Tonight I fell in love with my first bass all over again!

[Baloney Balderdash]

For the past 15 years or so I have exclusively played short scale basses, and the last 9 years or so an 28,6" scale Ibanez Mikro Bass have been my main, but for the first 10 years or so playing bass I used my first bass ever the Aria Pro II Laser Electric Classic as my main bass.

I even back then bought a Rickenbacker at some point, but only played it for short while before going back to the Aria, I hated how the Rickenbacker felt and I didn't care much for it's tone either, think I played it for a couple of months at band rehearsals, recorded the band I was in's second demo tape and did one gig with it, then that Rickenbacker spend a long while just laying in a case under a sofa in the rehearsal space until it got stolen, I didn't miss it one bit, but for the money I could have gotten from a resale. 

Anyway story is that I a few years back after the Aria Pro II had just stood in a corner for years decided to restring it with thinner strings, max the saddles out and tune it in an open tuning, to use as a sort of 4 string baritone slide guitar, and I actually did have some great use of that adding an unique touch to some of the tracks I created, but then one day I got the "brilliant" idea of gutting it for it's preamp (  ), which doubles as a HPF/LPF, and turn it into a pedal, however I ended up getting completely lost in the wiring and since the Aria Pro spend a couple of years just sitting in a corner again, that is until today, where I decided to just wire the pickups back in passively, as O still have no idea of how to reinstall that original preamp, just with the original 3 way pickup selector and the original master volume pot.

So when I went to plug it in to check if I had wired it correctly it all came back, wouh, just felt so nice and familiar to play on, and even though the saddles was still raised insanely high and it still was equipped with the "baritone slide guitar" strings in the corresponding higher open baritone tuning, it felt awesomely inspiring to play, and I jammed for about half an hour or so, spitting out awesome improvised bass riffs and grooves, like finally coming home.

I always kind of shook my head when  people talked about how only 34" scale basses sounded and felt like real basses to them, but man, now I realize what they mean. 

Even with the totally wrong strings and tuning and insanely high action for the first time in years I played bass tonight and not 4 string low tuned baritone guitar.

Though I do realize it being my first bass and main for years when I first started to play bass might bias my view strongly.

Anyway, I need to order a set of long scale bass strings as soon as possible so I can have it set up and play it properly.

Can't wait.

 

Here it is, the most recent picture I got of it, from before I gutted it, but after having converted it to a "baritone slide guitar" (and yes, I am aware that the strings are wrapped the wrong way around the tuning pegs, something that was since corrected) :

 

And here it is in action, back when it was still my main, at a gig with the noise rock and hardcore influenced math rock band "Menfolk" that I was playing in at the time :

 

 

Edited December 11, 2020 by Baloney Balderdash

[4&5 String]

Nice looking bass for sure. Isn't it amazing how we go into cycles. Whereby we own a good first bass and want to in our mind something better. We sell and buy. It continues until you pick up your original or something of the same and fall all over in love with it. You say to yourself all the money I have spent for basses that that may not be as good. Enjoy that bass.

[Baloney Balderdash]

1 hour ago, 4&5 String said:

Nice looking bass for sure. Isn't it amazing how we go into cycles. Whereby we own a good first bass and want to in our mind something better. We sell and buy. It continues until you pick up your original or something of the same and fall all over in love with it. You say to yourself all the money I have spent for basses that that may not be as good. Enjoy that bass.

Thank you. 

Though personally I am not too fond of it's looks.

I never really liked white basses, and don't quite understand why I chose to buy it back then, guess it was just the first and best used bass that fit my budget and felt nice to play, and frankly the metallic star stickers and green neon tape treatment that I, as an ironic statement (  ), added back when I was about 18 years old () doesn't exactly make it any better looking, to put it mildly. 

Add to that that time has not been too kind to the stickers and that it looks much worse than on that picture at the moment.

But I can live with that, the way a bass plays, feels and sounds has always had way higher priority to me than looks, though if I ever pull myself together to do it I would love to strip off the paint and give it a matte black finish (I don't see that happening anytime soon though, if ever).

However, before I install the new strings and set the bass up, as soon as I receive the strings I've ordered, I am going to give the body a good cleaning with a universal cleaning agent, water and a raspy sponge, and the fretboard with first a moist raspy sponge, and then a cloth with fretboard conditioner, cause it gathered a lot of dust and dirt since the picture in my OP was taken.  

Edited December 7, 2020 by Baloney Balderdash

[Teebs]

25 minutes ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

Thank you. 

Though personally I am not too fond of it's looks.

I never really liked white basses, and don't quite understand why I chose to buy it back then, guess it was just the first and best used bass that fit my budget and felt nice to play, and frankly the metallic star stickers and green neon tape treatment that I, as an ironic statement (  ), added back when I was about 18 years () old doesn't exactly make it any better looking, to put it mildly. 

Add to that that time has not been too kind to the stickers and that it looks much worse than on that picture at the moment.

But I can live with that, the way a bass plays, feels and sounds has always had way higher priority to me than looks, though if I ever pull myself together to do it I would love to strip off the paint and give it a matte black finish (I don't see that happening anytime soon though, if ever).

However, before I install the new strings and set the bass up, as soon as I receive the strings I've ordered, I am going to give the body a good cleaning with a universal cleaning agent, water and a raspy sponge, and the fretboard with first a moist raspy sponge, and then a cloth with fretboard conditioner, cause it gathered a lot of dust and dirt since the picture in my OP was taken.  

