MrFingers

Guild Starfire I

In order to hit two birds with one slap. Ánd a 5-string for that one time in a month I crave that ánd the classic-ish stingray sound. Didn’t want to fork out the cash for a true stingray, and didn’t really fancy the standard 5-string Ray cosmetics. This appears to be the perfect blend of 4-string looks, somewhat seventies sound and style and at an affordable price point… picked this one up 2nd hand but defacto new (plastic still on the batter cover) for next to nothing… plays really nice, sounds a bit barky, but need to rewire it to parallel. An absolute boat-anchor though!

Danelectro/Silvertone/Harmony,…

Rickenbacker, Guild, Mosrite, Höfner 500/1 with the blade pickups,…

It's like a regular 3 band EQ (so an indent at middle of the sweep where there is no EQ applied, and then a cutoff/boost on either side of that indent),the small knob closest to the bridge is the mid-control for boost/cut, and the ring around is is a stepless frequency selector to select the midrange from a rather broad range, where the mid-control is active on. So you can choose which mid-frequency you boost/cut. It makes for a very versatile tone circuit that basically allows you to ignore the amp EQ, as you can very much build & shape your tone on the instrument itself. Only downside is that you can't switch fast from one sound to another, and that the knobs are very free-rotating. In terms of tonality, that vari-mid reminded me vaguely of a WAL bass of an acquaintance that I once played that had the parametric EQ, you can get the same sweep.

Do you have any pictures from the eighties, when it was stock? It's intriguing because it's a CBS-era Jazzmaster with a small headstock, which is the first one I ever saw. OP: No, I haven't. From 1987, so that's deep into dark side of the 1980's... Maybe if I can find a Stingray I like.

I need to re-learn that the neck does not start at E anymore and that A is now in the middle

People who know me know that I like my basses designed before 1970, with 4 flatwound strings and not a battery in sight… so when this popped up locally for 2nd hand Squier Affinity-money I had to jump on it. A 1993 Ibanez Soundgear SR885BK, made in Japan at FujiGen. With the 2 AFR-J5 pickups and the 3-band EQ with variable midrange swoop (I think they call it the Vari-mid), afaik the only year they came in this combination. Decent bit of kit with Gotoh hardware and a very fast neck. Good enough to give it a try.

Well... since we're posting. New to me since the beginning of the month (2019 model)

This has the be the smallest bass I've ever had in my actual posession (I did have a 24" National Valco on loan for a while), and it is by far the one with the most thunderous and brutal sound. 1999 Epiphone "Elite" EB-3. From the period when Orville shut down, but before the Elitist-series were rolled out. Basically an Orville with the Epiphone name on it. To all intents and purposes an accurate copy of a pre 1965 Gibson EB-3, except for the bridge, including the rather chunky neck. Has an actual early sixties Gibson mudbucker in the neck.

It's a custom built instrument, the Gildaxe SuperSonic. Based on the Fender Performer bass. https://www.bestbassgear.com/ebass/bass-of-the-week/bass-of-the-week-supersonic-bass.html The headstock reminds me of a Watkins/WEM Rapier bass, but in a more extreme form.

BEHOLD! The bringer of mud!

I was first on the prow for an Elitist version, but not one popped up for sale in the EU (I've had lines open as far as Sweden, Italy & Greece). Probably a combination of not that many being sold here in the first place (they were rather expensive IIRC) + people are hanging onto them for dear life because they ARE so good). Everyone is raving about Hipshot or Babicz-bridges, but the horrendous 3-point self-destructing contraption is doing its job, so I'm sticking with it.

I did have to pay my fair share to the taxman. But it was noticeable less than I expected/feared/calculated. In hindsight I got a tremendous deal on this bass. There is an agreement between the EU and Japan that import duties are being reduced to 0% for most products, so it's only the VAT of your country of residence (21% in my case) and the brokerage fee for the transporter one has to pay (for Fedex, it's 14.5€ per order, regardless of value). Those taxes scale with the price of the item you buy and the price of the shipping. Since the instrument was pretty cheap, and shipping was also on the lower end of the spectrum, the added costs were also manageable (read: lower than my mental limit I was willing to spend on it).

Present but manageable. I have a very smooth & slippery tweed strap, and that makes the head go down. With a more coarse leather strap, it stays where it needs to stay. It's nowhere as bad as the 34" scale versions.