Thomas P Posted March 24, 2021 Share Posted March 24, 2021 (edited) Hi all I`ve had the previlege of owning a couple of very well built basses (Ken Smith/Lefay/Status/Jerzy Drozd) which had body shaping and neck profiles making them extremely comfortable to play, but all with a rather modern sound. Also when strung with heavy gauge nickel strings. And even with a good 3-band EQ, dialing in more bass, or reducing mid/treble, the sound either becomes uneven or drowns in the mix. So my question is, what 5 string bass should I look for, with the ergonomics of a Status/Lefay but with a rather classic big/round yet clear sound without being too harsh? I do like the sound of an Alder body, but it doesn`t really seem to be favored among luthiers making such instruments. Regards Thomas Edited March 24, 2021 by Thomas P Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheGreek Posted March 24, 2021 Share Posted March 24, 2021 Something with mutes? I have some lying about which I use with a variety of basses when I want to change the tone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
itu Posted March 24, 2021 Share Posted March 24, 2021 How about bypassing electronics completely? A simple DPDT switch and 1 MOhm resistor to reduce any clicks. The bass becomes a hi-Z unit and should affect the sound somewhat. If your rig contains lots of effects, do a test without them, too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merton Posted March 24, 2021 Share Posted March 24, 2021 Get @skelf to build you an awesome ACG 5. All his designs are super comfortable seated and on the strap and you can spec the woods and electronics to get that old school tone. I have three of his basses (soon to be 4 🤪😳) and they all occupy different sonic spaces - simple passive old school, modern super J, and gnarly Spector-esque rock machine. But all of them have way more versatility than those pigeon homes I’ve given them; they can all do all of them if I do desire 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hellzero Posted March 24, 2021 Share Posted March 24, 2021 A Leduc Masterpiece 5 (and headless would even be better) will tick all the boxes, but you'll have to buy it second hand as Christophe is not building solid body instruments anymore and is slowly retiring from the business. Also check Noguera in France too, but a Leduc Masterpiece with the dummy coil and the EL-5 preamp is quite impossible to beat. I too own, amongst others, a Le Fay (Remington Steele 6 RHT CC CAP Big Block), some Leduc's, some Noguera's and a rare Ibanez AFR A104F, so I know what ergonomics means. And I've owned a lot of basses over the 3 last decades. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Misdee Posted March 24, 2021 Share Posted March 24, 2021 If you can live with 18mm spacing and medium weight , how about a Yamaha BB P35 or a used Bb2025 ? The tone is a great blend of modern punch and traditional passive grunt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas P Posted March 25, 2021 Author Share Posted March 25, 2021 Hi Guys Thank you very much for your suggestions and input. There was a Yamaha 5000A for sale locally at a resonable price, but it got sold before I had a chance to move on it. How about an Adamovic Dark. Any experiences with such one? Kind Regards Thomas Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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