OLP MM2 bass's

[iconic]

..£160/£199 new and when a few years old they seem to fetch the same or a bit more!....they have a bit of a following going by Fleabay....so I thought I would have take a look for myself, they look soooo very inviting for a tight wad like me

....well I picked up my first one yesterday....couple of years old, but 'as new' as you could ever get, been played for around an hour, maybe less then placed back in the bag and left in the corner of bedroom....I can understand why now

...I really, really wanted it to be a great bass bargain, aching even, but what a disapointment....this one had nothing in common a StingRay bar the looks...I wasn't expecting a champagne bass for my lemonade money.

...I'm sorry to say, this must be the cheapest and nastiest bass I have ever seen, no wonder Ernie pulled the plug....I mean, the tuners acutally rattled!
The fretboard had two high frets so that the action had to be set high to avoid fret buzz, one of these frets I could of shaved with it, the pots had a nasty feel, gravelly yet loose, the nut was a terrible fit, pissed both sideways and sloping and the sound was very....how can I say....thin in very limp way? This bass simply couldn't be played out the bag, it didn't work....a very pretty ornament though.

...I really do love a cheap bass and I had no name £80 Cash Converter P bass loaner that did the job fine, but this OLP is first time I had thought "this really isn't money the money, any money" I didn't even bid the guy.

So, come on OLP MM2 owners of the world, was I looking at a real lemon, I hope so and that most are good examples, or is the mere fact that something looks like a Stingray enough for most people to buy one, a triumph of marketing over function?

[Ou7shined]

I find OLP are more about styling than functionality - the components and construction are just about acceptable and totally they are very vanilla... but they look ok from a distance.

[BottomEndian]

My OLP Tony Levin 5-string is a little gem for the money I paid... but it's not [i]really[/i] just an OLP any more. It's got a Nordstrand pickup and a John East preamp, so in terms of sound it's up there with my "proper" SR5 (if not surpassing it a bit), and it's had a good seeing-to and setup from a decent luthier. The maple top's nice too, although not outstanding.

The only downside is that the neck's a bit more baseball-bat than the real thing, but it still plays nicely and sounds great. Wish it didn't have frets, though...

[oldslapper]

Bought one off here, with Bartolini pup, J East pre amp (18v) and Schaller tuners.....great bass, great sound.
So with the last post in mind, they do need upgrades to make them into "decent" basses (whatever that means).
But I've done that with most "stock" Mexican Fenders I've bought.
Good solid bit of timber, and yes I've had to dress 1 fret, but thats all.

[Cat Burrito]

I owned one for a while, traded it off ChrisWilliams666 & sold it on to Stevie who sold it on again. I thought it was a great value for money bass but moved it on for the same reason as Chris, I'm a Precision player and the active style wasn't me. It was a good well built bass and I reckon it must be on it's 5th Basschat owner by now. I don't understand it.

Some basses do seem to hold their value (Epiphone T-birds for example) where as others don't seem to at all.

[OutToPlayJazz]

One of my pupils had the black MM2 which was fine for the money. A decent enough sounding bass for the price. But I had the active twin humbucker MM22 with the five position switch, which was very good for again, very little money.

So they may not have made the finest kit around, but they were fit for purpose at the price.

[simon1964]

I used to have one of the passive five strings. I quite liked it for the money. Nice playable neck, and although the components may not have been the best, it was fine for the money (I got it for £100 off ebay). I have heard the quality control was a bit hit and miss though, so you may just have been unlucky.

[Prime_BASS]

Previously I had an OLP guitar and it was better than any ther kids squier strat, good quick neck, low frets, low action and in my opinion looks better the squier standard strats, probably not so much now days, squier has gne u where as OLP seems to have gone further down on the quality scale.

Offers something different for the beginners.

I think a lot of people buy them with the intention of upgrading them, but if you get a bad one it's pointless, all you'll be lef with is a body. But sometimes if done right you can end up with a crackng bass fr still a fraction of a EB stingay.

[Adrenochrome]

When they first came out I really liked the concept. However I tried a couple and they were absolute dogs, both to play and the sound of them. They were very badly setup (don't know if that was factory or the shop?). Squier, Yammy, Vintage, Cort, Peavey etc were all much better basses for the money.
The 2 OLPs that I tried may not have been typical, but they were so bad as to really scare me off.

[danny-79]

I had a Tony Levin 5 banger a while a go and for what i payed for it it wasn't half bad for the little cash i payed for it ,still noting special though but with a tweak here and there it played and sounded great.

Edited May 15, 2010 by danny-79

[Tait]

I've had both the passive ones and the active ones. I really liked them both, the active one was in a completely different league to the passive, admittedly, but i really liked the passive one too. either i got a good one, or you got a bad one, because i thought mine was great. not a stingray by any stretch of imagination (unlike the actives, which get suprisingly close for so much less money), but definitely a gigable bass IMO.

[whimsy23]

I've been playing mine for a while now and whilst it's obviously vastly inferior build quality to an actual Stingray (it lacks a bit of sustain because of the wood used), you get a fairly full tone and some punchy bottom end. It's the way it plays similar to a Stingray which was my main reason for getting one. I tried a few different basses and was close to getting a Jazz, but those and P basses didn't quite feel the same.

One of the best £200s I've spent!

[wotnwhy]

I've been singing the praises of OLP for a long time now, and stand by it!

Weak is the last word i'd use to describe the sound of mine, i've had a better music man tone out of it that some of the real deals!

Think you got a mighty lemon..

[Ou7shined]

[quote name='wotnwhy' post='839790' date='May 17 2010, 02:40 PM']I've been singing the praises of OLP for a long time now, and stand by it!

Weak is the last word i'd use to describe the sound of mine, i've had a better music man tone out of it that some of the real deals!

Think you got a mighty lemon..[/quote]
I'd love to hear that. A bass that can do a better MM tone than a MM can.

[wotnwhy]

laugh away, you know music man have made some right dogs

[Tait]

[quote name='Ou7shined' post='839799' date='May 17 2010, 02:50 PM']I'd love to hear that. A bass that can do a better MM tone than a MM can. [/quote]

FWIW i can see why someone would prefer the sound of the active OLPs to a MM, mainly in a band situation. its a lot more punchy than a musicman, like a mix between a precision and a MM. i liked it.