LeftyJ

I quite like the contrast between the dark carbon fiber with the ultra black phenolic fingerboard and the white body. If you must, maybe something like anthracite?

We have a turd in the punch bowl. I repeat, we have a turd in the punch bowl.

That hybrid top is brilliant, that blue resin really compliments the look! Wow

Looks beautiful, and the Sadowsky-style knobs also add a touch of class! It looks a lot more expensive than it is.

Pretty much sums up the controls in my black LB75. The mid control also looks like it was added as a sort of afterthought, as the other 4 knobs form a neatly aligned diamond shape but the mid control dangles loosely to the side - the order is bass - treble - mid. I love the bass though, it plays beautifully and I love the range of tones I can get with just the blend pot and coil split. 🙃 That Glockenklang pre with passive tone sounds like it would work for me too! I'll have to look into it

Interesting! Do you have any pics of the guts? What parts did you have to connect yourself?

Sounds like you either genuinely do have a blend knob, or you've wired it in reverse. If it's a regular volume knob, switch the wire on the left tab to the one on the right (or vice versa) so it exactly matches the neck volume knob. If it is a blend knob, both pickups should go to the blend knob first, and from there on to the master volume. But you would probably have noticed, because a blend knob is a lot bigger (taller) because it is essentially two potentiometers stacked on top of eachother, on one axis.

I always fancied the Traben John Moyer (of Disturbed) signature model. It looks a bit more conventional than all the models with the huge bridge baseplates. When Hanser Music Group pulled the plug on Traben, production of this model was continued by BC Rich (also owned by Hanser). Most Traben instruments I've come across in the wild have been OLP's, I've never seen a real Traben in the flesh.

I did something similar with my MIJ 75 reissue Jazz Bass, I had an Audere preamp in it for a while but it made me stop playing that particular bass alltogether. It just had too many options for me, and I didn't like the base tone with the controls flat: I felt like it cut some of the lowest frequencies off, and sounded brighter. I replaced it with a passive VVT configuration with MEC pots, and had De Gier Guitars add a FatBoost (a 6dB bass boost engaged with a rotary switch), to beefen up the tone when I want to. I kept the stock pickups (Fender US-spec 70s J-pickups) and couldn't be happier with it.

I did roughly the same as @thebassmandave when I recently took delivery of a Warwick Streamer LX4 with a rather gunky fingerboard. I started with a Stanley blade, gently scraping off the worst of it. I then used a toothbrush to clean some off, and to get into the wide open pores of the wenge fingerboard. I then used the Dunlop 01 fretboard cleaner and prep on a piece of cloth (the "genuine Fender Custom Shop" one ), and repeated the brushing to clean the dirt out of the pores in the wood that had come loose. Before oiling up the fingerboard, I taped off the fingerboard and gave the frets a good polishing, and afterwards finished with the Dunlop 01 fingerboard oil. Really happy with the result For the fret polishing I use these pads I got from Thomann: https://www.thomann.de/gb/micro_mesh_soft_pads_set.htm

I've owned a couple of them, and still have two. Three of them have been very impressive, especially for the price I paid used. One was a dud, but then again it was modified by the previous owner (lacquer on the back of the neck removed and replaced with tung oil, and the profile shaved down by a couple mm) so I can't tell for sure if it always was. It looked fantastic though, it was an LB75 with a hidden two-piece maple neck through body, walnut wings and a flamed walnut top, ebony fingerboard, and it looked really well-made. I didn't get on with the neck, and it didn't sound as lively and not nearly as loud as the other LB75 that I had (and bought back last summer after 10 years). I think used Carvins are incredible value for money, because they hold their value very poorly. You can often find high-spec Carvin instruments for really low prices. I paid only 250 GBP for my black LB75 here on Basschat because of wear to the finish, and I paid roughly the same for a lovely B4 in perfect shape (bolt-on, natural gloss alder body, one-piece maple neck, birdseye maple fingerboard, passive electronics). My 7-string DC727 guitar cost me 600 GBP and it's like new, almost untouched. The 7-string and my black LB75 are the ones I still own, and not going anywhere soon 😎

I wonder what took them so long! They've been teasing this since September 2019. Looks great.

Good call

Is there no way of connecting it somewhere outside your signal chain, like on a parallel output of a volume pedal, drive pedal, DI or anything? You'd no longer have the mute function, but it would solve the tone suck.

I didn't know that model, looks great. It does kinda resemble the Grind NTB, but passive (2x volume, 2x tone) and with less of an off-set waist, closer to the Cirrus BXP in appearance.

