The official "Show your basses" thread part 17!

[cjp3044]

Originally Posted by IngerAlb

The sparkling ones look awesome Aftermarket or stock finish?

Believe it or not, those are bone stock. A couple of years ago Ibanez released the SR 300 and 305 with sparkle finishes. Granted, these are low end Ibanez basses (I bought both of them new and paid around $500 for the pair), but with a little TLC they play and sound fantastic -- I had to completely set them up, crown the frets and shape the fret ends - about 4 hours on each one worth of work, but they sound thunderous and play like a dream. I took the orange one to an audition a couple of weeks ago and the guitar player (one of the best players in my area) told me "Never do a thing to that bass - do not change the pickups or electronics or do anything to the finish, that is one of the best looking and sounding basses I have ever seen/heard". Shocked the hell out him when I told him what I paid for it.

They're not making these finishes anymore (too bad) but you can find them on ebay and even some music stores still have old stock lying around. Don't pay more than $300 for one though...

[cjp3044]

Originally Posted by slyb5

Jake "Snowman" active/passive 4 (delano PUs PMVC4FE and MC4FE, glockenklang pre-amp)
Sounds like...WoW!

How do you like the Delano pickups?

[IngerAlb]

Originally Posted by cjp3044

Believe it or not, those are bone stock. A couple of years ago Ibanez released the SR 300 and 305 with sparkle finishes. Granted, these are low end Ibanez basses (I bought both of them new and paid around $500 for the pair), but with a little TLC they play and sound fantastic -- I had to completely set them up, crown the frets and shape the fret ends - about 4 hours on each one worth of work, but they sound thunderous and play like a dream. I took the orange one to an audition a couple of weeks ago and the guitar player (one of the best players in my area) told me "Never do a thing to that bass - do not change the pickups or electronics or do anything to the finish, that is one of the best looking and sounding basses I have ever seen/heard". Shocked the hell out him when I told him what I paid for it.

They're not making these finishes anymore (too bad) but you can find them on ebay and even some music stores still have old stock lying around. Don't pay more than $300 for one though...

Oh, interesting I am familiar with the brand and line (since I play 'em myself) but I haven't seen such finishes on stock models (either I've totally missed it, or maybe it's a limited run or smth). Ummm...it's time for some Internet diggin' Thanks for the info

[JackTheRipper]

Here's a pic of my Charvel 2B basses. These are all from '86-'88. I love the way the basses feel, play and sound.

The red one has passive DiMarzio pickups which sound much better than the stock passive Jacksons.

The black and white ones have EMG active PJX pups and EMG's BTC system. These sound great!

The blue one has the stock Jackson passive pups and will likely be upgraded if/when I start playing it a lot.

--jack

[Bassist Jay]

Originally Posted by JackTheRipper

Here's a pic of my Charvel 2B basses. These are all from '86-'88. I love the way the basses feel, play and sound.

The red one has passive DiMarzio pickups which sound much better than the stock passive Jacksons.

The black and white ones have EMG active PJX pups and EMG's BTC system. These sound great!

The blue one has the stock Jackson passive pups and will likely be upgraded if/when I start playing it a lot.

--jack

The blue one to the far right is the twin of the second or third bass I ever bought. I got it in 1990 or 1991? Great bass too.

[Silver Blues]

Lol, you have done what I've had in my head with my bass of choice, the Epi Embassy Special IV. Those four colors are even the same four it comes in Cool basses (both yours and mine, lol). I've got black and red.

--Silvie

[christopherogut]

'87 Fender '62 RI Jazz, '07 Fender Custom Shop '59 Precision...
... two of the hardest Fender colors to photograph! I need some better lighting.

[5StringThunder]

The twins. Hillary and Swank

[macrocheesium]

Originally Posted by 5StringThunder

The twins. Hillary and Swank

Nice. The F-5E is an incredible bass for the price, no?

[shadven]

Originally Posted by christopherogut

'87 Fender '62 RI Jazz, '07 Fender Custom Shop '59 Precision...
... two of the hardest Fender colors to photograph! I need some better lighting.

Beautiful basses! Did you order/spec your custom shop? I am thinking about putting together a 1955 Custom Shop P-bass soon. If you did order your bass, how was the process?

[christopherogut]

Originally Posted by shadven

Beautiful basses! Did you order/spec your custom shop?

Unfortunately, I didn't... but I can't imagine spec'ing out a cooler '59 myself. Somebody did. There's an eight digit number handwritten on the neck and in the neck pocket that Fender verified as the work order number for it. Apparently team-built but still a custom order.

[Mrfstop]

VERY noice!!

Originally Posted by slyb5

Jake "Snowman" active/passive 4 (delano PUs PMVC4FE and MC4FE, glockenklang pre-amp)
Sounds like...WoW!

[slyb5]

Originally Posted by cjp3044

How do you like the Delano pickups?

Love them. They are actually my favorite pickups.
I have a preference for Delano Alnico5 though (I have those on a 5 strings jazz bass). Those Fero give a more modern, round and precise sound. The humbucker sounds better in active mode though, less mediums than in passive (more MM like)

[mark beem]

Originally Posted by 5StringThunder

The twins. Hillary and SwankAttachment 316228

Nice! Lovin' the purple flame!!

[mesquito_bass]

I have two 80s era Ibanez bass guitars that I know nothing about. I bought them originally and they have many years of use. Any insight would be interesting and helpful. I haven't paid much attention to equipment for probably 20 years because I haven't played outside my living room, and I am just starting to re-educate myself. I also have a late 80s GK RB800 amp head if anyone can give some opinion on that too.

the serial number on the fretless is L851168 and the fretted is F910932.

[cjp3044]

Originally Posted by slyb5

Love them. They are actually my favorite pickups.
I have a preference for Delano Alnico5 though (I have those on a 5 strings jazz bass). Those Fero give a more modern, round and precise sound. The humbucker sounds better in active mode though, less mediums than in passive (more MM like)

Thanks! I really appreciate the info - I've got a 5 string chinese made bass that (now) plays superb, but sounds like, well, actually it doesn't sound bad, but you pretty much can't hear any difference between neck or bridge pickup or tweaking the tone knob (it's passive J style setup with V/B/T), so the first thing I'm doing is replacing the pots with CTS and the tone cap with an orange drop and changing it to standard jazz setup (V/V/T) - if that doesn't help much, new pickups and possibly an active preamp (probably Audere). It's a solid basswood body (not ply like many chinese guitars) soI wonder how the relatively light body wood would work with Delanos or Barts. I'm a bit limited in pickup choices because the route is not standard Fender size - slightly smaller (bass has 16.5mm string spacing at the bridge), Delano, Bart and Duncan are the only pickups I've seen that have pickups with the correct measurement and really don't want to route out this body, it's too pretty.

So the Alnico on those I'm assuming is more "vintagey" where the Fero is a bit more modern and round?

[fercorellia]

One of my babys. 70's P.Bass:

[shadven]

Originally Posted by fercorellia

One of my babys. 70's P.Bass:

Wow, what year? It's looks pristine! Beautiful.

[5StringThunder]

Originally Posted by macrocheesium

Nice. The F-5E is an incredible bass for the price, no?

Yeah. It's AWESOME for the price. I love the ebony fretboard. The only thing I would do is drop EMG 40DCs in it.

[Evil Undead]

Originally Posted by shadven

Wow, what year? It's looks pristine! Beautiful.

Probably around 2009-2011