Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Going off the reservation
I supposed it had to happen at some point: sooner or later, I'd run across a bass that was not a Fender (complete or parts) that I'd find enjoyable or fun to play and I'd fall for it...
I have a friend who worked at a local music store, and I used to spend a couple of hours on rare Saturdays looking at the basses there, and, if it wasn't busy, sometimes jamming with him. I dropped by one such Saturday and was told that a lot of the stuff was now on sale. I looked over what was hanging on the wall, and noticed one particular 5-string that I had played before. I picked it up and plugged it in, intending to take it for a serious test drive.
For the most part, my acquisitions are not ones I would get to play before buying them. That's the way eBay works. If it's a project that I have to build myself, some assembly (and adjustment) is required before taking it for a spin. If it's a complete one, I have to hope that there's nothing wrong with it and that the seller is telling me what problems it might have, so I can make an informed decision. I have to admit, I've been extremely lucky in that regard.
The neck was very nice, not as wide as a lot of 5-strings, and the action was very fast. It sounded nice as well, and the dual pickup wasn't something I hadn't much experience with. I liked that fact that, even though it was a maple neck and maple fretboard, there was no "skunk-stripe" where they had inlaid another piece of wood after routing out a strip to put the truss-rod in. They had cut in from the front, and put the fretboard on as a cap. To me, that says that the manufacturer isn't cutting corners and taking the easy route. (Excuse the pun!) Fit and finish as good as I'd seen on much more expensive basses.
The bass in question is an OLP MM3 model. This is from the "Squieresque" line of Ernie Ball's MusicMan basses, and is (I guess) patterned after the Stringray 5, except that the electronics are passive. I didn't like white pickguard but that was the least of my concerns. (As always, Tony at PickGuardian, made me both a tortoise-shell and a mother-of-pearl replacements.) The initial minor modifications I made was to gang the two halves of the pickup together so that there is now only one volume and one tone control.
The major recent upgrade was the pickup: I've become partial to Seymour Duncan pickups, so I decided to get a Basslines model version as a replacement. It only required a slight reworking of the pick-guard, minimal rewiring, and added so much to the sound. Big bang for small bucks!! It's now a coin-toss as to which fretted 5-string I take to the gigs: it or the MIM 5-string Jazz.
I have a friend who worked at a local music store, and I used to spend a couple of hours on rare Saturdays looking at the basses there, and, if it wasn't busy, sometimes jamming with him. I dropped by one such Saturday and was told that a lot of the stuff was now on sale. I looked over what was hanging on the wall, and noticed one particular 5-string that I had played before. I picked it up and plugged it in, intending to take it for a serious test drive.
For the most part, my acquisitions are not ones I would get to play before buying them. That's the way eBay works. If it's a project that I have to build myself, some assembly (and adjustment) is required before taking it for a spin. If it's a complete one, I have to hope that there's nothing wrong with it and that the seller is telling me what problems it might have, so I can make an informed decision. I have to admit, I've been extremely lucky in that regard.
The neck was very nice, not as wide as a lot of 5-strings, and the action was very fast. It sounded nice as well, and the dual pickup wasn't something I hadn't much experience with. I liked that fact that, even though it was a maple neck and maple fretboard, there was no "skunk-stripe" where they had inlaid another piece of wood after routing out a strip to put the truss-rod in. They had cut in from the front, and put the fretboard on as a cap. To me, that says that the manufacturer isn't cutting corners and taking the easy route. (Excuse the pun!) Fit and finish as good as I'd seen on much more expensive basses.
The bass in question is an OLP MM3 model. This is from the "Squieresque" line of Ernie Ball's MusicMan basses, and is (I guess) patterned after the Stringray 5, except that the electronics are passive. I didn't like white pickguard but that was the least of my concerns. (As always, Tony at PickGuardian, made me both a tortoise-shell and a mother-of-pearl replacements.) The initial minor modifications I made was to gang the two halves of the pickup together so that there is now only one volume and one tone control.
The major recent upgrade was the pickup: I've become partial to Seymour Duncan pickups, so I decided to get a Basslines model version as a replacement. It only required a slight reworking of the pick-guard, minimal rewiring, and added so much to the sound. Big bang for small bucks!! It's now a coin-toss as to which fretted 5-string I take to the gigs: it or the MIM 5-string Jazz.
