LeftyJ

Ended up ordering a Souldier strap in purple, with the plain option (without decorative garments over their standard seatbelt material). They offer choice of 23 different seatbelt colours and 21 different colours for the leather end tabs (or 15 shades of vinyl if you want it to be vegan). I went with purple leather end tabs. I'm really happy with it, it matches the colour of my guitar pretty well and I think it looks great!

Every time I see this thread when opening Accessories and Misc I think of extra long body bags

1983 Ibanez MC924. Not because it is from my year of birth, but because I've always been attracted to the Musician Series and just happened to settle on a 1983 model. I had been looking for a lefty for years, and when I finally found one (1981) a second one popped up just two months later. So naturally I did the sensible thing and bought both! (and it got worse, I had three at one point) I turned out to like the 1983 better than the 1981, as they're very different beasts: The Musician series was updated several times between 1978 and 1987. The 1983 model has different contouring, a slimmer neck and narrower nut width, a different pickup and electronics package (PJ pickups in soapbar casings) and it's MUCH lighter in weight because of the contoured light ash body wings rather than solid mahogany with ash facings. I much prefer the tone of the 1983 too. I sold one 1981 model and traded the other for a cool shortscale a few years ago, but the 1983 won't be going anywhere anytime soon. The YOB thing does add to the sentimental value, but most of all it's just a terrific bass! The one on the right is now gone, the one on the left is still here:

The Stingray neck-through was shortlived, it disappeared when the Stingray Specials were introduced: StingRay 5 Through Neck | Basses | Ernie Ball Music Man (music-man.com)

Some cool options there that weren't previously available to lefties, like the slimmer and narrower SLO Special neck profile on 4-strings, and twin pickups (previously only available through the Vault in very limited quantities), and the SR5 was unavailable to lefties ever since the regular Stingray was replaced by the Stingray Special. So I'm glad we get those back. But the prices are wild! As much as I love Music Man's quality and attention to detail, I'm not willing or able to pay that much for one. I had a Stingray 5 that I really liked (but that tone just isn't for me) and I own a rather lovely Silhouette Special guitar (and owned another one previously) that I absolutely adore but would never pay $3000 for.

The bass in your example is a Stingray Shortscale though

Good call, I wasn't aware of that but 42mm might indeed be hefty for an 8 year old!

An older, used Squier Vista Musicmaster would be a perfect match. They don't come up often though, and they're going up in price. They were made in China, whereas the rest of the Vista Series were made in Japan, but they're great.

Are they though? When the first generation came out, they were priced around €800-900. It's only now that Thomann are dumping them that other retailers follow suit and the prices have come down so much.

Compared to a Fender P's pickup positioning, are the coils just reversed but in the same general position or is the treble coil in the Fender position and did they move the bass coil closer to the bridge? I do like a reverse P + J, combined they give such a classic rock and metal tone! Back in the 80s and early 90s when many rock bassists were playing Spector, Kramer, Charvel and other PJ's (or a Fender Jazz Special for that matter, like Duff) the bass tones were so fat! I love that Spector tone on Operation:Mindcrime by Queensryche for example, if only the mix wasn't so bright and thin.

"What's up" by the 4 Non-Blondes I was in a covers band for 2 years and we rehearsed weekly. Every rehearsal would start with that song, and every week the guitarist would mess up the intro lead. Now every time I hear that song I hear him playing along in my head.

I had a 2000 US Tele with a full maple neck that had this too. The neck finish had cracks and in places the finish had delaminated from the skunk stripe and the fingerboard dots, which are lacquered over on the maple necks. It would gradually spread from there. Luckily I bought it used at a VERY good price (€500) so I couldn't really complain. Played it a LOT for about a year, then sold it on because it made me hanker back to my old G&L ASAT Special.

Funny, I was just looking at that the other day because I wondered if they made lefty versions of their new Julietta guitar model. Odd why they would call it medium scale at 30.5"!

