Darkstrike Posted July 11, 2011 Share Posted July 11, 2011 [quote name='mcnach' post='1299776' date='Jul 11 2011, 11:52 AM']Well, I placed an order... I'll let you know. I went for the 704 model, rather the 724 shown in the original link. The 704 has a two piece bridge.[/quote] My 6er has one of them 2 piece bridges, they're pretty cool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bankai Posted July 11, 2011 Share Posted July 11, 2011 My first bass was a Shine Extreme Series 845. Made in China. Loved it, very very much. Never would sell it and it's still with me now! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcnach Posted July 12, 2011 Share Posted July 12, 2011 SBA704 bass dispatched today... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcnach Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 [quote name='mcnach' post='1301485' date='Jul 12 2011, 07:35 PM']SBA704 bass dispatched today... [/quote] and it arrived! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darkstrike Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 Bloody heck, that was quick! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcnach Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 so here it is: I have to get back to work, so I didn't have a lot of time to play with it, but here are the first impressions: 1) this is a light package. Is there really a bass inside? 2) wow, that's a pretty piece of ash 3) I'll have to fix the action 4) hey, this sounds like a Jazz on steroids 5) if I forget where the floor is, I'll just let the neck go and follow it. It is a very light bass. VERY. That is good. Except when it cannot balance the neck, and where the design means the strap button falls at the 17th fret rather than nearer the 12th: neckdive issues. I already suspected it'd suffer from it, and the one video in youtube confirmed it: the owner moved the strap button to the neck heel which cured it for him (his words). It's very pretty Really nice grain, similar to my G&L L2500. Fretboard has very close grain and it's nice. Could use a bit of lemon oil. Finish is good. A lot better than I'd expect for the price. No issues on first inspection. String spacing a touch narrow for the pickup, but polepieces align sufficiently well. The neck pickup was always going to be a compromise unless they use a different sized one, still, alignment is reasonable. The two pickups seem to be alnico, as the specs indicated (judging by the polepieces, I haven't opened it up - yet). Action is high, I'll have to fix that later, adjust intonation etc. Fret ends are ok, no sharp edges. I was looking for obvious levelling issues, but I did not find anything. Hopefully I can get away without fret levelling, but I'll find out when I lower the action. The neck is like a P-bass more than a Stingray or a Jazz. Slim neck? Not here. Like P-basses? Then you may like this. I do. Satin finish on the back, smooth. The shape of the neck where it meets the body is not square: what you see is a small overhang. The actual shape is very much like the Squier CV50s P-bass I have next to me. Square-ish, but with round edges. It makes me wonder whether it would fit... If I keep this bass, I can only imagine what it would look like with a nicely tinted all maple neck. But that would be long into the future, if ever. If I keep it it will also host a preamp eventually. The control cavity is huge, which is great. Lots of space to play with. Sounds... like a Jazz. Not like a Jazz, but Jazz-like. Certainly not Stingray. Not surprising when you look at the position of the pickups: Jazz positions. On the picture above, the 5-string Jazz does *NOT* have the pickups at their usual jazz spots, but follow a Stingray pattern, interestingly enough... Check with the OLP next to it. I should have put the Jazz too in the group to best illustrate my point, but you can mentally compare it to a Jazz by looking at the distance from the bridge. Jazz-like, but heavier. Those pickups sound nice. I wonder whether they're wired in series or parallel... first impression says series to me. I'll check it out some other time. The bridge pickup is more nasal than a Stingray. It will certainly cut through. The passive tone control has quite a wide useable range, and with it entirelly rolled off I had something that I'd be happy to play reggae with. Not thin whatsoever. The neck pickup reminded me of a P-bass. No, it doesn't mimic a P, but you get that mid-range thing going on and a LOT of bottom that describes the P bass so well. Both pickups on have that "hollow" quality of a Jazz with both pickups on, but again "ballsier". Overall, a good range of sounds. Nice. I like it. I really like it. Will I keep it? I don't know. You may have noticed I said a couple of times "IF I keep it..." Why? The first thing I mentioned: neckdive. Some people are ok with it, but it is one of the things that end up annoying me a lot. Every guitar or bass I ever owned that suffered from it ended up the same way: abandoned in my guitar rack gathering dust, no matter how lovely they were, and finally sold on. It may be possible to make it better by moving the strap button. My personal experince is that it doesn't always result in a good balance. It's not a worse neckdive than, say, a Thunderbird bass (the ones I've tried), or a Warwick Thumb, and those particular basses have LOTS of fans out there, so this bass is perfectly playable and there will be lots of people who feel absolutely fine with it as is. Just not me. So, if you absolutely hate neckdive... this may not be for you. If you don't mind it, then it's worth checking out. At £142 delivered? You can do a lot worse after spending £350. I would hate to part with this, because it looks great on me (ok, so I'm vain ) and as stock it already seems to be a very interesting bass. As a subject of modifications... I just drool about what can be done to it... For fun and giggles, not because without the mods it's useless, you understand. But I'm a neck-dive nazi, I admit it... and I am not sure I will be able to tolerate it beyond the honeymoon period. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcnach Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 [quote name='Darkstrike' post='1302455' date='Jul 13 2011, 03:17 PM']Bloody heck, that was quick![/quote] Yes, and I had a tracking page and emails being sent at each step. The company delivering was Yodel, through "DespatchBay". Nice work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darkstrike Posted July 15, 2011 Share Posted July 15, 2011 Shame about the neck dive sounds like a fine bass otherwise. My 8 string dives dreadful, but sounds so good I can't give up on it. Been wanting to try filling the control cavity with lead.... Would you consider using a strap extension? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcnach Posted July 15, 2011 Share Posted July 15, 2011 [quote name='Darkstrike' post='1304628' date='Jul 15 2011, 12:16 PM']Shame about the neck dive sounds like a fine bass otherwise. My 8 string dives dreadful, but sounds so good I can't give up on it. Been wanting to try filling the control cavity with lead.... Would you consider using a strap extension?[/quote] No. If the neck-heavy tendency really annoys me, then the bass goes. If I can live with it, it stays. There's no shortage of good basses about without strange contraptions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darkstrike Posted July 15, 2011 Share Posted July 15, 2011 Fair 'nuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrismuzz Posted July 15, 2011 Share Posted July 15, 2011 Shine basses are great, absolutely great. I agree about the neck dive thing though Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcnach Posted July 16, 2011 Share Posted July 16, 2011 [quote name='chrismuzz' post='1305318' date='Jul 15 2011, 11:06 PM']Shine basses are great, absolutely great. I agree about the neck dive thing though[/quote] If the quality of this one is representative of the rest, then they're definitely worth to pay attention to. It's a shame this Tele bass was not a "Strat bass" instead with the longer horn, because I'm really enjoying it. Tonight will be gigged too, let's see. I made a new thread just for this bass. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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