mcnach

I don't think he means the mid-scoop sound, but the thin trebly weedy bottomless sound you get when you wire the pickups the wrong way around.

Indeed. I don't find the 3EQ Stingray as nice as the 2EQ (the EQ curves are different on both preamps, their 3EQ is not a 2EQ plus mids). So the 2EQ + additional mids module on the MMSR is perfect, I think.

I have a 2002 2EQ, and what I did was install a John East MMSR 3-band 3-knob preamp. It retains the character of the 2EQ as it's based on John's own '76 Stingray, but it adds a mids module that allows you to select the centre frequency of the midrange (from 100-1000 or 200-2000Hz - which one of the two ranges is selectable with an internal switch). With the mids at the centre detent, you have the classic 2EQ and the mids add nothing. That's the best of both worlds, for me, and it transformed my bass from a bass I loved to play but soundwise was not perfect into The One. While I was at it, I asked John if it was possible to have a preamp bypass switch, and he said yes. So when I pull my volume knob I am in passive mode. Not often that useful, but it saved me at a festival once when despite my best attempts to replace batteries regularly, I failed. It took me a few seconds to realise something was wrong, pulled on the knob and continued, with a slightly different sound but it was still good.

Good answer, but beware of the "volume at noon = half the power". That is an assumption we cannot make, and if that Markbass is designed with the same taper as other MarkBass amps I've owned, noon would be significantly higher than 50% power. But the main message of the post stands. It sounds like a reasonably safe combination provided we don't go crazy boosting lows or turning everything too high. Be sensible, and listen for unwanted distortion, and you'll be ok.

They were 20 years apart. Yes, it does sound like a lot, but when you look around it's not THAT crazy. It happens. Without riches. My own girlfriend is 16 years younger. I dated one that was 24 years younger too. Trust me, I'm not a model or a millionaire... but because of my work I seem to be surrounded with people a lot younger than me and I haven't become a grumpy old man, so while my white beard may give my age away I can chat and mix with anyone. THAT does it.

Pretty much. The best ones that last longer are big enough to have a substantial online presence and to afford to bulk buy to get competitive prices... but even then they eventually die, it seems. It must be hard to compete with the big ones online that can afford to have a big warehouse full of gear. But it's also the fact that we became used to "I want X and I want it yesterday". When I started buying music equipment, in the early 90s, I'd do my research based on magazines mostly, I'd wait for weekends to go to shops... and it would often be a week or two from the moment I decide to buy something until I was able to go out and buy it. In person. Now I think we often order stuff and we expect to have it in our hands in a couple of days. It's not unusual to order something on Monday or Tuesday that we want to use live on FRiday night... Online shopping is too convenient, and for a lot of things, having a physical shop with humans is not a huge advantage from a buyer's perspective. To buy an instrument... it's different, but a lot of people are happy to buy unseen, knowing they can return it if not to their liking. Smaller shops that do online end up paying for shipping costs, and I can imagine that must hurt if it happens often. When I bought my first guitars, buying unseen seemed like a crazy idea. We'd go to shops, or to private sellers' homes and spend time trying an instrument, and usually not buying because we wanted the one that felt and sounded right. Now we seem to buy more unseen and unless obviously wrong we just keep it. I rarely go to shops, but I went a couple of weeks ago to Guitar Guitar in Glasgow to try a couple of specific basses they had in stock. I very nearly ordered one unseen/untested but I thought I'd try the shop first. I had forgotten what good service felt like. The sales guy was great, knowledgeable, helpful. I tried the basses and found that... they weren't right for me based on the physical design (Thunderbird inspired shape: neck feels too long and balance was not ideal). So I ended up ordering a different bass that will be much much more what I really want. It's a custom order so it's still 'unseen', but every custom order will be. However, I was able to get as many details that mattered to me hammered down as possible, especially defining the neck profile, and I'll end up with a bass I could not really order online. I mean, I could, but it would have been a completely blind purchase. The sales guy helped a lot in my decision. Physical shops can be extremely useful, but I don't think they can subsist the way they operated in past decades. They need to reinvent themselves a little, and that personal service is the obvious place where they can offer something that no online shop ever can. The question is whether there's a market big enough.

