LeftyJ

I picked up this cute H&K Bassmaster (pics not mine, but it's the same device) a couple of weeks ago, mostly as a home practice amp. It came in the original box! The seller was clearing the stock from a long closed bass store in the Netherlands (due to the owner's health issues). The master volume doesn't seem to work, but otherwise it's all fine so I'll just need to have that looked at. The EL84 is mostly there to generate actual power amp saturation for recording situations, but it's very much capable of driving a cab (5 watts output power). I paid €190 and I feel like that was €190 well spent!

Can confirm, I don't have a JMJ but I have this case and tried it with my Atelier Z Baby Z-4J (which is Mustang-shaped) and although it just fits, I'm not comfortable with the stress it puts on the G-string tuner. Not recommended.

Mine arrived yesterday. The serial number dates it to 2021, which is after the most glaring QC issues of the first batch had been resolved. It's nice, sounds good, but there are still some QC issues. Nothing too big, and at €299 I'm a little more willing to look away from them than I would have been at the original price - it would surely have gone straight back to Thomann. Still, I'm not sure yet if it's a keeper: The A-string is clearly louder than the other 4 when using the splitcoil - assumably because both halves of the splitcoil pick it up; The preamp is fairly quiet, so that issue has been resolved on mine - until you turn up the treble boost to halfway or more. Then the noise soon becomes unbearable. Active mode is also considerably louder than passive, even with both EQ knobs set to 0; The side dot at the 7th position is missing. Not just missing from the hole: there IS no hole. Nobody bothered to drill one and they just went with it; The adjustable Just-a-nut is a nice feature, but the nut slot wasn't routed deep enough and it doesn't adjust low enough to my liking for a fretless. Would have been fine if this had had frets, but not here, so I'd need to cut the nut slots; I had to adjust the saddles WAY down to make it playable. The G-string saddle is almost maxed down; The height adjustment screws in the saddles all have varying lengths, in random order. After adjusting the action some of them now stick out ridiculously far; String alignment over the pickups could have been slightly better - but it doesn't seem to affect the tone or playability as there's still plenty of fingerboard width left on either side. There's some good stuff too though: it sounds really good, the hardware is great, it plays well (even despite the nut height not being to my liking), the included gigbag is pretty impressive even if it's not exactly identical to the original Sadowsky Portabag, and the ebony fingerboard - if a little pale - appears to be sealed really well and smoothly, almost to a polish. Looks and feels really nice. For €800 this would have gone straight back, but for €299... I haven't really made my mind up yet. I'll need to play it a little more Again, note that this is a 2021 model. The early batches of the MetroExpress series were known to exhibit several QC issues, many of which have since been attended to. The one that Thomann shipped to me was obviously marked down for a reason: they need to get rid of their old stock, because these old basses are making the new and more expensive models look bad.

Thomann have a killer Cyberweek deal on the Sadowsky Metroexpress Hybrid 5 fretless. I ordered mine on Monday and received it today: Sadowsky MetroExpress 21-5 Hyb BK FL LH – Thomann United Kingdom Thomann are still clearing their stock of the first series, as the new and improved series has been available for a while now. The one I got has a serial number dating it back to 2021. Not sure yet if this one has had all the initial QC issues fixed or if it's from before that, I'm still at work and have yet to plug it in. Issues were mostly electronics-related (noisy preamp, poor string-to-string output balance due to P pickup having two coils below the A-string - even if only one has pole pieces).

I'd say Jazz too, covers nearly all eras. He played Laklands for a while too, both Joe Osborn and Darryl Jones models - which are both basically Jazz Basses. He even (briefly) had a signature version of the (fairly affordable) Skyline Darryl Jones, which was somewhat confusing namewise.

I was just browsing Thomann's "Cyberweek" deals, and a lefty MetroExpress Hybrid 5 fretless popped up for €299... (the old RSD version obviously). So to cut a long story short, their stock is now down by 1. I've been wanting to give fretless another try, and I've been curious about these basses for a while. At this price, I really couldn't resist anymore. I'm really curious! Oddly enough, this was the only version I came across in the deals section. The same bass in the lefty Vintage (JJ) version is still priced at €429.

The mid cut/off/boost switch is standard on the Board 300 preamps (300/301/302/303). My 2002 S2 Classic has the Board 300, and my 2011 S2 Classic has the Board 303 (which is still the most recent update of this circuit, and is still in use in the current Series 23 basses. In both my basses it operates on 18V (so 2 PP3's). I recon the 3rd battery in yours might be to power side LEDs, and the biggest of the two switches turns them on and off? Mine don't have LEDs and only have the smaller switch for the mids. The variable mid level control you describe is currently only available on the Chris Wolstenholme models. You're probably right in thinking this should be fairly simple to add

Nice, I'd love to give them a try. I always use these, working my way up from coarse to fine: Micro-Mesh Soft Pads Set – Thomann I tried the rubber Hosco pads too, but they only come in fairly coarse varieties so they can't be used by themselves without finishing with something finer.

