dmckee

But have they just taken a standard Ric and moved the bridge 4 inches into the body??

I've not seen a PJ Lionel, or I'd likely have bought it! But yes, the P pickup often seems to be the other way round in PJ basses in general. It does seem more sensible, as you say.

Thanks both. Some interesting thoughts there. 1. Active and passive. Although they appear to be very similar in volume they def sound tonally different. I need to try passive next time I have it out. Or back off the bass a bit in active, as you say. 2. Pickup placement. Yes, I do wonder what the D and G strings would sound like if the pickup was installed in the reverse position, keeping the E/A half where it is and shifting the D/G half to the neck side. If I ever put a J pickup in the bridge, maybe I’ll get it swapped over at the same time. 😂 And yes, it’s a cool colour!

In my ongoing (ahem) “investigations” of short scale basses, I finally buckled and bought a Sandberg Lionel. It’s a lovely bass. Feels great ergonomically and balances perfectly despite being very light (not much more than 7lbs). Narrower/thinner neck than I’m used to but it’s growing on me. A few thoughts though I’d been keen on hearing other Lionel owners’ opinions on, mainly around tone. I’d read some folk saying the pickup is more modern / less vintage sounding than your average P bass. That may or may not be true, but my overriding feeling tonally is that it sounds much less like a 30” than I was expecting. My experience to date with 30” basses is that you get a more even tone across all the strings, so (for example) in areas like the lower frets of the D string, those notes just sound a bit thicker than they might on a 34”, and conversely, the E and A strings are possibly a little less deep, making the bass seem overall better balanced across the strings. But not on this bass. The E and A strings seem massive and the D and G strings seem thinner sounding. Ie much more like a 34”. Anyone else have that experience and/or any thoughts on why? (BTW I’ve got D’Addario Chromes on it, as I have on most of my other basses).

I ordered pickups on 17 Sept (just before all this started) and heard nothing, despite several emails to chase. I got a refund yesterday. (I’d rather have got the pickups obvs, but happy at least that I got my money back).

Not sure if this is in any way significant, but G&L webstore says this now:

I ordered a pair of pickups from G&L on 17 Sept, just before all this happened. No sign of them, no response to any emails…. I’m not even sure how I can go to my credit card provider as there’s nothing official out about the company going bust or anything (as far as I know), and them being in the US is not going to help. 😞 Anyone any thoughts?

Or this lovely thing??

I hope not! (And I’ve just ordered some pickups ☹️)

Nice. I’ll keep an eye out for it if you decide to sell it…. I don’t need another bass of course……

What Supro do you have? Curious. 😃