mcnach

Compared to the BB2, the 1226 seemed to be a bit more 'hollow', that's what I meant. Both BB2 and 1126 were very nice, but I found that the TKS S112 was more my thing. It didn't have the huge low end that the others did, which made it easier for me to dial just the amount of bass I wanted easily (this is before my 'discovering' HPFs, so perhaps now I'd have gone a different way), and the S112 just sounded great very easily, while I had to work teh EQ with the other two. Now I still love the S112, and I have a pair of BF Two10 for when I need to be louder. The Two10 is not quite as nice-sounding as the S112, but it's not too far, and like the S112, I can get a good sound with minimal fuss. So that's where I'm at.

That is true, about the buzz. But whenever I had it it was a sign that I could shield the bass better, and when I did the buzz decreased A LOT. Ok, 'whenever' means just two basses now that I think of it. Both Precisions. They had minimal shielding. It takes 30 minutes to shield the bass properly and ensure the bridge ground is connected well, and polepieces too... and then it works pretty well.

There are a few very different-sounding ones out there. They're typically black nylon covered. The Rotosound TruBass ones are the closest to a double bass you could get to, probably (of course, you need to adapt the way you play and sound etc, but they have a certain vibe that works well if you're trying to get close to an acoustic bass, especially on fretless). The gauge seems crazy (60-115 or something like that, if I recall correctly). The metal core is thinner and the nylon is somewhat malleable so you may get them in a nut without modification as long as the slots are not too narrow. I used them on one Precision and they fitted ok, but the E string was a bit too tight. My favourite black nylon is the D'Addario ETB92. Gauge 50-105, fits in any bass I've ever tried. They are quite flexible but not too flexible. They slide well on my fingers (some can feel a bit rubbery, I forget which ones I was using before that were like that) and sound and feel really nice. There's also these 'white nylon' ones by Labella. They come in standard white, copper or gold varieties. The standard is silvery (the white nylon is actually transparent-ish), and I have used the copper ones too. The gold ones I don't like so much as they seem a little too mid-scooped for my liking. What I like about these is they have a very tight bottom end, with lots of definition, and lovely low mids. They're great for fingerstyle funk lines. They're quite bright, for tapewounds, and very versatile. I prefer the copper variety. Again, I use the 50-105 gauge and they fit just fine in all basses I tried them on. "750T" is the code for the standard ones (I have a packet in front of me, I don't remember the copper ones... but they have a similar enough code and says "copper"). They are very very very flexible, you can bend them from here until tomorrow. They feel a bit plasticky. So it takes a little bit to get used to them, but they're very nice. They have less pull than similar gauge roundwounds so a *tiny* turn of the truss rod nut may be needed, and you may want to play a bit more softly than usual to avoid rattling strings too much. That may seem like a drawback, but it actually is very nice, you get a much better control of your dynamics and they respond very well to how hard you pluck. If you've never tried tapewounds before, I'd recommend the D'Addario ones, as the change is not as drastic. But if you really like the idea of bendy strings, then give the Labellas a try. You can tame their top end easily (on a passive bass, the tone control is perfect for that kind of string) and get both old school type of sounds or much brighter ones, and they sound great slapped too. Their low end definition and presence is really nice. But they can feel a bit strange until you get used to them. The D'Addario ones feel more 'normal'.

Very much so... but thank you

Ha! Thank you, and yes, the film will go before the next gig. It's a shame I'm going through a very calm period gig-wise. I used to play nearly every weekend... BUt I'm busy with rehearsal and practices, getting together writing new material with two bands, etc, so I do get to play a lot still.

