donkelley

I guess it'll be up to you. It does hang slightly more to the left because the left strap pin is on the body behind the neck area, not on an extended upper horn, of course. So that moves it leftwards when standing. Now the more I think about it.... when sitting? It might be hard if it's like an XL2 shape (the classic trapazoidal steinberger body) - I can imagine the tuner section sitting on your right thigh as a stopper while the normal pop out leg rest would sit on your left leg. While the tuning on these things is rock solid, it might feel uncomfortable, but I couldn't tell ya as I don't have one that is this body shape any more. My current headless is a precision bass with steinberger bridge/tuners/headstock mount (an old cort model). Couldn't tell ya how that works since it's leg rest is precision bass body shape, not pop out, and it's body is much bigger/heavier than what you'd be getting.

You can play on left leg if you like, some folks do. It's also I think the standard for classical guitarists? When I played steinbergers they sat on my right leg, but whatever works for each person!

LMAO

If an affordable one that actually does the job properly, whether someone's home-built kit or a DIY job or the real thing, ever came along.... I'd be very interested in trying it out. But honestly, I have no idea if I'd like it or not, since it's not something one can doodle around on at your local music store. I'll be curious to watch this thread in case you ever DO pick one up, and what you think about it if you do, as a noobie to it also!

Damn I love Portnoy's playing/musicianship... great band, Sons of Apollo, I hadn't actually watched them until now! Thanks for that!

Actually, I've read that the 5 way knob is a pickup blend knob. So maybe the "active" part is just a good solid tone, nothing extreme? Active also has the benefit of solving patch cord length downfalls, so even if the active circuit (assuming it IS active) is pretty neutral, it benefits the bass. I did see something in the literature about a pre...somethingorother... eq. So maybe there is a speck of baked in eq in the active circuit, but I don't think, from the description, that the eq ever changes.. Just pickup settings. So basically, it works like a passive bass, but with the advantage of active buffering, and possibly a slightly more modern tone than a purely passive bass... which makes sense completely for prog metal.

Well it's actually a smart design. Like we all find with active basses, eventually there are a few settings we really like to use, and only those settings. Guess He found his settings, and this is his bass, so it makes sense to me. Without hearing/reading what each setting ACTUALLY does, it's impossible to know.

IMHO, by far their BEST album is Metropolis, Pt. 2. It's a prog-metal rock Opera, telling a story right through. Metropolois Pt. 1 was on Images and Words, I think? as a single song, but Pt.2 is imho their best album, and one of the best albums ever of any style. It also doesn't suffer from the 80s mixing/production that Images and Words suffers from. After getting REALLY into Met Pt. 2, having never heard the band before, I started exploring their other works. It's very up and down in songwriting quality imho, although always extremely well performed. One of their best songwriters was their original drummer, who hasn't been with the band for a few years now. Their keyboardist is also an excellent composer. But they can go in surprising directions... some of which is amazing, some of which is just sort of odd LoL. But Met. Pt.2 is a really really good album by any standards, thematically and musically and complexity-wise and lyrically. Heck - it has a love song on it! LoL Who woulda thought?? Any

Super fascinating stuff! I REALLY want to try a bass with a low B string that has the nut cut both close and equal centered - just so I can feel for myself if I actually like it or dislike it. I would say that despite my initial assumption that feeling the top of the string makes it more important to be equal centered for playability... the general consensus among nut cutters is equal spacing between strings, as you say... but man oh man that just is so bizarre to find out. I've played for a VERY long time, and I have cut my own nuts several times for basses I was working on. I always loved the feel when I did equal centers. But I have only ever cut a nut for a 4 string, I think?? pretty sure, anyhow. We should never stop learning, and never stop admitting when we were wrong all these years.... so, at least for 5+ string basses, it seems I may have been wrong forever.

