mcnach

Indeed, but it's also easy to see why some of the feeding frenzy surrounding certain instruments/brands sometimes look a bit ridiculous too. I love my SX guitars, I've got a couple. The SX Telecaster I got a few weeks back, I can't put it down. I keep commenting how much I love it to anybody who is near me But I'm aware it's not the best Telecaster, it's just a perfectly decent instrument that punches way above it's £129 tag and that's pretty much what I needed: a decent Telecaster to have around the house which would make the right sounds when recording some basic demos. The problem comes when people start talking about how they are comparable or better than brand X costing 10x as much... and I'll call that 'hype'. I'll still prefer to listen to that than to nay-sayers that have no personal experience of the instrument in question. We haven't had much Behringer bashing lately, but it was a great example of this kind of thing, as invariably you'll get people chiming in to say how rubbish Behringer was all while admitting they do not use their gear. It used to mildly annoy me and amuse me at the same time, for I used a LOT of Behringer equipment when my income was a lot lower than now and while it was not the best, it worked perfectly fine and gave me a chance to play which I would not have had otherwise. I still have a small mixer which works just fine almost 20 years later, and my first bass head was a BX-4500T which was, ahem, inspired on the Ashdown MAG series, and it actually sounded pretty good and did the job without fault while I had it... I'm also a little of a reverse-snob I love it when I use some 'lowly' gear but get good results out of it, however I still like nice gear so I mostly use that, but not based on a brand name, logo etc, just based on my experience with it. I can't deny that the stuff I like best tends not to be found in the lower budget ranges, even if I find some great cheap gear too.

No offence whatsoever, don't worry, we're allowed to disagree... Although now that you expanded it we probably agree about a lot more than I thought at first, just not everything I am someone who is willing to sacrifice a little (a little!) for the sake of convenience, so I enjoy my small and light Mesa D800+ and a pair of compact and light Barefaced Two10 immensely. If I had roadies and bulk/weight were not an issue, I will probably be using something else, but I am really happy with my sound and when it comes to packing up/tearing down, I am extremely happy I chose this gear

I get it, but I would not put Valeton as the AliExpress of the pedal world. Some cheap pedals are just cheap. Some cheap pedals are actually quite alright, and Valeton seems good enough to me. I've got the OC-10 and the envelope filter... Katfish I think it's called, and I can't fault them... I'm not too poor to have to worry about the price of pedals, but the Valeton OC-10 does a great job with a small footprint and that's what I needed, not a specific label. To suggest that those who like them just don't have discerning enough ears is a little funny, but whatever makes you happy.

To be fair, I think SX deserves to be in a slightly separate chapter. They can be pretty good. I bought a SX Les Paul type guitar with set neck, P90s, etc back in 2005.. as decoration. Yup. I had collected an unexpected £100 and that guitar was £120ish and looked great and I wanted to put it on my wall (I got enough paintings ). To my surprise it was really good. Just the usual little things, needed a basic set up o make it play nice and it sounded very good stock. I went to a guitar get together with it and was compared favourably to a Gibson LP Jr reissue someone else brought, sound-wise. After that experience I got curious about them and although I did encounter a handful of disappointing instruments (and some very heavy), they were generally quite nice and a little attention turns them into very decent instruments. If you like the vintage tint lacquer necks, they really had no rival on the budget end of things. Because of that, during the lock down I wanted a Telecaster but as it's just for home use only to record demos etc for the band, I looked at SX among other options and went with it mostly because of the tinted lacquered neck (I am a sucker for lacquered maple fingerboards)... and I'm very impressed with it. In short: I consider SX to be very valid budget and midrange instrument brand (they do more than just the budget ones, although over here we seemt o just get the cheapest offerings), alongside Squier, Vintage and probably Harley Benton.

So Valeton's copy is a rip-off but MXR's copy isn't... ok, got it.

Same here... the passive tone control is too subtle, it's like it allows you to tweak the upper mids a bit but doesn't give you the full range of operation that a standard passive control normally gives you. I know a lot of people who barely use their passive tone, so for those it's probably more than enough. I use the passive tone controls a lot, so this was just not doing it for me.

