solo4652 Posted February 12, 2014 Share Posted February 12, 2014 Got this bass last week. It took me a whole day to strip it, de-crud it, remove years of fluff, grime and sticky stuff, check all the electrics, re-assemble it and do a decent set up. After playing it at home and at band practice, here are my impressions: Good points; Really nice woods. Quality alder (?) body, smooth maple neck and virtually unmarked rosewood board. Loads of tone options with pickup blending, pickup phase switching and individual pickup tone/volume controls. Almost too many options! - I'll probably confuse myself in the hurly-burly of a gig. Slim, easy-to-play neck. Easy-access truss-rod at heel. Balances well - no neck-dive. To my ears, it tends towards a more modern/middy tone but a bit of pickup switching gets it pretty close to warm/rich/P-tone. It's all there, somewhere. Things that don't suit me, personally; Narrow string spacing. I'm used to a wide, flat 44mm G&L nut-width, so perhaps I was expecting a bit much to play a 40mm nut-width. My hulking great paws are finding it too cramped. Slightly odd tone-switching that takes a fair bit of learning and understanding. For me, it's made me realise I prefer something a little more simple and straightforward, especially in a gig environment. So, in summary, this is a well-built instrument easily on a par with my MIJ Fender P for build-quality. It's light, nicely balanced, easy to play and has a wide range of tones on offer - at least as many as my G&L. It's a J size neck and that's where I'm struggling with it. I don't think it's quite right for me. It's made me realise I should keep looking for a G&L SB-1, L-1000, LB-100 or maybe a wide-necked Yamaha BB like a BB1200. Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skybone Posted February 12, 2014 Share Posted February 12, 2014 Fantastic & underrated basses. I always loved the bridge design on them as well, slightly gutted when I saw the recent reissues that didn't have the classic Aria Pro SB bridges. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bassassin Posted February 12, 2014 Share Posted February 12, 2014 Beautiful - looks like you've done a great job of cleaning & tidying it. Persist with for a while it before you make a decision, however if you do decide to move it on, there are plenty of people here who'd be interested. Well, me at least! Jon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tommorichards Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 [quote name='solo4652' timestamp='1392202603' post='2365834'] I should keep looking for a G&L SB-1 Steve [/quote] Dam, im after one of those as well. good luck with the search Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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