Well, surprise surprise! I just checked my 6 string bass. it is space BETWEEN them, not center to center on that bass. Maybe this is why I never felt totally at home with it in my left hand! After googling the other forum (TB), it seems nearly everybody thinks center to center makes more sense, but now I want to actually measure all my basses to see what they're like! When I've cut my own nut slots I've done it center to center and absolutely loved the feel. Hmmm... gave me a real puzzle to think about here. I kinda want to replace the nut on my Peavey Grind 6 now to see if it feels better center to center! Update: I just read a thread at TB where a guy 3d printed 2 nuts for his 5 string, with both spacing types! brilliant way to find out for sure what is best. He felt he'd prefer equal center cut, but ended up preferring equal spacing cut. Another poster in that thread pointed out about string muting - with equal centers there is much less space between the lower (pitch) strings because they're so thick, and it's hard not to accidentally touch them, causing muting. Not sure if that's true when I play, but it's an interesting point. And yet, the general consensus is assuming that equal centers makes more sense - as was my assumption. ~~~~~ Anyhow - I measured my basses. My Peavey Grind and Carvin Icon are equal space between strings, as you suggested. My older Ibanez SR 300, squier bronco, Aria Sinsonido, are all equal centers, or so it seems. Those 3 are all 4 stringers though, which maybe affects the decision? I couldn't reach 3 other basses in my music room - too much clutter right now LoL. But it seems like the 5/6 string, and possibly those that I'd consider more modern designs and/or fancier basses use the equal space between strings concept (I know the grind is cheap, but it's not a cheap design - just cheaply manufactured with cheap hardware/electronics). Hardly a conclusive list of samples, but surprising and interesting! ~~~~~ oh, and just one more note to mention: on my 6 string peavey grind, which does have the equal spacing between strings (so not even centers) at the nut, it has equal centered bridge. Each string is exactly 15.5mm apart at the centers. This seems very common - I have not seen otherwise on any guitars or basses I own. It's just the nuts that aren't always like that. the plot thickens....

Well I certainly HOPE manufacturers go center to center on the nut! Why on earth would I want to stretch inconsistent amounts between strings? you finger on the middle of the string, you press on the middle of it. The pad of your finger wraps around it, of course, but you put pressure on the middle, and there isn't any benefit in physics that I can figure out, right now, to having the low strings further away to have the space between the strings equal. I feel that way about the bridge, also, but I do understand that on the plucking side of things there is actually an adjustment in the attack time to compensate for distance. At the nut, though? I see nothing but disadvantages in strings being anything other than spaced evenly according to the center of each string. But then, I still think that playing fanned frets is WAY harder for complex things like jazz fusion and improvised jazz and chording. So I could be just set in my ways LoL.... but I'd love to know a good, logical, reason for the nut slots to be cut with equal space between strings instead of equal distance to string centers.

What I always find surprising is that the 15.5mm spacing of my grind is considered so narrow. I've played bass for 38 years, mostly 19mm 34" 4 string professionally, all styles of music (whatever paid or was super interesting, if not for money). Moving to the grind introduced no issues to me from string spacing - only from being a 35" scale, and being a 6 string (it's been a while since I had a 6 string bass). I really love it narrow like that. I think 15mm spacing on the ebmm would feel about the same as this, and I can't wait to try one in a store one day long from now. What really matters most to me is that the total string distance from first to last string is sort of similar from bass to bass. 6 string? really narrow. 5 strings? 16.5 or 17mm. 4 strings? 18 or 19mm. It just makes it easier to switch between them for me. I guess I'm an oddball LoL 🙂 I'm ok with that. So there's not mention of other color combinations for the new myung bass model? Just... black?

probably louder, too, with the same amplifier power.

I'm Helix into whatever is around.... power amp from my bass head (so, clean power amp only) into my 112 bass cab with deltalite ii neo.... or my behringer B112D "1000 Watt" (actually more like 320 watts RMS, 160 continuous into the woofer, still very good and the woofer is very efficient) is my choice of the day (good sounding, very powerful, very good bass range, somewhat FRFR powered speaker.... kind of ideal for my bass/guitar/violin/keys/backing tracks/vocals portable requirements from helix or what not (has 2 inputs also). The yamaha is supposed to be amazing....

My current main fretted bass is a peavey grind 6. I dislike the 35" length (too many years of 34" for me to fret this reliably or feel totally comfortable with the stretches in 1st position), but I have worked past the 35" to find it to be a ridiculously great bass. Passive is amazing sounding with proper setup on it, but I added active preamps (both a bartolini 2 band and an emg vmc variable mid) to it, defeatable, that let me get whatever tone I want. My bass has 15.5" string spacing. Nobody seems to know that about the grind 6. Mine, older vietnamese made one with the C string cutout and dark wood, has 15.5" string spacing (center to center). I absolutely positively have triple checked that. I love that spacing on a 6. So, compared to my current #1 fretted bass, that myung bongo would probably feel great to me - I love his narrow nut concept... and I like unusual looking fingerboards so I'm ok with the dual wood, although I sure would worry about longevity and twisting in the future with such a strange design! I probably would add a preamp to it though, which yes is super annoying that it no longer has the 4 band eq.