LeftyJ

940 for one of these is a great price, and those old wenge necks are fantastic! 1999 is just before they switched to thicker ovangkol necks. 

No experience with double bass, but I use the TC Electronic Unitune Clip on my electrics and ABG. It's identical to the Polytune Clip save for the (what's in a name?) polytune function - so it can only register one string at a time. It's slightly more affordable than the Polytune Clip because of that. I have two of them, but I'm thinking of getting two more and tossing them in the gigbags and cases I use the most. They work great, look great, and the display is very easy to read (and automatically adjusts orientation depending on how and where you clip it on). 

Lovely Tokai Jazz Sound for sale in France at a fair price. The electronics were modified to active, and a battery box was added. Includes an additional fretless neck. Not bad at €480! 

Ha, the "boner" (ahem, "Longhorn") Jazz still lives on! It really resembles the 1989 Fender model, but slightly more elegant. Very nice.

Lovely! I generally don't like guitars and basses with beveled edges in a different finish than the top as it can look a bit too busy (I'm looking at you Kiesel!), but it really suits this model. 

Schecter has to be one of the most lefty-friendly major brands out there! So much of their range is available left-handed, and I love it. I've never played anything other than their C7 Hellraiser 7-string guitar because they're fairly hard to find here in the Netherlands, but they seem great. I didn't get along with the C7 because of the HUGE neck profile, but otherwise it was a lovely axe.

On 11/08/2021 at 13:14, Eldon Tyrell said:

EBMM is really good at book matching. I am really picky about this and glad they did a great job. Not like some other companies. I would have returned a bass with a finish like this:

Why? That's a glorious one-piece body. No matching involved whatsoever. I think that figuring looks brilliant. 

EBMM don't bookmatch their bodies. That would mean they would have to make them from really thick slices of ash that they cut down the length and fold open, so that the insides of the wood are 100% symmetrical. That's very unusual and rare with body woods and is usually only done with top woods and veneers. 

The best matching job I ever saw (that genuinely looked like bookmatching!) was on a G&L ASAT Special that I foolishly sold:

Coincidentally, I just read the install guide for one of these necks earlier this week because I was wondering if any of the holes for mounting the neck and the tuners would be pre-drilled. The manual suggests to lightly sand the inside of the holes with a rolled up piece of sandpaper, and not to use a drill. 

8 minutes ago, TheGreek said:

@LeftyJ the top photo looks scarily dirty - second photo shows what a lovely piece of timber was under the grime.

 

Good work.

Yes, it needed quite a bit of TLC. It's a 2001 Warwick Streamer LX that has been played a LOT but has been poorly maintained. It needed a new neck pickup, a VERY thorough cleansing and the very dry wenge begged for a bit of lemon oil. Yes, it begged for it. I'm talking to you, @Killed_by_Death!  

22 minutes ago, PaulThePlug said:

I likes an Ibby... i have 2x GSR200's and an SR600

 

Me? I'd have this SR750 for £250 silly money before its gone...

 

Then sell the SR400QM on at leisure via FB, Gumtree, eBay etc. wherever, prolly for more than ya pay for the SR750...

Quids In and Sorted with an Ibby Upgrade and Nordys

Or keep both as the SR750 is possibly less than the cost of a pair of pickups, and possible pre and fitting.

This man talks sense, that's a great deal 

The pickups aren't "real" Nordstrands but CND's (Carey Nordstrand Design) specially made under license for Ibanez, but they're very cool. 

I use neoprene polish pads, and always build up. I start at 1800 (but only use it very lightly because I don't want to sand down my frets, just polish them) and build up to 12000. Fairly pleased with the results I get 

Those rubber polish pads look great too, I'm thinking of ordering a set of those as well because I'd like something a bit more rigid than the pads I'm using now.

This was my Warwick Streamer LX when I received it and after cleaning, polishing and oiling up the wenge board.

11 hours ago, barrycreed said:

Are these good for anything that isn’t slap?

Never tried the Washburn S1000, but I have two Status S2 Classics with bolt-on graphite necks. They can do everything, and do it well! I use my 5-string in a doom metalband tuned down to A and it's easily tight enough to pull it off, sounds deep and fat and works really well with my Darkglass B7K overdrive. 

Same, I love my B7K. 

9 hours ago, ern500evo said:

Putting it into passive mode does seem to improve it.

Mind you, the push-pull switch on these is NOT an active/passive switch. The gold label MEC pickups that come stock in most SS1's and LX's are active at all times and need to be powered, and the preamp is always on. The push-pull is just an EQ bypass. Changing out the preamp will probably require you to replace the MEC pickups too, since they're powered by the onboard pre (on both my LX's at least).

Bummer! I saw this listed on Facebook and at first glance it looked great. 

Not a bass amp, but since the very post that started this thread had a Laney g**t*r amp as well, I might as well. Here's the cute little Peavey JSX Mini Colossal I bought last week! 5 watts, made in the USA, built-in power brake (that HUGE pot on the rear panel!), FX loop, optical tremolo and custom 8" Weber speaker. It's like the Vibro Champ's evil unidentical twin! 

Shoutout to Warwick for fastening their pickups with machine screws that go into threaded inserts! They're brilliant. I recon they should be easy to install on other basses too: 

Pickup screws

Threaded inserts

I can totally get behind this, having tried an in-ear setup without amps on stage and going back to a 4x10 to move some air and properly "feel" my bass.

Curious though: how did adding extra stage noise help both singers in any way?

On 29/09/2021 at 10:50, cheddatom said:

I'm playing drums in a 2 piece band. The guitarist uses a submarine pickup through an octaver for the bass sound. He always struggles to hear his own vocals

 

On 29/09/2021 at 10:50, cheddatom said:

Again, the singer struggles to hear himself on stage sometimes.

