LeftyJ

I kinda wish I still had one of my Yamaha TRB5II's. I don't know for sure if it would get much use, but I think the 35" scale would lend itself well for tuning down to A, as required for my doom band. My first TRB5II was also the first "proper" bass that I ever bought, and one of the few I've ever bought new. 

On my Atelier Z Baby Z-4J I used DR Sunbeams 045-105 and like them a lot. They're not overly bright, but still have a nice ring to them. I replaced them with GHS Boomers last week because I couldn't find a new set, but can't really comment in those yet as I've mostly been playing my recently acquired Sandberg Lionel and the GHS strings still very much have their new string brightness and clang. 

15 minutes ago, Pirellithecat said:

This is a great shame.
Might be the wrong thread, but is there an equally well built/great playing/well priced alternative with better customer focus??   

I wonder if Clover is still around? Their website is still up, but I never see any new ones pop up. Their Apeiron series appeared at about the same time as the first Sandberg California series. I was always intrigued by the first version of their Avenger series, with 3 single coils (2 at the bridge) and a very versatile switching system. I'm not a huge fan of their 20" fingerboard radius on everything, I like a bit of a curve. But otherwise they always looked good to me, and were at a similar price point as Sandberg.

5 minutes ago, NJE said:

Sorry if this is derails the topic and is better asked separately, but are any of you short scale fans of the bulkier/tall persuasion?

 

I am around 6ft and on the hefty side and really worried that I would look ridiculous with a short scale.  

I'm 6.43 feet long (according to Google - I typed in 1,96 m) and "hefty" sums me up pretty accurately. My main bass is a longscale headless, which is actually shorter than my shorties (with 4-in-line headstocks). I have no pics of me wielding either of those, but I don't think it's too bad. I know guitarists my size that get away with 25.5" scale instruments just fine too, and those are tiny by comparison! 

My two cents, based on the 4 shortscales I've owned and 1 that I've borrowed for a few weeks recently. Mind you, I don't play shortscales exclusively. I use a longscale in my band and only play my shorties at home for fun.

1: My muscle memory took some time time to adjust. The distance between the frets is not that much shorter, but big jumps still require looking at my fingers to make sure I land at the right one. I'm totally fine with that. There was one exception: I had a shortscale semi-hollowbody for a while that had a separate bridge and tailpiece that were very far apart (so much so that it took regular longscale strings), and the nut was pretty far away due to the large body. That one required my full attention to play!

2: Depends on the bass. The semi-hollowbody had a large maple center block and was very heavy, so it balanced well. My Sandberg Lionel balances very well too, due to the heavy ash body and the upper horn that reaches to the 11th fret. The Lionels with solid and aged finishes have much lighter alder bodies, but still balance well because of the strap button positions (but those are a few hundred pounds more expensive than the sandblasted ash finishes). My Harley Benton PB Shorty had a 3/4 sized body and did not balance well, and my Atelier Z Baby Z-4J is Mustang-shaped and has a slight neckdive but not too bad. The body is of very light ash and the neck is narrow but chunky so has some weight to it.

2 hours ago, ezbass said:

You obviously have a great chassis in the Sandberg, why not swap out the electric components for something more to your taste. 

I'm inclined to agree with this 

Order a new control plate from Sandberg with just 2 holes, a good 250k volume and treble pot and a .047uF capacitor and a more vintage sounding pickup (the Sandberg pickups with the large pole pieces are inherently bright) and you might be set 

2 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

Every bass with its strap, and to every strap, a bass.*

 

I tried to convince my girlfriend of that motto because I have more straps than basses, but she's not buying into it 

That looks beautiful! Is that an ash top on an alder back? 

When I wanted an original Atelier Z strap for my Baby Z-4J I ordered it through Ikebe as they appeared to be the only one that had them in stock. They may have replacement parts too! 

For overseas orders, they have a contact form on their site to inquire if the item you want is eligible for international sales (some items can be domestic market only). I got a very quick and polite reply from Noriaki Sato, who was great! 

Great strap by the way, very reminiscent of a Mono "the Betty", but made by Music Area (who also produce gigbags for Dingwall, for example). 

I'm afraid not! I'm a lefty, so I've used reverse logarithmic pots in my passive bass because I like to have my pots turning the "proper" lefty way. 

There are high quality pots with metric shaft diameters too, like MEC. They could be a great option too, and don't require enlarging any holes. I have them in my Jazz, my custom Ellio Martina and (obviously!) in my Warwicks and like them. The taper is nice, they feel solid. My only gripe is with the ones with center detent: over time, it becomes less noticable. On my 2002 and 2003 Warwicks the detent in the EQ pots has become more vague over time. Then again, that's 20+ years of use! 

On 06/03/2024 at 23:48, dub_junkie said:

Edit: should add that my purple special was s/s/s but I retrofitted a Seymour Duncan JB Jr in the bridge.

