motown record label. It's a great film that has a lot in it for any bass players or anybody else for that matter. I always enjoyed James Jamerson's playing but this film gives a bit more insight into everybody else involved.

It does take a bit of adjustment, the classic mistake is playing a low D when you want a G etc. Hang on to your 4 string just in case you don't like the 5 If you get all notes on the B string embedded in your brain as soon as possible it will be big help. Where's the G? you don't have time to think about it!

I think that there are several things going on. Some people like having an older instrument and not without reason. There's the maturity of the wood. Also an instrument that has been played regularly and well maintained usually sounds better than one that's straight form the factory. This is more noticeable with acoustic instruments but does affect solid body instruments too although the difference is subtle. The price reflects the fact that there are less older instruments on the market so more people are excited about bidding if one comes up for sale on ebay. Of course there are many other things that make a big difference: strings, electronics, pickup type and position and setup, but I don't think it's unreasonable that these basses cost more than the new ones.

Doesn't really sound worth it. Play an D harmonic on the 12th fret on the D string then an E harmonic on the 5th fret of the E string and detune until the you hear the beats stop, watch how far the machine head rotates while listening and practice that a few times and you'll be able to do it just as fast. Tune back to E harmonics on fret 7 A string, 5 E string.

The biggest difference is that the L2000 has two pickups (bridge - fast top end attack) (neck - low woof less attack) (both - more woof and attack) compared to the slightly more mid voiced position of the muscicman pickup. Bear in mind that the musicman pre boosts the top end a lot, even when the tone controls are set flat. The G+L gives you the choice passive, active or treble boost. You've got more choice with the musicman eq (boost and cut)

I'll keep round wound strings on my G+L just in case of a slap bass emergency. I started out going duh duh duh "pretty vacant" on a P copy with flatwounds in the 70s moving to mwa on a fretless precision once I heard jaco, got a bit pretentious with a wal in the 80s, found the funk went zunk and clank on a G+L in the 90s got a bit dubby when I felt like it and now I'm quite happy to go duh duh duh duh again

I did a gig recently using la bella flat wound strings on a EB Stingray 5. The last time I used these was about 25 years ago. At the start of the gig I missed the top end a bit, but by about half way through I really got into it. Immense low end, as you would expect. The sound sits really well with other instruments. They were a bit strange on double stops as the lower harmonics are very pronounced on the higher notes. I would say that there is a more even response (less difference in tone between the B and the other strings) with these la bellas in comparison to round wound strings.

It sounds like the switch is working in the opposite direction to what you expected.

I wouldn't start trying to repair it yourself. The best idea would be to take it to someone who is a guitar/bass tech. There are a lot of variations of the musicman preamp see [url="http://www.musicmanbass.org/default.htm"]http://www.musicmanbass.org/default.htm[/url] An alternative would be to buy a john east preamp and get that installed.

You can get a great tone from a passive bass but it's very easy to get a very similar tone on the same bass with an active eq. The greatest advantage of having good active eq is it's ability to boost the frequencies you want to hear rather than just cut frequencies. You can end up playing through all kinds of amplification and if you've got the tone you want coming direct from the bass then that is what should be coming out your amp, the P.A. and all the monitors.

I wouldn't rule out using the mid shift control on a john east pre. I thought I wouldn't be using it much but discovered I really liked a bit of boost around 200Hz. It is such a useful feature. I think that the john east would be ideal.

There are strings (some la bella B strings) that have a thinner section over the bridge. It's a bit tricky getting the B string in on a musicman 5. I usually turn the saddle on it's side when replacing the string.

I take the point about 150 being very close to low but the thing is most mid controls have a bell curve rather than a shelf on bass and treble, which as you say makes them very useful for equing.

I've had a john east MM eq with semi parametric mid in my Musicman for a few months now and up till recently have taken the approach I did with the original eq, which was to turn up the bass control to almost full, boost the top a little and cut the mid a tiny bit. I've been listening to a lot of recorded bass sounds and trying to get similar tones and this is when I started boosting the low mids (around 150hz) with a bit less low end. What a revelation, it's quite an old school tone but it sits really well in the mix. I know it's a bit obvious. I think I have just been a bit stuck in my ways. Not any more.

There's all kinds of cheapness in the s/h world, squire jazz was 100, G+L tribute 300. Much cheapness

I've owned a lot of instruments over the years, some cheap, some expensive (from P bass copy to Wal) I always ended up selling them to pay for the next instrument or the rent, and have used a 5 string MM for a good few years now. I bought a s/h squire jazz for my daughter, it sounds great which got me thinking so, I bought a s/h G+L tribute L2500 as a backup and I am amazed at how well made it is made and how close to an original G+L it sounds. That said, I got lucky with both of these. If you try some instruments that are apparently the same model, you find out that they sound and play very differently from each other. There are only a few that really shine. This is true of both expensive and inexpensive instruments, although the standard of expensive instruments is usually higher so the differences are less. You can of course buy new pickups etc. but if you don't really like an instrument in the first place why buy it? and if it ain't broke.. Of course some expensive instruments are going to have a unique tone with their own special materials, pickup placement and electronics, and if you've got the money it's good to support the people who devote their lives to developing instruments. But if you don't have much cash it's a good time to buy a cheap instrument. The licensed ones of classic designs (Squire, Tribute etc) seem to be the best of the copies. I reckon you just need to try a lot of them out.

I got a G+L tribute 2500 a while ago and it sounds great, just like an expensive G+L! Really well made with a nice neck got mine for 300 s/h but I'm sure they are pretty cheap new too. I've owned a lot of basses over the years and it is one of the best.

I have a musicman and a G+L tribute L 2500, they are both good basses. Some G+Ls have more bite to the tone due to the pickup nearer the bridge, so aren't exactly like a musicman, but similar and the legacy instruments are good value. The musicman is of course a safer bet. Check the adds on this site and sooner or later someone will be selling a musicman. If you can manage to get a good second hand musicman then you'll probably use it for a long time.

[quote name='EBS_freak' post='480962' date='May 6 2009, 01:29 PM']I had Nordstrand split coils in my jazz... one of the most noisy single coils I've ever used.[/quote] That's strange. Were all the cavities shielded? I found this article which was interesting [url="http://www.audiocourses.com/article1845.html"]http://www.audiocourses.com/article1845.html[/url]

It is always worth shielding all the cavities, but with single coil pickups hum can still be a problem after shielding. If you use both pickups, both at full volume all the time and are getting a lot of hum. It might be worth swapping them for a pair of pickups where one has reverse polarity magnets with a coil wound in reverse to its partner. This would cancel the hum. If you fade from one single pickup to the other during your set for different tones then a hum canceling pickup like nordstrand nj4sv humbucking split coil jazz-type could be a useful solution.

There's more than one way to skin a... What about repairing it with cat fur? It's much more durable than carpet.

EMGs are good pickups, but it would be worth checking out some others to compare the different tones. The best idea is to go to some shops with a good preamp and headphones, try a lot of basses and take notes on pickups, pickup placement, electronics, woods and strings. That doesn't mean that you'll be able to recreate an individual bass, but you'll get an idea. Each piece of wood is unique. If you find a bass that sounds fantastic to your ears, then buy it. If you want a brighter sound on your existing bass, try elixir strings. The advantage of active electronics is the ability to boost frequencies rather than cut them. There is also a closer match to the input impedance of most modern amps and DIs. There's a lot of choice in preamps now, and it really is down to personal taste. Out of the ones I've used I think the John East and Aguilar preamps are excellent. They also both make an external preamp which is a good thing to have if you like your passive bass but want to try active electronics without altering the bass.