LowB_FTW

Is it good for metal? Mark

There's still a lot to like about the final output. Mark

Thank you, I really appreciate that comment. It's always nice to be complemented on my photography. Mark

It has taken me some time - quite some time - but I’ve finally got my hands on one of these. It’s about as close as I’m likely to get to an actual Status T-Bass. This was the bass that first brought me to BassChat as a longtime lurker, before a registered member. I never actually thought I’d get a T-Bass, despite coming very close a couple of years ago, there was one on Fb marketplace, but the seller was very cagey with his answers to my questions, and he just didn’t inspire any buying confidence in me at all, so that one passed. (A decision I’ve regretted for letting the bass go, but I always felt it was the right decision due to bad vibes from the seller.). And here I am today, making this post. I've the bass exactly a week now. Pros : It’s a T-Bass! That headstock (you can’t really want a T-Bass if you don’t like the headstock). The colour (I'm not sure if it's faded white or supposed to be this off-white shade). Cons : It’s a TE, not Status. It’s the 3-piece neck. Just before PoiDH, a super-massive shoutout to @NigeJ and @HeadlessBassist , who both took time out of their lives to go and meet the seller and check/inspect the bass for me. Just prior to Nigel’s viewing it developed an electrical fault - seller said it was due to a battery leakage and provided pic of removed battery box with green residue on it - which is why I needed Richard to go and check it out after the issue was fixed, which he did, tested the signal and all OK. Without these two, I wouldn't have this bass now, so thank you very much gents, your time was very much appreciated. The bass isn't perfect, there's some dings in the finish and a couple of splits in the finish as well, the black marks you see in some of the images in the Flickr album may just buff out, I've got some polish to try and remove those. I've got some Rotosound flats on order as well as some strap lock buttons. I'll revisit this thread once the above have been put on and I've had a go at giving it a cleanup. Enough words, PoiDH below … Plenty more images in this Flickr album. Mark

From my bed to the front door. 😂 It's only a small country in Northern Ireland. hahaha Mark

And I bet you never expected to ever say that phrase on an open form. 😂 Mark

Past your had you lose two strings. I'm kinda diggin' all the three-string bass players we have here at the moment though. hahaha Mark

😳 Mark

4 strings, 4 tuners and 4 capstans? This cannot be AI. 4 strings? Are you just not seeing the super short lower two strings? 😂 Mark

4 strings going to one tuner, and 2 to the other. I do like the extreme compensated frets though. Mark

Mark

Mark

After creating this thread I carried on looking searching to see if I could find an answer and I came across the same TalkBass thread @Bassassin posted above, but I never got the chance to post back here after finishing my shift. The post in that thread with the same string retainers as I posted here is from 2020, so likely not AI, but it's a 104 page thread! Not gonna read all that. I never considered pins from the back of the bass. I just found it a really neat system. Mark

Specifically the ball end of the strings, they look like they've just been pinned into the body. How is this done? Is it a peg like on classical guitars? Is it a screw? I saw the image in a random post on my Fb timeline, I searched for a more accessible version but couldn't locate it so screenshot the one on Fb. Mark

Me! Me! Me! Me! Mark <-- Me! 😂

Toot. Mark

Variations on a theme, I like it. Cracking post. 😊 Mark

I currently have 9 year old Rotosound flats on my Yamaha BB1025x, which has just been put away in it's case for a bit to be replaced by my Reverend Triad 5, so the flats on the Yamaha are gonna be on there for some time yet I suspect. Mark

I revisited my perceived issue with the bridge pickup. It could have been the battery in my headphone amp, it could have been my headphones not plugged into the headphone amp properly, or the amp plugged into the bass properly, or my playing position, but after making the changes any volume issue I originally had is gone. In my happiness to have this sorted out, I never checked which was the actual cause, but I guess that doesn't really matter, because it was definitely operator error and not manufacturer error. I have edited the post I made complaint about the pickup. Mark

Mark

Deliberate manufacturing process to accommodate differing fret combinations but maintaining neck profile across different ranges. Why did this not occur to me. I mean, it does make perfect sense. This was just an observation of mine. The neck pickup soloed sounds just great, as does the middle pickup. The middle + bridge sounds great too. I've not tested my theory yet, but I do think my playing position is what caused the sound imbalance. I'll test this at some point and report back. In the month it took between me placing my order and the bass arriving, I tried to consume all things Triad 5 that I could. Sadly, there was very little, I guess because it was all mostly said for the Triad 4, so I consumed a lot of that material too. I remember reading your thread right at the start, and it did provide ideas. I don't know that I want to go modding this bass just yet (if ever), but it has provided me with ideas reading about your 10 way switch. I'm not sure I'd need exactly all those options, but at least I now know there are there and available should the desire ever arise. Thank you, and yes, I'm so happy I held out for this finish rather than go for the natural finish. I've put my Yamaha 1025x back into its case for the time being and the Reverend is on the stand getting almost nightly use at the moment. Such a joy to play. Mark

The bridge pickup is already higher than the other two. I've come to the conclusion that this may be down to my preferred playing position. I like to play at the end of the neck, in the space between neck and neck pickup. Mark

A few observations … The pickups have this odd (to me) looking lip on the top of them. This is neither good nor bad, just something I never expected. The volume level from the bridge pickup (soloed) is pants. Very different to either the middle or neck pickups. ^^ Ignore the above, stupid person alert ^^ This isn’t really a big deal to me as I’d never be soloing that pickup anyway - I never run bridge pickups solo - but may be useful information for someone else reading this. I’d be much happier if, instead of solo bridge pickup, I could have all three pickups instead. The neck/middle pickups sound great though, and the bridge with middle pickup works very well too, so there’s absolutely zero complaints about the voicing of pickups in the available combinations. Da fuq is up with the fretboard overhang?!? I just don’t get it. It looks, I want to say vulnerable, or fragile, but I guess I just don’t understand why it was left like that and they didn’t have the neck go all the way under the fretboard. Speaking of the neck, it’s absolutely gorgeous to play this bass. It’s effortless to travel up and down the neck whilst playing. I was almost able to play it straight out of the box, there were very minor tuning adjustments needed, no issue with neck relief though, just tuner tweaks. For the people wanting numbers, it’s a 34” scale, 19mm string spacing and 47mm nut. Mark

I only went and bloody did it! After this post in the NAMM ’25 thread, and my reply, I waited, and pondered. Then, once I’d seen that Merchant City Music had the Natural version in stock, I hmm’d and ahh’d a bit more, then sent off an email enquiring about the Silver Burst version. As per this status update of mine, I went ahead with the order. Enough words, here’s the PoiDH … There's more images in this Flickr album … Reverend Triad 5 Mark