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NBD - G&L SB-1 (1991)


ped

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7 minutes ago, ped said:

Excellent!! It’ll be interesting to hear how it sounds. I’ve got an old set of Cobalt flats you can have to try if you like, they’re a bit rusty but sound fine! 

Wow, thanks Ped! I will most certainly take you up on that very kind offer! 

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  • 1 year later...

You might have seen that I recently went to sell this bass, but I started playing it again and rapidly removed it from sale. Not sure why I did that, I suppose I was feeling guilty for having recently spent some money on a watch and my man maths said it would be paid for by the sale of this bass. Deep down I knew it wouldn't happen. Also I managed to reduce some bills by calling up and saying 'I'm leaving' and paid off the council tax finally.

Messing about with my phone I took a couple of snaps, thought I'd post here to share some SB-1 love. 

The sticker near the jack is a tribute to my first bass, which had an actual warning sign cutout placed in front of the bridge, as I was still of the mindset of a sign stealing youth. I suppose it's a stage we all go through along with taking the odd traffic cone on the way home from town.

Cheers

ped

 

IMG_4028.jpegIMG_4024.jpeg

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  • 5 months later...
33 minutes ago, Ricky Rioli said:

I've been sent a photo of the SB-1 that is very slowly making its way to me. 1½" nut, just under 7 lbs weight. Hopefully will have it early February.

 

 

Screenshot_20201216-224855_Gallery.jpg

Looks great! Why so slow? My first P bass was a Fender ‘57 reissue in shell pink. Looks better on the SB1!

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4 hours ago, ped said:

Looks great! Why so slow?

The factory failed to notice that the specs asked for a quartersawn neck, so it's going back from the dealer in Virginia to California to get the right one! Since the neck is quite slim and the climate here soggy (the tech who set up my TRBX back in the autumn was complaining about the weather changing all the instruments overnight) a more rigid neck seemed like something worth waiting a little longer for 🤷‍♂️

Also in that picture, a set of Daddario Chromes 😀 They'll be replacing the stock Nickels before the bass gets shipped in my direction

Edited by Ricky Rioli
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I see you're in York too!! Soggy York!! I'd love to see the bass when it's in your hands. The quarter sawn necks are great, so that's an option now is it? Maybe by the time it's coming back over here we'll have a trade deal with the USA!

The SB1 is a great bass indeed, I think it's a very well thought out update on the P bass which is every bit as logical as the original transition to the '57 design most of us associate with the Precision nowadays.

The MFD pickup is awesome - the volume and tone knobs interact in a way which makes the bass really flexible and musical. I can't explain how or why, but it works on everything.

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20 minutes ago, TheGreek said:

I have an SB2 - very impressed - especially as the fella I bought it from complained that there is no tone knob. Takes a bit of getting used to but once "mastered" it seems completely natural.

I did have a good think about the SB-2, but decided that the direction a tone control takes the basic neck pickup sound in is more me than the direction mixing in some bridge pickup goes. I know there's the unofficial option of having a tone control added to an SB-2 but since everyone says that the volume controls also have an effect on the tone of MFDs, I decided three knobs would be one too many for me! I'm easily distracted..... 🙄

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7 hours ago, Ricky Rioli said:

I've been sent a photo of the SB-1 that is very slowly making its way to me. 1½" nut, just under 7 lbs weight. Hopefully will have it early February.

 

 

Screenshot_20201216-224855_Gallery.jpg

Cracking colour. Nice & Lightweight, Precision pickups..... What's not to like :) 

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16 minutes ago, gareth said:

Under 7lbs?

Are you sure?

Yes, it's made of empress, which isn't listed on the options page at the moment but which is seeming frequently available. I ordered through Rocket Music in Virginia - Greg there seems very good at knowing what G&L can do. (Fortunately he's also good at checking that the factory have actually made what was asked for....)

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6 minutes ago, Ricky Rioli said:

Yes, it's made of empress, which isn't listed on the options page at the moment but which is seeming frequently available. I ordered through Rocket Music in Virginia - Greg there seems very good at knowing what G&L can do. (Fortunately he's also good at checking that the factory have actually made what was asked for....)

That’s a fabulous weight

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14 minutes ago, ped said:

I’ve heard of that wood before, paulowena or something, very fast growing but really stable. Interesting. My SB1 is about 8.5lbs I think. Not sure what the wood is. 

I was a bit nervous of it when I first read about it - would it be a bit soft? would it sound a bit underwhelming? - but some guy called Brad in Seattle seems to buy a G&L every other month and he reported being happy with the many empress basses he's had.

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3 minutes ago, ped said:

Just saw it referred to as ‘the titanium of wood’ which sounds good to me!!

I just worked out that by the time Her Majesty's Customs and Excise have had their way with me, choosing empress over the standard alder will have added about £90 to the price. Which is a lot more than nothing, but I've wasted a lot more money than that in my life 😉

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18 minutes ago, Ricky Rioli said:

I just worked out that by the time Her Majesty's Customs and Excise have had their way with me, choosing empress over the standard alder will have added about £90 to the price. Which is a lot more than nothing, but I've wasted a lot more money than that in my life 😉

Worth £90 for a sub 7lb bass

Wise investment 

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18 minutes ago, Ricky Rioli said:

I just worked out that by the time Her Majesty's Customs and Excise have had their way with me, choosing empress over the standard alder will have added about £90 to the price. Which is a lot more than nothing, but I've wasted a lot more money than that in my life 😉

You will save that back in the long term :)  Some of us, as we get older and greyer find the basses of our youth become ever heavier.  The result is often predictable, move it on and get a lighter one £££.  Got to say I have kept my SB-1 (somewhere around 88-89) for about 30 years now.

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