LukeFRC

Agree. Main reason I sold my L1000. Lovely sounding but just took more effort to work if going direct to board It's almost as if they should design amplifiers with an input stage to allow adjustment for different outputs...

So now we’ve cleared up why a East uni pre might sound better even If turned off ... are you getting one?

I would put money on the east using MN taper on the blend- the blend in passive is very similar to in active in sound - and the Active buffered blend will be doing the Equivalent of an MN pot. if the bass had a AC pot then the change to an MN alone could be the bit that sounds “better” - - even if all values of pots are the same mid point On an MN is a fair bit different to a AC

My point was more that measuring one pot doesn’t tell you thst the circuit is the same

There’s 4 potentiometers - the passive tone pot, a volume and two in the balance....

Do you know what value and type pots John east is using in the passive volume, blend and tone control?

to be fair his videos make most basses sound really really nice

the passive volume, blend and tone pots do make a difference on sound - the values and also the way the taper on the blend work. There is a difference in sound for if you use 500k pots or 250k pots - one will sound a bit brighter, the other a bit darker. Its not hard to imagine that John East picked a slightly brighter sounding set up that would work with humbuckers and single coils - knowing that the passive tone could then correct it if it was too bright. Ibanez have chosen values based on cost and that work with the preamp. John East has been able to design a completely separate passive path and optimise it how he wants. If I gave you two basses, one of which had a slight bit more going on in the top end, it's not surprising it would sound better!

Used... will kinda hold it's value. I think it's rare to see increases in value and normally it's luck more than planned purchasing! It also depends what you are after... best value for money and workhorse bass for £700 Yamaha BB of some kind... otherwise have a look in the marketplace and see what's out there and looks interesting

and therein starts your next bass... nice flamingo too

we had our baby so risk levels down and I'm about to go back on the rota again! Only Covid risk free space for three ppl in the band so will be interesting as normally it's just acoustic and two singers. The temptation will be to play my my HX stomp and add a load of effects to what I'm doing, that and plus I'm going to presume that most people are listening at home on devices that aren't doing any bottom end anyway... - anybody got any ideas of what I could do tone wise that would be fun?

That one doesn’t have coated ebony either - is that a third fretless you need

I’m tempted and I can’t play fretless! I love the look of it!

I just looked that up - a very understated bass that precision!

Woah there’s a little mini version of your profile pic hiding in that photo

What’s the dream?

That was my initial thought too - if they shipped with everything slack