LeftyJ

Ooooh, I'll have a Mockingbird from that era please! 

26 minutes ago, MJJS said:

There are currently two Atelier ZPOs available at Bass Japan Direct.
 

https://reverb.com/uk/item/76277268-atelier-z-zpo4-2016-transparent-blue

Oooh, those look lovely. I have the Baby Z4-J, which has the same electronics package as the ZPO in this ad, the same narrow 17mm spacing at the bridge and probably a very similar narrow neck shape, but with a Mustang / Musicmaster body shape which doesn't balance as well (slightly neckdivey). I adore that bass, it's incredibly fun to play and has a lovely modern active Jazz Bass tone. 

I have irrational GAS for a Stingray 5, despite having owned one (and several other MM-style basses) that I never used because I never got it to work for me. I didn't like how it sat in the band mix, I didn't like the midscoop, I didn't like the excessive top end / attack, but I loved the neck, the looks and the stability. I am not a knob fiddler, and the Stingray (for me) is a bass that just needs you to work with the onboard EQ to get it to sound right - whereas I prefer my basses to sound good with all the knobs set to neutral, and just use the onboard EQ for subtle tweaks when I need to. 

I have totally rational GAS for a Mustang Bass and a nice Dingwall 5-string - but I'm not really thrilled by the NG3 and Combustion, which are the only models that are offered in a lefty version. 

I have a nice Kala KA-STG tenor uke that I got new for about €180. I don't play it a lot, but when I do it's just so much fun. I have big hands, so I too got a tenor because of the wider spacing between the frets. I got a nice TGI ABS hardcase for it that didn't break the bank, and I enjoy it a lot. I often take it along on vacation because it's just so portable and compact enough to never be in the way. I didn't bother restringing mine to lefty and am just playing it upside down as-is. I may change that at some point, and while I'm at it switch it to a low G tuning as I like the warmer sound that chords get without the silly re-entrant tuning. 

I'm also finding that intonation is slightly better on tenors than on soprano's.

That said, I would like to get a concert uke to go along with my tenor. The Kala bamboo affairs look very tempting, and the aNueNue's mentioned above do too.

Could be the angle at which the nut slot was filed. If this slot is not straight (horizontal), it might not match the angle at which the string runs from the nut to the string tree. This would be confirmed by the buzz disappearing when you press down the A-string behind the nut. 

It looks somewhat like a singlecut version of the Ibanez EHB series, and I mean that in a positive sense - I like the look of this ACG a lot better! This looks brilliant, and very pretty! 

@Owen, could this be the one you were searching for?

Edit: I should have scrolled down further! Already answered. Nevermind, move along, nothing to see here 

Sounds interesting enough!

If you end up not liking the result, you can always have a custom ramp made with the dimensions of your third pickup, and mount it with pickup height adjustment screws to adjust to the height of your pickups. If you refrain from making any additional holes in the bass until you're sure you like the new tones the new pickup config offers, you can keep the "damage" to the bass limited and it leaves you with an option to refill the hole. 

Appears to be a GB54 or GB34 with the scratchplate removed and replaced with just a control plate. The pickup configuration looks stock and was very common on the GB.

Edit: to clarify, there have been many updates to the GB series through the years where the appearance of the model changed considerably. This includes body shape, features and pickup configurations. The current GB series looks more Fender-like and has the controls mounted directly to the body instead of a pickguard. The one in this thread is an older model. Some versions of the GB54 had black hardware, so this could also be a GB34. Definitely older GB series though. 

There is also the current Squier CV Jaguar Bass, with a PJ config and 32" scale. Not your typical Fendery woods, with a nato body and a laurel fingerboard with blocks sans bindings, but then the same goes for the 1980's Fender/Squier Japan medium scale Precision (which has a basswood body). Those were available briefly with E-series serial numbers, so between 1984 and 1987, and they pop up for sale regularly. 

20 minutes ago, Grahambythesea said:

Music Nomad make a range of cleaning and polishing products that are well thought of by luthiers. I think I’ve only ever used the polish and it was excellent.  Might be less brutal than wire wool.

On a high-gloss lacquered body, absolutely.

On an oil-finished Warwick it would be better not to use polish. 

1 hour ago, NancyJohnson said:

Where are you guys playing?  A slaughterhouse?

"A reviewer described the tone as beefy."

10 minutes ago, bloke_zero said:

The new one or the old one? The new one is more like a P-bass

I think you're confusing it with the Caprice (PJ) or Cutlass (P). The old Cutlass I and II were a Stingray and a Sabre with a graphite neck. 

10 minutes ago, cetera said:

No, no, no.....! FFS...

 

Noone wants an overpriced Epi Rex bird! If you're a Rex fan you know his sound is Spector. That's where your money goes.

 

Why doesn't Gibson just reintroduce the Grabber, Ripper and G3, with cheaper high quality Epiphone versions (under £1k). THAT'S what the market is asking for! 

This! So much this! 

An Epi Grabber is coming though. But without the sliding pickup 

1 hour ago, neepheid said:

Also, tuner companies do custom jobs for folk - look at these Gibson stamped Schaller M4S for instance... genuine Schaller M4S, just happen to have Gibson logo on them.

