Kiwi

Thats a very interesting bridge. Looks remarkably similar to the spector bridges! If you do bypass the buffer preamp and take the signal from the piezos straight to the eq then you could end up with a very harsh and thin signal. Impedance matching is pretty much essential if you want to get the best from your piezos.

Firstly you'd need to have a buffer preamp between your piezos and the eq. so the impedance is sorted. Secondly, make sure the piezos are big enough to detect bass strings (ie. fat contact points that won't slip between the windings on bass strings) Thirdly, piezos add a sound that can only be described as being similar to an amplified acoustic guitar (ie pretty hifi and flat but not very aggressive). They'll be hard to hear in a rock context but in a trio might be worth using. RMC are good. Maybe start there?

Give Jon a call. He's a diamond. He will help you out if he can.

The problem I see is that there's noone out there who has refined the technology of graphite necks. Like Wil says, noone's really experimented with wooden fingerboards much, and I think there's a lot of potential there. I've tried some fantastic sounding graphite necked instruments but the necks been wonky, and the instruments that have straight necks are too brittle. Ped's Vigier, Nick's Pangborn and my Alembic are the only instruments I've tried where everything's perfect. So, it CAN be done.

They sell themselves, but not all necks are created equal.

I've owned a bit of kit in my time and sometimes I've felt that when we talk about what we've owned, probably what doesn't get shared enough is people's experiences of using and combining kit. So I'll start the ball rolling. Kit I've owned: [b]Amps:[/b] [list] [*]Jansen 50w 1x15 combo [*]Peavey TNT150 1x15 combo [*]Trace Elliot AH250 [*]SWR Studio 220 [*]Eden WT800 [*]Burman Pro4000 (x3, but I've only got two now) [*]Mesa Boogie Bass 400+ [*]Warwick CL150 1x12 combo [*]Warwick CL4 1x12 combo [*]Trace Elliot MP11 + Mesa Boogie Strategy 400 power amp [*]Gallien Krueger RB700 1x15 combo (x2) [*]Trace Elliot V8* [*]Genz Benz Shuttle 6.0* [*]Rack based component rig (TL Audio, Lexicon MPXG2, Class D 1u 700w x2 power amp)* [/list][b]Cabs:[/b] [list] [*]Peavey 410TX [*]SWR Triad 1 [*]Hartke 4.5XL [*]Loud 2x10 (x2) [*]Gallien Krueger 210RBH [*]Acme B2 2x10 (x2) [*]EBS Neo212 (x2)* [/list] [b]Best value rig:[/b] GK RB700 1x15 combo (by a whisker over the rack rig, for the tiltback feature) [b]Best sounding rig:[/b] Rack rig + EBS Neo212 (very modern sounding but also extremely articulate) [b] Worst value rig:[/b] Trace Elliot MP11 + Mesa Boogie Strategy400 (expensive and not very versatile) [b]Worst sounding rig:[/b] Trace Elliot V8 + 2 Acme B2 cabs (kept distorting) [b]Lessons learned:[/b] [list=1] [*]Some basses sound better with some amps rather than others (fat sounding basses sound better with fat sounding amps) [*]Parametric eqs are infinitely better than graphics for managing onstage acoustics [*]I was surprised by how many muddy sounding backlines I've used at shared billings [*]Mids are critical to hearing myself on stage and there are a lot of coloured mid-scooped sounding amps out there [*]2x10's are good for mids but the lows are often poorly focussed [*]Tiltback cabs are worth their weight in gold for small stages (the lack of bottom end response doesn't matter when the stage is vibrating too.) [/list] *still owned

congratulations everyone, really, really nice basses

[quote name='Dan_Nailed' post='539946' date='Jul 14 2009, 01:08 AM']These "inbetweener" Euro's are my favourites, as they're solid maple but 35" scale. Nothing wrong with the LX or NS5CR, but the green one of yours represents my personal choice.[/quote] The NS5CR's were made from 94 to 98. What years are you referring to specifically?

OK, so Mark King's design talents obviously speak for themselves. That lower cutaway and access to the upper frets still needs looking at. Status basses are limited in the custom options by the manufacturing processes that Rob uses. Try asking Rob to copy the neck profile off your favourite non-status bass some time.

Now that is a vast improvement on the headed version. The design is starting to come together. The soapbars which can do J and humbucking is a very sensible idea and look much more in proportion to the body. I don't understand why Rob didn't do that in the first place. I'd have one, headless, 5 string with two of those custom wound soapbars.

