neepheid

The lack of physical substance is one of the main things I like about the JC. I had a Fender Starcaster a while back. What a heavy wee short scale that was - the centre block was maybe a concrete block I also had a Guild Starfire a long time ago, I don't remember it being so bad. I've never worried about the physical integrity of the JC, it's just a bit weird when you first start playing it - particularly when one is used to 12lb+ slabs of Gibson maple

My normal postion is the 250, the jump to 500 is definitely noticeable in terms of both output and growl. I find the differences between the 50 and the 250 to be more subtle, defintely there but mostly undetectable in a full on band sound. Regarding feedback, I can deliberately get my JC to feedback if my amp's up high and I'm 10-20cm away from a 250W 1x10 combo. The feedback is slow building and to my ears, not unpleasant. Used it occasionally as a rock 'n' roll ending to a song for giggles, but there are probably more musical uses for it Can't really tell you about the neck. I like a chunky neck so it hasn't bothered me so much so that I haven't noticed what you describe. Extra room for error with those string bends?

+1 for the Epiphone Jack Casady. I'm on my second, after selling the first one then regretting it. On your point about quality - Gibson's woes have nothing to do with Epiphone - being made in China/Korea and far away from the USA. Also bear in mind that the Jack Casady is arguably Epiphone's top of the line bass, so they want to impress you, they want them to be the best that they put out. Worth pointing out that Jack Casady himself uses stock basses straight from the factory ("no ringers" as he put it in an interview) - it would be a real shame if the knuckleheads in America who seem hell bent on grinding the company into dust put you off this excellent bass. Bear in mind that the JC is almost completely hollow, no centre block. It's super light and will feedback, if you want it to. But stay a respectful distance away from your amp and you'll be fine

I had a B402-A six years ago. Kinda wish I hadn't got rid of it. I found that it sounded great on its own but got a bit lost in a live environment. Wish I knew then what I know now about EQing etc. It was just so creamy smooth sounding. I would guess the passive B301/302 might be a bit easier to make heard over a band ruckus. Can't fault the ergonomics or the build quality. I'm sure the passive B301/302 are no different in that respect. And they're certainly different looking to most other things out there.

I had a Guild a while back. Much like the Gibson 3 point bridge, it's all in those three points. The saddles will be fixed in relative height to mimic the radius of the fingerboard. You have to set the whole bridge to the height you want. You can normally set the treble side a bit lower than the bass side. Keep it kinda level, but you can have the back a little lower than the front. Round the other way is bad - on Gibsons I have seen the posts lift out of the body if the back of the bridge is higher than the front, but that's not to say it'll happen on a Guild.

I had one. I liked it - the inbetweeny neck profile (neither Jazz nor Precision) felt very nice to me. Also a lot simpler to operate - simply three band EQ, volume and blend. I personally had no bother with the L-2000's plethora of options (nay I felt there weren't enough options so I added some!) but some people complain about it. "Chubby" is a nice way of describing the Tribute L-2000's neck - it's more like a baseball bat sawn in half. "Clubby" might be a better word I had no issue with it though - I like a chunky neck better than a skinny one. The sound of the M-2000 is smoother and possibly a little less capable of harshness/rudeness than the L-2000, more "modern" I guess. Still sounded good though, despite the less options available.

That's not the Gibson TB+ pickups. The scooped out short edges are the tell-tale signs - the Gibson ones are squarer - like this pic - Also, the GIbson TB+ only uses 2 screws to attach it to the bass.

Initially I was quite scathing about the latest "EB" bass (come on Gibson, would it kill you to come up with a new name?) but they're bringing out a stealthy black finish for it and I really like it. Might even get one. I miss how my gold EB (2014) sounded and so this one with the same pickups, electronics and basic construction should sound similar. The 2013-14 EB which eye-abraded the OP is not the prettiest bass I've ever seen, but it is also far from the worst. But that's just my opinion.

It's Broad Bass - they even used the name in full on some models:

Hmm, I must have put on my invisibility cloak by mistake.

My theory is that the "plays like butter" thing is a contraction of the notion that something is as easy to play as it is to slice through some butter with a hot knife. It's just been shortened beyond it making sense any more.

Try wading through this for starters? http://mycoolguitars.com/mij/yamaha-guitars/yamaha-guitar-serial-numbers-dating-your-guitar/

[quote name='FinnDave' timestamp='1510311962' post='3405476'] Pick ups look the same as on my EB4, they sound good and have coil taps built in (at least, mine does!) so they are quite versatile. Shame they've gone for the crappy 3 point bridge, though, the EB4 comes with Babicz as standard, a far better option. [/quote] They haven't - it's a Babicz 3 point replacement bridge on the new ones. The picture of the old one had a 3 point bridge on it, perhaps that's what you were thinking of.

Funnily enough, I was playing my '79 RD Artist at band rehearsal on Tuesday night. Is it an "Artist"? Well, the way I see it, it's more "Artist" than "Standard" and that's more than I expected so happy days. Agree with the comments about fingerboard material - would have been nice to have the option of maple for the natural one and ebony for the black like in olden times.

