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Celinder,,how good??


bubinga5
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i got together with Ari once and played the Celinder J Update 5 that he had at the time back to back with a Atelier Z 5 and what was then my Sadowsky Tokyo 5.

Each bass I think intended to be a "70s" style jazz. I thought the Celinder was just too bright in comparison to the other two basses, definitely more modern/hi-fi sounding. Sound wise the Atelier was my favourite, marginally, over the Sadowsky, and I preferred both quite a bit more than the Celinder. The Celinder was still a great bass, and well put together, but I'm not sure what all the fuss is about :)

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I wouldn't pick holes in that assessment myself. I find my red Celinder is quite bright as well and it probably needs to be a bit warmer. I've found dead spots on the Update J5's as well.

But bung Sads, Ateliers and Celinders all through a compressor and then what? :)

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[quote name='Simon' post='458876' date='Apr 9 2009, 10:12 PM']I find my Sadowsky Metro J5 incredibly bright, so I wonder what the Celinder is like in comparison![/quote]
Well personally, I've found the Celinder to be somewhat sweeter than the Sadowsky's I've tried but I'm reliably informed that the difference isn't that significant on stage.

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I bought the Update 4 from Crazy Kiwi...
I have owned lots of basses but everytime I took my old Fender Jazz Marcus Miller it was like a hand in a glove and I felt at home. Nothing could beat it. I tried Sadowsky's, Alembic, Fodera, Status, Vintage Fenders, etc...When I came back to my roadtested Fender : wow.
Since I have the Celinder my old white Fender feels like I'm driving a truck. I had never expected that to happen. The Celinder neck is faster, the action is a dream, the response is unbelievable, the controls are smooth and easy to handle. It does sound a bit hifi but not in the cold definition of the word. Even when you use the bass-controls the sound is never muddy and the bridge pickup growls enough.
I used it for a gig on an Epifani UL502 with a 4x10 Cabinet and it was one of those occasions that you just enjoy your own sound without any worries.
The Celinder J is a great bass and it brings out the best in me. I never took the trouble to adjust the D-tuner (not even the ones on my Wal basses) but this bass is just so good that I took the time to finetune the D-tuner and it works really well.
I was going to buy some straplocks but then I saw that the bass has them already.
One thing which I don't really like is the black colour (I like a bit of colour) but the bass itself makes me forget everything.
This bass was just a lucky guess : I had never played one but something just said "yes" when I saw the pictures and heard the soundclips. I was right.

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[quote name='Simon' post='458876' date='Apr 9 2009, 10:12 PM']I find my Sadowsky Metro J5 incredibly bright, so I wonder what the Celinder is like in comparison![/quote]


I played Cel Jbass with rosewood fingerboard, active,5 strings. Bright? no way! it was smooth,responsive,fast,fat and pleasure to play. When I got it in my hands before even put any note, I thought: "God,this is worth every DIME of it's price!"

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  • 1 year later...
  • 3 months later...

So I missed this thread first time around but thought I'd chuck in my thoughts anyway :)

I absolutely love my J Update & it's just about my favourite J shaped bass of the many different ones I've tried. It's absolutely my 'go to' bass whenever I want to work on a new song or try an amp or cab etc.

It's really hard to put my finger on what makes it different from anything else but it just seems to 'work' really, really well for me :rolleyes:

The 'killer' control is that lovely passive treble pot - I generally set it bang in the middle of its range & then gently tweak it depending on the core sound I'm after for any particular song. Everything else just stays full on with the active bass also in the centre position.

I currently have two & recently tried another and the level of consistency in build quality and sound of each one is amazing really. I decided to put my blue one up for sale but purely because I have a marginal preference in colour to my red one & I can't really justify owning a pair of these. The blue one has a slightly older version of the Greengrove pre-amp without the dip switches and is a fraction mellower than the red one.

If anyone fancies trying it out then it's sitting up at Bassgear in Harrogate at the moment :lol:

[url="http://www.bassgear.co.uk/products-page/pre-owned/celinder-j-update-4-pre-owned/"]http://www.bassgear.co.uk/products-page/pr...te-4-pre-owned/[/url]

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I traded my J Update with Molan. It was a very good bass and I bought it over a couple of Sadowsky Metro's and a Mike Lull that was in the Gallery at the same time. However, I found it a little heavy and a little 'clinical' for me. Some people will love this in a bass but just not what I was looking for in a J bass so my search continues.