I would play with pickup heights first. Then, see if an external preamp is able to get you closer to the sound you want. If it does, then an onboard preamp may be a good idea, but if it doesn't it suggests that the basic sound of your bass with those pickups is not what you are after and I'd change pickups leaving the preamp alone. In general: try to get a basic sound right first, then worry about preamps. Onboard preamps with active EQ are great to tweak the sound, and some offer a huge tonal range (like some John East preamps with semiparametric mids, for example), but it pays to get your basic sound right first, rather than adding multiple layers of EQ trying to fix things.

If you have the time, and the will, yes please Very interesting!

If you go to your local shop to buy pickups, preamp and installation, I don't know how much they'll charge you but yes, it's possible to reach £300 (The John East preamps I like are around £200 new, for example), but I thought we were talking about specifying this or that pickup/preamp when ordering a new bass. I honestly don't know how much Sandberg would want to charge for using different pickups from their normal stock, but it's easy to find out. If you want to change electronics afterwards, you can save a lot by buying used and installing it yourself, or finding a friendly local BC member who is into that kind of thing. I once sold a preamp to a BC member here in Edinburgh and I installed it for him when he came to buy it. Some can take 10 minutes, others considerably longer (Aguilar OBM3!) but it's not *difficult*.

I'm not a "Sandberg aficionado" in the sense that I'm not that knowledgeable about them... I just know that what I experienced was very nice so I want one But the pickup issue means very little to me, and I suspect that's the case with some others. If I want a specific pickup, I'll ask for it. I have a very good idea of how much pickups cost, so you can have a pretty good idea of what kind of extra cost you could expect. If you're going to spend £1600-2000 on a bass, whether the pickups you want cost nothing extra or add £50-100 is really not that big of a deal, and if it is... finding the exact answer is just a phone call or email away, so I don't understand your preoccupation. The cost is not going to suddenly double or anything :)

I guess (and that's what it is: a guess) that the configurator gives you the options that are easier for them to price, as they relate to the work THEY do directly. They'll also do any other colour you like, not just those shown in the configurator. I liked how Maruszczyk used to do it. They used a form where there's a place for every conceivable detail and then you can provide extra info (images, designs...), and then they'd give you a price. They have a number of preferred pickups, but when I discussed with them using other entirely different ones they were ok with it, they just needed to know which ones and they'd get back to me once they find out where they can get them from and for how much... same with hardware). They now have a new online configurator much like the Sandberg one, but I haven't really tried it so I don't know if they allow you to detail everything there or you still need to add things separately.

I could not find any of those options on the configurator, but it also says that you need to contact a distributor to order, so I figured the configurator was just a way to set most specs of the 'build', and then you talk to the distributor to sort out the rest. When I went to order mine, through Guitar Guitar, I did exactly that. We discussed a few options and combinations not available in their configurator, they spoke to Sandberg who gave them a quote, and Guitar Guitar went through the options with me. Then I chose, and placed the order based on one of the configurations we discussed. I went with their standard pickups and preamp as I could not say I have a definite preference, so I'll just see how they work for me. If I feel I prefer another preamp or pickups, I have a few ideas (and even some pickups and preamps in my drawer to try). Mine ended up just been a different cosmetic combination from what the configurator offered, and specifiying a neck profile like another particular Sandberg I tried in the shop. That did not increase the cost. I don't know how much they'd charge for different pickups.

I'm with you on that one. Big Whitesnake fan, but after Slide it in it lost its way, for me.