Ooft, shiny. Confirms what I thought, that black is the new black.

Maybe the EB was waiting for the right finish, looks a lot better in the black compared to the natural or sunburst. Also, if the RD they're planning on releasing is really an Artist (ie. with active electronics and Moog compression/expansion/bright shenanigans) instead of a funny shaped T-Bird with TB+ pickups then I'll be pleasantly surprised!

[quote name='Al Krow' timestamp='1508945597' post='3395539'] Thanks for looking. Shame. I really appreciated my little Promethean 3110 for its [i]portability [/i]to rehearsals and having an extra 200W headroom in the Red Sub in something with a similar size was potentially very appealing. Out of interest how decent / rough(!) was the 10" speaker and driver, and did you get the full 500W through this or only with an extension speaker? (Apologies if these questions have been previously been dealt with earlier in this mega thread!) [/quote] I find the sound of the combo to be pretty pleasing - in a rehearsal room situation against a drums, keys, sax, trombone and vocals it makes itself heard pretty well (it does need to be pushed quite hard to do this (7 or 8 out of 10 on the master volume, gain set appropriately - as much as I can without significant clip), but it's taken over 5 years of this weekly). Sure it's a little boxy sounding, but it has a very usable tone which works well in the live environment, right amount/type of mids I guess. 500W only possible with the use of an extension (or removing the head and using it with a 4 ohm cab or combination of cabs). The speaker in the combo is 8 ohms, so it's 250W in the combo by itself. I used to remove the head and use it with a 4 ohm 4x10 but these days I keep the combo together and stack the whole thing on top of an 8 ohm 1x10 cab to yield the full 500W. I've been very happy with the sound that comes out of this. Used it recently at a small pub gig and the bassist in the other band borrowed it so I had the opportunity to hear it being played by someone else and it sounded great.

[quote name='Al Krow' timestamp='1508878591' post='3395139'] Are these still being made and sold anywhere? [/quote] They still come up on the Beta Aivin (manufacturer) website (BT2510 - http://www.beta-aivin.com/English/Products/Bass/BT/English_205.html) but I can't see them available anywhere I looked. I had a quick look for the Red Sub, the Harley Benton and the Beta Aivin badged variants and all came up blank. Where found, always shown as no longer in stock.

Time to trot this one out again, I guess: BWB pickguard, GFS Lipstick Strat pickup, thumbrest, full size tuners, bridge from a Vista Series Musicmaster, bored through for through body stringing.

Chunky? The G&L Tribute L-2000 neck is a half baseball bat. I know chunky, these aren't it.

I feel I must retract a statement I made a few times in this thread. These EB basses do indeed have the coil splitting option, despite it not being mentioned in any of the blurb. I checked a 5 string when I was in Guitar Guitar in Glasgow recently and I can confirm that it has push pull knobs which would suggest that the coil splits are still there. Still not interested in it though

The body shape is one of my favourite ones, familiar yet different at the same time. Thanks for confirming the passive tone control, I thought I had read that somewhere but I wasn't sure.

Also, I had a try of a 434 in a music shop recently and despite really wanting a 734A I must say I was impressed. It was one of the teal blue ones and I thought it was quite "vintage" looking in terms of use of cream pickguard and dots. Felt really nice to play, comfortable neck (that sort of inbetweeny size/profile neither Jazz nor Precision), was playing sitting down and no strap so can't comment on weight but didn't seem overly heavy when I was looking it over. What surprised me the most was how bright it sounded for a passive bass. Yes, the blurb says "Alnico magnet pickups tuned to deliver the classic BB vintage tone, slightly updated to provide a brighter sound that cuts through in live performance situations" but you know, you don't actually believe that stuff, right? I hadn't cut my fingernails and it was super sensitive to them if I caught the strings with them. I actually preferred the sound with the tone control about 1/3 rolled off. That's the first passive bass I can think of when I've felt the need to do that. The tone control actually did something in a reasonably graded fashion instead of being either all or nothing or achieving very little at all, so kudos to Yamaha for that. I really like the new, sleeker, simplified look. Some of the more recent BBs have been a bit garish and fussy looking for me with far too much extraneous chrome (like pickup rings) and I'm glad to see them gone. Pickguard's a nice shape and doesn't cover too much of the body. As a Gibson man, really appreciated the black headstock The 434 gave me serious cause to consider whether or not the 734A is worth the extra 300ish notes or not, simply because of the brightness of the tone of this passive bass. The 734A has different pickups (with a larger number, so they must be better, right?), active EQ, a sandwich body construction (alder/maple/alder) and more luxurious fingerboard inlays but I have to ask myself how much I care about these things. Also, you can't get the 734 in teal blue, which I think is the pick of the new colours. I haven't bought a new bass in ages. GAS is escaping...

The 734/5 is passive/active switchable. Don't know if there are any passive tone controls or not.

Get 'em while you can...