LeftyJ

I had to come back to this, because I forgot to mention I don't own the bass version but use the guitar version for my headless basses. Might be an important detail, and quite a deciding factor in how low (or high) the bag hangs on my back

I've never given this subject enough thought, and I'm not one to try out many types of string or to find the set that matches a particular bass best. I've had a liking for Elixir Nanoweb strings for many years and have used them almost exclusively on everything for the last 10 years, with a few notable exceptions: When I bought my Ibanez RS924 used, it came with two spare sets of Warwick Red Label 040-095 sets and they worked really well on that bass - and stayed crisp for a remarkably long time. I stuck with them on that bass until I sold it two years ago, and have never bothered putting the Red Labels on any of my other basses. On my headless Status basses (and the Hohner B2A that I had briefly) I use Status Hotwire double ball strings, stainless steel 045-105 on the 4-string and 040-125 on the 5-string; On my Atelier Z shortscale the previous owner had installed a set of DR Sunbeam 045-105 round core strings and I love the feel and tone. Elixir don't do medium scale or short scale sets, so I think I'll stick with the Sunbeams. I was amazed by the tight feel (and tone!) despite the 30" scale. Before using Elixirs, I tried several sets on the Yamaha TRB5II I had then. It's had Warwick Black Labels, a very hefty set of Galli strings with a 145 B-string (not recommended for standard tuning on a 35" scale bass! Not doing that again, it was hard work playing it with those strings on it), Ernie Ball, D'Addario... Ever since trying Elixirs, I haven't looked back.

Atelier Z has / had a couple. The ZPO 5 is a Precision-shaped model with two J pickups and active 3-band. The Baby Z 5J is a Mustang-shaped model with two J pickups and active 2-band boost-only. There are also some Jazz-shaped models I think. The Baby Z is fun and the most affordable of the bunch, I have the 4-string version. It's slightly neckdivey but incredibly easy to play and it sounds great. Similarly to the Fender Musicmaster, the string spacing at the bridge is quite narrow at just 16.5 mm even on the 4-string, so it's probably not for everybody. That Callowhill had me squinting at my screen for a moment because of its proportions. It looks like they took a picture of a fullscale PJ bass and just squeezed it down to a shorter length. That's brilliantly funny! Looks really cool.

The neck pickup position is interesting, it appears to be closer to the neck than on a regular P (or PJ). Was this originally a regular JJ?

It is, but on other MetroExpress basses it looks like the bottom part should sit in a recessed slot. Another BC member posted his, and the bottom of the top part sits flush with the sides of the nut slot.

I've had the opposite: "Why do you listen to Gorillaz? You're old!" But then I was able to reverse it, and tell them "Clint Eastwood" was released in 2001, when I was still their age (turned 18 that year)

I have no experience with the newer models, but owned an ABM300 EVO II C210T with an ABM 115 Compact extension cab for a few years. Regarding how 'loud' it felt to me, it mattered a LOT (more so than with any other amp I've ever played through) where I set the bass control knob. That amp had tons of low end and subharmonics (and I'm talking that KILLED the volume of the amp. I had to keep the bass control down to 9 o'clock to keep things usable. But as I said, that was with an EVO II so they may have addressed this on later models.

How's the rout look from the inside? Could the bottom part of the stock nut sit lower if you clean up the rout a little?

Looks like the bottom half wasn't properly recessed. It appears there is some routing done, but it's not installed properly. The flat area should sit flush with the bottom of the nut slot (with the wood, that is). Is it glued in, or can you pull it out freely?

To be fair, that sounds like something that can be solved with adjusting the length of the straps? I'm 1,96 metres tall (and chunky too) so it's easy for me to talk: mine doesn't get anywhere near my legs when I carry it on my back. But I'm sure carrying it higher up your back would solve your issue? I agree it's not the most comfortable to wear, but it's not bad either. My most comfortable one is probably my old Ritter (the bass version of this).

There should be a second part underneath the nut, I think? The adjustment screws probably don't rest directly on plain maple, or they would eat their way into the neck wood. I would try removing the nut and see what's underneath, the bottom part should be recessed and mustn't sit flush with the bottom of the nut slot.

Looks real enough. The smaller, narrow-post Gotoh GB-1 tuners give it away as an "entry level" instrument, and the O-serial dates it to 1993-1994. Might be a late Silver Series model, although I would expect the headstock decal to point this out and it's not showing. Silver Series would have a single-ply pickguard without bevelled edges, which this doesn't appear to have - but I have trouble teling from the pic. Appears to be in great condition still, nice find!