Yes, it's a very bright metallic orange as in the pictures that I took of it, but under stage lights it can sometimes look red. I like it

First gig with the Sandberg out of the way... I'm not winning any beauty contests, but the bass looks nice It was really really good.I was wondering how I'd find it in "real life" as sometimes basses sounded great at home and even at rehearsal, but then in the noisy louder environment of a gig I would struggle sometimes to find the right sounds... Not a worry. I ended up mostly using the P on its own, or backed off a little to add a *bit* of the MM, with both tone controls close to flat (I'd back off the treble a quarter turn for a couple of slap-rich songs, which reduces the mighty growl of the P) and although I experimented a bit, the basic 3 sounds I wanted were all there easily. Really comfortable, I love that neck. One thing that I noticed was how much I could feel the body vibrate. Curious. I had a great soundcheck: I was out in the street for a bit, and when I came back I was the last one needed to linecheck before we checked as a band. I was (momentarily) in a bad mood (short-lived, due to some random drunk), and my playing for linecheck reflected that: aggressive, fast, fingerstyle and slap... it sounded glorious!!! I started smiling immediately. Strings... I have not replaced them yet. I think I still will, but I've played this bass a LOT this past week and they've finally lost that annoying brittle zing they used to have. Not bad. Not bad at all. I almost don't have the urge to replace them anymore and I might keep them for a month or two and see. I have not yet removed the plastic film from the pickguard (too much hassle as I'd have to undo the controls, since I hate leaving bits of plastic underneath that you can often feel when turning the knobs)... but I'll have to do it now. Interesting to see where my thumb rests the most...

Oh ABBA's Voulez Vous should have been in my list And Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here! I hope the desert island is big, because I'm bringing a lot of music with me!

In no particular order... Santana - Zebop! Great production, crisp percussion and drums, and what a guitar. Asia - Asia Not a single bad track on that album Boston - Boston & Don't look back as I found them at the same time I fell in love with those twin guitars... Thin Lizzy - Renegade Not one of the albums people generally have as a 'classic' but it was the first one I listened to and left a big impression in me Ozzy Osbourne - Blizzard of Ozz Highschool would not have been the same without this. Alcatrazz - No parole Never gets tiring Yngwie J. Malmsteen - Rising Force First album by that crazy swede, and the best of everything he's done. Michael Schenker Group - Assault Attack Oh yes. Rolling Stones - Still Life I just love that live album Rainbow - Long Live Rock'n'Roll Ufff Black Sabbath - Mob Rules Superb, start to finish Dio - Holy Diver A few filler tracks in this one, but the rest more than make up for it Lynyrd Skynyrd - Gimme back my bullets An album that changed my group of friends and led to various musical endeavours as teenagers Iron Maiden - Powerslave No list is complete without this. how many is that? I think I'll stop now.

That was my take too when I had that bass in my hands. I think my favourite spot was one notch off @krispn's favourite. Exactly which one may depend on the context of the band, of course. I also liked very much the sound one notch off the limit, it is very bassy but very present still... a much better take on passive tone controls than the usual pot/cap combo.

I still wake up some mornings thinking "damn you honesty, I should have kept it, and leave the country and be happy ever after in a desert island with that bass, somewhere nobody could ever find me mwah ha ha ha" 😛 Seriously now... I've met some really nice generous characters through this forum and you're definitely right up there. Thank you. Although I should have cursed you now that I think about it, you've cost me so much money!!!

As an owner of a couple of their cables (red one and an orange one, as I was tired of getting my black ones 'misplaced') for several years now... fear not. To be honest, I don't see what's so off about their pricing. They're on the same bracket as OBMM and Cleartone (Award-Session) that a lot of us use here, with same/similar components.

Warning... you'll WANT a Tonestyler after playing that bass. In fact, you might want to keep the bass. I borrowed it for a day or two and it was hard to give it back

If there are heavy cabinets etc that can move about in the van, a hard case is definitely a safer bet. The F1 offers a lot of protection, but it's not designed to withstand safely a PA cab falling onto it

There are some no-particular-brand units on eBay for about 25% of the cost of a Tonestyler (and some cheaper still) although with only 6 positions as opposed to 10. I forgot I had bought a whole wiring loom for a Jazz including one of those a while ago, because I was curious (but clearly not that curious, since I forgot about it!). I plan to install it on my Matt Freeman JJ (both pickups towards the bridge) and see how it goes. I don't see why it would not be good, it's a pretty simple idea/technology. However the 10 position Tonestyler is very nice, so it is a safe bet and it's not THAT expensive.

