My new G&L L2500 Tribute: problem

[mcnach]

Well, I finally got my hands on a lovely G&L L2500 Tribute I bought here.

I only was able to play for 40min or so tonight, but it was enough to notice a "problem".

You see, I own a MM SUB5, black with rosewood board. Lovely beast.
I saw this L2500, in natural finish with maple board... I'm a sucker for maple boards... and after hearing so many great things about these basses I went for it, thinking it'll probably get me close to the sound of the SUB5, and I can just keep the one I like best.

Fool.

The L2500 is really nice. Lots of different sounds, and all of them great. The preamp is a bit odd compared to what I'm used to, but nice. I feel it's nicer to play than the SUB5. It's comfortable, easy to play despite being slightly neck-heavy, and sounds fantastic (and the natural ash body is just gorgeous).
However... it gets in the vicinity of the SUB5 sound, but not really there. The SUB5 is distinct enough in its "Stingrayness".

So here we are, now I want BOTH. Not only that, I'll end up buying another JE preamp for the SUB5 if I indeed keep it. And here I was thinking I was just swapping and saving the $$$ of the preamp!

The only thing playing against the L2500, *for me*, is the various switches. Two pickups, all those switches... distract me. If I have switches I feel compelled to use them (the manufacturer might feel slighted if I don't, or something ) I just sold my Warwick Corvette $$ and it suffered from the same issue. Huegely versatile, but I keep fiddling! That's why a Stingray fits me well: simple controls for simple minds
I know, I know, I could just ignore the switches, find a position that sounds good and leave it at that. But... nah, if they're there, I'll use them, and I'll be playing a gig fiddling constantly with them because I forget what they sound like.

Nice problem to have

[stingrayPete1977]

How many basses you got now mate? I keep looking at all the g&l's and like you get distracted by the switches. I'm sure I will get one at some point but I'm running out of space to put them and don't want to get rid of anything either. East pre G&l with 3 blanked off switches? Lol

[Ou7shined]

How many more times am I going to say on here that G&Ls DO NOT do Musicman. It's impossible - the pups are wrong and the eq is just "hell no".

I think just because Leo did MM that people think they must be similar. MM was a major departure for Leo and his magic inventive mind. G&L was a return to Fender style thinking with a veiw to improve on everything, hence the oft quoted "P on steroids" line.

Anyway Jose, how you digging the L2500.... besides not sounding like a SUB?

[neepheid]

[quote name='Ou7shined' post='1088669' date='Jan 13 2011, 10:06 PM']How many more times am I going to say on here that G&Ls DO NOT do Musicman. It's impossible - the pups are wrong and the eq is just "hell no".[/quote]

Set up a keyboard macro, mannie, it's going to be a long haul.

[Ou7shined]

[quote name='neepheid' post='1088683' date='Jan 13 2011, 10:16 PM']Set up a keyboard macro, mannie, it's going to be a long haul.[/quote]
Maybe [b]that[/b] could be my NY's resolution.

[jezzaboy]

How many more times am I going to say on here that G&Ls DO NOT do Musicman. It's impossible - the pups are wrong and the eq is just "hell no".


Could not have agreed with you more. There is lots of posts on Talkbass along this line. If you want a stingray sound, guess what? buy a Stingray. Easy peasy.

Having owned both, I prefer the G&L but that`s just my opinion. And I agree with you McNach, the natural finish is really tasty.

Jez

Edited January 13, 2011 by jezzaboy

[tom1946]

As you say a nice problem to have.
As I have 2 L2000's I set each one slightly different and once I find the sound I like then I leave it alone.

I had a 2EQ stingray and nice as it was it didn't do it for me, it felt a bit bland.

We're all different I guess.

[dub_junkie]

I personally love the switching on the Asats/L*** basses. I settled on about 3 or 4 tones with these basses a long time back so for me its almost second nature to flick between them.

congrats on the L2500. I've never owned a G&L 5 string - how does the neck profile on yours compare to the SUB5? (which I guess is pretty much the same as my SR5 in profile)
I'm keen on buying a G&L 5 string one day but haven't spent any time playing one to know how it'd compare neck wise to my MMs

[Ou7shined]

Yeah G&L switching options can be daunting at first. I think there's a temptation, when you are first presented with such options, to keep flicking until you are totally lost and that's where it puts some folk off. I think the reason all those options are there is so you can find "your" sound out of all the possible ones being offered

I came up with this set up for my latest project.....



.... It is inspired by early G&L L-1000 wiring with additional switching options for a split P in the bridge position
but I'm banking on just one particular setting (P in parallel mode with the humbucker set to OMG) being "the sound" I'm looking for from this bass.

