Marty Forrer

The MTD Kingston arrived and after cleaning the previous owner's DNA off it, I did a light fret level, dress and polish, oiled the beautiful rosewood board, new strings and a setup to Mike Tobias's specs, and installed a pair of Dunlop straplocks. Plays like butter, I'm digging the assymetrical neck profile and the 19mm spacing. Despite the position of the bridge saddles, the intonation is perfect! It weighs 3.8kg (8.4lbs).

I have recently purchased an RM500 C210 Evo II combo. Used it for its first gig the other night, sitting on an Ashdown 115 ext cab. Holy moly! Seemed fairly quiet on stage but when I walked out front with my wireless, it was loo loud for the balance. I ended up with the gain on 10 o'çlock and the master a tad over 9 oçlock. Don't think I'll be needing the ext cab very often! Used the sub harmonic on one song and the drive on one song, and they sounded pretty good. Happy camper here.

My upgraded Metro Express was a nice enough bass (VTC preamp, Hipshots, Di Marzio pickups etc) but I was really missing that B string... so off it went to a new owner and I have an MTD Kingston Z-5 incoming. Lightweight, 35" scale, asymmetrical neck, 3 band eq ticks all my boxes. Maple burl top, rosewood board, looking forward to it.

Hahahaha!!! More than once, I'm afraid. I'm as old as dirt.

I just pulled the trigger on a Rootmaster 500w 2x10 combo, as an upgrade from the 300w Studio 15. Hoping for a bit more clean headroom. I have a 1x15 cab to go under it if I need to, but I'm hoping to run it as a stand alone. I guess I'm a convert to Ashdown, I dig the punch and flexibility.

I was playing in a 6 piece swing band with a residency (on bass guitar) in 1990 and the band leader told me I had to get a double bass. I did, but then he said I have to play it live the next weekend! I did, and I was terrible, but I got better over a few weeks. About a year later I went and started lessons, but the damage was done. My improper technique had deformed my lefty pinky finger and it gives me grief 32 years later.

I believe Laura Lee's SX has DiMarzio pickups. She is a fine player and always has a great tone, and has been using that SX for a long time.

Rick's son is preparing schematics for the entire line and will release them, so any competent tech will be able to repair them. He posted this up on TalkBass.

These can be fettled into being a very good instrument.

I have just put Model Js in my Sadowsky Metro Express Jazz. They are great! Much more heft, girth, phat, or whatever is the current jargon. Hum-cancelling too. The neck pickup soloed gets close to a P if required. Thoroughly recommended.

I just swapped my pickups out for a pair of DiMarzio Model J pickups. Woah! Much more bottom end, and much more controllable high end. Combined with the VTC preamp, I have now arrived at my "one bass fits all situations". Using just the neck pickup and a Nordy Mute I can get close enough to my P bass with flats. If one is capable of a little fettling, the old ones are a great buy. With selling my pickups and preamp I have still not gone over the price of a new one, and I have, for me, the perfect bass. I saw an interview with Roger Sadowsky and he said he used DiMarzio pickups in his early days.

The perfect rig.

I have an Acoustic Image Clarus head. Very clean, in fact too clean for slab (for my taste) so I only use it for upright. I have had Genzler Magellan 350 and 800 and they are very clean too.

Further to my last post, I just did a fresh setup on it for my gig tonight. I got the E string down to 1/16" at the 12th fret and the G to 3/64". No fret buzz and I can dig in a bit if I want to. In the past I have owned high end Yamahas, Fenders, a Pedulla and a Wal, and I have never been able to get an action that low while still being able to dig in. It might be Chinese, but I am totally impressed. It's definitely a keeper. As a point of interest, the Wal was a beautiful bass, but too heavy and I struggled with getting a sound I liked, so swapped it for a vintage Jazz.

Mine is 2020 so I presume that's first generation. I bought it in absolutely mint condition for half what they sell for new. I have put Hipshot USA Ultralite tuners on. made my own pickguard from black pearl pickguard sheet, rolled the finger board edge and rounded off the fret ends, tapered the frets down from the 16th fret (last fret is 20thousandths lower), levelled the frets, set up with very low action, sanded out the RSD logo and put a Sadowsky logo on and now added the VTC preamp. Total cost is much the same as a new one, and I'll wager it's a much better bass.

Yep, drops right in. They even give you new screws.

I've just bought a VTC preamp and I gotta say that it seems to be overall a better quality product than the MetroExpress preamp, from the German MEC pots to the better quality knobs. The original pre has an imbalance in volume between active and passive, the VTC pre does not.

I now have a VTC preamp winging its way to me from Bass Direct in Aussie. Looking forward to the first gig with it.

How do you like it? Is it worth the effort ($$$)?

GenzBenz Streamliner 600 into homemade 2x12 with GK neo drivers.

Or this?

I've got an AI Clarus Series 4 head and it's pretty darn good. One that I'll never sell.

Anyone have experience with the Ashdown AAA- 112T extension cab? Supposedly 300 watts and 8 ohms.

I'm with the Downunderwonder. Most of my gigs require me to use my own PA. At 75, I've given up on carting subs, and I'd rather keep the bass out of my FOH, although I'll sometimes put a little bit of bass in there, just to balance out the mix. My drummer uses in-ears, but the rest of the band have no interest, me included.