LeftyJ

15 hours ago, DF Shortscale said:

 

I have an Atelier Z short scale jazz I might need to put up for sale at some point, it’s the ZPO-4Jr model (the one with the downsized Precision-ish body before they started using the Mustang shape for the Baby Z). It’s natural ash / maple, 17mm spacing. I bought it brand new, ordered from Japan a few years ago. I’m slightly in two minds about it so might end up holding on to it. It’s such a great little bass but I’ve spent a bunch of money on amp/cab related stuff this year.. 

 

I love the look of these! I love my Baby Z, but it lacks the contouring of the ZPO (it's a slab body, there's no tummycut or forearm contour) and mine has a slight tendency to neckdive whereas the ZPO looks like it might balance a lot better. If all else is the same (neck, electronics, pickup positions) the ZPO Jr might be a real winner! 

9 minutes ago, neepheid said:

I want all my basses to be themselves, and I treat them as such.

Aye, same - but it was a long journey for me to come to that epiphany. I've spent years looking for ultimate versatility in a single instrument before coming to terms with that. Now I just need to convince my girlfriend that I really DO need all these different instruments with their unique characters and that yes, in fact, the audience will hear it too 

Is this a triple-coil like the original ATK pickups, or is it just disguised as one with the three rails? Because the original ATK300 wiring is very functional too, and maybe worth investigating. It uses the center coil as a phantom coil for hum cancelling in the single coil positions, and rather than offering series/parallel/single it gives you parallel/single/single with treble cut. The latter gives very useful P-like tones despite the pickup being closer to the bridge on the ATK's than it is on your Jaguar. 

Having owned both a couple of ATK's and a "proper" Stingray 5, I would say the series/parallel option on the SR5 was the more useful switching option to have - but I would have loved to have the treble cut of the ATK in the singlecoil setting on the SR5. 

5 hours ago, Robc666 said:

Here’s my two Mayones Cali 4’s  - A 2023 Fretted with Nebula finish, and a 2024 fretless in Antique Brown.

 

Is... Is that a Boss delay in a huge box with a tap tempo switch added? 

Lovely setup, and beautiful basses! 

If you mean this, it's a Peavey T-40:

Thanks for the reminder, I need to check that Gator one out! My Atelier Z Baby Z came with a similar gigbag as Fender Japan used to include with their guitars and basses, and it gets the job done but it's low quality and nearly all zippers have had their tab broken off. And my Sandberg Lionel came with a flimsy Sandberg longscale bass gigbag where the little fastening loop for the neck ends up somehere between the A and D tuners. So I could really use something better... 

Never saw this thread before (as a lefty I have very little business in this part of the forum) but WOW!

This thing has absolutely no right to look as cool as it does but I love it! I think this is the first time I've ever said anything positive about a Bongo. 

1 hour ago, ezbass said:

Letting one like this, at a good price, slip through my fingers, while I hemmed and hawed over it, still stings.

 

 

Very tight string spacing, however - 16.5mm or less, IIRC

I've got one of these as a lefty but in natural and love it. I would love a PJ too, and I think it looks great in that white finish with competition stripes, matching headstock and rosewood fingerboard! Classic looks but a very modern bass (as is the JJ - the titanium reinforced neck is very rigid and the pickups and 2-band boost-only EQ are quite powerful and modern-sounding). 

Graphite-reinforced quartersawn maple neck, ebony board, 10-14" compound radius, Luminlay side dots, new noiseless pickups, redesigned preamp with 3-band EQ, switchable mid frequency and a passive tone control, and the S-1 switch is back for choice between active and passive. Wow! I guess you could call it pretty cutting-edge... FOR A FENDER. 

What really got me though was the bit about "unparalleled access to the upper register". Yes, if you exclude anything out there with 24 frets and deeper cutaways. Which is a LOT of other basses. 

American Ultra II Jazz Bass® | Electric Basses (fender.com)

On 12/10/2024 at 23:07, colleya said:

However, the side dot fret markers are on the fret line, rather than in the middle. It completely threw me off.

Was this a fretless bass that later had frets installed? The lack of position markers on the front might be an indication too. If they were installed at a later moment, whoever did it did a beautiful job keeping the fret tangs hidden from the side, as to not interfere with the side dots. 

And a black one with maple board AND a lefty too! Schecter still is one of the most lefty-friendly manufacturers out there. They already had the Doug Pinnick signature 12-string DP12, also in lefty (the man himself is left-handed). I can't think of any other factory lefty 12-string basses 

Sweet! The Zon Sonus is way up there on my GAS list. So many major metal bassists of my youth played them! I love graphite and composite necks and they look great. 

10 hours ago, PinkMohawk said:

With a name like 'Fame' I'll be honest, I was expecting typical, low priced dustbin fodder, but those look lovely really. Obvious Warwick inspiration, especially with the MEC electronics, and I'd have loved to see the two piece bridge, but I guess that might have been a step too far along the knock-off line for them. 

Early (1990s) versions of the Fame Baphomet and the Mayones Be4 and Be5 it was based on actually did have the 2-piece Warwick bridge! 

Wow, quite surprising how fast the colour has faded! This was my favourite finish for the V7, I've always thought it looked great - but it's almost a metallic silver now! Still looks great though 

7 minutes ago, eude said:

OK, that's fair, in the world of bass through, they haven't been innovators for a long time.

Agreed! 

I think their latest line of Tonemaster guitar amps was pretty innovative: a digital modeling amp that captures just one classic amp. They have digital versions of several classics, like the Champ, Princeton, Deluxe Reverb, Twin Reverb and tweed Bassman which capture all the characteristics of just that one amp, in a package that looks like the classic amp it's emulating and with a similar speaker configuration and power level. They're priced close to their Mexican-made actual tube amps, and I see many pop up used, so I'm not so sure about their success, but I kinda like the concept - even though it completely defeats the purpose of digital modeling amps to have the tones of ALL the classic amps at the tap of a switch 

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).