I can't help there. I use a Fusion F1 to take my bass to gigs and practices. I haven't used any of my hard cases in years.

Someone showed me the light

I've gone for lessons on and off over the years. When I did, I went with a good idea of what I wanted. I approached potential teachers with that idea: I'd like to get better at X, or learn Y... and they would tell me what they think they can do to help me achieve my goal. Some have their own ideas and didn't convince me. Others were happy to stick to what I told them. The best ones were able to understand what my goal was, and they were able to explain to me how to get there we may be better off addressing other points I had not mentioned... Then you choose the one that seems to fit the best. It's important that you get along and understand each other well, so don't be afraid to try a few until you find 'the one'. But the main thing, I think, is to have some idea of what you want to achieve and find a way to communicate that to the teacher. Just showing up and saying "teach me" may be ok if you have unlimited time and funds, but may not be the most practical way to get the results you want.

Yes, I like it, but these strings are still too fresh and I need to reduce the top end, which I can't do in passive mode. Once I put a set of Fat Beams, and wait 5-6 months, it'll be ripe for playing in passive mode I have to say that for all my love of on-board active EQ, I don't use it to extremes, but to tweak a tiny bit here or there. I spent £150 or so on the 3-band MMSR preamp for my Stingray and I asked John to install a bypass switch too. The sound I normally go for turns out to be almost identical to what I get when I engage the bypass switch My ideal controls on a bass would be a passive tone control, and a semiparametric mids control like the John East one that covers 100-1000 or 200-2000 Hz. If there's room, ok, an active bass control too, probably centered around 80Hz, but not really necessary. If I were to replace the preamp in the Sandberg, rather than installing the U-Retro I've already got, I think I'd probably go for something like a Tonestyler unit to take care of the basic tone, and a semiparametric mids unit. But to be honest, I'm enjoying it too much at the moment to think seriously about it. Let me get over the honeymoon phase first, and we'll see That P pickup... is really nice. Have I said that before? It's got great definition. A lot of P style pickups can be a bit too bassy by nature and I find myself looking for ways to tame them and get them to sound full and fat without overpowering low end. Reversing the coils does help to some extent (making the half of the pickup covering the E&A strings closer to the bridge and the D&G closer to the neck), but not every bass in that configuration sounds as good as this one.

One thing that to me became clear last night, on my VM4 with standard Sandberg pickups is that there is nothing wrong at all with these pickups! While it may be possible that I would like it better with other pickups (there's a million out there all slightly different) the truth is that these don't lack in any way. I'm a little picky, I am a serial pickup replacer, what can I say? For comparison, all 3 of my Maruszczyk underwent some kind of change. The P/JJ (stock Maruszczyk pickups) had a P replacement. The reverse P (Delano) , I'm still considering it, but the MMSR preamp helps a lot. The JJ (Haussel) didn't impress me me at all. The stock Sandberg P is very sweet, like a burly big beast of a man can be sweet It's not very traditional sounding but it's got that bark, and it growls (I guess these pickups are dogs 😛) which I can control nicely with the onboard 2EQ (which I'm getting the hang of it, a lot more different from the Stingray's 2EQ than I initially thought). The MM seemed like the weak link., but with both pickups on it sounds very good, and altering the balance slightly towards one or the other gives you a very useable range of adjustment. The MM alone, even, sounds good in a band context once the volume gets to band level (not super loud, but louder than bedroom). The Black Labels may be nice... but I don't think I need them edit: typo correction

That's right, for guitar it was pretty cool. A telecaster sounded great with it

Trouble maker!

Jokes apart... let me know if you get tired of the Fishman preamp

Used it at rehearsal this evening, at last... I 🥰 this thing. It also sounds a lot better now that the strings are getting a bit older. I still think I'll put a set of Fat Beams on it, but the stock ones are finally losing some of the annoying zing and they don't sound bad at all in the band mix. The Stingray is feeling a bit worried Bring on Saturday: first gig with the Sandberg.

Indeed, I only saw it when Stewblack 'liked' it... and I thought I might as well update it, seeing that my love for the pedal was short-lived