admiralchew

Good question. It sounds like the controls from the short scale basses. Last time round there were active and passive short scale options too.

I wondered when they’d do another run: https://www.music-man.com/instruments/families/basses/tim-commerford I have an active full scale from the first run and it’s a lovely bass. It’s very light and I love it being string-through. The other distinguishing features are string gauge, adjustable ramp and mutes, so not exactly show-stopping, but it’s as close as I’ve ever gotten to Timmy C’s sound (and I have tried!). There is again a passive option.

I've spent a good amount of time with the AB II this week. The neck profile is very thin front to back and the ovangkol is smooth without being tacky: it reminds me of the sanded and oiled backs to the Geddy Lee signature jazz basses in terms of feel. That and the low action make this an extremely enjoyable bass to play. It sounds excellent too: it's got a brand new set of Dingwall nickel strings which, when combined with the semi-hollow body and wenge fretboard, results in a mellow but zingy tone. The Glockenklang preamp is, thankfully, flexible enough to make that work. It's a little different but I'm enjoying it! The guys at Dingwall sorted through their inventory too and were able to find the broadly matching brown Dingwall strap, which was a nice bonus.

Haha, sadly not. Her brother's a really lovely guy though.

Good question! I’m not sure. The triplebuckers are very impressive though, at least in conjunction with the preamp. I’ve managed to get some nice jazz bass and StingRay-esque sounds from them.

Haha, thanks for the entirely accurate birthday wishes! To say I was surprised and delighted to receive a bass is to massively understate it. It was an incredible gesture. The fretboard, according to the spec sheet, is black flamed maple. Thank you for the congratulations and amazing bass there! I love the woods/colours. You’re right about Jens: it went to Guitar Summit with a note from him that he wouldn’t let people touch it, and when he put a video of the bass up he was wearing white gloves. The craftsmanship and design is extremely impressive. I can imagine his designs splitting opinion but like @tauzero I find the Roya in particular a beautiful shape. The black strings were a nice touch too.

Thanks very much! George is a really incredible player; I think he could sell me any bass with his playing.

Done.

It's not strictly a new bass day but I recently received two basses in quite quick succession and I think they're both very worthy of a new bass day post. I've chatted with a few people on here about them (most because they were wondering what was enough to part me from Cog pedals) and I said I would put this post up when I'd spent time with both basses. I've been lucky enough to play some of the basses I've dreamed about over the last few years but one that's been firmly etched on the list of dream basses and one which I never thought I would actually own is a Ritter Roya 5-string. Owing to some fortunate timing and very optimistic book-keeping I was recently able to welcome this beautiful bass, named by Jens Ritter as The Red Line. It has an alder body, poplar burl top, black flamed maple fingerboard and Ritter's parametric preamp and triplebucker pick-ups. The neck is maple, it's built to a 35-inch scale and it's been given an arresting paint job that gives the bass its name (more photos below). The preamp and pick-up combination is extremely flexible so it's hard to say precisely what the signature tone is (it reminds me of a Pope preamp in terms of flexibility) but I've been having a lot of fun seeing what sounds I can dial in. I've tried to write the details in a matter-of-fact way but the result is absolutely mesmerising. The bass was exhibited at Guitar Summit in Mannheim a couple of months ago and it's one of the most beautiful basses I've seen in person (although I expect I'm horribly biased here). I should say too that Jens Ritter was very patient in answering all of my questions too, particularly as I was mithering him just before Guitar Summit. Here are a few more photos of it: Knowing the Ritter was coming was incredibly exciting but I was just as excited a few weeks later when my lovely wife went above and beyond (and beyond again) and surprised me with the most amazing gift for one my my milestone birthdays: a Dingwall AB II that I had been enamoured with since I first saw it (and which may look familiar to some on here). It's an incredibly generous gift and, frankly, I'm going to have to try much harder for birthdays and have my work cut out at Christmas. It has a chambered walnut body, wenge fretboard and, unusually for a Dingwall, an ovangkol neck. It has three FDV pick-ups and a Glockenklang preamp. It was originally built for NAMM but was instead tweaked and sent to George Baldwin (Hilltide). Here he is using it far better than I could ever hope to: I love the rustic colouring and styling of the bass on the modern-ish body and it sounds magical: it's got a deep growl but is very articulate. It's a wonderful bass all round and it's a nice thought that this will forever be the birthday bass. A few more photos:

Massive congratulations on bringing that home! Enjoy it and never let it go!

I’ll message you later about another one!

Really lovely bass, congratulations! I've not played a Masterbuilt instrument but the Teambuilt ones are good so I suspect this must be amazing. It's a beauty too; I hope you get a lot of joy and use out of it.

The FTe Amianto is back in stock: https://www.ftelettronica.com/product/amianto-bass-distortion/

I'd recommend looking at the Shiftline Olympic MKIIIS for sale on here. I'd put them in a similar tonal bucket and with an effects loop, but with tubes, a headphone out and IRs. The 12V requirement is a bit tricky but it's a very good bit of kit. The price is excellent too.

I love everything about this. Really nice boards (and good photos too!).

I agree with that. My tastes and preferences are very different now but they were helpful starting points for me to help me understand what I do and don’t like. My boards bear no real similarity to theirs now.

Justin Chancellor and Ian Allison informed my early choices, so likely the other end of the scale. Justin Chancellor’s boards are famously massive but I wanted to know how he was getting some of his tones. I realised what I was really liking was a driven flanger into a delay. Seeing his board also made me think that it was okay for a bass player to have a big board without feeling guilty. The synth tones Ian Allison was getting from a fuzz, octave, envelope and chorus made me look up and take notice of him too.

Congratulations on the upcoming big birthday! If you’re keen to get one in your hands on or near your birthday it probably makes sense to have a chat with Bass Direct as a Dingwall dealer if you’re not already doing that. They currently have a build slot for an ABZ ready to be confirmed according to their order table https://www.bassdirect.co.uk/brand_page/dingwall/ so you may be able to shortcut the current three year wait time (as per an interview with Sheldon at Guitar Summit in which he notes they’re working to bring that down). Dingwall are also potentially offering a fast-track/semi-frills version in future. I’ve linked the interview at the bottom. Bass Freaks in Belgium are another dealer with good stock options and I’ve seen the odd used Dingwall bass at the Gallery and Bass Bros. I recently received a D-ROC Custom and found the team at Dingwall to be very helpful in terms of describing what wood combinations work well and why, and they’re not shy to give their opinion. There’s sometimes a delay in responding but overall I can’t really fault them. I already had an NG3 with a maple neck and opted for a wenge neck and wenge fretboard on the D-ROC. I absolutely love the feel of it and the resulting tone. I’ve got a used model with an ovangkol neck on the way and I’ve seen the roasted ash get some love over on Talkbass recently. I’d like to think it’s hard to go wrong. Congratulations again and please keep us updated with the route you go!

Hello! I’m back from my honeymoon. I’ll happily do this. I’ll message you.