molan

I was offered one of these for £800 but didn't buy it because they have a poor rep for build quality and an even worse one for tone!

[quote name='Musicman20' timestamp='1369762026' post='2092471'] With the Metro's now being rather expensive, and out of sight for the market they were (IMO) aimed at, (eg a slightly more boutique and well built Fender but not NYC) I'd get an NYC made and sent direct to me, without a dealer. Metro prices now are extreme, but then again a lot of manufacturers are raising prices to rather crazy levels. [/quote] Roger used to refuse to sell NYC's through dealers but does now allow limited stocks. I can't be sure but I guess it's partly so that people can get to try a new NYC without having to fly to New York. In real terms it shouldn't cost any more to buy through a dealer than buying direct (unless you bring something back at lower than standard import duties and VAT).

I've owned a few NYC and Metros over the years and personally I much preferred the NYC models. As others have said, I'm not sure there's a huge margin of difference in terms of tone but the NYC models exude some class about look, fit and finish that the Metros don't quite capture. Like everything there are going to be better and worse examples of both out there. I recently played a Metro that was particularly nice and maybe one of may favourite Sads. I've also played an NYC with appalling neck dive - I should say this is extremely rare and a set of ultra-lite tuners sorted the worst of the problem. In terms of value on the used market the NYC's are, almost always, easier to sell. They are very desirable and move fast. In the shop I help out at from time to time they are the single fastest selling pre-owned basses that ever come in. One thing to add, if you haven't played one before, is that some Sads have really, really flat radius boards. I had one very nice bass but found I was getting bad wrist ache playing it and it had the flattest board of anything I've ever owned so I put it down to that

[quote name='Kiwi' timestamp='1369744887' post='2092193'] I've recently bagged an uber rare Wilkinson VS100C in gold. The C stands for convertible so it's possible to have the best of both trem and hard tail worlds. Wilkinson stopped making them quite a few years ago and this was the first one I'd found for sale in 10 years. I had a look at alternatives like the Stetstrem but the Wilkinson was still the most elegant solution and easiest to retrofit into a strat body. I haven't fitted yet as it was delivered to Chez Ped. Through the Steinberger forums, I know of a guy in Ireland who hand makes hard to find pieces of guitar hardware. I'll try and dig out his details as he might be worth approaching and the trem arm might be relatively simple to make. [/quote] I have a feeling mine is a Convertible. If you release the trem and let it drop it swings vertically downwards and locks the bridge in place. Great idea but I seem to remember it needed a fair bit of setting up.

Have you seen the Carvin micro-bass combos? 250w heads and voice of 1x10, 2x10 and 1x15. They all weigh nothing, are made in USA and priced at between £400 and £470 depending on which speaker configuration. The 210 probably has the most mid-range projection but even the baby 110 sounds good for such a small box. The heads have plenty of inboard tone shaping, a useable compressor, headphone socket, decent DI etc. Worth a look anyway

Pretty sure Thomastik have some classic short scale strings as well. I was helping sort strings at BassGear the other day and I remember seeing some 'specialist' short scale ones buried away in the new stock items May have had some of the La Bellas as well but can't remember off the top of my head

Depending on how many of us are available it looks like we'll be able to bring a couple of nice new demo rigs for people to try. Probably a pair of the new Bergantino CN112 cabs, a CN212 with whatever spare heads are kicking around (one will be an Aguilar TH500). Might also bring the really cool new ATS 312 with their 500w head. No idea what basses yet but up for requests from Ritter, Fodera, F Bass, Carvin, Godin, maybe a vintage Fender or two, Brubaker, Yamaha Attitude or BB, maybe even a funky Laurus

I like the pairing of two smaller 15" cabs. My personal favourite are the Bag End 15's - these sound great together. I know someone selling a Mesa Road Ready 2x15" - now that's a cracking cab!

Signature looks like 2 of 3 to me (with the signatory being ON) rather than 2 of 30? CS do make some limited run stuff but I don't remember this far back, lol. They will almost always replicate any of the limited edition models as well. EG If there's a 30 unit run and someone wants to buy one a year later they can still build a one off for them - one of the joys of a 'custom shop' is that, within reason, they'll build whatever a customer asks for. They often have certificates saying '62, '63' '64 etc for what is, essentially, the same bass IE a '64 if it's 3 knobs or a '60 if it's 2 (although sometimes the '62's a 2 knobs as well!). These are basic templates to build from and it only gets really complicated when someone wants a '68 bound & blocked or a transition '66 with binding but clay dots etc. It's at this point that prices start to hurtle upwards as well! You could write to the CS in the States and see if they have any ideas (going through Fender UK is a slow process as they only really have one guy working the CS and he's mostly focused on guitar not bass).

