mcnach

Much better explanation than mine And... not all night, but I didn't go to bed until around 2am... I *love* that bass. I need to return it to you fast, before I get too attached

Yup, that's pretty much what it is. Think of it as a tone control with 'clicks' along the way. It does a bit what a passive tone control does, but it seems to also shift the midrange peak as you go along and it retains definition better, that's how I'd describe it, I don't know... It's definitely a more useful take on a passive tone control.

Yes, reaching into the very high registers is not easy, but then I I very very very rarely go there and only for effect, which I can achieve going elsewhere: a 17 fret bass would do me just fine I actually like the sound of the Sandberg more than the Thunderbirds (from videos, which is... not really a good comparison but that's all I've got), and custom order means I should be able to get a slightly wider neck, presumably (39mm at the nut is a bit narrow for my liking... 41-42 would be more like it. It doesn't sound like much but it's very noticeable)

Interestingly, I ordered a set of TI flats on Saturday, which are for the bass that will most likely receive the Tonestyler...

You are NOT helping... The neck is still looong, just the way the design is, but I hope they'll balance better than Epiphones... I wish I could try one, just to make sure I hate them too Now seriously, everything I heard about Sandberg's build quality makes me very interested, I'd be very willing to give it a try. I just don't know that I should get a Thunderbird style bass: I like the look and all but I really don't need another bass. It would look great for certain gigs but... Oh God, I'm sounding far too sensible

Thank you! I don't own one yet. Yet! But I'll remedy that soon enough.

Glad to hear things are looking brighter!

Also... that Sandberg, I thought it was sexy. So I've been looking at this: Ufff... Recite mantra "I don't need it I don't need it I don't need it" (but I might leave the Sandberg configurator open casually so that my girlfriend can see it, in case she is looking for ideas for my birthday... :p)

Thunderbird... I'm probably going to Guitar Guitar this weekend to see what these are like to play. They have a couple of Gibsons and Epiphones in stock... I really don't want to like them. However... Tonestyler... whoa! Love it! This afternoon, the lovely @krispn delivered his Precision with Thunderbird pickup and Tonestyler module (see page 1) to me while I was at work. The bass is a lot prettier in person and I loved it. It's got some kind of flats on, which I don't usually play, but it sounded really good, and the Tonestyler is a zero-gimmick tone control as far as I'm concerned, I'm converted. I played with it by myself, every click made a distinct difference and I really liked a couple of positions around half way (they dial in the midrange 'just so') and another position just before its bassiest tone, where it retained definition but sounded fat fat fat. With a touch of light overdrive, the kind that you don't really hear as distorted, it was glorious. Then I played it along to recorded music, including some of my own stuff from own of my bands. That's where the Tonestyler proved its worth. Or maybe it's just the combination of this bass+pickup+Tonestyler!!! Whatever, it was really good. The Tonestyler covers a wide range, from bright (as bright as flats get) to very dark an dense, and I could easily find a couple of spots that gave me some very distinct tones that I would probably switch between in a live situation. I imagine that with different basses the positions may vary, maybe you can get 3 different sounds using bright roundwound strings? I like passive tone controls, I like to roll off the top end a bit, but often things get a little muddy after that. Here I retained very good definition and the midrange peak seems to move over a certain range which makes me think that it would allow me to find its sweet spot with different basses/pickups. It's not a "here! have 10 sounds!" but more like an improved version of a passive tone control, and on this bass, it *rawks*. Tomorrow I'll get to try it with Urang Matang at rehearsal, with drummer, guitar, two vocals, keyboard, sax and trumpet, playing ska/reggae mostly with a bit of funk. Can't wait!!! @krispn, you are a star!!! Thank you so much! Although... it seems that everytime you lend me something, I end up spending money. We shouldn't do this often

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wow... That's purely and simply disgusting (the comments, not the bass...)

Very true. But then again, if I'm really interested, I'd ask them. I only buy something from time to time, so it's not like I have to constantly ask people the same questions over and over.

Why? It's not like we're running out of space. Some items may be a bit more 'niche' and take more time, especially if they're not 'competitively priced', but I see no reason to want to interfere with anybody else's stuff for sale. edit: telling the seller, publicly, what their price *you think* should be is downright rude. An alternative could be an 'ignore' option on ads, so that you don't see the same ads again if you choose to ignore them. I doubt the software in use makes it easy to implement that, 'though. I'd personally love to set a search to give me a notification when a new item is posted that meets my search criterion... But my bank balance is probably healthier leaving things as they are...