Winston was the bass player for Massive Attack and I've only ever seen him with the same Smith BT5. He and Randy Hope-Taylor share the bass chair in a functions band called the All Stars who are playing a series of free concerts at The Scoop by City Hall. In fact there's one on July 17th. [url="http://www.theallstars.co.uk/"]http://www.theallstars.co.uk/[/url]

I really like the sound of mahogany. Bubinga has a bad tendency to deaden the response of instruments. I've found this in my Smiths even with relatively little amounts and spoken to a number of luthiers about it and they agree. I'd suggest you stick with the maple, mahogany combination and vary the proportions to taste. Maple for snap, brightness, tight lows and rigidity, mahogany for growl and warm boomy lows. Even after all of the instruments I've owned and played, its probably my most preferred combination of woods. In fact, for the fretless I'm commissioning to match my Shuker headless 6, I've asked Jon to put as much mahogany in the neck as it can take without it becoming seasonally sensitive. Match it up with either an alder or mahogany body, I'd suggest. Think about what kind of fingerboard you would like too, that can make a significant difference.

Was Wilson using his BT5 though that CMD121 combo of his? Last time I heard him live, he sounded really scooped, in fact there was virtually no high end at all. Was it like that this time or was the sound better? I've tried the same combination myself live and found it really difficult to hear myself because of the lack of mids.

[quote name='rabs' post='538277' date='Jul 12 2009, 08:39 AM']My biggest bass playing influences are Me'shell Ndegeocello, Zender, Pino, Tal and the other likely suspects in the groove world![/quote] Good man, we'll forgive you for being a guitarist. Welcome aboard.

[quote name='JTUK' post='538263' date='Jul 12 2009, 07:06 AM']None of this makes sense to me....... ...the twin neck sounds insane, costly to build and will be impossible to shift..[/quote] [quote name='Delberthot' post='538244' date='Jul 12 2009, 02:25 AM']It would purely be for my own self -indulgence - that and I'm a show-off.[/quote] I'm staying right out of this.

Out of pure interest, how many songs would you use the fretless on?

Metallic green?! Looks like its Sherwood Green over Fiesta Red as well, so he's pretty much had a custom finish stripped off? That's so wrong.

Or this? [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Stand-Stagg-GAS-3-2-Monitor-Amplifier-Amp-Floor-Stand_W0QQitemZ370226517618QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_MusicalInstr_Access_RL?hash=item5633385672&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=65%3A12|66%3A2|39%3A1|72%3A1688|293%3A1|294%3A50"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Stand-Stagg-GAS-3-2-...93%3A1|294%3A50[/url] Or this? [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Stand-Stagg-Monitor-Amplifier-Amp-Floor-Stand_W0QQitemZ370227873176QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_MusicalInstr_Access_RL?hash=item56334d0598&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=65%3A12|66%3A2|39%3A1|72%3A1688|293%3A1|294%3A50#ebayphotohosting"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Stand-Stagg-Monitor-...bayphotohosting[/url]

Would this be a viable alternative? [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Folding-Guitar-Amplifier-Combo-Stand-Lifts-your-Amp_W0QQitemZ260444696576QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_ConsumerElectronics_EquipmentStands_SM?hash=item3ca3b6b000&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=65%3A12|66%3A2|39%3A1|72%3A1688|293%3A1|294%3A50"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Folding-Guitar-Ampli...93%3A1|294%3A50[/url]

[quote name='Sean.Robinson' post='537679' date='Jul 11 2009, 02:05 AM']The whole shape to me seems a bit like a refined ritter and i hope its not just me who sees that otherwise i may look a bit silly.[/quote] I see Tobias...

Welcome Bill, I used to have three Smith BSRGN's a while back.

Jon sent me an email the other day mentioning the Uberhorn, he said it was a bit of an experiment that might make it through to the final line up. I really like the look of it, personally. Although the bottom cutaway could use a little tweak to make the cutaway a tad less deep perhaps.

Bassjamm and Ped have both owned them.

I've just flicked through this thread and couldn't find the last update from my Porn thread. So I guess for the sake of completeness here goes: Lightweight Shuttle rig to the left, Burman Pro4000 vintage rig to the right. Trace V8 to the left with both Neo212's stacked, stereo MIDI rig to the right but the Strategy has been sold to AshEvans and been finished with the module below It's separated into two modules. The upper one is the MIDI kit (mixer, AX100 and JV1080) and in the lower rack, there is my faithful Lexicon MPXG2 which I've configured to take the MIDI from a stereo mixer input through the insert loop as well as the non MIDI signal through the guitar input. the white unit is a TL Audio 5013 2 channel, 4 band, valve parametric equaliser. This was to give me the versatility that so many bass amps I've had have failed to supply me with. Its also intended to soften the highs a little as well and it does the trick of isolating the frequencies very nicely for £110. The TL still needs a bit of work done on it, the preamp valves need biasing I suspect (there is a bias adjustment inside the unit for preamp valves). Below the TL Audio is a Technical Pro DA-B3000 class D power amp which preserves the mid range growl of the Spector extremely well. I can also hear the release of my fingers from each string which makes locking tightly in with a drummer so much easier. This whole set up with the bottom rack and the two EBS cabs is very satisfying to play through. For those moments on the dark side, there's this: 50w Burman Pro501 1x12 combo.