Indeed. If you buy used, you'll save enough money for a few sets of pickups and paying a guy to install them using gold wire (And you don't need £500 for pickups and a preampbut even if you did... )

I think price point has to do with quality mostly, not whether every part is to your liking... we're talking people preferring these and those pickups, not saying the pickups are not fit for purpose, right? If you want your bass 'just so' then order it that way, Sandberg and Maruszczyk make it very very easy in that respect, so you can get it right for you from the start (well, assuming we could predict exactly how certain pickups sound on a new instrument, which we can't do exactly, but we can get a ballpark idea)

I saw Glenn Hughes a few years ago and I was impressed with his energy and sound... And his voice has held pretty well. Yeah, the 'voice of rock' title is a little meh, but, he truly is the voice of rock. I was always surprised that Coverdale was the main vocalist when they had Hughes there. Live you often hear Coverdale strain and then here comes Hughes effortlessly reaching those high notes with total control... I still liked Coverdale 'though, and both together sounded huge. I 'discovered' Purple with Burn and Stormbringer so to me that is the 'classic' Purple although I like all incarnations

wow...

That's crazy light, nice!

Don't knock it...

This. I have recently used two of those (with the 15" speaker) in two different gigs, and I really liked them. Pretty light and compact, great sound.

Unfortunately no, I don't have any recordings. The Jazz configuration was definitely Jazz-like, unsurprisingly, although I have it wired with one volume and one tone control, and a blend control, so it is a bit different from the usual. I moved the neck pickup towards the bridge because I like the sound of pickups closer to the bridge, for the better definition they provide, and I wanted to try something that would not sound like any other of my basses. It was just a bit of an experiment. I used a pair of DiMarzio Area J, pickups. They're humbuckers but they sound reasonably 'traditional'. I have them on a Jazz bass and sound really nice. I wired each in parallel. The bridge pickup alone sounds like you'd expect. The 'neck' alone sounds like a sharper Precision with a bit less low end. Actually no, it really doesn't sound like a Precision but it does have a bit of that midrange 'bark'. It has a bit too much high midrange, but turning down the tone control tames it a little and it's a cool sound. However, it's with both pickups on that it really comes alive. I use the blend control to make it a bit fatter or a bit more defined depending on which way I turn it. I think I will rewire each pickup in series, for a fatter sound, although maybe all I need is to be able to put both pickups in series with each other... I don't know, there's a few combinations I haven't tried yet so I don't know which is best. It takes less than 10 minutes to turn it back into a 'Jazz': simply replace the pickguard and screw the neck pickup in the other position. Add another 10 minutes and I could make it a PJ Large pickguards are useful if you want to experiment with pickup positions etc.

To me they feel a little more flexible, with more pronounced lower mids, and maybe not quite as bright, as you also said. It's enough of a difference that I normally buy Fat Beams, and the one time I bought Hi Beams by mistake (a few months ago) I just thought something was wrong or they had changed the strings... it's not such a huge difference that I knew instantly I just had the wrong string. I only found out a week or two later when I saw the package in the recycling bin! Then I put on a set of Fat Beams and was happy again Fat Beams, Sunbeams and Hi Beams are all pretty good strings, for my taste and in that order.

I had it made. I once bought an OLP MM2 (Stingray clone) that had a metal thumbrest just like it at the P pickup spot, stuck to the pickguard (strong double-sided sticky tape, it can be removed without leaving marks but it stays on strongly enough that you won't shift it during regular use). I removed it, and put it on a Precision at the MM pickup spot, as I'm used to resting my thumb on the Stingray's pickup... A few people here liked the idea, and someone who had access to a laser cutter made a bunch of them based on a scan I made, in black acrylic. That's what's on this bass. I had a few spare ones that have been given away over the past few years, and now I only have those stuck on my basses, otherwise I'd offer to send you one.

What slaying? I think you are completely right! I used to own this (ordered exactly like that): And I turned this: into this: Although now it looks like this:

If you want them to be a little bit more flexible, try Fat Beams next. I think they sound even better too.