Woodinblack

I thought all the premiums came with the semi hard case? Always worth checking.

Yes, as I found out (as the first was a present), you can actually take them to any fender lead dealer and they will just swap it for a new one. Which is great as a policy but would be good if you didn't need it. I have a whirlwind lead I found in a shared house that had been left when a previous occupant moved in 1991. I don't even know if the company is still going, but the lead is fine.

I always do that (not that it helped the fender cable). Or you can take to extreme like Rick Parfits guitar, with a hole drilled through the body.

Ah, I wondered if that is what you meant. I hadn't seen a sandberg like that. Although I could imagine the conversation as they are totally different ends of the pricing spectrum and there are people (and I am not suggesting this is true for everyone, or even most) who really have to believe if they paid £2k for something that it is substantially better than something that cost £200. And it obviously is in certain ways, but not ways that matter to an audience

I weighed mine today because of another post. 2 at 8.2lb, 1 at 8.8lb and one at 10.4lb Didn't weigh the others, but they have to be in the same range I would think. The 10.4lb is not great to do a 3 hour gig with, but I have done it (and felt if afterwards).

So on that subject, why did the world stop using curly leads? In the 70s everything was curly leads and then they all disappeared.

Yes, that is how I understood set, I was guessing 2, so 1.5hr-2hr gig. As I said, not done one that short in a while!

The HB is based on a sandberg? See that is what I thought you were interpreting it as, which is nothing at all what I meant. OK, I can't say the shape of your bridge really appeals to me, but that is just aesthetics and one persons blah blah blah. I agree totally, if it stays where it is supposed to be and does what it is supposed to do then it is a great bridge, the problem I have with your bridge is that it looks like the ones on the chickenbackers (and obviously I don't know it is, but that is what it looks like). The problem i have with the chickenbacker bridges are that to make it look like a rickenbacker bridge they have actually compromised the function of a bridge, and lets face it, there isn't much a bridge has to do, other than enable you to set the intonation and height of the strings well, and not allow side to side movement. If it does that fine, it just looked like the ones that don't. To be honest, I liked my chickenbacker (apart from I don't really play 4 strings much), and I think that all of its problems were due to the idea that it was supposed to look like a ric, and the main thing with that was that damn bridge that didn't work properly and got in the way, and the pickup cover (I don't like those on any bass). Its pickups weren't great but they weren't terrible. I certainly don't buy the cheap bass has to be cheap like in some posts here - when it comes down to it prices are magnified in production and sale, so if you put a £10 bridge on a bass, rather than a £5 one, at sale price that will be £30 difference. As much as people with expensive production basses like to think, there is no way a pickup costs a manufacturer more than a fiver to make, it is still a coil of wire and a magnet. The costs are just down to the labour costs and the markup required to recoup the investment, which obviously depends on the volume you are selling, like everything else.

Oh yes, I liked the MTD 534

45-60 minute set? not done one that short for a long while! I love it too, its a great bass, just that is a litte irritating as it is possible to fix it with a bit more thought. If they used the luminays with the border, it would have been visible even uncharged.

Yeh, I met him at the bass show year before last, he seemed to have time and enthusiasm for everyone

Well, you can tell him, he is a member on here. i have plenty of time for him. I am a better bass player than I was because of him

I would also say, and I am not one to talk down an ibby, but there is one really stupid thing on the 260x. The luminays. I have luminays on the Maruszczyk and they are excellent, a light blue glow when glowing and a white dot when not, on an ebony board, you can see them a mile off both lit and not. The 2605s luminays are light green against a light brown and when not lit or not freshly charged at gig lighting are almost totally invisible. Absolute killer for alright now

I thought the ray was pretty nothingy it has to be said. None of them apart from the hofner were terrible. I liked the xotic.

Played the same christmas eve pub as the last two years, and had the same outcome. Absolutely heaving, great crowd, one rather annoying drunk guy who insisted on dancing by my amp and pedal board with his drink in the air spilling a lot, but one of the women in the crowd saw this was an issue and managed to get between him and my stuff and slowly push him out of the way. We also had a few guests, one woman who often sings whole lotta love with us did that. I couldn't sing 'feel it still' because I still have a bad throat from a recent cold, but there was a woman from a local group who does that song in her band so we dragged her up to sing it with us. Great night and hard to stop after the 3 encores.

Tapewounds would not go well with the nords I wouldn't think. I put tape wounds on my Maruszczyk that had a Nord P on it and it totally neutered it. They worked fine on a G&L - although I haven't played it much since then, so they probably won't last next time I play it. I would qualify this by saying I like an agressive growl on a bass, which is what the nords excel at. Obviously this is the opposite of you want if you use tapewounds. If you like the sound of tapewounds, maybe the nords is not what you want?

That looks great in that colour!

They look great, although the fact they are fender leads would put me off. I love the look of the newer fender leads (the black and white stitched ones) but I haven't and don't know anyone I have played with who hasn't had them fail when playing. Lucky they have a replace when fail policy, the guitarist is on their third. I am on my second but won't gig it any more.

I was impressed to just how good the Aria sounded.

All bar one of mine are 5 strings so I wouldn't know. Also all of my SRs have mahogany bodys and a certain amount of wenge in the neck. The 5005 is over 10lb, not sure how much. Yep, both the 1605 and 2605 are 8.2lb, the 5005 is 10.4lb (and for reference my chambered Maruszczyk is 8.8)

I didn't see a comment for this, but noticed it on facebook Not sure if you have to be on facebook to see it, but it interesting hearing the differences (and in some cases, lack of) between these basses

It does. The MIC squier classic vibe I got is excellent.

I doubt it - can't get the staff!

And here is the family (although the fretless left home!). 2 premiums, two prestiges.

The 5005 is heavier than most fender types I have tried, except one late 70s fender which was I assume actually contained a small neutron star. The 2600 is very light. Now I look at the 4500, I suspect that it is light. I was commenting on them yesterday, considering the similarity in construction and that the difference is just really the top panel, it is amazing the weight difference. the 1605 is so light that I had to change the machine heads for ultralites to stop the head heavy thing. The 5005 is dripping in wenge. The 2605 has that amazing neck with the 13 woods and they both have titanium rods. It pretty well never needs tuning. Speaking as a confirmed nordy lover, although those pickups are great, strangely when cutting through, the 5005 probably wins as whatever the situation, you can vary its sound. There actually isn't much difference between the front and back of the premiums, the back is obviously more trebbly, but basically the sound the same. The front and back pickups of the 5005 (and I assume the earlier ones) don't even sound like they are on the same bass (they are not even close to the same volume) Oh - one difference though, my 5005 has a glockenklang preamp in it. The original premium preamps are dire, and I assume this goes for the 4500 too, 3v things where the treble stops working (like if there is one control you need, its that one). The later ones got the same preamp as the premiums, because it is a good preamp. I wouldn't want the choice you have, but obviously it would come down to the price, as previously mentioned, the resale prices are not great on ibanezes for whatever reason. I lusted after the 2605 when it came out but didn't get it because it was very expensive, then in the sales last year it went down £400 so I got it then. If I sold it I would almost certainly have to go down another £400 or so. The premium if I sold it would probably be the same I bought it for, maybe more as it was cheap (less than the 2605). I guess that is the way with second hand things.