Nice bass 👍🏼

Glad you've rediscovered it  

[4&5 String]

4 hours ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

Thank you. 

Though personally I am not too fond of it's looks.

I never really liked white basses, and don't quite understand why I chose to buy it back then, guess it was just the first and best used bass that fit my budget and felt nice to play, and frankly the metallic star stickers and green neon tape treatment that I, as an ironic statement (  ), added back when I was about 18 years old () doesn't exactly make it any better looking, to put it mildly. 

Add to that that time has not been too kind to the stickers and that it looks much worse than on that picture at the moment.

But I can live with that, the way a bass plays, feels and sounds has always had way higher priority to me than looks, though if I ever pull myself together to do it I would love to strip off the paint and give it a matte black finish (I don't see that happening anytime soon though, if ever).

However, before I install the new strings and set the bass up, as soon as I receive the strings I've ordered, I am going to give the body a good cleaning with a universal cleaning agent, water and a raspy sponge, and the fretboard with first a moist raspy sponge, and then a cloth with fretboard conditioner, cause it gathered a lot of dust and dirt since the picture in my OP was taken.  

What strings are you going to use on that baby. It would look great in matte black. Make sure all the paint is off and sand it down. Maybe black in Nitro.  Will look great in a few years of solid use.

[Baloney Balderdash]

1 hour ago, 4&5 String said:

What strings are you going to use on that baby. It would look great in matte black. Make sure all the paint is off and sand it down. Maybe black in Nitro.  Will look great in a few years of solid use.

I ordered a gauge .095 to .040 set of D'Addario NYXL strings, as I like low tension strings and a tone that leans towards the brighter end (even though they will still end up having more tension than the ones I use currently for my Mikro, but the longer scale length will help them not feel quite as stiff still), and as I was really impressed with the tone of the NYXL's I tried on my Mikro Bass, sort of a fuller, maybe with a bit more mids than usual XL strings, sort of more linear or in a way more hi-fi tone. 

Edited December 7, 2020 by Baloney Balderdash

[Baloney Balderdash]

I just played the bass again, still with the "baritone slide guitar" strings and tuning, through the ampless setup I made for my Ibanez Mikro bass, and just using the neck (really more like middle position) humbucker P like pickup (did some more research and it's not actual wound as a P, but like a full big soapbar humbucker (or slightly bigger actually), with 2 bar magnets, I think ceramic, though I can't find any information about it on the iinternet, on each side and the full length, just with the pole pieces setup like a P pickup), and it sounded absolutely amazingly awesome playing on the lowest string, tuned to C2  (3 half steps above the low A string on a four string bass tuned in E standard tuning), even if the strings on it is years old and already was used when they were installed and long gone completely dead.

So think, at least in the first instance, will just ignore the bridge J like pickup, since the neck P like humbucker fits my tonal preferences so spot on perfectly, actually with some of the same qualities that I like with the DiMarzio Model P installed in my Mikro Bass, just much better, fuller, more articulated and defined (and mind this is with completely dead strings, unlike those on my Mikro), but about equally aggressive, and I think, though it is hard to judge with the strings being raised so insanely high, actually even higher output. 

I count on getting the D'Addario NYXL gauge .095 to .040 string set that I ordered with the mail service either Thursday or at latest Friday, if I am unlucky.

Damn, really looking forward to be able to play it properly, can hardly wait. 

Seems Christmas will come early this year.  

These basses are absolutely astonishing quality for the totally ridiculously used prices they go for, and probably already was back when they were released for the price they asked from new.

As said I might be biased since this was my very first bass ever, and main for about 10 years forward, but it beats the 3 1000$+ basses I've owned, admittedly with the exception of the Jerry Jones Longhorn, that one was a truly amazing bass too, and I regret much being stupid enough to sell it.

I guess I should consider me lucky from way back having stepped on a jack plug that was plugged into my Aria Pro II, breaking a small hole in the thin layer of wood above the control cavity around the front mounted jack output socket, which naturally got ripped out as well in the process (miraculously no harm was done to the actual jack socket or the soldered on wiring), which I in usual impulsive haphazardly style fixed by super-gluing a cut out piece of a tobacco tin box lit and a piece from the lid of a plastic medicine glass together, and then after drilling a hole in the middle of this hack lo-tech patch, to be able to fit the jack socket in it, super-glued to the control cavity side of the hole, which I assumed would make the bass close to impossible to sell for an even remotely reasonable price, or else I by far most likely would have been stupid enough to part with that as well, and while my repair works absolutely perfectly, without any issues whatsoever, and even actually seems to be a quite resilient and sturdy solution (so far it has worked flawlessly for something like about 13 years or so), it isn't exactly pretty, to say the least, and is without doubt an absolutely haphazardly hack job, that just accidentally happened to turn out well as a workable lasting solution, despite the look of it and the unconventional hack job construction.  

Edited December 10, 2020 by Baloney Balderdash

[Baloney Balderdash]

The shipment of my new strings got delayed, so only just received them today.

So here is my old Aria Pro II Laser Electric Classic, thoroughly cleaned, fretboard polished and conditioned, the .095 to .040 D'Addario NYXL string set installed, and action, neck relief, intonation and pickups adjusted properly :

 

Plays and sounds absolutely beautifully. 

 

Edited December 14, 2020 by Baloney Balderdash