Enfield

[dub_junkie]

Wondering if there's any love on here for this sadly (imo) discontinued brand. I was close to ordering once just as they stopped taking orders but I picked up a Lionheart Air around six weeks ago and I'm fair taken with it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited Saturday at 01:52 by dub_junkie

[Beedster]

Glorious design and engineering, and the quad PUPs and switching between P, J, and MM are a great concept. Sadly I suspect the reality commercially was that given the option, most bassists prefer to have three separate basses than three basses in one. 

[Beedster]

My ex, it was a stunning instrument, I sold it simply because I tended to use the Precision option only and already had a Precision fretless (and at the time sadly and unexpectedly found myself with funeral costs to pay). Not for the first time, if the option presented I'd probably buy it back given the flexibility would work well in my current band project 🤔

 

 

[tubbybloke68]

Yes indeed, very nice looking, would love to have tried one out . Prehaps the quads had too many options for the average player, I don’t know? Quality kit though I’m sure . X 

[Beedster]

24 minutes ago, tubbybloke68 said:

Yes indeed, very nice looking, would love to have tried one out . Prehaps the quads had too many options for the average player, I don’t know? Quality kit though I’m sure . X 

 

It was a very useful experience owning it, being able to - to all intents - swap between basses mid song at the flip of a switch gave me a real appreciation for how the different tones sit and reinforced my thinking around the tone I love, essentially Precision. The fact that on the Fusion (the bass in the post above), the neck pocket is Fender fit was very useful as I was also able to try a lot of different necks, which further cemented my preference for all things Precision (the wider the nut the better). The basses themselves have Simms Custom Shop written all over them, that is, pure class at every level - design, engineering, finish, functionality, and tone. 

[W1_Pro]

9 hours ago, dub_junkie said:

Wondering if there's any love on here for this sadly (imo) discontinued brand. I was close to ordering once just as they stopped taking orders but I picked up a Lionheart Air around six weeks ago and I'm fair taken with it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thats lovely, I've been on the lookout for an Enfield, can I ask how much you paid for it?

 

[bubinga5]

I dig these. Mark Smith from talking bass has one and it sounds superb.

[Beedster]

This was my other semi-Enfield (Fender neck)

 

[dub_junkie]

Love the bass but the quad coils arent my favourite part of it. They're really good n all but is it really shallow of me to think that if I ever scored another Lionheart Air I'd maybe want to put some multicoil pickups in both positions alongside a filter based preamp?  (not that I'd be trying to recreate anything else you understand)

 

The bass plays phenomenally well, effortlessly in fact. Action can be got down to stupid low without notes choking off etc There's a lot of nice touches on the bass and the overriding feeling I get with it is "why on earth didnt I spec and order a couple of five strings when I had the chance?"😂😂

 

 

[White Cloud]

I owned a Lionheart not dissimilar to the OP's and enjoyed the experience 😎😎

[tauzero]

4 hours ago, dub_junkie said:

The bass plays phenomenally well, effortlessly in fact. Action can be got down to stupid low without notes choking off etc There's a lot of nice touches on the bass and the overriding feeling I get with it is "why on earth didnt I spec and order a couple of five strings when I had the chance?"😂😂

 

Why not order one now?

 

https://www.sims.guitars/enfield-guitars/lionheart

[dub_junkie]

Unfortunately they ceased production three years ago

 

 

[kwmlondon]

I tried one in The Bass Gallery and I really didn’t get on with it. Absolutely gorgeous but I just didn’t like the painted neck and I don’t know if the strings were dead or the amp was rubbish but I didn’t dig the sound at all. Incredible build quality and look though. 

[Russ]

I remember playing a few back when they first came out. Gorgeous looking things, but, despite the promises, the pickups couldn’t really nail P, J or MM in a way that was satisfying or particularly authentic. They had their own great sound, but the big selling point - that they could ape all those other sounds - just didn’t ring true for me. YMMV, but I wasn’t convinced. 

 

To get an authentic MM sound, you need the active electronics to work on specific frequencies, which are different to the frequencies you’d use on an active Jazz for that Marcus tone, or the frequencies you’d want to use to bring the bark out of a P pickup (all mids, and the basses had no midrange control). 

[kwmlondon]

5 hours ago, Russ said:

I remember playing a few back when they first came out. Gorgeous looking things, but, despite the promises, the pickups couldn’t really nail P, J or MM in a way that was satisfying or particularly authentic. They had their own great sound, but the big selling point - that they could ape all those other sounds - just didn’t ring true for me. YMMV, but I wasn’t convinced. 

 

To get an authentic MM sound, you need the active electronics to work on specific frequencies, which are different to the frequencies you’d use on an active Jazz for that Marcus tone, or the frequencies you’d want to use to bring the bark out of a P pickup (all mids, and the basses had no midrange control). 

I do think people get too hung up on wanting a bass that sounds like specific other basses though. You can do a lot of clever stuff with pickups and preamps but for a bass to sound like a precision it really speaking I think it will have to have a split-coil pickup in the right place and for a bass to sound like a 'Ray the humbucker needs to be a certain distance from the bridge and the preamp must be just so. What you CAN do though is get a bass to do the job of a P-bass or 'Ray but in its own way. That's just my opinion.

[Russ]

5 hours ago, kwmlondon said:

I do think people get too hung up on wanting a bass that sounds like specific other basses though. You can do a lot of clever stuff with pickups and preamps but for a bass to sound like a precision it really speaking I think it will have to have a split-coil pickup in the right place and for a bass to sound like a 'Ray the humbucker needs to be a certain distance from the bridge and the preamp must be just so. What you CAN do though is get a bass to do the job of a P-bass or 'Ray but in its own way. That's just my opinion.

Agreed. Just making the point that that's how the SimS pickups were sold - that one pickup could do the job of three. There are many other pickup manufacturers who offer switchable humbucker/single coil/split coil pickups, but, for the most part, they don't sell them as a "these can do it all" sort of solution. 

 

The original Enfield Cannon bass, with the huge single Super 8 pickup, was actually a much better solution than the later models with the two separate pickups. 

[kwmlondon]

35 minutes ago, Russ said:

Agreed. Just making the point that that's how the SimS pickups were sold - that one pickup could do the job of three. There are many other pickup manufacturers who offer switchable humbucker/single coil/split coil pickups, but, for the most part, they don't sell them as a "these can do it all" sort of solution. 

 

The original Enfield Cannon bass, with the huge single Super 8 pickup, was actually a much better solution than the later models with the two separate pickups. 

To be fair, the SimS pickups may be able to do what they say, but they'll always be compromised by the positioning and the preamp. If the pickup is located to do the P-bass thing it won't QUITE get the J-bass single coil sound, though it'll do the job. I think there are those Fishmans that use modelling to get specific sounds, though that doesn't appeal to me for some reason.

[80Hz]

Goodness, the fretboard on the OP's instrument is stunning. A tasteful choice to have that paired with a black finish.