As someone who preferred his VM4 with a passive circuit... in my case it was a matter of finding passive -> active conversions requiring more work than active -> passive, and not being sure what I preferred at the time of ordering I wanted a flexible option. I only experienced the preamp in the shop, and it's hard to decide there. Also, it was not the bass I ended up with (mine was built for me). I generally prefer the flexibility of active EQ onboard, but there's something I love about passive tone controls and I'm a little picky about preamps. Some preamps work well for me (like John East's MMSR and U/J-Retro) while others not so much. I started out playing the VM4 in active mode, but eventually I realised I liked it better passive... so once I decided that this bass was going to be played passively, it made sense to give me better tonal controls by removing the preamp and installing passive circuitry. While the VM4 has a passive tone control in the treble control knob, it's limited in its function. I suspect I could probably make it work a little more to my liking by locating and changing the right capacitor, but it's simpler to just remove the whole thing and install fresh, plus I had a Tonestyler passive tone control already, so this was a good candidate. I had a U-Retro preamp in my drawer that I thought I would install if I didn't gel with the Sandberg one... but as it turns out I prefer it passive, now I have two preamps in my drawer. Easily restored or preamp replaced if I choose to in the future. There's nothing wrong about the VM4 preamp, I just find most active onboard EQ a little 'meh' and the Sandberg unfortunately fell in that category, but it's only a reflection of my personal taste. I've got a friend who loved the bass and was remarking how good the onboard EQ was... The thing is, it's *my* bass edit: conversely, I have a custom Maruszczyk Jake with a single P pickup in reverse orientation placed a bit closer to the bridge than usual. I ordered it passive. This one ended up with a John East MMSR preamp. It's the problem with ordering a build: you may have an idea of what it'll sound like, but you can't control what you'll get exactly. Sometimes a pickup sounds great in one bass but it's very disappointing in another bass...

dangerous stunt! what if they turned around and said "hey! since we sound the same without bass, we can make a little more money if we fire this guy..."

Hmmm, you need to work on expanding that belly then...

True, but imagine the hassle if it came to that. I'd rather wait for a safer sale.

No brainer then, glad you got a safer option.

ooooh... I was doing it the wrong way around!

Same here! I guess it just doesn't work for ugly bass players 😛

This, this, and a thousand times this. I can't think of anything more soul destroying for a beginner than having to fight a poor instrument, on top of the inherent difficulties of the learning process. And yes, sure, cheap does not mean bad, but when you look at those starter packages and in general guitars aimed at beginners, you're not usually getting something nice to play straight from the box and very few beginners understand about setups.

yup... it doesn't look like we're rehearsing anytime soon. We're actually considering going to a park or another suitable and allowed outdoors place to get together and practice there. We've got the equipment, just need the weather (rainy and miserable today).

that one looks very nice

It looks like my 9-piece band will have to move in together then

and a whammy bar! oh yes That's beautiful!

Not really, unless Vintage have made EST96 basses with different shapes. The body of the SX is very close to the real thing, while the Vintage ones have a slightly narrower waist and the top horn is a little funky in the way it comes off (I have a way with words today, don't I? ). The Vintage body also looks a little longer perhaps? I remember there was a clear gap between the pickguard and the bridge on the Vintage, but it's very small -almost nothing- on the SX, or even on the SBMM clones that use the same kind of bridge. It's that slightly odd departure of the body shape which prevented me from buying one, years ago, and ended up with OLP. The Vintage I played (only one, in a shop) was actually nicer to play than the OLP I bought, but I just could not get on with that shape. Hey, I never claimed to be normal. But the hardware, pickguard, etc do look very similar. I guess all these budget brands get it from the same places.

I guess Prog Rock may just become very popular then...

I can't remember the original price they sold (or didn't, rather, it seems) initially at, but when SR decided to sell a lot of their stock, they sold at £60. That's when they became 'a thing' here in the forum

nice! I was actually looking at those SX Stingray clones years ago. I could only find them at Rondo in the US at the time... and before I was able to find one over here, they were discontinued. One thing I really liked about the ones I was seeing was that they lacquered the neck glossy. The John East preamp is really nice, but it's pricey. Personally I'd wait, save, and buy one. They appear for sale, used, from time to time, at around £100. Well worth it, in my opinion.

They're not the same, but they are of similar quality. Actually I rate SX a little higher if anything. Good low priced instruments.

Is this your experience, or what someone who knows someone who played one said I played one quite a lot for about a year and I can't say there was any sign of fretwear, and no, I don't mean the fretless one

Please let us know.