LeftyJ

This has been a very interesting thread so far, and I'm really curious how it will unfold. The issue at hand ("Help, my [Bass X] won't sound like a [Bass X]") is not an uncommon one, and I have experienced it with both guitars and basses alike with some of my instruments. Less than two weeks ago I picked up a used Ibanez guitar of which I've had 3 before, and I thought my latest one sounded much darker and woolier than I remembered. That is, until I gave it a proper setup! I lowered the action and checked pickup height (without changing the strings), and hey presto: it brightened up massively. @Tdw's and @shoulderpet's tips are very valid and useful ones, and I too would start there

I use an EBS HD350 head with an EBS ProLine 410 as my main amp for rehearsals, but I gig with a 19" preamp straight to the desk. In my rack are an Ampeg SVP-CL and an SVP-Pro, both brilliant tube preamps with the classic Ampeg tone. The CL is the preamp section of the SVT Classic in a 1HE housing, and the Pro is the preamp section of the SVT2 Pro in a 1HE space with the graphic EQ and a drive section. I also have an SWR Grand Prix (Prix / Pre, get it? ) which is very nice but which has some slight issues. I have barely used it since getting it, it needs some love and needs to get used more!

To be fair, my 01 and 03 LX's don't look too far off from that 2nd, most recent one - except for the body edges. The horns are not flat, but slightly concave as they have long been. The control area has this too, but it appears to be more pronounced on for example my LX5 below. You can still see it clearly from the lighting in the lower horn of that 5-string SS2. It's worse on some other models though: take a look at the Rob Trujillo model for example

I can safely say I get along with many types of basses too. However, there have been a few oddities in my collection that weren't for me: - Narrow string spacing at the bridge is fine on a 5-string, but somehow I hated it on 4-strings (Hohner B2A, Aria SB-1000); - Flat radius. I like a curved fingerboard or a compound radius; - Narrow bodies. I like something to rest my wrist or lower arm on (again, Hohner B2A was NOT for me); - Short (or absent) upper horns that place the upper strap button too close, and thereby move the nut too far away; - 35" scale length. I owned two Yamaha TRB5II's, and they were fantastic. But despite having large hands, I didn't like the stretch in the first few positions. Otherwise I guess most is fine with my. Gloss necks, satin necks, oiled necks, narrow nuts, wide nuts, longscale, shortscale, I really don't mind. Edit: Forgot to add I generally don't get along well with basses with only one pickup when it's moved too far from the neck! I'm not a big fan of the MM sound but it has its use, but closer to the bridge is a nono for me if there's no neck pickup to beefen it up.

Ha! Now you've got me Googling fiercely too. Looks like I got my order mixed up, and Spector weren't first: Steinberger introduced the L-series basses with the saddle lock in 1980, before Spector started using a derivative of that same bridge but without the tuning section. The Steinberger bridge needs the side lock, because it doesn't have intonation adjustment screws and the saddles would move freely if they weren't locked in place. So G&L and Steinberger indeed couldn't have been far apart!

Yep, Spector did it first around 1980. Ned Steinberger designed that bridge, and used a variation on that design on his own basses later. To me, the grand master of inventing solutions to problems that don't exist is Nobuaki Hayashi, better known as H. Noble. Formerly of Matsumoku fame, and now the mad scientist behind Atlansia Basses. His designs are often beautifully engineered, but overly complex and bulky. His wildest is probably this, with fine-tuners and a string bender:

Is that the regular pedal version, without the XLR DI out? Mine was this: It's the Ampeg SVP-CL, and it's basically the preamp section of the SVT Classic in a 1HE rack unit with a Jensen transformer-balanced DI out that sounds great. My main preamp when playing live and rehearsing is the SVP-PRO, but the CL is quieter and cleaner and I like the more straightforward EQ.

Wow, that silverburst + maple is supersexy. Would probably work well as a shortscale too!

