crazycloud

I just missed snaffling an A5 SCMS second hand recently. Oh, well. It would have made a nice companion to my A6 and A5 UA.

I have a Zoom B3n for bass and a NuX MG300 for guitar/SRC6 at home going into a mixer/EQ then a FRFR speaker. For live work in the future I'm looking at a single MFX to do bass and guitar plus some cab emulation into a small FRFR so I can do bass and guitar in the one simple set up. I'm not much of a tone cork sniffer, so I'm guessing so long as I had, worst case, maybe a dozen pre-sets for guitar and same for bass, I could cover just about anything. Looking at the Boss GX10 as it's small and seems to do everything I need in one. This is mainly for the small coffee house gigs I want to do with a friend, her singing with an acoustic, me on bass and some guitar and harmony vocal. As space is usually non-existent in these spaces, I'm even looking at building a chair for me that will have an EV 50M type set up built in so it takes no more floor space, with her on her stool beside and the GX could fit between my feet. I'm an EE so designing and building it shouldn't be too hard. I have a larger rig for the less often R&R stuff I do, and the GX could go on the floor or on top of the rig.

No. If you do that you'll load down each as each will see the others very low output impedance in parallel with the load. IOW, you'll effectively be shorting them into each other and may damage one or both devices. You may not always, but I have repaired many devices where people have tried doing this sort of thing over the years; you need a mixer of some sort.

But Felix uses six.

Yup. It's a gain structure issue; the 'preamps' simply supply insufficient gain to be able to drive the power amps to full output because as was said earlier, they're designed to drive the instrument input of a conventional bass amp or head. Likewise, it could be an issue with many people being reluctant to actually turn the gain control up enough. I've seen many who erroneously believe that turning the control past 12 o'clock (some have told me 9 or 10) will cause damage to something.

Not having it in hand so trying to get a visual, do you mean there is little string taper? Is it narrow at the bridge?

Harley Benton Block 800B which uses an IcePower 700As module. Some have said that it doesn't any more, but HB confirmed in a recent email that it does.

Looks like my Space 6 ain't happening anytime soon. From Cort; Unfortunately, we do not have any plans to develop a headless 6-string bass or the Space 6 within the next year. Gosh darn it. Maybe the Sire M6 will be suitable, even though the 18mm bridge spacing (Sire confirmed) will make the neck a little wider than I'd like. I could also try to find an EHB.

^^ Pity about the neck dive as that's a killer for me, even seated it gives me a major dose of the irits. Are the others OK?

I watched this review when I saw it some months ago and liked it then, same with the C5 you did around the same time. A suggestion for future reviews; could you please stand with it on strap so we can get an idea how it hangs? I realise this will have inherently good balance being headless, but it helps as the overall angle the bass sits at and where the strap pins are relative to the body etc can make it a no no for some of us. For me the Spectors and Warwick thumbs hang oddly and I can see that sort of thing in a picture, and I think other people might appreciate it too. I subbed to your channel too and am interested to see what you come up with. I love my A6 and A5 Ultra Ash and am tempted by the Space 5 as I'm a headless fan since my XL2 arrived nearly 40ya, but I might wait and try the Sire M6 6 string when they arrive. I hope you get one of the M6s to review. Your reviews of the A4 Ultra Ash, and later A5 UA were pivotal in my getting one last year (but Frank Itt's bass face sealed the deal), once I recovered from the horror of the 2020-2023 era. I got the last one in Australia as far as I'm aware. It's a wee ripper...

Years ago Penn and Teller had a show called Bullsh!t (that's what it was called!) and they did this twice. Once with a waiter selling expensive boutique bottled water in a restaurant, that came from a garden hose. The other episode was using out of date and left over gas station food they dolled up, again served in a restaurant. They used the same 'waiter' in both episodes and they are beyond hilarious if you can ever find them to watch especially as you got to see them prepare the items they were serving up. They were on YT years ago but have been scrubbed. A lot of yuppie knobs have moved in here so I'm tempted to do something similar one day.

The money saved on a HSC goes to the QC and legal depts.

As someone who's humped in and out more gear than many people have even seen (I used to own a PA used for our band, and others), the aluminium folding work platform is the best bet. Also get yourself a furniture dolly and a couple of tie down straps, and when the 15 and 15 combo are stacked onto it to move them from the car to the stage, simply strap the workstand to one of the cabs. Paint the workstand black to make it blend or get a piece of black cloth to put over it. I'm also 60 and am designing my own new rig as a 15 cab, plus a smaller separate 8" coax cab that can be mounted on a short pole above the 15 cab via 2 metal top hats to get it nearer to ear height for me. In the earlier version of this, I used 2 pieces of ply, with a slot cut in each that slotted together to make an X shaped stand. I made it from scrap. I have a larger Ford sedan so I need to fit my rig, incl 3U rack case (for amp) and a pedalboard to fit a multi FX, DI and tuner pedal. I've also used my X framed folding piano seat, without the seat part installed, laying on it's side to get nearly 400mm of height at home - this holds my Laney practice amp in the LR. These are cheap and designed to take a fair mass, especially considering the average weight of people (lard arses) these days. If your rig is wide, then a keyboard stand used the same way might offer a better fit.