Over the last week we had some time to try all the new Berg cabs against our favourite Aguilar SL's and spent a lot of time running the single 12" versions against each other (we might try the same tests with the CN 212 vs Aguilar DB212 and Bag End 212 but these ar coming with very different design principles behind them so we thought the single 12's were a good place to start). We tried them as both matched pairs and single cabs Running as paired 1 x 12" stack: We tried the CN's and the SL's using the Lakland Limited Edition Joe Osborn with block inlays and binding (very pretty bass!), a GMR custom build with a single Delano pickup and a Fodera Emperor Standard 5 going through a Carvin BX500 and an Aguilar TH 500. We found that with the CN's you got out what you put in, they are very articulate cabs with maybe a slight high mid and high end bias. We also felt that they had a faster reponse compared to the SL'S and harmonics just jumped out. The low end is not as big as the SL'S but is very controlled and punchy. The CN'S responded very well to eq from the amp or bass which was nice and we didn't feel at any point that they were struggling to handle whatever signal you sent them. The CN'S are truly a quality cabs and would work with just about any musical style you want, but we would say what you match it with in terms of amp and bass will have a lot to do with the final sound. The SL'S had a fatter low end and low mid and generally seemed to go deeper than than the CN's. At some points we felt that they may not take as much power as the CN'S but they are rated 100watts less (although this was more of a subjective feel than a real power rating test). There is definitely more of a 'vintage growl' that's very pleasing to the ear. When you dig in you get a really nice fat tone with just the right amount of bite in the mids. These cabs are great for rock, funk and blues styles. The SL's were maybe more forgiving in terms of picking up any technique errors whilst the CN's did highlight some finger noise and fret buzzing here and there. We've been using the SL's as 'reference' cabs for a while and they work well with almost every bass but, after extended listening we can feel that the CN's are going to be great bass demonstrator cabs. We ran another session today and were bouncing from a vintagey Fender '62RI to a modern Ritter Cora and they really made me want to keep playing long after our allotted demo time was up - in fact I wanted to take both basses home with me afterwards! We then ran the cabs as single 1x12's The CN's were again very punchy with a tight low end but we found ourselves backing off the tweeter a bit to take that really high end fizz out of the sound. It had a very pleasing growl when digging in hard:) With some some bass boost from either onboard pre or the amps it would be great as a single 112. Seemed to sound louder then the other cabs (maybe those upper mids). The SL again had that really nice fat low end and growly mid biased tone. Harmonics didn't quit pop like the CN but they were all there and it wasn't really lacking Anything as a standalone cab. It had a very nice smooth top end without the brightness of the CN. Just for reference, as we had one sitting there, we also tried the ATS 312. This was the most even across the sonic range and really allowed the core tonal characteristics of each individual bass to shine through. Might sound a bit of a cliche but it was like you could hear the different woods and pickup configurations having more of a defined effect. It didn't have the growl of the CN and SL but it did have a lovely smooth response with the tweeter backed off a shade. Now looking forward to the 212 test (and getting back on topic!). . .

[quote name='wateroftyne' timestamp='1369376518' post='2088427'] When are the HD's back in stock, Barrie? [/quote] I'd guess maybe 6 weeks or so

Would a really good Octave pedal help? Might get that synthy sound? The Aguilar Octamizer tracks pretty well even down the low end of the board

My local MarkBass rep says that PC editing is the key to these. Apparently there's a whole world of crazy sounds available

[quote name='lowerbassment' timestamp='1368873862' post='2082487'] Thanks molan for the detailed comparison - much appreciated! Sounds like a trip to Twyford to Bass Gear is on the cards. [/quote] Quick update from rainy Berkshire is that every single Aguilar SL and Bergantino HD has been sold! We're still enjoying the CN's though. The pair of 112's is really growing on me. I was running a '71 Jazz through a clean set TH500 today and this combination sounded really nice. Someone else then put a Pedulla 5 into an Aphex Exciter and then the same head and cabs - with the Exciter punched it the rig sounded huge!

I have a lovely Patrick Eggle which had this trem. I loaned it to a friend and it came back with the arm missing. I contacted Wilkinson direct and was quoted about £80 for a replacement because it wasn't made any more and would need to be a custom job. Sounded way too much so I didn't bother. Got some sort of aftermarket thing but it doesn't really work properly in the way the original did

I love this clip of him explaining some of the stuff behind Riders: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoRFAbdmKD4

[quote name='JTUK' timestamp='1369068977' post='2084503'] ha ha ...take it from me, it is nowhere near 43lbs... as in 29kgs...!!!! [/quote] Is that for real John? That's more like 65lbs!

Anyone else read the title of this post and wonder if they're on the wrong sort of web site?

[quote name='lozbass' timestamp='1368961726' post='2083376'] I can see why any DB750 owners might consider a sale - I carried mine around a little last week and it's monstrously heavy, especially given the reasonably compact form factor. Getting it up stairs for a gig/storage is really no fun. I'm going to weigh it later - I'm sure the specced weight of 43lbs is way off. So, a major downside...however, then you plug it in and all makes sense [/quote] I'd be interested to see how much it weighs. I keep reading that it's heavier than stated but don't know anyone that's actually put one on some scales

I totally agree about hindsight being a wonderful thing. I was buying my first music in the late 60's and I still love some of the stuff I bought then but there was way more awful stuff around in the general airspace than good. My early teenage years were all glam, Bolan, Bowie, Roxy etc, soon to be followed by some serious program years - meanwhile most of the stuff being listened to by most people was still pretty awful. Moved to London at 18 just in time to see people like the Clash and the Jam at their peak and went to some great gigs. Got to roadie for U2 when they were still playing places like the Marquee in Wardour Street and moved into Billy Idol's room when he could afford the whole flat next door. Meanwhile the charts were awful. Then we hit some New Romantic stuff - great club scene in London and a lot of fun. Charts still rubbish. Etc. etc. etc. etc. We all have great memories of our early years in music and it's so easy to be selective and carp on about only the good stuff. My children have exactly the same sort of memories about house, techno, garage etc that I had about all the music I loved in my youth. To echo an earlier post, the only time I'd want to have been born at might have been a more recent one so I would still have it all to look forward to instead of drowning in nostalgia. . .

My Ritter has the entire body finished in the same stain on top of flamed maple on all the wooden surfaces except the fretboard :which is ebony). Looks and feels nice to me