My tactic has always been "buy to try". I buy most of my musical gear used, and if I don't like it I sell it with zero loss. I've never been much of an FX guy, and most pedals I've owned throughout the years were just to tinker with at home. Two years ago I finally put together a small pedalboard with a few basic commodities on a Pedaltrain Nano. Before that I've owned several envelope filters, chorus pedals, delays and a few drive pedals. I did of course bring them along to rehearsals to try them with my bands, because what sounds good at home could sound like rubbish in a full mix (or not punch through at all). I have owned: - Fulltone Bassdrive (an earlier model without the mosfet switch). Still owned and much loved, but I mostly use it for guitar rather than bass; - Rodenberg GAS-828. Brilliant for guitar, and has usable settings for bass as well. Still owned, and definitely not going anywhere; - Ashdown James Lomenzo Hyperdrive (long gone, not for me); - EBS Metaldrive (terrible. The drive knob acts like an on/off-switch on this one, there's zero subtlety possible); - Darkglass B7K, permanently on my board and my go-to drive pedal for my metalband.

I just picked up a 1993 Ibanez RG470 with the old square heel neck joint for stupid money. It was being offered local to me and I couldn't resist. It spent the better part of its 29 year life in the (original) case because the seller had issues with his hands and couldn't play it. He just treated himself to a nice MIM Strat and decided to sell this.

Looks cool! The proportions are weird, with that tiny dreadnought body and that long neck, but it looks like a ton of fun! Alvarez is indeed great. I had a ABT60 baritone g**t*r for a while. It was HUGE, with a 27 23/32" scale and a ginormous jumbo body. I had it tuned to B with very heavy strings (I think the lowest was a .072") and I loved the huge tone I got out of it.

New gear day! Integrated truss rod tool too. Clever.

* Tetris music intensifies *

Every time I see a pic of that bass I look at the bridge and think "That can't be intonated right... But it must be an old pick from during the build, he must have adjusted that by now" but now I'm not so sure anymore Bridge looks to be setup for a righty, and untouched aside from adjusting the action. Needs fettling with

Soundguy (yelling): "Turn it down!" Me: "I can't!" Soundguy: "Why not?" Me: "I can't reach the knob..." There's a matching guitar amp too! Meet the Crate BV600H:

That's great! I could ship my whole collection in that

Common lefty issue. Sounds like it may have a linear volume pot and a logarithmic tone pot, which could be wired in reverse to accommodate us lefties... neglecting the fact that you'd then need a reverse log pot.

Still no lefty Mustang I would get one in a heartbeat!

A mod will be in shortly with the Ban Hammer

I'm not so sure, couldn't that be an optical illusion caused by the Basic having 24 frets rather than 22 on the Cali? I'm sure the neck will be different and more Fender-like on the California Central, but otherwise it looks like more of the same.

Cool bass, but other than looks it doesn't seem to add a whole lot that they didn't already offer in their Basic model?

No musical train wreck as such, but it could have ended up as one: we played a youth center once, but their guy who had organised the gig had taken time off for a couple of weeks because he was moving house. And he had neglected to hand over his tasks to another coworker or volunteer... Like renting a PA system, and booking a sound guy. There was none. Just an empty stage. Our keyboardist's father in law had a small PA rental company, we were able to get him to deliver a small PA set capable of amplifying the vocals and keys. Naturally we billed the venue for this. The drums went unmicced, and we ran guitars and bass just through our own amps. It turned out the electrical system of the venue was way underpowered, and operating on the verge of crapping out... We feared for the safety of our equipment, but didn't want to call it off for all the people and the other band or the evening who braved the worst snow we had seen in years to come see us. The other band had travelled all the way cross-country through terrible snow, and it turned out they didn't even get paid for the gig. What's worse was the venue didn't even offer them dinner. They just got everyone French fries and snacks, but not the other band. We decided to pay for their food from our pay, because it didn't sit right with us. It was probably the gig we hated the most of all the ones we played, but we still made the best of it and tried not to let it show.

Sorry for the late reply, I kinda overlooked this part of the forum for some time. I still have mine, and I must admit I haven't played it in a while because the Koch Classic SE6 took its place in the spotlights, and more recently the Mini Colossal stole what was left of its limelight. Your post just had me give it another go, and I have to admit I've been too harsh with my criticism. In fact, I'm grinning from ear to ear playing my Strat through the TSA5 right now. It's not going anywhere anytime soon It still is the most fun I've ever had for €100 I guess!

ESP also makes the Lakland Shoreline series (Japanese market only, sits inbetween the Chicago-made basses and the now Indonesian-made Skyline series).

No need to. The recent GPS have satin lacquer finishes on the body and the back of the neck and are fairly maintenance-free. They don't wax them anymore. Looks lovely, and the black hardware was a great upgrade! Edit: nevermind, I was repeating myself. Hadn't noticed the thread resurrection and didn't read the other posts 😆