Conan

Stone Temple Pilots. Some interesting bass lines courtesy of Rob Deleo

My first deal with the legendary Beedster, and it went as smoothly as everyone else's has! Sadly, the bridge I bought from him (and he posted to me) doesn't quite fit my Sire, which is entirely MY fault, not his, as it was exactly as he described. Note to self - measure things properly next time!

I take it you had to get the body filled and re-drilled to attach the Gotoh? The Sire bridge has six screw holes along the rear edge of the base plate. I have managed to source a bridge with a similar (hopefully exactly the same) arrangement of holes!

Fair point, but I have no intention of stringing the bass through the body. I've never had a bass with this option before so wouldn't miss it. Having swapped the strings on my Sire from "through-body" to "through-bridge-only" (or whatever the term is!) I found no difference in tone, volume, sustain or anything else. Other people's experiences and opinions may not agree of course....

Having just purchased one of these second-hand, I just wanted to add my two penn'orth. As others have said, the sound from these basses is very good. The preamp is an incredibly powerful monster that needs careful and subtle handling, but can produce a vast range of tones. The neck (on mine anyway) is very nice - quite a shallow profile, and nice and wide to accommodate the 18mm spacing (which, again, I like). Weight is not bad at all. Mine comes in at bang on 10lb, which is not bad for a fiver. Nicely balanced too. Tuners are OK. One feels a little loose, but it holds tune well and has a smooth action (as they all do). It would be really nice if the truss-rod could be adjusted without removing the neck, or, at the very least, the scratchplate! It's a cheap bass, but that just seems daft! However, I am having problems with the bridge. When the bass arrived last week, I needed to do a bit of a set-up but just couldn't get the G string (and to a lesser extent the A) to intonate properly. The intonation screws reached the limit of their travel too soon and would not allow me to bring the saddle back far enough! What on earth is going on there?! I thought it might be because the bass had been strung through the body, but having changed that, it made no difference. To be fair, it is not the most attractive bridge on the market, but I don't care too much about that if it does the job. The problem is that it doesn't! So, I've just bought a replacement from Beedster of this parish, to see if that deals with the intonation issue. To be continued....

I've just got my hands on one of these too, and am very impressed with the general quality. Like the OP says, there are a few minor issues, but nothing you can't live with or easily sort out. One thing I have found though, is that the intonation is difficult to set. I bought mine second-hand, and it has been strung with Newtones and strung through the body (which is a new one on me). I have no idea whether the poor intonation (on the G in particular) is related to either of these factors, so will have to do a bit of trial and error investigation. The bass in lovely to play though, and surprisingly light for a fiver (bang on 10lb on my luggage scales) - especially as I had been led to believe that they were on the heavy side. Very good value!

I've just got one of these basses, and I LOVE the mid controls! It just gives so much flexibility in terms of being able to make subtle (and not so subtle!) changes to the midrange of your tone. At the bottom end of the frequencies it is more of a bass boost/cut (far more usable than the actual bass control IMO, which is set too low and gives far too much cut and boost). You can boost nasal frequencies (should you want to) to get that odd Stanley Clarke tone, or (in conjunction with selecting the neck pickup only) boost the low mids to get pretty close to a P-bass sound (again, IMO). It's early days for me as I only got the bass this week and have only used it at one (low volume) rehearsal, but there is a huge amount of potential in that preamp. That said, the passive tone is pretty decent too The thing is with preamps (especially three-band versions) is that everyone uses them differently. Some use them for a very definite "in your face" tone, almost like an effects pedal; whereas others use them in a very subtle manner to tweak their tone rather than using the amp. All IMO/IME of course.

Just bought Cal's Sire V7 five string. Lovely bass, exactly as described and beautifully packed for shipping (which he sorted out). Excellent comms throughout and a very pleasant deal all round. Recommended - deal with confidence!

I always liked those bass parts, but never knew who played them!

By the way, I know what you mean about 15s. I know the science says to ignore the driver diameter, but my ears and experience prefer the sound of cabs with 15s... 🤔

Nobody is taking offence man - just friendly banter 🙂 It's your money and your choice! 😎

And Howard was best marras with Leo, as photographic evidence shows. Must be time for "that" pic again? 😁

Do some research man! Even on Basschat you will find lots of information. TKS are a Swedish company who make (as far as I am aware) only bass cabs. The build quality and sound are excellent and TKS have won many converts over here in the UK as well as mainland Europe. By the way, I have never heard anyone else refer to TKS's offerings as "ugly" 😲😀 Are you sure you're not judging the quality of my (terrible) photography? 😂 Joking aside - do yourself a favour and try a TKS cab. If you don't like them, fine - but don't discount them! On a separate note, a sensitive 8 ohm cab may well sound 'louder' with the same amp than a less sensitive 4 (or 5.33) ohm cab. The whole Watts/ohms/loudness thing is pretty complicated... Meanwhile - my ugly cab offers lightness, tone, volume, sensitivity and responsiveness. But feel free to judge with your eyes 😃 Sorry, that turned into a bit of a rant didn't it? 😁