[mcnach]

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' post='1088610' date='Jan 13 2011, 09:16 PM']How many basses you got now mate? I keep looking at all the g&l's and like you get distracted by the switches. I'm sure I will get one at some point but I'm running out of space to put them and don't want to get rid of anything either. East pre G&l with 3 blanked off switches? Lol[/quote]


How many?
A few

I'm trying to consolidate and go down to maybe 7 (I have a rack that holds 7 guitars, so it seems like a good number) but it's proving difficult. I should just buy another guitar rack

How many do I use regularly? Maybe just 3 (Stingray, Jazz and OLP/SUB5), with the Stingray 80% of the time.

[neepheid]

Too many options? Not enough options in my opinion. That's why I had the single coil option added to the middle switch on my L-2000. That means I have 27 switching options where you only have 18. That means mine is betterer

It's probably the computer geek coming out in me but I love basses with unusual switching options. All my basses have at least 1 switch on them. In addition to the semi-mad L-2000 (I say semi-mad because I haven't done the final mod which allows you to choose inner or outer single coils - mine is inner only) I added the selector switch to my Epi Les Paul bass, the G-3 has a pickup selector, the Hodad has 7 combinations of 3 pickups and the Victory has pickup selector and a passive/active/active with mid notch.

There's something satisfying about flicking a switch and something tangible happening. You can take your blend pot and poke it

[mcnach]

[quote name='neepheid' post='1089007' date='Jan 14 2011, 10:09 AM']Too many options? Not enough options in my opinion. That's why I had the single coil option added to the middle switch on my L-2000. That means I have 27 switching options where you only have 18. That means mine is betterer

It's probably the computer geek coming out in me but I love basses with unusual switching options. All my basses have at least 1 switch on them. In addition to the semi-mad L-2000 (I say semi-mad because I haven't done the final mod which allows you to choose inner or outer single coils - mine is inner only) I added the selector switch to my Epi Les Paul bass, the G-3 has a pickup selector, the Hodad has 7 combinations of 3 pickups and the Victory has pickup selector and a passive/active/active with mid notch.

There's something satisfying about flicking a switch and something tangible happening. You can take your blend pot and poke it [/quote]


27 switching options... (where's the emoticon for an imploding head?

I have been playing guitar for many more years than I'd admit, and I got into modifying the electronics early on. I learnt to solder when I was a kid, as my dad was often soldering stuff at home, so it was fun to get new sounds simply by changing a few cheap components and combining pickups.
The thing is that at the end of the day, most options are subtle variants. Yes, sound A and sound B are different... but in a live situation they are not different enough and a simple change in EQ (for example) is more effective. And even recording, you are able to achieve enough variations from the preamp alone and/or postprocessing.
27 switching options playing live seems like a huge headache and in *my* experience, it all comes down to a handful of tones that I would really use.

The geek in me worked out ways to separate coils in humbuckers and combine them in weird ways... a Strat with HSH configuration provided a lot of entertainment! But not every sound was distinct enough to warrant a "preset", and navigation among all the options to find the handful of sounds *I* wanted was complicated.

Different people, different tastes! I'm not saying you're wrong at all, whatever works for you.

I want simplicity, I want to play without having to think too much about switching. That's why I also prefer my basic pedalboard with individual boxes to a multiFX even if a multiFX can give me lots of other sounds: I feel more "in control" when I see the individual function leds and where the knobs are.

[mcnach]

[quote name='dub_junkie' post='1088946' date='Jan 14 2011, 09:14 AM']I personally love the switching on the Asats/L*** basses. I settled on about 3 or 4 tones with these basses a long time back so for me its almost second nature to flick between them.

congrats on the L2500. I've never owned a G&L 5 string - how does the neck profile on yours compare to the SUB5? (which I guess is pretty much the same as my SR5 in profile)
I'm keen on buying a G&L 5 string one day but haven't spent any time playing one to know how it'd compare neck wise to my MMs[/quote]


It's early to say for certain, as I only played it 40min at first, anotehr 30min late last night and 10min this morning... so ask me after the weekend again

But I feel the G&L has a similarly wide neck, but perhaps a bit shallower. They're not very far from eachother, that's for sure, but the g&L feels a bit nicer. It could be my impression because of the finish of teh SUB5 and the setup (rather low on this G&L)... So, I'll play with them more at the weekend and will report back... but they are not hugely different. If the SR5 is like the SUB5, dimension-wise, then the G&L won't feel alien. I find it very comfortable.

[dub_junkie]

[quote name='neepheid' post='1089007' date='Jan 14 2011, 10:09 AM']That means I have 27 switching options where you only have 18. That means mine is betterer [/quote]

haha betterer indeed!