Nice! Did your SSS have regular Strat switching? The switching on the HSS is quite different, and offers some cool in-between sounds I can't get from my regular Strat:

1: bridge, series

2: bridge (bridge coil) + middle pickup, parallel;

3: bridge (neck coil) + neck pickup, paralel;

4: middle + neck pickup, parallel;

5: neck pickup + Silent Circuit noise canceller

The middle position is very nice, it's not quite Telecaster-like but the wider distance between the pickups does make for a nice twang that's both bright and has ample low end. I really love these guitars 

5 hours ago, asingardenof said:

Also is he secret Wilfred Brimley?

Sonic diabeetus. 

I can't help you, but that's an awesome idea! I have a wallet made from old firehose made by Feuerwear and it's the toughest wallet I've ever owned (I've had it for almost 10 years now). I can imagine a strap made out of the same material would be very robust too! 

Any fire equipment has to pass very high certification standards and real fire hose (the type fire brigades use) has a limited service life. I would imagine certification companies or manufacturers like these guys will also take back old, discarded or rejected firehose. Maybe give them a call? 

That's not reasonable. The batteries on both my Status S2 Classic preamps (one Board 300 and one Board 303) have lasted a long time. I don't recall replacing them since I bought them both (in 2017 I believe - but maybe I have once). I don't play my 4-string much, but the 5-string has seen regular rehearsals and a few gigs and gets used at home occasionally (a few hours per month - I play my shortscales the most at home) and so far they're still good.

Were they batteries that you've had for a longer period of time, or did you buy them brand new? They should have a best before-date stamped on them somewhere.

If that's not the problem, then maybe your bass has developed a short circuit somewhere (in the jack, or the battery box itself)? I would suggest having it looked at by a tech. 

13 hours ago, crazycloud said:

There's only so many ways you can shape a headstock with 7 tuners.

Challenge accepted. Instructions unclear. 

8 hours ago, acidbass said:

Resurrecting this thread from purgatory...

 

Any Kiesel users? Nate Navarro rig rundown has me interested in an A2 headless fiver. However the Kiesel configurator is possibly the worst I have ever used.

I don't think they do a headless A2?

If you want headless, it's either going to be the Vader, Osiris, Thanos or Zeus IIRC.

They do all of those in multiscale too, but the A2 is their only model that has the option of using the same fanning as a Dingwall (i.e. with a 37" low B, but it's also available with 34-36" multiscale) - which is apparently important to some people. The other multiscale 5-strings are 33.5-35". 

Maybe I'm stating the obvious here, but have you tried playing around with pickup height? Often the factory setup isn't to everyone's taste, and adjusting pickup height can change a lot for the tone of your bass. Raising them can also raise the output.

I played a U5 last week and was very impressed with the tone, even if it had flatwound strings (which I'm not a fan of, I like the punch and zing of fresh roundwounds). 

I'm inclined to agree. I've played several of both their basses and guitars, have owned an Artisan B4 and still own an acoustic fretless bass (NTL-B) and a very lovely guitar (an older MGM-1 Matt "Guitar" Murphy signature, from 1999). None of them stand out in any way in their niche of the market, but all have been very good and versatile and played and sounded great. Especially the MGM-1, that's a definite keeper for the mere €350 I paid. 

9 hours ago, thebrig said:

We auditioned a so called experienced guitarist last week who has played for 50+ years.

He turned up and spent a good twenty minutes trying to tune his guitar and he didn't mute it whilst doing so, I always record rehearsals and auditions, and the tone you hear in this clip of him tuning is the tone he used for every song we played regardless of the type of song.

 

He didn't get the gig.

Psychedelic Tuning.mov

Bloody hell! I have power tools that sound better. 

I love it! Some lovely attention to detail there, and I love how the Boudica shape has evolved. The contouring on the front and back is beautiful! 

I like the bridge design too, with the varying saddle lengths. 

3 minutes ago, neepheid said:

 

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1593710090/buckled-leather-softy-guitar-strap-bass?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=purple+guitar+strap&ref=sr_gallery-1-6&frs=1&sts=1&organic_search_click=1

?

That's not far off actually! This is the guitar:

I'm searching for a strap that somewhat matches my dark purple Music Man Silhouette Special... I'm having a hard time so far! I may end up just going black...

I know Maruszczyk makes 3+1 headstocks, and I'm pretty sure Vintage has, and many others who copied Stingrays (Mayones? Fame?). Why would Sire drop it, while those others didn't? I doubt it would have anything to do with EBMM reaching out and threatening to sue. We've seen other changes to the Sire models after they first appeared on the Sire USA website, like the lower horn on the singlecut model, following comments on forums like this one. The headstock change may also be a response to reactions of potential buyers. 

That said, the basses at NAMM still had the 3+1.