lemmywinks

The bass you're after would look like this:

As already mentioned it won't sound anything like a MM pickup due to being pushed right back against the bridge. If you just want to beef it up a little then the cheap option would be a higher output overwound pickup (Warman do a cheap one) or if you want to spend more money then swap the preamp out one which has adjustable gain for each pickup like an East or something.

I did wonder if that was a real store tbh, the owner has done a great job of making it look almost exactly like one of those scam pop-up web stores that steal your credit card details! Good to know it's legit

Great price that, pretty much what you'd excpect to pay in a private sale.

To throw a spanner in the works - the new price of the Player II is in used MiJ territory.

I don't know if anybody has ever found any information about the mysterious Sire factory, they claim it's their own facility in Indonesia (and now also China) with their parent brand Dame being produced in Korea and that they don't use OEMs. I would imagine they do shift decent numbers, I regularly see them on the gigging circuit here and have a few mates who own them. They'll have probably done a small run of the new Godin clones and even less singlecuts but gone big on the Z series, the singlecuts are targeting the boutique on a budget market really and I imagine they'll be able to be heavily discounted and still not make a loss. Hopefully the Godins were a huge flop and I can pick up a GB5-FL when they're at clearance prices! EDIT: Looking at Andertons they may just be doing batches of the F series based on preorders.

The recent Charvel basses were just Mexican Fenders with loud colours and atrocious premps weren't they? Jackson also seemed to have turned their Concert line into pointy headstock Fender clones and the Spectra line is just a wonky Soundgear copy. Shame as the old Concert shape was a neat diversion from the usual Jackson aesthetic:

Having control over the keys player's eq in the mix. Best bit is he doesn't even know or care.

There's still nothing there to compete with a Sire V7, Cort Fusion or the old Sadowsky Metro Express line, the £400-£600 price point is where it's at for a lot of people and all Fender/Squier have is passive instruments.

There's still gaps in the Fender/Squier range though such as the lack of a proper active Jazz in between the Squier Affinity and MiM Player Plus ranges. Think the Contemporary J bazz (not with humbuckers) is discontinued. It's like they just saw Sire gobble up that part of the market and thought "yeah that's fine, we'll just make weird stuff nobody wants"

You can buy heavy duty bridges on AliExpress for a reasonable price: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004594501983.html https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002623534069.html

Think it's just the material that's different, the Pro Go X is made of the same stuff as the Pro Go Deluxe. I got mine when they were discounted to £50 a few years back, wouldn't pay more than £80 tbh as the TFG Extreme is cheaper and of similar quality. If your budget is around £100 then look at the TFG Ultimate as well, that's a great gigbag and nicer than the Pro Go X.

Just get a new bridge, you'll be able to find a replacement on AliExpress. What's string spacing does yours have?

They've also used EB4 for the SG shaped EB4L. Such a stupid way to name your product line, almost like they don't care about basses at all.

Yeah but that's a stupid idea to begin with and not really true as with the last two versions the number refers to the amount of strings, for example an EB5 could be either of these: https://bassbros.co.uk/product/2013-gibson-eb-5-string/ https://www.waltons.ie/product/gibson-eb-5-bass-natural-satin-5-string/

Blame Gibson, not yourself! I was also wrong btw, the EB model name had already been used for four different shapes, not three. I forgot the violin shape, silly Gibson me.

The one they have is the previous style with the scratchplate, regular headstock and a less attractive (IMO) body shape, probably more appealing to Gibson bass fans due to being more traditional. The ones sold off cheap were more like a Gibson Victory without the scratchplate, only Gibson know why they chose to call them an EB when that's already been used for three different Gibson bass shapes.

I can remember them bringing out the new EB series of basses as well which actually looked alright, then GAK had to sell them off at £400 after they'd already been reduced significantly by Andertons to clear stock. There's no point in them coming up with new designs because that's already catered for elsewhere, people buy Gibsons for Gibson-y type stuff. Shudder to think how much money they wasted buying (and subsequently ruining) Tobias.

That's not a challenge, do sub £50!

A cheap digital Casio watch from Argos will be better at telling the time than any Rolex as will a half decent quartz watch. That's why watches with movements were rebranded as fashion/status accessories after quartz became a thing.

It's the same bass, I think those are actually your pictures. There's still some construction photos on the old Zoot site showing the original fretboard if you ever want to relive a nightmare! I used it as my main bass for years, eventually had to move on to 5 strings for gigging so couldn't play it live any more. The Aguilar preamp stopped working a while ago so I put an Artec in it to keep it going, the overall construction is superb but the wiring was a bit haphazard. IIRC it had centre dented pots for the volume knobs which were split shaft with a bit of wood wedged in them to make them compatible with set screw knobs. Keep meaning to test the preamp on its own to see if it's actually dead or not.

Some more suggestions here:

Still play mine from time to time but no longer gig a 4 string, was my main bass for many years. Original owner's photo as I still have a junk camera:

Gator Pro Transit (or the old Pro Go X which is the same bag) is also long enough and a bit cheaper: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Gator-GT-BASS-GRY-Transit-Padded-Electric/dp/B01MYREW8U https://www.thomann.co.uk/gator_transit_series_bass_bag_gr.htm The Pro Go Deluxe is a great gigbag though and would be my choice.