[quote name='mcnach' post='1089042' date='Jan 14 2011, 10:42 AM']It's early to say for certain, as I only played it 40min at first, anotehr 30min late last night and 10min this morning... so ask me after the weekend again

But I feel the G&L has a similarly wide neck, but perhaps a bit shallower. They're not very far from eachother, that's for sure, but the g&L feels a bit nicer. It could be my impression because of the finish of teh SUB5 and the setup (rather low on this G&L)... So, I'll play with them more at the weekend and will report back... but they are not hugely different. If the SR5 is like the SUB5, dimension-wise, then the G&L won't feel alien. I find it very comfortable.[/quote]

thanks for that. I always had the impression the G&Ls were a fair bit chunkier overall. I like the dimensions on the SR5 so the G&L may likely suit me

[dub_junkie]

Rich, is your bass running with the preamp on or bypassed?

[neepheid]

[quote name='mcnach' post='1089033' date='Jan 14 2011, 10:37 AM']27 switching options... (where's the emoticon for an imploding head?

I have been playing guitar for many more years than I'd admit, and I got into modifying the electronics early on. I learnt to solder when I was a kid, as my dad was often soldering stuff at home, so it was fun to get new sounds simply by changing a few cheap components and combining pickups.
The thing is that at the end of the day, most options are subtle variants. Yes, sound A and sound B are different... but in a live situation they are not different enough and a simple change in EQ (for example) is more effective. And even recording, you are able to achieve enough variations from the preamp alone and/or postprocessing.
27 switching options playing live seems like a huge headache and in *my* experience, it all comes down to a handful of tones that I would really use.

The geek in me worked out ways to separate coils in humbuckers and combine them in weird ways... a Strat with HSH configuration provided a lot of entertainment! But not every sound was distinct enough to warrant a "preset", and navigation among all the options to find the handful of sounds *I* wanted was complicated.

Different people, different tastes! I'm not saying you're wrong at all, whatever works for you.

I want simplicity, I want to play without having to think too much about switching. That's why I also prefer my basic pedalboard with individual boxes to a multiFX even if a multiFX can give me lots of other sounds: I feel more "in control" when I see the individual function leds and where the knobs are.[/quote]

Most of what I said was not particularly serious, in reality in the live situation I find a setting that I can hear above the band in the room I'm in and leave it. I just like having options, even if I never use them. Put it another way - this was my calculator through secondary school and university -



I mostly used it to add stuff and do a bit of trig and base functions. I probably used about a tenth of its capabilities. On the plus side no-one asked to borrow it

I'm with you on multiFX though - I can't be bothered trying to work it all out.

[Ou7shined]

[quote name='dub_junkie' post='1089089' date='Jan 14 2011, 11:12 AM']Rich, is your bass running with the preamp on or bypassed?[/quote]
There's no pre in my design at all, it's completely passive. The pic might be misleading - I'm using an old L-2000 chrome control plate on the project and the pic I used was just as an example of one.
It's still all theory at the moment ([url="http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d67/ou7shined/Lofa%20bass/wiring-diagram.jpg"]wiring diagram[/url]) as although I've got most of it [url="http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d67/ou7shined/Lofa%20bass/Lofa-bass-22.jpg"]wired up[/url], I'm waiting for my "on-on-on" switches to arrive from Japan.

[mcnach]

[quote name='Ou7shined' post='1088669' date='Jan 13 2011, 10:06 PM']How many more times am I going to say on here that G&Ls DO NOT do Musicman. It's impossible - the pups are wrong and the eq is just "hell no".

I think just because Leo did MM that people think they must be similar. MM was a major departure for Leo and his magic inventive mind. G&L was a return to Fender style thinking with a veiw to improve on everything, hence the oft quoted "P on steroids" line.

Anyway Jose, how you digging the L2500.... besides not sounding like a SUB? [/quote]


Well, I thought it look kinda similar, having never seen one "in the flesh", and enough people ask about differences between L2000/SR4 etc that I thought they must be somewhat similar in some form

The truth is, as you know, they aren't. You can make a noise with the L2500 that kinda overlaps some Stingray tones, but it does NOT sound really like one. Nope.
Having said that, it's a sweet bass.
It's early still, but the first impression is really good. The preamp is "odd"... nothing like any other preamp I've worked with before and I don't find it as intuitive... I feel I would probably use both treble/bass maxed most of the time, with slight cuts only. But it's a really comfortable and good-sounding bass. I have to play with it more, but I think I'm keeping it (and the SUB5) despite rarely needing a 5 string.

