Obrienp

So far, I’ve not messed with my Nordstrand Acinonyx; Guild NS Starfire 1 (although the writing is on the wall for the tone circuit); Sire U5 Fretless Short Scale. Are any of them magic? Well not really but they are good enough to be left alone, despite my local luthier saying the pickups on the Acinonyx are really badly made; I respect his opinion because I have one of his custom basses with his own pickups and they are brilliant. The Acinonyx pickups sound good but the thread for the adjustment screws is cut into the metal baseplate, which is made of cheese (according to said luthier). He has had to repair several after little use and it’s difficult to do without completely rebuilding them: so much for US manufacturing (the pickups not the guitar which is built in China). Also the wheel truss rod adjustment at the neck heel was completely maxed out on mine. Turns out the retaining screw can be loosened to allow more adjustment but you have to remove the scratchplate complete with electronics to do this. Close to magic IMO, is my Maruszczyk Elwood Active medium scale but I did replace the stock bridge. I bought it used, so if I had done the specification, I wouldn’t have chosen the stock bridge. Apart from that, the standard pickups are really good, ditto the active circuit (although I use it in passive mode most of the time). If I had the cash, I would probably spec up a medium scale Jake

Is the original pickup set that bad? I think I would be a bit miffed paying that sort of money for a bass and then having to change the pickups. However, I know taste in tone is highly individual. P.S. Just heard that my mate, who recently acquired a used Lionel, is having the pickups rewound by a local luthier. Is this is a Sandberg/Lionel weakness, or just coincidence?

On TalkBass a few people were posting about using a Nordstrand Acinonyx BEAD and that it works. If that is really true, I would have thought any full scale 4 string would be fine, as it is going to benefit from greater string tension than the 30.75” Acinonyx.

Yes, it works. I’ve tried it but the Two10 sounded like it was struggling with its share of the work load, so you are right: louder but not necessarily better. What I was more concerned with was an amp to get the best out of the Monza on its own but consensus seems to be to stick with what I have got. The need to run at 2.7 was only if I was going to get another amp and was to keep my options open. Looks like I’ll just stick with what I have for the while. I’d love to have a Messa Subway Plus but that’s champagne tastes for lemonade money as far as I am concerned! 😀

Agree with everything said about the Gnome’s EQ. What I find odd is the fan noise bit. Yes, the fan comes on very quickly but it doesn’t seem intrusive to me. That said, I’m sure they vary example to example. I’ve also got the 280 watt iPro version now. Returning to the EQ, the Gnome sounds pretty horrible into my FRFR LFSys Monza with the controls all at 12 o’clock. Conversely it sounds pretty good into my BF Two10. The two seem to compensate for each other’s built in character. Having seen the analysis work that @Phil Starr has done, I can set the Gnome to sound good through the Monza but it’s easier just to use my MB LM III, or Blackstar U700, which have better baked in tone (to my ears) to pair with an FRFR cab.

I have a 32” scale P Bass bitsa that I put together, which has a full size P body, so effectively what you are looking at doing. I think you will be very lucky not to have to move the bridge forward. The neck pictured has 20 frets, mine has 22 and I still needed to bring the bridge forward from where it would be on a 34” scale bass. The scale from nut to bridge saddle has got to be 32” (or very close) for the G string to intonate properly. I guess you might just get away without moving the bridge, if yours has masses of forward movement in the saddles. After that you will find the pickups are no longer in the sweet spot. Mine sounded very bright, so much so that I eventually put a second precision pickup set in closer to the neck. I like weird and whacky, so I’m not too bothered but it might not float your boat. You could move your pickups further towards the neck into the sweet spot (not sure how you calculate where that is for a 32”). That would mean routing the body probably and you would need a custom cut pickguard to accommodate the new position (or have a messy guard). Anyway see the pic. Bridge further forward than it would be for a 34” scale ditto (bridge) pickup in original position. The bridge is a Fender high mass, which sticks out at the back more than a standard BBOT, so doesn’t look quite so out of place as it might. Nevertheless, I have fitted a vintage style cover to conceal it a bit (that’s what the two screws are for). BTW my controls: first is a stacked volume/tone, second is a balance control for the pickups.

In my experience it will neck dive badly but other folks experience may be different. NB, I’ve only had the SS and 32” variants but I would have thought a full scale may be even more inclined to be neck heavy.

@fretmeister Thanks for the explanation. I won’t be confused in future. A friend just got a Lionel off BC and he is very pleased with it. I have a custom PJ shorty, which means I’m not in the market for a P (or should I say V) SS but if I was, this would definitely be on my list.

Lovely looking basses @Merton. I can’t manage a 5er any longer and these would be way out of my price range anyway but some lucky people will be very happy! GLWTS.

Thanks folks. I think you have saved me from a lot of unnecessary expenditure. A bit of research was suggesting one of the Mesa 800 heads would tick all the boxes but they start at well passed £1K!

Thanks for the details. It does sound worth investigating.

Quite a few questions bound up in this. The Monza is rated at 600 watts at 8 ohms. I have two gigging amp heads that I am very happy with:: a Blackstar U700 and a MB LMIII 500 but they are only capable of delivering 250 and 300 watts respectively at 8 ohms. While their max is as much as I am probably ever going to need, it does mean that they would be running at their ragged edge at this volume, which I don’t think is going to give the full clean sound I would like. My instinct is that I need more headroom in the amp, so that it can deliver 300-400 watts without being stretched, thus producing a full clean sound. Does this make sense, or am I just falling for an urban myth? I don’t want to be spending money on a new amp unnecessarily, especially as I like what the U700 and LMIII can deliver. If I was to consider an alternative it would need to be able to operate at 8 ohms for the Monza, 4 ohms for my BF Two10 and 2.67 to run both simultaneously. That seems to narrow my choice down to some pretty expensive hardware. If I was going to spend that sort of cash, I would want the amp to have some of the extra features that the U700 has like built in compression, variable overdrive and amp voicings, preferably controllable via footswitch. What do you folks think. Do I need a more powerful amp, or would I just be spending money for not much gain? If I do need to go down the more powerful amp route, what should I be looking at?

Well that’s a good way to confuse punters! Still doesn’t explain how it differs from a Lionel. It’s a lovely looking bass though and I’m sure it’s great to play.

I’m confused. Why is it called V when it’s a four and how does it differ from a Lionel?

I like the convenience of being able to roll off the top end easily and quickly from the guitar, without having to mess around with the EQ on my amp. There are only a few songs in our set that require the “British invasion” tone, so I’ve got to be able to switch quickly. I also find it is quite difficult to get that kind of top/mid cut at the amp. It somehow doesn’t sound the same.