lemmywinks

11 minutes ago, frannie01 said:

Hi Thank you all for your suggestions. Just to clarify I’d love the option of having a pbass and stingray at my disposal in one bass but this isn’t the bass for all the reasons you’ve all so kindly mentioned. Not even sure the Sandberg California which this bass is modelled could do that either ?) my issues have been the imbalance in out out between the 2 sets of pups 

I’ll look at the Warmans and Wilkinson’s then thank you all for your input 🙏🏽👍🏽

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.

1 minute ago, Terry M. said:

This is true. If I was a 4 string Fender kind of guy I'd go and give it a test run. I don't live too far from this shop. The owner has a decent bass inventory and invites offers. I hope he gains more traction in the marketplace going forward. 

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

2 hours ago, Terry M. said:

https://fenderfever.com/products/2375?_pos=49&_fid=ab9285fa2&_ss=c

 

Case in point. Albeit a Jazz. 

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

1 hour ago, okusman said:

Headed to Guitar Guitar Birmingham today. First thing to say is they had a really good stock/selection and I was totally looked after/put up with. It’s the same chap each time I go in, and he’s a gent.

A/B’d Squier CV/New Standard/New Player II and US Pro Precision basses.

 

The Indonesian made Standard bore the spaghetti Fender logo, and played fine but….they were NOT ‘better’ than the Squier. The neck was anaemic and the ceramic p/us were rather lacking in character. I played a 3TSB and the Poplar was rather ugly under the laquer. 
At £549, it’s the logo you crave at a price you can afford, but the Squier (possibly made in the same factory) was a much nicer looking and playing instrument. Same Poplar/Laurel combo and more pleasing Alnico p/u. £369.

The New Mexican made Player Ii at £749 was an improvement on the previous iteration. They had a glorious Alder-bodied Aquatone blue example I played and it was a much more appealing neck with rolled edges to the fretboard. It just played and felt £200 better!  Model I played had a maple board, so not an exact. A/B…but the quality jump was obvious.

The USA pro was £1000 more. 
It had the best wood under the laquer, fretwork was 10/10 and the neck just sat right. The tuners, the bridge, the neck joint…it’s a better quality of parts.

It’s sound was impressively round and full…yes there is a difference from the Squier CV 😘.

There were Ultras and US Performer PJ version available, but I stuck with the single pickup instruments for sake of reference.

 

My conclusions..

The Standard is a marketing ploy…I wasn’t disappointed, just felt it was a triumph of brand over substance.

The Squier CV remains a very gig-worthy bass

The Player II was impressive; it felt and looked like it was worth playing and equally paying £749.

The Pro is what it should be.

 

Anyway, my two pennies worth.

 

PS I don’t, or ever have owned, a Precision bass. I want to add one to my arsenal. Today made realise I really should dip my hand in my (bass) pocket.

 

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

1 hour ago, kwmlondon said:

I just wonder if Sire have a manufacturing system better suited to smaller runs - they're getting more and more niche with their instruments they must have a setup where they don't need to sell such huge numbers but can still turn a profit. I'm not an expert, but it'd be interesting to see how the whole supply chain works for the different companies.

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.

38 minutes ago, Terry M. said:

The latest versions of active Squier Affinitys are REALLY good though. I briefly had a 5 string black Jazz V.

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

37 minutes ago, NJE said:

I have been looking at Gator gig bags and couldn’t work out what the difference was between the Transit and the Pro Go X as gear4music have both at different prices. 
 

Thank you for clarifying.

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.

21 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

 

EB just stands for 'Electric Bass' the number designates the body shape/pickups.

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/

1 hour ago, Terry M. said:

Ah ok fair enough. I wasn't aware of that 👍

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.

22 minutes ago, Terry M. said:

PMT currently have a used Gibson EB5 on their website that originally was priced at £1,800.00!! It's been ignored for so long they recently reduced it to £1,399.00!! It's still sitting there. They may be in for a rude awakening when the time comes.  As per your post they weren't crazy popular when new.

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.

2 minutes ago, Cato said:

Gibson went through a period of innovation fairly recently that included the infamous robo tuners and the Firebird X 'smart guitar'.

 

It wasn't exactly a roaring success for them.

 

I suspect it will be a long time before they stray from the tried and tested path again.

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.

Great price that.

5 minutes ago, neepheid said:

Also, and sorry for the tangent, but I'm waiting for an £82 bass to arrive and I have set myself a "giggable bass for £150" challenge.

That's not a challenge, do sub £50!

7 minutes ago, Crusoe said:

Is a Rolex going to be better at telling the time than the £70 smart watch I wear? My watch might actually be better at it, as it synchronises with GPS satellites etc. A £250 bass that has been properly set up will play better than a ten grand one with a badly cut nut and strings set so high you could drive a bus under them (yes I know that instruments that expensive shouldn't be badly set u, but it happens).

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.

2 minutes ago, alanbass1 said:

Reminds me of my old bass which, unfortunately, was delivered with incorrect fretting for the requested 35” scale length and wouldn’t intonate correctly. Got it fixed eventually but as I was in the US at the time cost me in the shipping stakes. Wasn’t happy with the experience so sold it on cheaply and never gave the bass a chance 

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.