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Fun little 30 bass comparison


Mudpup

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Really hard...

I thought the Alembic sounded dull and flat.

I liked the Status, the Ken Smith and the Aria

But he played such different things on each bass... never went beyond about fret 7 on the Gibson, for example.

(Convinced the e-string on my ancient Hohner B2 sounds far better than lot of those 'flappy' ones in the video... surely a DI'd e-string should have some harmonics!)

 

Just a thought... the nature of your PC's speakers is going to have a hefty influence on any listening test like this... surprised how well my tiny ones coped with the low Bs

Edited by Stub Mandrel
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Happy that before I noticed which bass it was, I liked the sound of the Xotic(similar to mine). Some surprises in there, the Ken Smith was quite dark. 2nd place was the Fender custom shop 69 relic(for sound).Third, the Elrick Evolution gold 5. Also surprised at how many big name basses were, for me, unremarkable🤗

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I'm lucky enough to live around the corner from Bassdirect where this was recorded, so fairly regularly go in for a noodle. In the hunt for 'the perfect bass" I've actually played at least half of these models, and recently a few of the ones in the video. I've also had amongst others an MTD, various Fenders, a couple of Rob Allen's, a Zon and currently my main (and only one of 2 as I can't afford to hoard) bass is my 3rd Dingwall, a Z3.

What is interesting to me is that my perception of the sound on the video compared to how it was trying them out is quite different.

The Dingwall Lee Sklar really doesn't do it for me on the video, yet it's effectively the same model and pickups as my Z3, the bass I bought having played for 5 minutes, after agonising for several months about whether I could afford a Roscoe that was a lot less expensive. The Zon sounds nice but in real life I found it lacking warmth, in common with other graphite neck basses I've tried. The Fodera J I didn't have plugged in when I tried it but the neck feels amazing. The Maruszczyk basses are fantastic to play and really well made, but as they do so many options in terms of electronics some sound great, some don't (to my ear). The Mayones Jabba sounds good but didn't fit my hand. The Roscoe sounds ok on the video but growls, burbles and sings in the real. Only the Sandberg Marlowe of all the ones I've tried sounds the same on video to me as it did in the shop. It also has a slinky worn in feel neck and is a bargain compared to some of the higher end ones.

And that's even before you put it in a band context. It's really useful to get an idea of the variety of sounds you can get, and where your tastes may lie, but it's only a starting point

On the flip side, it's a bloody great advert for the amazing range of basses you can get, and a good excuse to get your derrière down to a shop and just try them.

What time do they open tomorrow? 😁

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  • 2 months later...
On 20/03/2019 at 22:10, owen said:

Great, now I want a Ken Smith.

Haha - you and me both mate! (Not helped by a few of these appearing in the FS over the past couple of months)

Even went as far as to check out the Ken Smith gear porn thread :) 

Right, I'd best get back to my Japanese basses, quick...besides I'm sure I will sound the same whatever bass I'll play 😁

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5 hours ago, Al Krow said:

Right, I'd best get back to my Japanese basses, quick...besides I'm sure I will sound the same whatever bass I'll play 

Nothing has the same ‘ping’ as a popped G string on a Smith :) get one!

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6 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

Just make sure you don't pop your g-string in public...

At the price these go for, I'm absolutely going to need to pluck up the courage to take the thing out the house and gig it, if I end up getting a second mortgage to get one of these.

I've just had some ridiculously positive feedback from three Ken Smith owners today. Two are pro bassists who have moved their Smiths on, so have no reason at all to continue to be gushing about their former basses, but absolutely still are! Funnily both now either have a Yammy BB1025 or want to get one; and both would love to get their hands on a white Yammy BBNE2; so it seems to me we all have pretty similar tastes in what we love about basses...

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