I'm surprised that didn't exist yet, aside from the Electra M4 and the Basic! 

Well, it clearly states Fender on the headstock, so I'd say "SOLVED!" 

I'm sure @Bassassin will be in shortly. 

Edit: He's ahead of me even!

That's lovely! But it looks like it just has VVT controls? That would be a shame, the power behind the versatility of the L2k are the switching options and that passive 2-band EQ. 

For me it depends on the bass. I had a Stingray 5 that could be very sensitive to changes in temperature and humidity, but that stopped when I had the neck lightly sanded and a new coat of oil applied by a luthier. It appeared to seal the wood better and really improved stability. I also have a few fully lacquered maple necks that never move at all. The most stable of my wooden-necked basses is my Ellio Martina with a maple / purple heart laminated neck, maple fingerboard and lacquer finish. The least stable one I currently own is my 20 year old Carvin LB75 with a black gloss lacquered maple neck and abony board. It moves at the slightest change.

Though to be fair, over the course of the last few weeks we had a fairly drastic change in weather here in the Netherlands, and I've had to tune nearly all my guitars and basses down a semitone to get them back in tune . Especially the acoustics responded to the change.

14 minutes ago, EmmettC said:

The only bad thing I can say about this bass is the finish is too robust. It's a nitro finish and it just refuses to wear or discolour apart from a small spot where I anchor my thumb.

 All those 1960s Fenders also didn't age overnight 

Looks cool! At first glance I wasn't a huge fan of the stretched look of the body, but hanging on a strap it makes perfect sense. Great looking bass! 

21 minutes ago, Jimothey said:

I might try and use a 4 string cigar box bridge to get round the string spacing issue? ..... 👍🏻 

Or maybe some cheap monorails if that matches a guitar neck, you can get those as narrow as 16 mm. You can get them as cheap as this (mind you, that's per piece. You'll need 4 of course). A cigar box bridge's saddle slots may be too narrow to feed a bass string through. 

I know someone who converts cheap 7-strings to 6-strings for ham-fisted people. Might also work for conversion to bass 

Seriously though, there are several cool ultra short scale basses on the market these days that might fit the bill and you might be able to find used at a decent price: Ibanez Mikro GSRM20 (28.58"), Jackson Minion (28.58"), Squier Mini P (28.58"), Cort Action Junior and Harley Benton Shorty (both 30", might be a little too long). The Ibanez is fairly common.

Was about to start a thread about my latest acquisition, but then I came across this - and thought I'd add my 2 cents, 2 years after the last post 

I love small valve amps, and have owned a few:

• a 5 watt EVA (English Valve Amps) head that looked a lot like a kit amp and sounded similar to an Orange;
• two Koch Studiotone 20 watt amps (both the head and combo version): two-channel amp with a shared EQ and a footswitchable gain boost on the lead channel. Great piece of kit, very versatile but fairly bright sounding - and the reverb is never fully off, which can be annoying. Has a built-in power soak and a usable recording output with cab and mic sim. I have since sold the head + 2x12, but still have the combo in my band's rehearsal space for when I require a guitar amp;
• a Koch Classic SE6 (my favourite): single channel, single-ended class A with some clever switching options, and the same built-in power soak and recording output with cab and mic sim the Studiotone has. It takes either a 6V6 or an EL84 as an output tube and sounds great with both. I have a 6V6 in it now, which beefs up the low end a bit and adds some clean headroom to the power section. Like the Orange Tiny Terror, the power tube can be switched between pentode and triode mode to cut the power from 6 to 3 watts;
• an Ibanez TSA5. Fun little amp with a built-in, footswitchable Tubescreamer. It's a fun amp for home use, but without the TS engaged it's fairly quiet. It's cheaply made and could really do with a more solid housing and a better speaker (it has a cheap Celestion Ten-Thirty). It's overly bright, quiet, but most of all the signal-to-noise ratio is VERY disappointing. This is one noisy amp! I bought it new in a clearance sale at Thomann for a great price, so I'm not complaining, but after a few years of barely using it I will soon be selling it after buying the next amp on the list;
• last friday I picked up a used Peavey JSX Mini Colossal at a steal, and I love it! 5 watts, single-ended class A with a variable power sponge that functions as a master volume, FX loop, built-in optical tremolo, XLR recording output with speaker and mic sim, and a custom 8" Weber speaker that sounds much bigger than it looks. Great little amp, that was only in production for a short while in the Joe Satriani signature series. It was never a huge hit, because it came out at an unfortunate moment: right when many manufacturers introduced Asian-made low wattage amps, often with bigger speakers, at much lower prices (the Peavey is USA-made and was therefore relatively expensive in comparison). The Weber speaker is also notorious for taking a lot of time to break in, and will sound overly tight and bright when new. It's great though, and since mine is nearly 15 years old, it's been nicely broken in. basically a Vibro Champ on steroids with a LOT more gain under a dial. I mostly enjoy the cleaner tones I get out of it though, plus it takes pedals really well 

When I want to play more quietly, I take out my Yamaha THR-10 II though. It's great, and none of the amps mentioned above really does a good metal tone, where you want preamp gain and tightness and not a clipping power section. The THR delivers, and is plenty loud too. 

3 hours ago, Velarian said:

It looks like something that would suit Verdine White. 

Aye, or Larry Graham and his "none more white" Moon bass, although there's a massive missed opportunity here that the Fender did jump on: white pickup covers! 

I raise you another oddball Fender signature bass: apparently this one was made for the bass player of Silent Siren (and the accompanying Telecaster guitar).