Step up my man and play

[johnnyacoustic1]

hello my fellow low enders,

I am in need of some advice my friends you see I need to hear from someone who has had the chance to play around on the Lightwave SL4 a bass with no pick ups ! but some rather clever lasers on board,

Let me begin by saying I am no super slick slapper or even a established band member but, I have been playing now for a while. My first bass was a fender squire P bass great starter bass and one I had promised myself to stick with till I had mastered the beast so to speak, but then along came a guitar player who had a mate who had a bass he did not want, and well to cut along story short Its now mine

no problem you might say I now own two basses the new addition being a Peavy Bxp Zodiac am Im blown away by the new sound not harsh and twangy like the P but mellow and woody, so apart from being slightly miffed because the peavy is a lot cheaper than the fender right? the quality of finish is not as good by the tones better.

So Im thinking Its time to buy what Id like to think of as a serious professional bass. Along I go to the local music shop and pik up an American jazz plug it in and urgh its horrible with what seems to be a very narrow variation of tones

Ive been brought up on jazz because thats what my mentor plays dont get me wrong I love queen too but Ive stuck with jazz thinking that if you can play it you can play anything so with that in mind a bass with the ability to give a vast array of tone for under £1000 might just be the ticket what do you think my friends?

[Happy Jack]

The Lightwave is a beautiful bass, a very clever piece of technology, and very lightweight too.

I wouldn't think of it as a serious gigging bass though, not for my purposes and playing anyway. The pickup system is so clean and clear that it's not a bass which forgives mistakes ... there's nowhere to hide, and every single thing you do comes through crystal clear.

For recording work, and for home studio / bedroom playing, that's wonderful. I'm not sure it's what you want on stage at the Dog & Duck though.

Don't be fooled by the lightweight construction, by the way. Like the Hofner hollow-bodied and semi-acoustic basses, it may feel fragile but it's actually constructed very strongly.

[mart]

I was intrigued by the Lightwave basses, but seriously put off at how difficult it would be to adjust the set-up. Maybe it's just a learning curve, but it looked like even simply adjusting the action (e.g. following a change of strings) would be a serious job.

[BigRedX]

I own a Sabre A.

First off these basses output a frightening amount of low-end, you'll probably want to roll back the bass (and maybe the low mid) control on your amp before playing, as you'll find just how much of the string's vibrations are being lost by conventional magnetic pickup systems. There's also a piezo pickup to add some high-end gloss, although if you're a physical player like me you'll only want to add a small amount before handling noise becomes too obtrusive.

Some things to note.

There's a lot of circuitry inside and most of it looks fairly delicate. You need to access it in order to set the pickup alignment calibration and the individual string output levels and you'll need a very small flat-head screwdriver to adjust the pre-set pots to do this.

The lightwave system lends itself to experimenting with different string types (magnetic friendly strings are no longer a requirement). It's a pity then that setting the bass up each time you change strings is so complicated. The latest version of the bridge/pickup unit is the best yet but it's still not as straight forward as a standard bass bridge. IMO too many of the adjustments still require you to slacken off the strings.

The optical pickup system needs to be exactly aligned with the strings for the best results. Unfortunately this means that every time you make an adjustment to the action you will also need to adjust the position of the pickup to match (and this is separate for each string) also the vertical range of the pickup is less than the string height, so it is possible to put the string in a position where it is no longer being optimally sensed by the pickup. I found on my Lightwave bass (which is fretless) by the time I had got the action nice and low to how I liked it, I had lowered the strings below to lowest point that the pickups could properly sense them. That meant I had to take the neck off and add a shim so that I could get a low action on the neck while still keeping the saddle heights within the pickup range.

Don't worry about the fact that the electronics are powered by a rechargeable battery. Mine's over 6 years old and I've never had a problem and I've noticed no drop-off in playing time on a full charge. You get well over 10 hours continuous use and a visible warning before you need to recharge the battery and it seems to be very good about holding its charge when not plugged in. It takes about an hour to charge from flat, and you can use the bass with all its functions while the battery is charging, so long as you don't mind having a second lead running to it. The only thing you do need to watch if you don't buy a new one in the UK is that you'll probably get a US voltage charger and you'll either need to find a suitable 240V replacement or buy a step-down transformer like I did.

Unless you are going to go mad with string experimentation don't let the complexity of the pickup system put you off. Once you have the bass set up as you want it, you shouldn't need to touch the pickup adjustments again unless you fit some radically different strings. This is a bass that allows the individual player to shine through - you are the most important factor in the sound not the bass, so if that's what you want then this could well be the right bass for you.

BTW the pickup system is LEDs and optical sensors - nothing at all to do with lasers!