NBD - OLP Tony Levin

[tauzero]

I've had a hankering for one of these (in natural) for a while, but had decided to give up as I've probably got nearly enough basses now. However, I had a little search on FB Marketplace today and saw one that the owner just wanted to swap for a 4-string. Well, it so happens that I had a 4-string in the spare room wardrobe which had been there since 2011 - got it as a backup and then stuck with 5-strings so it was redundant. A little discussion with the seller and I threw in a bit of cash, a (adequate but not great) strap, and a (decent) lead, and headed 90 miles up to Stockport to collect it. Got a slight shock when he texted me and said he'd decided to keep it as I was in Stockport by then, but it turned out he was texting someone else who wanted it and was still doing the swap with me. So home it came with me.

 

 

 

Very effective 3-band preamp. The neck is a little deeper than my preferred depth but narrow enough to compensate for that - I think it's a little deeper than the SBMM SUB Ray5 that's sitting patiently awaiting a preamp, certainly deeper than my Antoniotsai, but it feels OK. I think the pickup needs raising a bit. Setup is generally good. The strings seem a little odd, they certainly look like a matched set but they're approximately 40-60-85-100-120 (I think the 60 is actually more like 58). I think it will be getting a set of Elites, 40-125. There's a few very minor dings but nothing of any note.

 

And this is the bass I swapped for it:

 

 

An Aston, which I've never encountered apart from this one. Passive, VVTT, neck-through. The seller was happy with it, I was happy with the OLP and with the knowledge that the Aston was going to get used rather than sitting in a wardrobe for ever.