LeftyJ

My Italia Torino. Surprisingly affordable (I paid €400 brand new), yet incredible fun to play and it sounds great (deep, dark and big but with just enough brightness to still cut through thanks to that bridge pickup - which is really just a guitar humbucker underneath a closed cover):

The set of strings is a brand new set of Elixirs, and I think I must have mistakenly put an Extra Long Scale B-string on there, that I had laying around for stringing my Ibanez ATK305 through-body. So it's already at its thickest where it meets the tuner, resulting in this odd curve. The tuner itself and the nut are perfectly fine, this did not happen with the previous set of strings (as seen in this picture from the original eBay auction):

Took some new (slightly better) pics of my Musicians today: 1981 MC924L: 1983 MC924L (well-worn, but the neck is still flawless and it plays and sounds like a dream): Together:

I just replaced the tortoise pickguard on my autumn redburst sparkle Stingray 5 with a black one:

Did these MIM-versions of the Urge have the same 32" scale length? And I noticed the Kubicki-style control knobs. Surely these haven't got the Kubicki preamp, do they?

Here's my Bullet 5 fretless: Great bass, very well-made and the neck is superb. It almost plays itself. I'm not really a fretless player, so I'm actually considering having it fretted. The low B is the tightest of all the 5-strings I have (that includes an amazing Stingray 5 and a 35" Yamaha TRB5II I used to own) and the tone is punchy and powerful. It doesn't yet have the Glockenklang electronics and Sandberg bridge, instead this has a Noll preamp and an ABM Mueller bridge which are great.

[quote name='leftybassman392' post='759318' date='Feb 27 2010, 07:31 PM']Some single coils do have a certain reputation... I can still remember a mate of mine putting his vintage strat close to his face and singing - you could hear it clearly through the amp! [/quote] Don't underestimate the tremolo springs in a Strat too

Completely forgot the twins in my avatar I used to have one more ATK300 but sold that a couple of months ago after buying a Stingray 5.

And weekdays between 7:00 and 16:00, I may occasionally look like this:

I prefer maple for its looks, but in terms of tone and playability, I really don't care. When the instrument speaks to me and I like what it's saying, that's all that matters to me. I have basses with maple fingerboards, rosewood fingerboards and ebony fingerboards and they're all great and have voices of their own.

Had the same trouble with my Ashdown ABM300 C210T EVO II in the beginning, until I turned the bass knob to 9 o'clock. Works like a charm, I got rid of the rumbling subs messing up my definition and I gained a lot of cut through the mix. I also boosted the mids a little, but didn't necessarily have to.

[quote name='josh3184' post='756049' date='Feb 24 2010, 02:30 PM']I was lucky enough to have the cash and find the deals that got me my equipment, want to spread the love! Besides, you can't find Warwicks or Musicmen in a lot of music shops these days so it might be one of the rare occasions they get to try such briliant instruments. If they come away thinking "that's what I want when I have the money" then I feel I've helped [/quote] Agreed. When I buy or sell secondhand basses with local pickup, I always ask the seller or buyer if there's anything else in my arsenal they're anxious to try out. Everyone is always curious about my Rickenbacker 4003. I was at Arni's Lefty Bass Day at CMS Music in Duisburg, Germany, and everyone drooled around it. But unlike at your bash, nobody dared picking it up and playing it unless I encouraged it (which I happily did).

Bought my Rickenbacker 4003 through their website when the Pound was really low, just over a year ago. Very pleasant dealing with them.

That's a tough one, I wonder what the luthite (compressed wood fibres and resin) compares to tonally.

TBH I feel the sheer size and mass of the bridge is largely responsible for the tonal character of the ATK so I wouldn't change it. I've never removed the bridges on my ATK's so I have no idea about the routings. I suspect the pickup routing won't be much larger than the pickup itself, the part of the bridge passing the pickup on both sides isn't very wide so there can't possibly be a lot to hide. A routing you do need to keep in mind is the cavity below the holes in the bridge where you can anchor the strings in the bridge if you don't string it through body. Not every replacement bridge will cover this up entirely. I don't know how large it is exactly, but it has to be at least as wide as the space between the outer edges of the string holes in the bridge and at least deep enough to put in the entire ball end to hook it below the baseplate of the bridge. This routing probably also contains the ground wire from the electronics to the bridge. The neck is big and chunky, similar to a Precision type neck.

Sometimes it has its advantages to be a lefty Few people are able to play my basses, luckily, so I don't get that question very often. I don't mind other people playing my basses, as long as I know them and know they'll be careful. I will always turn down a complete stranger who asks me at a gig though.

I think it's a big mistake to put the covers on, they should have supplied those separately. And blocks without bindings are ugly as hell imho. I do like the idea of blending some classic Jazz Bass elements from different era's though, but aside from the '70's bridge pickup placement, nothing really sets it apart from an American Standard. They could have done a lot better.

My choice would be the G&L L2000 over a Stingray. I feel the Stingray has more character and balls, but the L2000 is a much more versatile beast and really does it all. I would prefer a USA-made instrument over the Tribute, but as you say, the Tribute is a lot of bass at half the price of a Ray.

I believe the PGB-1 is Korean-made whereas the regular ATK300's are Indonesian-made. But to me that still doesn't justify the difference in price. The Indonesian ATK's are a LOT of bass for the money already, and really well-made.

Here's my pair of lefty MC924's, an '81 and an '83. I need to take some better pics of the '83, but for now this 'll have to do The thumbrest on the '81 was not mounted there by me. I wish it wasn't there, and especially not in that position as it is of no use whatsoever. Can't comfortably reach down to the G-string from there...

[quote name='Plux_the_Duck' post='751760' date='Feb 20 2010, 02:24 PM']I'm expecting HoweDy to come here and say get the MIJ one any second...[/quote] He had opened a whole thread about it here But it was moved to Gear Porn by a moderator.

They're great basses indeed, I love my lefty a lot too. Just too bad the bridge pickup isn't in the '70's position, that's the only thing it lacks IMO.