crazycloud

5 hours ago, jd56hawk said:

I don't expect anything innovative from Fender, why should I, but this sounds like it may just be something that gets the job done, and that's really what it's all about.

And there are dozens of other brands that will do the same, usually for less money, and better consistency and QC.

For practice, why go to the expense and latency issues of wireless? I'd rather have a cheap pair of Supralux HD681 and an extension lead do I can move around, or run the lead behind me. Maybe 30 quid all in.

More meh from Fender.

Based on my recent purchases from Cort, and having owned and played many Fenders of various vintages and construction location, I'd have the Cort GB series (FSO-ish) any day for lots less pesos. Haven't tried a Sire, but likely the same would apply; I'd buy the SIre blind, and returns are harder for change of mind here, over the Fender every time, MIA, MIJ, MIM, MII or MIC.

1 hour ago, ebozzz said:

Montana is nothing like Texas but he got the snow part right.

Culturally, Montana and Texas are a darn sight closer than Montana and Canadastan. Except maybe Austin.

11 hours ago, ebozzz said:

 

That's basically Canada......🤣

I dare you to say that to a Montanan.

I was once told that it's hilly Texas with snow.

14 hours ago, 80Hz said:

 

 

 

 

That's a really good finish, especially as basswood can be a little plain - it almost looks like maple. The burst is nice and subtle too like my 375.

14 hours ago, tempo said:

I've had this SR1306 since 2010ish. It's no lightweight at 10lbs but the body is solid Padouk, so that's expected. It's from 1993 and they only made it for that one year before changing it to a sandwich body (mahogany with Padouk veneers), and changing the pickups. 

The catalogue & promotional material of the time had GV playing one.

I have recently fitted a Lusithand BMF800 preamp,which works well. Neck is a dream like all Soundgears.

That's pretty and would look great on the stand next to my SR655E and those J6 pickups are very good from what I've heard.

Is the string spacing the typical 16.5mm of modern SR 6 strings?

11 hours ago, 80Hz said:

 

I know some peoples eyes swim with the 5 + 5 pole piece arrangement on the P-46 pickup and the 9 pieces on the J-45, but I actually like it, it's a bit unconventional and makes them distinctive. It has no adverse effect on the ability of the pickup to sense individual strings - I'm sure BL had a clear rationale for this design choice. I wonder if Bill, Becky or Shannon discussed this anywhere.

The magnetic field above a round magnet is quite wide, so having the extra ones evens it out a little across the width of the PU. It's why Fender did this on the original P and J. From a manufacturing perspective, it might be easier as they already have a supplier and stock of the rod magnets and bar magnets in wider bass sizes may not be as cost effective for a small operation as they're unusual and far less common than bar mags in guitar sizes.

Carvin did similar way back with guitar pickups having IIRC, 11 across the width of the PU. These may have been slugs not magnets, but the concept is the same.

It also could simply be a combination of the above and marketing to make them a little distinctive from the million other P and J shaped PUs out there.

Or Bill just liked to annoy OCD people.

9 hours ago, TheGhostofJaco said:

I think the guy is great and him and Ian would be very fun to hang out with.

They would have to be very different in person for me to enjoy that. I don't find either of them particularly entertaining or funny, but ever so often there is a nugget in there that makes watching that channel worthwhile.

What I would like to know is how tall Sharon is. Someone local recently told me they could never play a 6 because his hands are too small (he's taller than me) and she looks petite from the size of her hands. I was going to point out that if a girl smaller than him can master a Warwick 6, then so can he.

4 hours ago, PaulThePlug said:

@80Hz Loves an SR, got several, well 7, 4 of em modded

Got 7 myself, 4 of which are on the list to get mods. Excuse me getting boring here, but I'm recovering from a very hard workout this morning.

SR706: EMG45DCXs, maybe with a BQC later. I need to rout to fit, but that's fine. Ordered and waiting on local stock as it's cheaper than importing direct.

SR256B (GSR206 with an EQBIII pre): Lace Alumis. I have the PUs already. Body will probably get sanded back to bare, stained black and clear coated too - waiting for a mate to finish his house renos to help with this.