Far from complete, lacks a G&L! Lovely set though!

Some interesting stuff there! Like this Manson Matt Bellamy-inspired guitar, including a built-in MIDI pad! https://mdcustomshop.com/kr/product/view.php?id=405&cate=4

I googled the brand name and came across this thread: Music Drive Guitars | Axe Central It has some interesting info and even a catalog shot (from the guitars section, unfortunately not the basses).

I don't think this is true. Lots of people have taken up new hobbies during the various lockdowns we've had during the COVID pandemic. Picking up a musical instrument surely was one of them

Might as well post this here too Got this lovely Sandberg Lionel shorty used two weeks ago and I love it! It's surprisingly heavy, but still comfortable and it plays and sounds great! It was built in 2023, so it's still practically new. The previous owner thought it sounded a bit too modern to their taste, even with a Fender custom shop reissue pickup in it. It now has its stock pickup again. It's just a ton of fun to play, and sounds really ballsy! Excellent pics courtesy of the previous owner, who did a great job capturing it!

I kinda wish I still had one of my Yamaha TRB5II's. I don't know for sure if it would get much use, but I think the 35" scale would lend itself well for tuning down to A, as required for my doom band. My first TRB5II was also the first "proper" bass that I ever bought, and one of the few I've ever bought new.

On my Atelier Z Baby Z-4J I used DR Sunbeams 045-105 and like them a lot. They're not overly bright, but still have a nice ring to them. I replaced them with GHS Boomers last week because I couldn't find a new set, but can't really comment in those yet as I've mostly been playing my recently acquired Sandberg Lionel and the GHS strings still very much have their new string brightness and clang.

I wonder if Clover is still around? Their website is still up, but I never see any new ones pop up. Their Apeiron series appeared at about the same time as the first Sandberg California series. I was always intrigued by the first version of their Avenger series, with 3 single coils (2 at the bridge) and a very versatile switching system. I'm not a huge fan of their 20" fingerboard radius on everything, I like a bit of a curve. But otherwise they always looked good to me, and were at a similar price point as Sandberg.

I'm 6.43 feet long (according to Google - I typed in 1,96 m) and "hefty" sums me up pretty accurately. My main bass is a longscale headless, which is actually shorter than my shorties (with 4-in-line headstocks). I have no pics of me wielding either of those, but I don't think it's too bad. I know guitarists my size that get away with 25.5" scale instruments just fine too, and those are tiny by comparison!

My two cents, based on the 4 shortscales I've owned and 1 that I've borrowed for a few weeks recently. Mind you, I don't play shortscales exclusively. I use a longscale in my band and only play my shorties at home for fun. 1: My muscle memory took some time time to adjust. The distance between the frets is not that much shorter, but big jumps still require looking at my fingers to make sure I land at the right one. I'm totally fine with that. There was one exception: I had a shortscale semi-hollowbody for a while that had a separate bridge and tailpiece that were very far apart (so much so that it took regular longscale strings), and the nut was pretty far away due to the large body. That one required my full attention to play! 2: Depends on the bass. The semi-hollowbody had a large maple center block and was very heavy, so it balanced well. My Sandberg Lionel balances very well too, due to the heavy ash body and the upper horn that reaches to the 11th fret. The Lionels with solid and aged finishes have much lighter alder bodies, but still balance well because of the strap button positions (but those are a few hundred pounds more expensive than the sandblasted ash finishes). My Harley Benton PB Shorty had a 3/4 sized body and did not balance well, and my Atelier Z Baby Z-4J is Mustang-shaped and has a slight neckdive but not too bad. The body is of very light ash and the neck is narrow but chunky so has some weight to it.

I'm inclined to agree with this Order a new control plate from Sandberg with just 2 holes, a good 250k volume and treble pot and a .047uF capacitor and a more vintage sounding pickup (the Sandberg pickups with the large pole pieces are inherently bright) and you might be set