Al Krow

Absolutely. You just gotta persuade the last couple of stragglers to fall by the way side. Bet he's probably not been social distancing either, eh? eh? 😂

That's a quality fail! And another £5er in the kitty!

Loved it! Do you have your six string bass tuned in trad. B, E, A, D, G, C?

Yup - I was agreeing with you on this, although clearly not expressing it very well! Based on what you've said the 40P5 plus 40TWX seem to be a really good combination - i.e. you've said that with the TWX you can switch settings between the double coil humbucker to the single coil J or without too much loss in volume, which is much more of an issue with the TW pups. I'm very tempted to replace my two 40TWs with this combination at some point.

Yeah, agree that there is a fair old volume drop on the TW going from double to single coil, so if the TWX has largely dealt with that, then definitely worth putting those on my radar to swap out the TWs at some point. Thinking this through, I'm not sure you would ever use a coil tap with a P configured pup so if I'm looking for a P/J config then a good combo would be neck 40P5 plus 40TWX for the bridge pup? So a push/pull pot for the single / double coil bridge pup; bass and treble pots plus simple volume pot for the P. Or better still keep the push / pull pot for the P and use this as a active / passive switch. Now all I need is to find a clever techy who can sort this out for me!

You get a more crisp J with the single coil. I find it works really well when blended with the other pup in full humbucker mode. Definitely not a weedy sound with that combination! Besides if you need things beefed up you can always get a further boost by dialling up the TonePump - but most folk on this thread seem to find 50% Tone Pump plenty. With the EMG DC you don't get the choice, so it's good you prefer it on its one default setting. Horses for courses eh?

Sounds to me that you've got a first class rig! But if you're finding your sound too polite and want more clarity and zing, I'd recommend putting a Tech 21 VT Bass DI in front. The tone shaping plus "Bite" selector can give you exactly the clarity and zing you're after - a bit like lifting a blanket off your rig! But it can do a lot more besides. The "Bite" is very much a key ingredient of the VTBassDI. It provides a ‘presence’ boost by boosting the upper mids and treble so that the tone becomes more pronounced and 'present' especially in a mix. The pedal also has a subsonic filter (i.e. hpf) to tighten up the sound. It's a great little preamp and very much an all time favourite of Tech 21 pedal users from the feedback I've read and with good reason.

Slightly depressing news... Seems like that the possibility of getting a Euro LX 5er with P/J configured EMG 40TW soap bars is off the menu: According to chap I've been speaking to at Andertons today, they are only offering that option with the 6 string version now and not the 5. They've redone the whole line for 2020 and they now come with EMG 40DC which does not offer the same flexibility as the 40TWs. They are apparently not even offering the Aguilar pups anymore on the 5's! It is only EMG or Barts at the moment as they have just done a deal with Bartolini. Anyone else heard / confirm this? If that's correct my double J/humbucker configured EMG 40TW 5er has just got itself further embedded in my herd! I guess the solution is to get hold of a decent used Spector EuroLX and sub in a EMG 40P5 https://www.emg-pickupsonline.co.uk/emg-40p5/ for the neck pup.

I've had the 425 and 1025. Both excellent basses for the money. Is the 1025 "twice as good" as the 425? Nope. In fact it would be hard to find a bass that is. But is the 1025 worth the extra for me? Absolutely!

Yup simply cutting bass frequencies can get rid of boom. But the MXR is a notch filter for all but the top frequency with a shelf filter at 16k, so apart from the 16k slider you're getting a peak cut at the centre frequency which diminishes either side. A dedicated hpf will be cutting all frequencies below its cut off threshold by an increasing amount typically at -12dB/octave or -24dB/octave; it's having a quite different effect on your signal waveform. So it's simply incorrect to say that it "does the same". As a 5 string player, I absolutely don't want a steep cut at both 31.25Hz & 62.5 Hz - that's the fundamental and first harmonic of my B string but I do want to get rid of low end crud. The Thumpinator starts cutting at -24dB/octave at 28 Hz and does what I want perfectly, the MXR won't be able to replicate, a steep cut at 31.25Hz and 62.5Hz will just leave my low notes sounding bare.