Wow, I never realised these were THAT big. The upper strap button is at what, fret 16? Bloody hell! What are the electronics in the B2? I tried finding it on the Status Graphite website but couldn't find specs of the B2. I'm guessing it's probably a Board 300 series preamp but with the volume pot taken off the circuit board, since the other controls appear to be pretty much in the same spot.

So it's a Sandberg 48 then?

Only once have I been in the position you're describing: really searching for that one perfect bass. It was when I wanted to upgrade from my old Condor Jazz Bass to my first proper 5-string. Being a lefty, I couldn't really be picky: what 5-strings within my budget are on the market, and is there a choice of colour at all? This was in or around 1999-2000 and most Dutch music retailers didn't have much of a webshop or a way to view their stock online, so I had to do it the old-fashioned way and took the train to Amsterdam to visit as many music stores as I could in one day. At the end of that day I had a list of 3: Cort Artisan B5L, Ibanez SR885L and Yamaha TRB5IIL. I went with the latter based on feel (very solid and with a smooth and chunky neck), tone (warm but tight, almost piano-like on the high strings, possibly due to the 35" scale) and playability (it had the widest string spacing of the 3, a regular 19 mm at the bridge which I liked a lot). They had a choice between trans blue and amberburst, and I chose the amberburst. Nowadays I just browse classified ads and once in a while one will grab my attention and call my name. Often I buy to try, and sell when I don't gel with an instrument. Looks are usually the first thing I go off on, and often the trying doesn't really start until the instrument is at home with me, has had a thorough cleaning, polishing and adjustments to my taste. There have been many examples of me buying instruments which were outside of my comfort zone, just because I wanted to give them a go and was unable to try one in a store.

I quite like the tone of my Lionel's stock pickup. Ironically, the previous owner sold it because he thought it sounded too modern - even after replacing the stock pickup with a Fender Custom Shop '64 P pickup. So he put the stock pickup back in and put both the bass and the replacement pickup up for sale. I have to add mine has a heavy ash body, I'd imagine the alder version (which is basically all the glossy and aged finish versions) may sound somewhat less bright. I do feel the stock pickups are fairly cheaply made, with non-magnetic slugs for pole pieces and a big ceramic bar magnet glued to the bottom. I don't associate that construction with a high-end German-made instrument. But I'm happy with the sound so I guess it doesn't really matter.

I used to love modding mostly my guitars, but for some reason I've left nearly all my basses alone. I have modded my '75 Jazz Bass reissue pretty heavily (Hipshot tuners, Badass II bridge, MEC pots, De Gier / Vanderkleij FatBoost, battery box routed in the back) but all the others were pretty much left unchanged save for new Sadowsky-style aluminium knobs on my Streamer LX5 and Atelier Z Baby Z-4J. I just never felt the need to change anything. I've more or less stopped modding my guitars too in previous years, and embrace their quirks and specific characters. If they don't sound the way I want to I always used to blame the gear, but now I've come to terms with mostly having myself to blame

Thanks for inquiring, but I'm afraid I have long since sold it. I just looked up how long it's been, and apparently this was in November 2011. Time flies when you're having fun

I have both, but I rarely touch the active EQ on my active basses, and I never touched the tone control on my passive basses, except sparingly on my Jazz Bass. That is, until I got a (sort of) P-bass. Suddenly that control made sense, and became incredibly useful. My ideal control layout for my needs is very simple: I'll just have a master volume, a buffered pan pot (if twin-pickup), a passive tone control and an active bass boost and I'm happy as can be.

Hold on, Fender do a faded aged sage green too. Getting closer!

OTM was a standard finish option for several MIJ Fender basses for years. It's a shame they don't use it more, it's so tasty! I'm with @BassAgent though. When I Google aged OTM most results have a more blueish hue. I think it might very well be an aged sherwood green finish. The Fender Custom Shop do a finish they call "faded aged sherwood green" which looks like this:

That's lush, but the combination of sparkle AND crackle is a bit much IMO. I can't help but think of crackled gold foil.

No glittery basses for me at the moment, unfortunately. I love a good sparkle finish! My Status 5-string is somewhat metallic (anthracite) but very subtly. I do have this though: Carvin DC727 7-string guitar. One-piece maple neck-through, alder wings, ebony board with MOP blocks, matching headstock and very elaborate active electronics: 2-band active EQ, passive tone (only works in passive mode), coil split for each pickup and a phase switch. She's a real beast!

Absolutely nothing, but it looks cool. This was the earliest iteration of the Jaguar Bass, built in Japan with 70s bridge pickup position and somewhat noisy active 2-band electronics (that can be switched off). I believe the roller knobs up top are the EQ controls. The one in the pic appears to have had its bridge replaced with a Gotoh 201. In a way it is more limiting in tonal options than a Jazz because the pickups have on/off-switches rather than separate volume controls or a pan pot. They look tremendously cool though.

Yep, that's accurate.

Nice! I don't really like the tort guard, but I love everything else about it! These are great little basses, I love mine. Mine is a brownburst with pau ferro board and black guard.

Dear lord, the fingerboard on that sunburst one is gorgeous! What is that wood?

Ned Steinberger just announced a limited production carbon composite multiscale 6-string . According to someone on Reddit they're only making 12. I'm afraid to find out what it's going to cost. NS Fin