I would much prefer black on gold. Proper pr0n! The chrome doesn't look quite right on the gold finish.

Negative, that would be the J-tone, not the J-retro. This is the J-retro:

I can safely say I always have GAS for something new... But I have toned down a fair bit during the last few years. I have a couple of great basses that serve my needs perfectly. However, I always like to try out new things. And being a lefty, I can rarely find these new things in music stores, so instead I buy (used) to try. High on my list of wants is a multiscale bass, and I kinda sorta want a Precision. And having owned my my Atelier Z Baby Z-4J for about 1.5 years now, I can safely say I've been bitten by the shortscale bug. I now really want a Mustang or shortscale P. I bought a Harly Benton PB Shorty to try, and while it sounds great it's a poorly built and finished bass with a neck so bendy I could swear it's made of reed instead of maple. There's a Sandberg Lionel for sale local to me and I have been looking into ways to afford it... Guitar-wise, I'm very happy to have a G&L ASAT Special again after foolishly selling my old one about 10 years ago. That and my old MIJ Squier Strats and Carvin 7-string leave me nothing more to wish for. And the Taylor GS Mini acoustic I own is absolutely perfect in every way!

I kept some posters from old gigs and had them laminated. One (of the release party of an album) is on the wall in our rehearsal room, where I still regularly rehearse with 2 other members of said band in a new group. I've still got some old merchandise too, and some test prints of business cards, magnets, stickers and t-shirts. Most notably, I've kept a CD from a faulty batch that had our artwork, but was accidentally pressed with the music of a children's group on it. We were supposed to send the whole batch back, but I just HAD to keep one for sh*ts and giggles. I'm the only one in the band that still has them, the others were destroyed. Edit: now that I think of it, we stlil keep our old website in the air just for this purpose. We just switched hosts last year because the cost went up considerably. I guess we're a nostalgic bunch

You received these for a review in De Bassist and kept them afterwards, if I'm not mistaken? Playing the devil's advocate here: Maybe they sent you two that stood out?

I think @Bassassin is on to something here, the bridges pictured look very similar!

The narrow pickups somewhat remind me of the Steinberger-copies by Riverhead and Headway, but they're slightly different in size and the hardware is quite different. I've not seen this one before.

They misspelled "bass primer". I'll have me some high speed silver on the neck please! But keep the dull aluminium away, I like me some definition and attack

Offer the Mustang Bass (by you-know-who) as a lefty. I would be perfectly happy with a lefty version of the Squier CV too. And real, Canadian-made Dingwalls, I would love me an Afterburner II with an all-wenge neck. I really appreciate they've given us left Combustions and NG's, but I feel they're incredibly overpriced for something made in China and I don't like their looks as much.

Aye, output on these is ginormous! Owned a USA-made SB-2 and the splitcoil ate the bridge pickup for breakfast. The MFD bridge singlecoil was useless on its own because of the vast difference in output, but provided a useful bit of "tone control" to the splitcoil.

Many of the Swedish-made EBS amps can phantom-power an active bass with a stereo jack cable. Or the last (EBS) pedal in the chain, those support phantom-power through the jack too. I've never tried it on my HD350 or my NeoDrome, but it should just be a matter of flicking a tiny dipswitch on the back panel. I don't know about their Chinese models (the current line of smaller combo's and the Classic and Reidmar models) but I know the Swedish models have it.

Lovely find! My Streamer LX4 has that same colour, but high gloss. I love it. The Fortress was their only model with the splitcoil in the regular P position (and not reversed). Very nice! What preamp is in there, @Rayman? I don't think I've seen a Fortress with those controls before.

Ernie Ball does. Most Music Man basses in recent years have pickups with a hidden dummy coil below the humbucker. On the regular Stingray there were no switching options, but the Sterling and Stingray 5 have always had a 3-way switch for series/single/parallel switching - and the current Stingray Special does too. I'm a big ATK fan, I've owned two 1996 ATK300's and one ATK305, all made in Japan, and they were great and incredibly solid (and heavy). By the way, your last picture with the controls explained is of an ATK200, which doesn't have the iconic triplecoil but instead uses a quadcoil humbucker with no singlecoil option and no phantom coil. I much prefer the triplecoil