krazy_olie

45-100, for ease of playing

Thought jags were discontinued! Looks like they've been reinstated . Red is nicest IMO but the blue is still fantastic. Looks like they've got rid of the matching headstocks unfortunately.

I was in the gallery last week and those overwaters look NICE. blend pots ona p/j are totally awesome, I just put one in on my aerodyne and it's great. Far more sensible that two volumes.

[quote name='chris_b' post='1359700' date='Sep 2 2011, 11:49 AM']Really? Don’t Japanese Fenders have a better reputation than the US ones? Japanese made Sadowsky Metro basses have a much higher spec than most US factory made basses. IBM laptops, Nikon cameras, Phil Jones Bass, TC and Lakland Skyline are all made in the Far East and are top quality products. Ashdown made a huge mistake by cutting back on the spec and QC when they moved production to the Far East. That was their fault not the manufacturers. It’s the company that matters not the factory.[/quote] Nothing wrong with Japanese Fenders, I have one myself. However for example a USA standard Jazz will have string through body, higher quality hardware, usually better pickups, graphite truss rod, compared to it's Japanese and Mexican equivalents. So when you pay extra for a USA model these days you aren't only paying for the increased manufacturing costs. As a result it's hard to compare fairly. If you take something like a Marcus Miller Jazz bass it has a high spec and as a result costs as much as a USA one, Highway 1 basses were "lower" spec and as a result much cheaper.

Think i'll just stick to this . Each to his own. I don't think we should be going around they should sound like they used to, but i just don't like it.

It's hard to say really, the reality is that USA made bass will usually have a higher spec so I don't think you can do 1 to one comparisons. E.g is a USA jazz bass better than a MIM because of it's production line or it's components/design upgrades/wood choice etc. Probably more the latter but I don't think the former can be ruled out. Different plants will have different QC levels, providing different levels of consistency, better machinery. Any factory somewhere will have someone having a bad day and you might get his/her bad work. Having said that this is starting to change, with cheaper USA lines like highway one and some very high spec "imports" starting to enter the market it all turns on it's head

On stadium arcadium the vinyl had a different master and sounded much much nicer and more open/spacious. I'm actually thinking of buying an record player because there are now a number of new albums which sound better on vinyl.

Sounds like coldplay

MY aerodyne seems to work quite well as a p bass, though bear in mind the pickup is slightly shifted to the neck. It has a proper vintage jazz neck, 7.25" radius and vintage frets, very very comfortable. The rounder radius I find adds a natural feel. Would require significant work to add a preamp as the cavity is very small.

cheers, i''ll have a look. Can see from sig you have one, guess you don't have the same problem?

going to one of the london gigs

I think it's always been there and just didn't notice due to using a 15" (or a t least a number of years) but there is a very significant hiss coming from the bass (L2000 tribute) when in active, and it's more prevalent when it's in "active with treble boost" mode. No problems with passive that I can notice. Weirdly it is the same volume regardless of all other controls, volume, pick-up switches, treble etc... Sound like a problem with the preamp? It needs a set-up anyway but seeing as I usually use it in passive mode anyway I don't really want to fork out loads of cash to fix it. My guess would be a capacitor or some component on the preamp board itself like the op amp but not really able to fiddle with that. P.s I have tried a fresh battery. Thanks in advance!

as above really When i was fiddling with the electronics on mine I accidentally pulled off the earth connection to the bridge. That will cause a loud buzz. Though as said above, if it's on the j pickup that's just normal. it's a passive bass so not much else it could be

[quote name='LukeFRC' post='1334394' date='Aug 10 2011, 12:05 AM']what they move the P pickup? so it wont really sound like a P bass?[/quote] I don't have a regular Pbass to compare with but it's reasonable to say it alters the tone slightly, still sounds like a p bass though. It's because of the pickguard, if it was in the "sweet spot" it would sort of go through the boundary and look nasty.

Supposedly the rule of thumb is P shaped p/j has "70's" position or at least closer to bridge, Jazz shaped (aerodyne, reggie hamilton) have 60's regular but the P pickup is closer to the neck

Tried one years ago and it felt fine to be honest, would have no issue in owning it if I thought I needed it. I think DSP (Digital signal processing) has big potential for future guitars. The amount of control you can get in a chip these days is insane and it's finding it's way in to more and more amps. All the clever work in the variax is likely in researching what filters to apply to get particular bass sounds. They would have done better IMO to team up with someone like Ibanez to actually produce the bass.

Bear in mind that the string doesn't touch any wood between the fret and the bridge (on a fretted bass anyway), there isn't much reason why it should make difference to tone on any bass, go for whichever looks nicer.

Once played a Celinder jazz at a guitar expo thing and it was divine, almost as brilliant was an Overwater Jazz, which was considerably cheaper IIRC. As mentioned you could get one built easily, although my own personal preference would be to actually play something before buying parting with that much cash. Most of the custom makers will have a few stock ones at any given time.

g&l l-2000, crazy aggressive when in series mode. Or EBMM sterling?

The l-2000 Tributes are great if you can get on with the neck, I've had one for 5 years and still don't love the neck on it. Having said that it's not fat, it's just wide. It's comfy in the hands but your fingers need to work more in the lower than a jazz. This is why i just bought a jazz to compliment it. USA ones with jazz necks come along occasionally though. Ibanez soundgears are lovely to play, balance is good and really easy necks. I think you need to go high up in the range to get a good set of electronics though. The l-2000 is a tone monster through and through, so much variation and power. One thing you might like is the sterling by musicman sterling or "sb14", not played one but they have a slim neck and i would expect them to be a bit similar to the g&l tone wise.

Looks nice! Expensive though! Aerodyness are expensive for what they are, but they look so damned good that idiots like me will fork out for one!

My Aerodyne p/j sounds like a jazz with a bit of oomph when on full (non original pickups though). It doesn't have quite the exact jazz scooped sound but that is really the inherent problem with the jazz cutting through, you can't have it both ways . A slight sacrifice in clarity for extra punch. Plus you can turn off the J and you have a straight P if it's not working !

If you have an ash l-2000 (not swamp ash) any of them will be MUCH lighter tbh, even a tribute l-2000 will be considerably lighter with it's swamp ash body.