If someone doesn't bother to go back to the ad and edit the title to indicate it's sold, which only takes a few seconds, do you think they'd bother going back to it to click on a 'sold' button?

Weight was completely and utterly irrelevant to me for a long time, so I very rarely thought of even mentioning it, let alone measuring it! These days, without being exactly an old decrepitude of a man (yet ) I do care: I like lighter basses as long as they balance well, so I'm more aware of it. My point is: not everybody has the same idea of what's important, and trying to make everybody else comply with what we think is reasonable or even obvious is a frustrating path. However, nothing stops us from asking questions and a seller who cares would happily answer those questions. I've often found the comments in for-sale items very informative. And the non informative ones? Easily ignored like a lot of other posts in any other thread. edit: harder to ignore are the rude comments like those found on the Ken Smith bass... what are they thinking?

How does it matter the way it's advertised? The owner of whatever item for sale has the right to name their price, and telling them it's too much, publicly, is tacky at best. If someone is advertising something fraudulently, I understand getting involved (although reporting it to the mods is probable a better option), but otherwise, why would you want to contribute anything that potentially causes the seller to lose sales/money? The old "If you don't have anything nice to say, best not to say anything" I think applies very nicely. When you see something on a High St shop that you think is overpriced, do you stand at their door telling everybody who walks in that the shop is charging too much? No, right? It would seem very weird... and the shop owner might want to come out and have an 'energic word' with you...

Like the guy who was apparently interested in a bass I was selling a while ago on Gumtree... after a few texts, we're arranging to meet for him to try it, and he asks me if I could drop the price. I did, a bit, I am generally open to a bit of negotiation... then silence, and comes back the next day asking me to lower it further because he saw he could buy a new one for just £10 more than I was asking. Of course, it was not true... so I replied very enthusiastically saying he found a really good deal and that he should go with it. What did he expect? He did buy my bass, at the price we agreed, but I was very close to ignoring him...

Band name!

I didn't think that was possible... unless you paid them for something that should not incur import fees. I'm confused...

eh?

That guy was partly responsible for my going ahead and buying a Schecter Model T Session without even having tried one: the bass caught me by its looks and it had the right configuration for what I was looking for... and this guy on the video had a few interesting songs posted playing along to. It led to my buying the bass (it quickly became my #2, which is as high as any bass could get for me, since #1 is firmly my Stingray) and to creating a cool playlist of music I didn't know...

Maybe you aren't... but what if she is???

Yes, mine was a previous incarnation with slightly different controls:

I had the 4 string version (GB74). The two switches were one for various options on the bridge humbucker (single coil, series, parallel, or only series/parallel, I can't recall because I had a Lakland 5502 at the same time with a similar configuration)... and the other one was what some call a 'slap switch', which gives you a low end boost and treble boost too, while cutting mids a bit. I personally didn't like that:it sounds ok by yourself but mid-scooped sounds are not my thing, they bury the bass in the mix. The knobs were volume, pickup blend, and stacked active bass/treble EQ. The volume knob could be pulled, which bypasses the preamp (you lose the EQ, but it allows you to play if the battery dies). Mine was very light and very comfortable although I found the pickups a bit polite, but it wasn't bad at all. Build quality was great. Gigged mine many times. Very versatile and did the job well. Only sold it because I do prefer chunkier necks and I was preferring other basses to it, so during my last cull it went... but it's one bass I wish I had kept.

But not two preamps are the same. Some do one thing better, and others another... So I can see why people may want both. I personally use the MMSR (3-band Stingray preamp) in a few basses, mostly because of the semiparametric mids, handy at my fingertips. I use it to get a bit more aggressive, or back off a bit, and even to control the drive level when using certain overdrives... I can also get a very musical controlled feedback effect when using overdrive and bringing the bass close to the speaker if I turn the mids up as I do it... and easy to back off to normal without taking my hands off the bass (I use that on the RATM band). The J-Retro (or U-Retro) is a favourite for me on 2-pickup basses, again the semiparametric mids are the main reason, but not only. For me the bass amp controls are to set the 'baseline' sound to fit the stage/room. Onboard is where I vary the sound during the set depending on how I want to sound.