LeftyJ

Pre-Fender, methinks . On later versions the control panel was moved to the front. Great score! 

There's a few pics of its guts here, and a PDF of the schematic in the 5th post from the top. Maybe this helps. There are Fender logo's in the PDF, but I don't think they changed a whole lot. 

1 hour ago, warwickhunt said:

Has anyone successfully identified a drop D tuner that is a direct replacement for the tuner on a California bass with the one screw tuners?

 

Is there a comparable tuner that will fit but maybe doesn't look exact?  Measuring the post it appears to be 12.8mm, so I'm assuming 1/2"!  

Maybe this helps 

What D-tuner is fitted to Sandberg California II TM4 Ida Nielsen ? - Repairs and Technical - Basschat

11 hours ago, itu said:

I tried many OD/fuzz/dist pedals. The thing that helped me in the first phase was to find the right pedal for my main basses (MG Genesis 5, and Vigier Passion 4 with battery powered preamps). This was actually very eye-opening, as my custom fretless 4 (only one pickup, and a step attenuator) didn't like the same pedals. Talk about impedance mismatch or something. It wasn't about signal level.

 

(A sidenote: Some compressors were behaving oddly with certain bass electronics, therefore I did a similar comparison with those, too.)

This! Especially fuzz pedals, like the MXR Bass Deluxe Fuzz mentioned by OP, are very sensitive to signal impedance. On my EBS rig I also have to keep a close eye on my treble and bright EQ settings and tweeter level, or it will just be top end fizz noise rather than a nice drive. Probably won't be as much of a problem with OP's Orange rig. 

@Renno92, do you get similar results with the passive P or do your drives respond differently to that? 

Easy: my first bass was an old 1970s MIJ Condor Jazz Bass, with a plywood body, maple neck and board, block inlays and an ugly 3-colour sunburst with tort guard. It was ugly as all hell, but it was absolutely brilliant and I should never have sold it. I sold it when I got my second bass, which was a Yamaha TRB5II that I bought brand new for €1100 in 2001 or 2002. I thought it would deem that old 4-string obsolete, and I couldn't imagine needing a second bass at any given time. I now have 12 

Then there's my second 5-string, my Ellio Martina Forza that I've owned since 2006 and still play regularly. It's so good it made me sell that TRB5II, and it hasn't been surpassed as my favourite bass ever for a LONG time.

But the ONE bass that still makes me pinch myself to check if it's real, my ultimate milestone bass, would have to be my Status S2 Classic 5-string that I've owned since 2017. It's such a dream to play, sounds so good with such an evenness across the board... 

Lovely bass, but disconnecting the woofer (and removing the pot) and adding a bridge pickup? Yamaha has a bass for you 

Yamaha Attitude Standard Bass | Reverb

Those Lace Alumitones are brilliant! I love the design, they barely incorporate a coil at all. Really clever design.

That looks spectacular! EBMM sure have a reputation to uphold on their rather excellent metallic and sparkle finishes! 

I love the black hardware, ebony board and matching headstock too, really finishes it off and looks much better than chrome and plain maple would have done! 

Always used to bring a backup but luckily never needed it. So in the last few years I have stopped doing so. In my current doom band I have to tune my 5-string down to standard A tuning, and frankly I only have one bass that can endure this without need for a setup and a twist of the truss rod and that is my Status S2 Classic - so I don't even have a proper backup for it . We don't rehearse or gig regularly, so when not playing with them I leave it in standard tuning so I can still use it for other stuff. The neck on my Warwick Streamer LX5 is quite bendy and needs a setup when detuning it, and my 5-string Ellio Martina stays in standard tuning at all times. 

I do always bring spare strings (string changes are a breeze on a headless with double balls), spare batteries, tool kit, spare cables and a preamp/DI to go straight to PA in case of amp failure. 

That's my thought too whenever I see that bridge design somewhere. But my guess is they're just made of fairly soft metal, with hardened inserts to handle the pressure and friction of the strings. 

Nice score, those basses always look great to me! 

Yep, the Gotoh is what Music Man uses. Just make sure you get the correct one, there's one version with the mounting screws along the outer edges (BB-04) and there's one that has the mounting screws on the inside (BB-02). 

Someone shared the ad on a Dutch bass forum I frequently visit. It was sold together with an Ibanez GSR180L for a mere €100 and I couldn't resist. It's made in China, and nothing like the higher and MIJ Ibanez jobs, but it has its charm and plays and sounds great. It did take a bit of work (mostly a LOT of cleaning) and the neck has some small dents here and there, but for the price I paid I don't complain. I'm donating the bass to a charity here in the Netherlands that collects cheap used guitars and basses and gives them away to kids in families who can't afford music lessons or gear. 

Bit too blobby for me, but still a nice find! These are hard to come by.

Would love a Mustang myself, but for now my 24" lefty needs are served by an Ibanez ORM1 Omar Rodriguez-Lopez signature (he of The Mars Volta fame). I just wish it had a neck pickup 

6 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

manufacturing defects (the wrong glue having been used for inlays on a maple board)

That's actually a really good point! Hadn't thought of it that way. 

Still, at less than half of the normal retail price, that's a LOT of bass. And as an ex-demo, it more or less IS being sold as "used". 

1 hour ago, BaggyMan said:

Just for a laugh a laid a musicman scratchplate over the pickup etc.  Looks like the Mman is about a cm further forwards towards the neck.  Edge of the plate overlaps the control panel. 