The RD900 to me is one of the coolest and most versatile basses Ibanez has ever made, and was Ibanez' answer to the Lakland and Music Man basses with that same pickup configuration. Great neck, and some pretty high-end features like the Seymour Duncan pickups and a brass bridge. I would love one if they had done lefty versions of these, but alas...

Those Fame basses are incredible value for money, if you consider the price of a similarly specced Mayones Be4 or Be5. I played a lefty Be4 Gothic once and was very deeply impressed. It had EMG J-style pickups and simple controls (VBT) and it sounded fantastic.

Since you have a Schaller roller bridge on it, you can also adjust the string spacing there by moving the E-string roller further to the right. The effect may be more noticable this close to the pickup than it is when you move the string sideways higher up the neck. Most of these closed-cover humbuckers from Shadow have blade style magnets instead of individual pole pieces, which should reach pretty close to the edges of the casing.

I have a (SUPER!)rare one of my own When my band had an EP pressed for demo purposes, we received 500 beautifully printed slipcases and printed CD's that looked exactly like we wanted them to. But when we played one in the car on our way home from the CD company, it didn't contain our music but a Dutch childrens' rap song about poverty and wealth distribution ("I am rich but theeeeey're not, I have a laptop but theeeeey don't" and so on). We returned nearly all of them, but I kept two. The other band members returned theirs, but I thought it was pretty funny to have a good laugh about later. Two! How's that for rarity?

To be fair, Cor-tek has a unique position because they make a load of their hardware themselves. Bartolini-licensed Mk1 pickups and preamps? Made by Cort! Hipshot-licensed Ultralite copies? Made by Cort! Select by EMG? Made by Cort! The more affordable CND (Carey Nordstrand Design) pickups on Ibanez Premium basses? Also made by Cort, as are all Indonesian-made Ibanez guitars and basses! It wouldn't surprise me if the Omega bridge (which is sold under the Allparts brand, as Allparts has acquired the Leo Quan company) is also made in the far East by one of Cor-tek's suppliers or Cor-tek owned companies and they can get them cheap.

I've owned 2 MIJ Ibanez ATK300's that were remarkably similar. I had one favourite, but only for being my first. They felt and sounded truly the same, and were very similar in weight and feel. What's more striking to me is how different a 5-string version of the same bass can be! I also still own an MIJ ATK305 that looks and feels the same, but sounds very different despite all the same woods, pickup and electronics. I think it has something to do with the wider neck, and the effect of simply having to move more wood. It sounds nowhere near as warm and punchy as the 4-strings did. Instead it sounds much tighter and brighter and has more of a mid-scoop than the 4-strings I owned. The 4-strings just sounded so much more alive! It makes sense to me now, but back when I first got it I was expecting it to be an exact copy of my 4-strings but simply with an extended range. It really was a different beast though! I have since experienced the same with other instruments that I have both a 4- and 5-string version of, although these differ on more specs than just neck width: I have both a Warwick Streamer LX4 (2001) and LX5 (2003), both with solid flamed maple bodies, ovangkol necks, wenge fingerboards and bell brass frets, but with the 4-string being a reverse P-J combo, and the 5-string a J-J configuration. The 4-string again sounds warmer and with a more pronounced midrange, but amplified and played acoustically; I have both a Status Graphite S2 Classic 4-string and 5-string, but there's some 10-15 years between them and they don't have the same pickup and preamp. I think the body woods are different too, the 4-string being alder and the 5-string a lighter-weight poplar. Again, the 4-string is more resonant and warmer sounding. Still the 5-string is currently my favourite bass.

Very cool! I think Mark Ronson played a 4-string version at Glastonbury 2019 when he joined King Princess for one song. It looks to be modded with Basslines pickups and simpler electronics though:

I wonder what inexpensive country will be next, now that we're already seeing some pretty high-end gear coming from Indonesia at pretty steep prices. The most expensive Indonesian-made Ibanez Premium costs more than the entry-level Japanese-made Ibanez (not a Prestige, mind. Think Genesis Collection). I bet in 20 years time the used market will be filled with expensive "vintage" Squiers from "back when they were still made in Indonesia, much better than they are now!"

This isn't new right? The U5 was introduced at 2020's Winter NAMM and has been for sale for several months now. @Bassdude BE posted a lengthy but rather excellent review of one of these here.

I had a similar dent in the neck of an old Squier. A luthier I often went to suggested to fill it with clear lacquer. One drop at a time, then let it cure, add another drop, let it cure, and so on. So I left it with him, but when I still hadn't heard back from him after a full month it turned out he had refinished the entire back of the neck (he did a cracking job though, and the dent is still very much visible through the clear lacquer but can't be felt!) Even though he didn't do what we agreed upon, I think his suggestion was probably a good and effective one.