SRC6: EMG DCs. Same friend as above has extensive luthiery experience and will bring his nut files to take the stock strings to .100 from .84.

SR375E: I want an SR2605, but they're $A2800 / 1350UKP and the 375 plays so nice and is really good looking in blue, I think a set of Nordy Big Blades ($A500 - bit more modern sounding than the BS apparently) would get me close enough, except for the aesthetics. I don't buy into the tone wood or hardware making any significant difference. The 375 neck doesn't move even with the big temp and RH swings here, and the body is most likely more than one piece of maple, but even in sunlight, I struggle to see the joins - note that this is Aussie sunlight, not the tepid stuff you have in Blighty. I purchased this new a couple of years back on a whim.

There's no point in selling the 375 to put it towards the 2605 as the market here sucks at the moment. I bought a used guitar recently for an absolute bargain, getting it basically for the cost of the EMGs in it, and my high bid, which I thought was modest, was significantly higher than what it sold for.

With the BTB and the Cort A5 UA and A6, I really think I have everything. Except for the GVB36 I mentioned earlier.

4 hours ago, 80Hz said:

but I thought I'd give a bit of commentary on my '94 SR890.

I like the colour. Not much of a 4 player any more, but if I'd seen that locally for a good price, the temptation would have been great to snatch it up too. 

4 hours ago, 80Hz said:

 

I settled on a Wilde (Bill Lawrence) PJ set (P-46 and J-45 pickups). I'd been previously impressed with Wilde guitar pickups so this was a good opportunity to try the bass offerings. Bill Lawrence's designs seem to share a "hi-fi" family sound which I felt would suit a contemporary bass

I've liked the guitar PUs I've heard, and have wanted to try the bass PUs, but don't have a donor to try them out in. The bass PUs have a good reputation, and I wish they'd do a 5 string set.

Wilde are lovely to deal with; though I've bought nothing (yet), they've answered my numerous enquiries promptly and pleasantly.

2 hours ago, HeadlessBassist said:

If only we knew what that bridge pickup was...

It's a Jazzmaster guitar pickup. Actual brand, I don't know though.

I'm definitely not a vintage guy, but if it were mine and I was going to do routing, I'd pick up an aftermarket body from somewhere like Guitar Fetish and mod that so it can be restored to stock.

51 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

I had ne, the spacing was great but the neck spacing was actually quite wide

According the the Ibby site the nut width is the same as my other SR 6s, but the root of the neck puts it in line with my SR5s so I think I'd be happy with it. If I were to get one I think I'd make a new brass nut and string it E-E, but I have to find one first and even importing them is difficult due to rarity. In the mean time I should order some Newtones and string the BTB up the same way.

13 hours ago, Paulhauser said:

@SumOne we all have preferences and I happen to like the tighter spacing because I feel like I fall in between the strings on basses with wider spacing.

 

Agreed, and I would go even tighter if I could get a GVB36 locally.

I just missed snaffling an A5 SCMS second hand recently. Oh, well.

It would have made a nice companion to my A6 and A5 UA.

I have a Zoom B3n for bass and a NuX MG300 for guitar/SRC6 at home going into a mixer/EQ then a FRFR speaker.

For live work in the future I'm looking at a single MFX to do bass and guitar plus some cab emulation into a small FRFR so I can do bass and guitar in the one simple set up. I'm not much of a tone cork sniffer, so I'm guessing so long as I had, worst case, maybe a dozen pre-sets for guitar and same for bass, I could cover just about anything. Looking at the Boss GX10 as it's small and seems to do everything I need in one.

This is mainly for the small coffee house gigs I want to do with a friend, her singing with an acoustic, me on bass and some guitar and harmony vocal. As space is usually non-existent in these spaces, I'm even looking at building a chair for me that will have an EV 50M type set up built in so it takes no more floor space, with her on her stool beside and the GX could fit between my feet. I'm an EE so designing and building it shouldn't be too hard. I have a larger rig for the less often R&R stuff I do, and the GX could go on the floor or on top of the rig.

On 22/03/2025 at 07:43, MrLally said:

Can you just plug the output into the A and B and the it come out of the Y? 

