pineweasel

My Marathon is lightweight too, and rather neck heavy, being an 8-string. I thought they all had obeche bodies, a wood that's about 60% of the weight of ash.

It's well worth seeing the current version of the band live, they put on a great show. Touring the UK next year.

Not the Marlowe DK, just a regular TT with aging: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tZjW7a66jQ&t=15s

Spotted on Instagram. The Superlight bodies are now being built with a swamp ash centre and paulownia wings to increase sustain and bass response. It will be interesting to hear how they sound. https://www.instagram.com/p/DPqvTr0AqZm/?igsh=ZDlrbjR0cXRnMzc0

Yes, quite normal for 70s Fenders, they just wired them like the right handlers. They did progress to wiring the pots in reverse by the 90s, but as they are tapered it just made them act like a switch. Finally in 2015 they got round to fitting reverse taper pots.

The Blackstar mini bass always looked quite nifty to me: https://www.gear4music.com/Guitar-and-Bass/Blackstar-Carry-On-Travel-Bass-Guitar-ST-White/5GY5

It’s a copy of Mark Sandman’s bass, which was a 4 string with only 2 strings on it, so it’s quite accurate in that regard.

I have a 2011 SR5 and the three sounds are quite distinctive. When the switch is back toward the bridge, the pickup coils are wired in parallel. The sound is slightly scooped or hollow. This is the classic Stingray tone as produced by the 4 strings. Toward the neck gives you the coils in series, a powerful punchy tone that I find the most useful one. And on post 2008 models, the middle position is series wiring plus a filter, which to my ears rolls off the top end and slightly accentuates the bottom. It’s a sort of vintage series sound. There’s no single coil mode after 2008.

Mark Sandman tuned his in a fifth, D and A, and used a slide. A fantastic, unique sound and brilliant band.

There is a Sire 6-string lefty. Quite pricey by their standards. https://www.andertons.co.uk/sire-f10-left-handed-6-string-natural-satin/

Sad to hear this. I used to frequent their Llanishen store in my school lunch hours. Another Cardiff store I remember was the Sound Centre, who had a white lefty Rickenbacker bass in their window for several years circa 1980. Unfortunately I had no way of raising the required £400.

Fat Beams will retain the feel of your round core Sunbeams and give you more of the sound you’re after. I loved them on my Fender Jazz Bass.

That’s normal for the older Fender shaped T models. The redesign moved the battery box to behind the lower horn. That happened in 2015, I think. Here’s an example of the old model: https://www.bassdirect.co.uk/product/sandberg-california-jm4-green-metallic-2009-pre-owned/

John East 4-knob pre amp? Supposed to give you the original MM 2 band tones plus a sweepable mid. https://www.east-uk.com/product/mmsr-4-knob-3-band/?v=7885444af42e