Would depend on the year the Stingray was made, if you measured from the end of the fingerboard alone. Prior to 2018 Stingrays had 21 frets, and from 2018 up they had 22 frets so on the 22 fret models the pickup will always be closer to the neck 

The yellowing actually looks like it's just the glue or the filler used to seal the gaps between the fingerboard wood and the inlay. Looks very minor, and might well clean up easily.

The control knob issue sounds like an easy fix too, that wouldn't bother me at all. Either the potentiometer isn't properly fixed to the bass and turns along, or it's broken and won't stop which is an easy replacement that will only cost a few pounds.

The dent is not that bad, and for something that has lived on the store floor to try out, I guess it happens. 

All things I could live with at more than 50% reduced price, and the pots and fingerboard I would definitely try to fix myself  

Wow, that's posh! I love the bound and dotted fingerboard and the sparkle finish, but I'm not a fan of all the chrome. It's a bit too much for me 

It sounds great though, in her video! The pickguard looks almost black in some shots, that might actually suit it better to my liking. 

I have to admit, I wasn't all that impressed with the design when I first saw the early promotional pics. I'm glad they extended the lower horn, and I like the 4-in-line headstock a LOT better than their initial 3+1 attempt. It looks great in your pics! The only thing bugging me is how the neck plate aligns (or rather, doesn't) with the neck heel. But thankfully that's hidden on the back of the body where it very likely won't bother anyone else. I love that finish, the slightly darker tint to the neck, and the bridge design which is a proper hommage to the older MM bridges but with its own twist. They really put in an effort to make an instrument that pays tribute to the Stingray but with an identity of its own, and it looks like they succeeded - and I didn't think I would say this. 

Ashdown Amp Schematics – Ashdown Engineering (ashdownmusic.com)

Best bet would be to just email Ashdown, it seems! 

Can't speak for @BassAgent, but to me it's interesting how my taste in basses (and guitars mostly) has developed through the years, and it helps me keep track of what I do and don't like in an instrument. That said, there have been instruments in my life which I would appreciate a lot more with the knowledge and musical taste I have developed since selling them. The lovely MrBassman "No Sweat" (by Human Base, based on their BaseX model) I once owned comes to mind, and the fretless Sandberg Bullet 5 I foolishly sold. 

I don't keep a spreadsheet of any kind. I used to keep pictures of everything in my Photobucket account, but Photobucket has long since deteriorated into a huge money grabbing pain in the a** where you'll exceed your free bandwidth as soon as 3 people have even thought about clicking on any of your pics so I don't use that anymore. There are still a load of pics on my 15 year old PC (that I don't use anymore) and a lot on my phone. 

24 minutes ago, lemmywinks said:

given the price of Warwicks they should just use those as standard.

Well put. Their current prices are wild! 

The JAN2 on my 2003 Streamer LX5 was broken when I bought it (used). It has a plastic JAN3 now which works a treat. My 2002 Streamer LX is an oddball with an original JAN (and no quick-access electronics cover) - I guess lefties were a little behind still. 

32 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

 

If you do a bit of promotion and get your songs onto a reasonably popular playlist, it's easy to get 1000 streams a year. Our most popular songs get around 1000 streams a month.

 

Besides if your not getting that many streams you are unlikely to be earning enough from on-line activities to trigger your Aggregator's minimum payment threshold, so you wouldn't be getting any money anyway.

 

As I've said before the main revenue streams for small bands are:

1. T-shirt sales at gigs

2. Physical media (Records/CDs/Cassettes) sales at gigs

3. PRS songwriting royalties from playing gigs.

 

So get writing some songs and playing some gigs, and use Spotify as free advertising for these activities.

Very true. In this case my band more or less ceased to exist - so it's not that strange we're not getting the attention we used to. Our only album dates from 2013.

The band I currently play with had an interesting problem with their streaming services: their aggregator went bankrupt and ceased all activities - but all the bands they represent are still on Spotify and the likes, except they're not getting paid and they can't remove their music because they need their aggregator to do that for them. The band have tried to take matters into their own hands, and have succeeded with a few streaming services (like Deezer), but Spotify are a pain in the proverbial behind in this matter and won't communicate with these artists directly or take any action to let the artists take back control over their content on Spotify. I think they were with Ledo. 

Allegedly he's been doing this for years, and somehow he has managed to stay under the radar for most of this time. I wonder how long he would have been able to keep this up if he hadn't set his bots to such an unbelievably high number of streams. You'd have to be a pretty high-profile artist to get the numbers he was getting. "Taylor Swift... check. Beyoncé... check. Michael... wait. Michael who?"

It's a pity a song needs a minimum of 1000 streams per year to gain any revenue at all as of recently. My old band used to get about €100-150 a year from CDbaby from online sales and streams but that's over now. 

Assembled in the US, with many parts (including the necks) made in China. 

This is nice, and the headstock looks quite a bit better than the tiny paddle on the 4-string! 

It's not a bug, it's a feature 

It's made that way to enable it to be adjustable in height. 

3 hours ago, jd56hawk said:

Not a PJ fan, but does the typical Fender PJ problem exist with the Japanese J pickups?

Other than that, they do have a traditional P bass, although I have to wonder about their name choice.

 

Yeah, not really getting the "Hybrid" bit with the Precision. I assumed it would mean it has a Jazz-width neck, but on their website they specify a 42 mm nut width.