No. If you do that you'll load down each as each will see the others very low output impedance in parallel with the load. IOW, you'll effectively be shorting them into each other and may damage one or both devices. You may not always, but I have repaired many devices where people have tried doing this sort of thing over the years; you need a mixer of some sort.

2 minutes ago, bremen said:

I mean, Jaco only needed 3 strings...

But Felix uses six.

2 hours ago, Bill Fitzmaurice said:

The impedances aren't the problem, it's the output voltage of the pedal and the input voltage sensitivity of the power amp.

Yup.

It's a gain structure issue; the 'preamps' simply supply insufficient gain to be able to drive the power amps to full output because as was said earlier, they're designed to drive the instrument input of a conventional bass amp or head.

Likewise, it could be an issue with many people being reluctant to actually turn the gain control up enough. I've seen many who erroneously believe that turning the control past 12 o'clock (some have told me 9 or 10) will cause damage to something.

1 hour ago, joel406 said:

Strings go straight down the neck in a line, from nut to bridge.

Not having it in hand so trying to get a visual, do you mean there is little string taper? Is it narrow at the bridge?

Harley Benton Block 800B which uses an IcePower 700As module.

Some have said that it doesn't any more, but HB confirmed in a recent email that it does.

Looks like my Space 6 ain't happening anytime soon. From Cort;

Unfortunately, we do not have any plans to develop a headless 6-string bass or the Space 6 within the next year.

Gosh darn it.

Maybe the Sire M6 will be suitable, even though the 18mm bridge spacing (Sire confirmed) will make the neck a little wider than I'd like. I could also try to find an EHB.

^^ Pity about the neck dive as that's a killer for me, even seated it gives me a major dose of the irits.

Are the others OK?

1 hour ago, Dood said:

Here's the Bart MK1's in a different Cort bass, this time with a Cort Preamp'. Please give the channel a follow and the videos a like, we don't charge you for our reviews, so it would really help us to boost our reach with some support! 

 

It would be wonderful if you could click this link and subscribe to my own personal channel that I am hoping to put loads of material, outakes and deep dives on in coming weeks.

I watched this review when I saw it some months ago and liked it then, same with the C5 you did around the same time.

A suggestion for future reviews; could you please stand with it on strap so we can get an idea how it hangs? I realise this will have inherently good balance being headless, but it helps as the overall angle the bass sits at and where the strap pins are relative to the body etc can make it a no no for some of us. For me the Spectors and Warwick thumbs hang oddly and I can see that sort of thing in a picture, and I think other people might appreciate it too.

I subbed to your channel too and am interested to see what you come up with.

I love my A6 and A5 Ultra Ash and am tempted by the Space 5 as I'm a headless fan since my XL2 arrived nearly 40ya, but I might wait and try the Sire M6 6 string when they arrive. I hope you get one of the M6s to review.

Your reviews of the A4 Ultra Ash, and later A5 UA were pivotal in my getting one last year (but Frank Itt's bass face sealed the deal), once I recovered from the horror of the 2020-2023 era. I got the last one in Australia as far as I'm aware. It's a wee ripper...

3 hours ago, NancyJohnson said:

 

If a restaurant in a big city sold single baked beans on a cocktail stick for £2.00 each, some epicurean would be saying they were divine.

 

Again it's all subjective and there's this correlation between price paid and justification.  Charge £500 for a bottle of red wine vinegar and there'd be people queuing up to drink it, all saying it tastes delicious.

 

I'm reminded of this:

 

 

 

 

Years ago Penn and Teller had a show called Bullsh!t (that's what it was called!) and they did this twice. Once with a waiter selling expensive boutique bottled water in a restaurant, that came from a garden hose. The other episode was using out of date and left over gas station food they dolled up, again served in a restaurant. They used the same 'waiter' in both episodes and they are beyond hilarious if you can ever find them to watch especially as you got to see them prepare the items they were serving up. They were on YT years ago but have been scrubbed.

A lot of yuppie knobs have moved in here so I'm tempted to do something similar one day.

44 minutes ago, Schnozzalee said:

The new Gibson one didn't come with a case for £1,800?

The money saved on a HSC goes to the QC and legal depts.