I'd have #6 and maybe #1 myself, except they're 4s. Big hoard and hope you enjoy them. It's been a long time since I've had such a big haul in a brief time myself.

I have an A5 UA and several SRs (and owned many more) and based on all I've owned, and the current prices locally (A4 UA - $A1669, $A2539 - SR1340B) I would go for the A4 UA. I love the tone, the looks, the hardware and the fit and finish. And the awesome top and sexy NT construction. As for the compressed sounding comments, I certainly don't hear it, and it's the same thing I've heard about every other active PU since the 80s when I got my XL2. In my mind it's a pejorative that's been repeated a bajillion times and now simply a confirmation bias. Others will disagree* but several tone cork sniffers have complimented me on tones on my older recordings, and never once mentioned this compression even when they've listened to the stems, recorded DI with no FX. I love my SRs, and my SR256B has been my gigging bass since the stupidvirus era, but the 706 will probably overtake that with the A6. However, the Corts are so awesome for the money, they'll most likely get first look for me over the Ibbys if they have something equivalent. If the Nordy BS tone is your preference, then I'd get an older SR and retrofit, especially one with a gloss finish. Even if the factory PUs are a slightly different size and Nordstrand doesn't make one to fit, a rout out to EMG sizes is cheap and easy - my 706 is getting 45DCXs or Alumitones, and the 256 the other (because it's 4.5x1.5 stock). There are a number of A4/5 UA reviews online that I think are pretty representative. * Not interested in arguing with anyone about this as it's old and I'm over it. @danbowskill should take my comment as another datapoint and make his decisions accordingly.

Sire have the M6s coming out soon in headless MS 4/5/6 stringers. https://sire-usa.com/products/refn1ay3zbjam3bqs?variant=45868112904330 Prices at Andertons look OK too. https://www.andertons.co.uk/sire-m6-headless-6string-bass-in-black-satin/ Not convinced about MS, but I'd like to try one of these.

I was the same with my XL2, just the one bass. The B2A can be easily resurrected by making it passive, 3 pots and a cap, maybe $20 and 1/2 hrs work. Whilst you're at it, add a strap pin extender and thrust bearings on the tuners to make the easier to turn, maybe another $20. As well as the XL2, I have 2 B2, a B2V and a Spirit.

I'd need to see some actual evidence on that, such as magnetic film pics as all of mine from an over 20y period have been splits (tested them myself) because there are so many things about PUs posted as "true" when they're just repeated misunderstandings.

BH2s are parallel HBs, whereas the Mk1 are split P style construction. Not similar at all. Did the same and it wasn't worth the money for the minor sonic change, to me.

I've been in electronics my whole life, and made a few guitars, and there is a universe of difference between having a robotic tool pick and place all the components and have them wave soldered, than the amount of actual human input and skill in applying finish etc. Not knocking any manufacturing country*, but the two manufacturing processes are not even remotely related. * All my main players are MII, except my SR256 which is MIC.

Hardware wise the Cort has Hipshot at both ends, and the Tobias has Gotoh 707s and a Babicz, so it's arguable there's any quality or any performance difference. In terms of electronics the US Barts may be better to some people, but are not universally so, especially to me. If I were to change the PUs in my A6, it would be to something very different, like the 916 Super Ferrites or Nord BS. The Mk1s get a lot of crap, but they're not that bad. See here: I paid under 650UKP (just checked it's 608) for my A6 new and delivered under a year ago and the store still has 2 in stock at that price. I've done the swap a few times, for myself and for other people and have been seldom impressed for the cost difference. The exception was a set of Singularities I did for a well regarded player, but that was also HB to SC. I agree with the post above by @AndyTravis that the shape of the Tobias is sexier, but the jigsaw piece headstock cancels that out. Here's mine.

How long before Gibson send a cease and desist?

No, it's just opinion.

No, they're not. Onboard pres are quite high Zin because they need to be to not load down the relatively high Z of passive pickups ROT is Zin of 10x source Z). Pretty much every onboard pre is opamp based and I can easily design one with just about any common opamp. Piezo pres are higher Zin than a pre for coil type PUs, but only by a factor of 5 or 10.

Experience.