That was my first thought too, but I couldn't think of any other bass company with a U other than the Kala U-bass (for which there [i]are[/i] custom Hipshot-licensed tuners, incidentally, but they're not stamped with a U as far as I can tell).

I'm happy both my Streamer LX basses have a gloss finish. While I do like to keep my instruments properly maintained, I don't like a really high-maintenance instrument. I feel the same about Music Man necks with their oil finish, they can get incredibly dirty and almost gray after a lot of use. When I got my Stingray 5, I had the whole neck lightly sanded and re-oiled and it looked like new afterwards. 

I like the wire wool tip, but would be scared to do this myself to the face of a bass body. 

This "too many" you speak of sounds foreign to me. 

As a young kid I played the recorder at school. Two of my classmates did too, and it was fun for a while. I really wanted to play the guitar though, but my parents wouldn't let me as they thought it was just a phase and I would lose interest quickly. I didn't. When I was 16 I finally bought one myself. I went electric straight away, and got a Squier Affinity Strat with a small 10 watt Kustom amp. 

Then I started listening to Dutch band The Gathering, who I've been following ever since. Back then they were a very influential metal band as they were one of the first that mixed very dark and heavy metal with angelic clean female vocals. They released a record called "How to measure a planet?" which was a departure from their dark metal sound, but still had the beautiful vocals of Anneke van Giersbergen. What really stood out to me though was the bass! There is a lot of heavy, overdriven bass on that album. The track that really stands out is "Probably built in the fifties" where there's a quiet bit during the bridge that ends with the bass playing a big palmmuted riff with an incredibly heavy distortion. I wanted to sound like that!

So I bought my first bass soon after. And eventually joined my own female-fronted metal band Eve's Fall 

Ouch, those Z and F series basses look wonky. That's got to be the blobbiest singlecut bass design I've ever seen. 

If they're going to offer that Jazzmaster guitar in lefty I may be in trouble though! The specs on that J7 look great. 

Does the SRMS805 have one of those Ibanez preamps with connectors on the PCB board labelled "BEQ3" and "VM3"? If so, before throwing money at it, try switching the output connector between these two connectors. One has a treble rolloff above 2kHz of 6dB per octave, which is pretty dramatic and almost muffled. The other output doesn't, and sounds far punchier. If it's currently wired to the VM3 output it might save you a couple hundred. Pics below borrowed from a Talkbass thread about the EHB series, which also feature Bartolini-licensed Ibanez pickups and electronics. 

41 minutes ago, ahpook said:

 

Yes - the balance between the horns is lost with that larger cutaway.

 

It looks lopsided to me....like its been drawn with your off hand.

I feel the same, it's the long lower horn that makes it look weird. I don't mind the deeper cutaway, but the long horn makes it look wonky. 

My best live sound was with my Status S2 Classic 5-string straight into an Ampeg SVT2PRO and SVT810, when playing with my doom band. EQ flat on both the bass and the amp, and just a tiny bit of tube grit. Worked wonders supporting two big sounding 7-string guitars tuned down to A, it sounded huge. Many musicians in the audience complimented me on my tone afterwards. The backline was the venue's own. Bassists were free to bring their own amp head, but had to use the venue's cab. I was the only one using the venue's head, as my live sound normally comes from an SVP-PRO preamp - which happens to be the preamp section of the SVT2PRO in a 1HE unit. So I left my preamp at home and just went with that amp. The other 3 bands on that evening literally all had Ibanez Soundgear basses and Darkglass heads, and none of them stood out sonically. 

Best studio tone was my Ellio Martina Forza 5-string through a buffered 3-way splitter, with one unprocessed channel straight into the (Studer Vista 5) desk, one channel into my Ampeg SVP-CL preamp set clean with a fairly flat EQ, and one channel through my Fulltone Bassdrive into a passive DI. Sounded great in the studio, but I wasn't happy with the final mix because of how it was EQ'd (too much sub, too much top end click, and no mids). 

21 minutes ago, Beedster said:

Lots of symptoms, not seeing many treatments? 

Duh, it's a chronic disease that we just need to live with. Basschat is our therapy, albeit with some unfortunate and expensive side-effects 

10 minutes ago, Bolo said:

Sennheiser hd 25 

Can confirm, I have a pair of these that I love. The dual headband (with adjustable spread between the two) makes it very comfortable to wear and it stays in place very well. Sounds great too, with a lot more oomph than I would have expected from the fairly compact shells. 

I also have AKG k240 Studio and k171 Studio headphones, of which I prefer the latter (closed back, on-ear) for their bigger lows. The k240 has a little better clarity but they're not far apart. 

Of these three, I've come to much prefer the HD-25.

The perfect strap is a matter of taste really. Some people like a rough material so their instrument doesn't slide around (especially when the instrument itself doesn't balance well and has a tendency to neckdive) and other people like a smoother strap. Some people prefer narrower straps, others like the better weight distribution of a wider strap. Some like a vintage looking leather or fabric strap, others a more modern look. It's a difficult gift if you're not sure what your boyfriend likes in a strap. 

The one in the pic looks like a basic (but quality) D'Addario or Dunlop one. 

As far as taste goes I think i would personally go with @jazzyvee's opinion. Leather is just a classic and hardwearing material and it ages nicely (when properly maintained). It also looks great with such a classic bass design IMO