Last night I was playing along to some Sade and it was so full, round, rich, defined... yum!
You know what's happening, 'though... it's only a matter of time until I find a 4-string (L2000) that will tempt me. Stingray Jazz and L2000 sounds like happiness to me
(a fretless L2000, hmmm)

[mcnach]

[quote name='tom1946' post='1088891' date='Jan 14 2011, 07:51 AM']As you say a nice problem to have.
As I have 2 L2000's I set each one slightly different and once I find the sound I like then I leave it alone.

I had a 2EQ stingray and nice as it was it didn't do it for me, it felt a bit bland.

We're all different I guess.[/quote]


I guess we are all different... I will call the Stingray many things, but "bland" is not one of them!

The Stingray seems a bit more "raw" to me, and the G&L powerful yet in full control of itself... if you know what I mean (and if you do, that's amazing! )

[stingrayPete1977]

Bland! Have a word Jose

[Ou7shined]

[quote name='mcnach' post='1089555' date='Jan 14 2011, 05:18 PM']Well, I thought it look kinda similar, having never seen one "in the flesh", and enough people ask about differences between L2000/SR4 etc that I thought they must be somewhat similar in some form

The truth is, as you know, they aren't. You can make a noise with the L2500 that kinda overlaps some Stingray tones, but it does NOT sound really like one. Nope.
Having said that, it's a sweet bass.
It's early still, but the first impression is really good. The preamp is "odd"... nothing like any other preamp I've worked with before and I don't find it as intuitive... I feel I would probably use both treble/bass maxed most of the time, with slight cuts only. But it's a really comfortable and good-sounding bass. I have to play with it more, but I think I'm keeping it (and the SUB5) despite rarely needing a 5 string.

Last night I was playing along to some Sade and it was so full, round, rich, defined... yum!
You know what's happening, 'though... it's only a matter of time until I find a 4-string (L2000) that will tempt me. [b]Stingray Jazz and L2000 sounds like happiness to me [/b]
(a fretless L2000, hmmm)[/quote]
I briefly planned that my latest project would have a MM pup in the sweet spot (just happen to have a 'ray '09 in my parts box ) and in MFD in the neck position. The twist would be that you couldn't mix them, you would either have the choice of Stingray (with proper pre) or L-1000. The 2 most awesome basses built into one. I shelved it though when I decided that the 2 completely different circuits sharing the same knobs would be a nightmare to design.... besides the 2 pups side by side looked pish.

[Ou7shined]

[quote name='mcnach' post='1089565' date='Jan 14 2011, 05:25 PM']...The Stingray seems a bit more "raw" to me, and the G&L powerful yet in full control of itself... if you know what I mean...[/quote]
Nicely put.

[mcnach]

[quote name='dub_junkie' post='1089082' date='Jan 14 2011, 11:09 AM']thanks for that. I always had the impression the G&Ls were a fair bit chunkier overall. I like the dimensions on the SR5 so the G&L may likely suit me[/quote]

Correction:

The G&L neck is a *bit* chunkier than the SUB5 (no idea whether the SUB5 the SR5 use the same dimensions 'though).
The difference is not very large, though. It's very comfortable for me.

edit: I just noticed your location. If you're ever up here in the 'burgh and want to try it, you're welcome.

Edited January 14, 2011 by mcnach

[mcnach]

[quote name='neepheid' post='1089117' date='Jan 14 2011, 11:29 AM']Most of what I said was not particularly serious, in reality in the live situation I find a setting that I can hear above the band in the room I'm in and leave it. I just like having options, even if I never use them. Put it another way - this was my calculator through secondary school and university -



I mostly used it to add stuff and do a bit of trig and base functions. I probably used about a tenth of its capabilities. On the plus side no-one asked to borrow it

I'm with you on multiFX though - I can't be bothered trying to work it all out.[/quote]


heh, I think I understand you, this was mine at university:

[dub_junkie]

[quote name='mcnach' post='1089699' date='Jan 14 2011, 07:10 PM']Correction:

The G&L neck is a *bit* chunkier than the SUB5 (no idea whether the SUB5 the SR5 use the same dimensions 'though).
The difference is not very large, though. It's very comfortable for me.

edit: I just noticed your location. If you're ever up here in the 'burgh and want to try it, you're welcome.[/quote]


thanks for the info and kind offer of a tryout. I will definetely need to try one of these sometime.hopefully Guitar Guitar will have one in. I did once play an L-5500 in McCormacks a few years back but I think it may have had a different profile to the G&L 5 strings that followed. afaik the Sub5,SR5,Sterling 5 and Big AL 5 all have the same neck profile though I may well be wrong on that