NBD! A modified OLP Tony Levin 5-string Ray-a-like!

[kwmlondon]

I've been a bit worried walking home late at night with a £4k+ Dingwall strapped to my back so I got a cheap bass from a kindly basschatter to use when I know I'm going to be walking the mean streets of New Cross in the dark (it's not bad around here to be honest, it's just I've never carried anything this valuable around before).

 

So, I met up with Paul walbassuk in a service station on Saturday (as I've done so often before) and handed over some notes in exchange for a bass (great transaction, lovely guy - huge thanks!)

 

It's A BASS!

 

First impressions. The output is HOT. I mean, you could power a light off it, very very hot.

 

Heavy but comfortable. 

 

Neck is quite nice, but chunky baseball-bat like while narrow string spacing. Frets good. Nice satin feel.

 

The finish is horrible. I HATE photoflame but hey. doesn't really matter.

 

Tuners are fine. Bridge is fine. Action is high, will probably take that down a few notches.

 

Strings are fine. Should have asked what they are but it doesn't really matter.

 

Tone is pretty Musicman like, but blimey I need to back off the active. I mean, the centre detent is higher than I'd ever use for bass, mid and treble. Taking it down to bass 2/10, mid 2/10 and treble 5/10 and backing off the volume gets you a rather pleasant sound.

 

This is just the job. More than adequate for any of my needs. 

 

BUT that means the one-in, one-out rule will be put into action this weekend. My '89 Stingray will be going on the market. I'll miss owning it, but I won't miss the bass itself.

Edited 7 hours ago by kwmlondon

[crazycloud]

Looks fine to me, except for that PG, which isn't to my personal tastes, but I'd much rather that than 3TS and tort.

If it works for you and does the job, then it seems like it's perfect to me.

 

I had an OLP MM5 years ago (Bass VI style, Musicman Silhouette clone) that was fine sounding, stable and consistent, but I sold it off as I wasn't really using it. Then I bought the Ibanez SRC6 that's in my avatar. I really like the Ibby, but knowing what I do now, I'm not sure it was worth 3x the money. And the painted finish on the MM5 is much better than the Ibanez brown.

[kwmlondon]

6 minutes ago, crazycloud said:

Looks fine to me, except for that PG, which isn't to my personal tastes, but I'd much rather that than 3TS and tort.

If it works for you and does the job, then it seems like it's perfect to me.

 

I had an OLP MM5 years ago (Bass VI style, Musicman Silhouette clone) that was fine sounding, stable and consistent, but I sold it off as I wasn't really using it. Then I bought the Ibanez SRC6 that's in my avatar. I really like the Ibby, but knowing what I do now, I'm not sure it was worth 3x the money. And the painted finish on the MM5 is much better than the Ibanez brown.

Oh. Yeah. That pickuard is gross but I’m not worried about tue looks really