Nope. An EQ pedal doesn't work in the same way as an hpf. The MXR won't cut as effectively in the sub sonic (20Hz and less) space as the Thumpinator, so you won't remove low end "crud" as effectively. The MXR does, however, give you a lot more tone shaping options than the Thumpinator, no question.

Am I correct in thinking that you'll find the TonePump in the Euro versions and the TonePump Jr in the Legend models? Is the Junior just a lower output version?

Let us know which way around works best - be interesting to hear!

What's the concern with the low end of the freaker wah (I've not had the pleasure of using one!) - is it generating a bunch of additional low end signal? Probably worth trying the Thumpinator in both positions then and seeing which delivers the best result.

Also worth putting it at very the start of the chain: it'll take out all the low end crud so the rest of your pedals are acting just on a cleaned up signal. PS btw putting at the start is Max's recommendation too - he's the guy who makes the Thumpinators.

Get a battery tester for under a £fiver. Job done

Anaemic pups - why ruin a potentially really good bass by foisting such flacidity on us? And they're not the only maker to do this: folk will no doubt be bored with my and others' gripe with Sandberg and Delanos, particularly when I understand the Black Label pups they use elsewhere really hit the mark. In the case of Cort, my guess is they daren't take their basses to the obvious next level otherwise they will be putting their tanks squarely on the lawn of the likes of Ibanez whom they have lucrative outsourcing contracts from. Shame.

Nah just post it on here 😉. This after all IS your new Sad bass thread! The rest of us have just been jumping on for the ride and, in my case, only just managed to escape unscathed. You do need to change the title thread to "I had..." 😄

Hey that's a huge thumbs up for the TonePump! Is yours the same as the one I posted in the pic? Mine was in a "new old stock" bass with an est. late 2016 build, based on the serial no. I'm guessing you've been through a fair few basses over the course of 15+ years - be interested to hear from you a bit more about what makes you rate the TonePump so highly compared to the rest?

You're quite right that prices are typically set by supply and demand. But that surely equally applies to a £5k NS2? i.e. Spector are only making as many as they can sell for the asking price - so clearly there is sufficient demand out there and folk consider it to have sufficient value to fork out. Something is only "worth" what people are willing to pay for it. And that's a complicated mixture of a lot of things. Gold has no true intrinsic value. I think we've established that you don't think the additional cache of USA made and certain higher end woods / components justifies the extra for an NS2. A lot of folk feel exactly the same about a Czech made Skoda vs a German made Volkswagon. But a lot of folk disagree about that too! Both cars will get you from A to B in comfort and safety (although tbf one has a rep for cheating diesel emissions). In your shoes I would simply enjoy a wonderful Euro LX (it's hardly a budget bass is it?) and not fret about the fact that other folk are happy to spend extra and put additional value on having an NS2; at the end of the day that's their call and if it brings them joy so be it.

Sadly adjusting the TonePump down to 50% didn't get rid of the noise I was getting from having my Smooth-hound transmitter plugged into the Spector jack - seemed to be an interference / earthing issue, as the S/H noise disappeared when I clasped the transmitter in my hand. Any easy fix for this?

Finally got around to adjusting the TonePump in my EuroLX5 - have set it to 50%. The TonePump setting seems to particularly impact the bass EQ output and overall volume - I'll need to read back through the earlier posts to see if that chimes with what other folk have been saying; but my bass EQ knob is much more fully usable with the TonePump at 50% rather than being limited to 1/10 (!!) when the TonePump was maxed. With the TonePump set at NIL, the overall volume was very low and as the bass EQ knob was dialled up, there was virtually no increase in the bass freq. volume just an increasing cut of the mids. Here's what the TonePump looks like in case you're interested, as I don't think anyone else has posted a pic yet:

There have been some excellent responses on this thread which I think have dealt with the question, and the debate is indeed as @julfam said: You gotta remember though, a fundamental point about what something is "worth" is not what it can do or deliver but what price a willing buyer and willing seller agree on. You could spend £2M on a "used" classic car or alternatively £30,000 to get an excellent new car. Is the classic car "worth" £1,970,000 more? Well clearly to many folk in that market, it is! Is a premier league footballer "worth" 10,000 times more than an ITU nurse?