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[quote name='alanbass1' post='912293' date='Aug 1 2010, 09:54 PM']I traded my J Update with Molan. It was a very good bass and I bought it over a couple of Sadowsky Metro's and a Mike Lull that was in the Gallery at the same time. However, I found it a little heavy and a little 'clinical' for me. Some people will love this in a bass but just not what I was looking for in a J bass so my search continues.[/quote]

It's certainly no lightweight (the blue one is a good 1lb / 1.5lbs or so lighter).

I know what you mean about the clinical sound but I find simply rolling treble off works fine for me. I tried it out against a pass '70's J bass and I found that very 'dead' sounding compared to the Celinder - just 'horses for courses' I guess, lol.

You would definitely have preferred the blue one as it's definitely a smoother mellower sound & a fair bit lighter :)

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[quote name='alanbass1' post='912929' date='Aug 2 2010, 04:14 PM']Maybe I should look out for another Celiner but 'lighter'....[/quote]

This one is nice [url="http://www.bassgear.co.uk/products-page/pre-owned/celinder-j-update-4-pre-owned/"]http://www.bassgear.co.uk/products-page/pr...te-4-pre-owned/[/url]

:)

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[quote name='Gwilym' post='458838' date='Apr 9 2009, 08:30 PM']i got together with Ari once and played the Celinder J Update 5 that he had at the time back to back with a Atelier Z 5 and what was then my Sadowsky Tokyo 5.

Each bass I think intended to be a "70s" style jazz. I thought the Celinder was just too bright in comparison to the other two basses, definitely more modern/hi-fi sounding. Sound wise the Atelier was my favourite, marginally, over the Sadowsky, and I preferred both quite a bit more than the Celinder. The Celinder was still a great bass, and well put together, but I'm not sure what all the fuss is about :)[/quote]

I actually bought Ari's J Update 5, and it has served me well for a few years. However, I am now officially 'Celinderless' for the first time since 1999. I still have a J-Update 4, but I rarely use it (as I almost always play 5-strings), and it is currently for sale.

I also had an Atelier Z and a Sadowsky Tokyo at the time, and I respectfully disagree that either of them should sound better than a Celinder J-Update :-)

In fact, I never imagined selling my Celinder J-Update 5, but I recently got an Alleva Coppolo LM5, and I couldn't justify keeping two basses in that price range - both trying to capture the late 70's ash/maple, 70 pup spacing sound. That being said, they do sound very different when compared directly. I decided to keep the LM5 as I had a buyer for the Celinder right away. I haven't decided yet, but in some ways, I liked the Celinder even better than the LM5 that I kept... They are that good!!!

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  • 4 months later...

Hi,

i am looking for another preamp than the OBP-3 Aguilar which is in my Celinder 5 string.

the 3- way is too coml^plicated for me....any suggestions? i want to put a 2 way : bass-treble circuit in this wonderfull bass...

perhaps even change pickups ( there is a neck-Jazz PU and a bridge MM pu in it both CELINDERS)

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[quote name='molan' post='1068367' date='Dec 24 2010, 12:27 AM']What about the Greengrove pre that's fitted as standard in a lot of Celinders?

That's bass cut and boost and a lovely passive treble roll off.

I hink Greengrove will sell these direct.[/quote]


thanks...
heard of this preamp

they were standard in the old celinder basses ?

but can't find them on google

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[quote name='dafonky' post='1068685' date='Dec 24 2010, 12:53 PM']thanks...
heard of this preamp

they were standard in the old celinder basses ?

but can't find them on google[/quote]

Damn - looks like their site has disappeared so maybe they've either gone out of business or don't sell direct to the public any more :)

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The Celinder vintage P that I've just sold has an Agi 2 band pre (paired with a Nordstrand P pickup) - really easy to use and one of the best tones I've ever heard - as Molan suggests (and as with the Greengrove), bass cut and boost and treble roll-off. The bass is the best long-scale fretted four that I've ever played and sounds phenomenal. I really wouldn't have sold it if I wasn't moving almost exclusively to short-scales

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