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New (to me) Lakland 55-94 (with pics)

pickles

Gold Supporting Member
Mar 23, 2000
10,454
2,836
Ventura, CA
Just wanted to share a little Lakland love. You may have seen my thread about searching and searching for a 5 string that would have the big, bold low strings of my old Quantum 5, while having a great slap sound and warm/wet tone like my old MTD535 .... well, I think I've found it. Whenever I thought of a 55-94 I thought it would sound somewhat J-bass-like or Musicman-like, and it does but only to a certain extent ... it really has its own voice. All of the various pickup settings are different shades of that basic voice, and they're all great! Slap, finger, and pick all sound great, and moving between them is seamless. The feel is also incredibly sleek and nimble, and it hangs confidently in just the right position on a strap. It does NOT feel like a 35" 19mm spacing bass.

I took this on a rehersal this week, and there were quite a few songs that I played the best I ever have (most notably Ben Harper "Fight For Your Mind"). The notes really "jump" off the board like they do on a sadowsky, and the range of tone is just what I need for my eclectic cover band.

When I got this bass it was N-A-S-T-Y. Just covered in gunk and grit, unplayably high action, mismatched strings that weren't long enough for the scale (silk wrapping past the nut!). But there didn't appear to be any major damage, and the frets looked OK so I went for it ... and I'm really glad I did. It took about 3 or 4 hours of tweaking to get it clean and set up, but now it just plays like butter. Next, I'm going to try some Naptha to get the stains out of the neck and the rest of the gunk off of the frets.

If anybody knows what to call this model, let me know. It has a quilt top like a "deluxe", but a pickguard like a "classic". The wood grain on the back looks like Ash. I emailed Dan earlier this week but have not heard back. It sure is a great looking bass.

P.S. I used to have a Skyline DJ5 and I'm here to tell you that a USA bass is well worth the extra $$$$ ... not that the Skyline wasn't a great bass for the money, but this 55-94 is on a whole other level. Up there with Sadowsky.
 
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That's a great looking bass! Nice find, Dave!

I'd keep the pickguard white, it just fits with that bass so well. Although, a black pickguard might look interesting....

I can't take it, I need a pickguard for my 55-02! I'm thinking about a Black pickguard on Inca Silver w/ rosewood fretboard(although I'd like to trade for a maple fretboard.)

That's a nice birdseye on the fretboard, too! What do you think about the small frets?

So, haveya tried the par/ser/sc mod yet? :D
 
I love small frets. I felt like the frets on the skyline I had were over-flattened, but on this one the crowns are nice and round and they feel great.

I'm too busy playing this bass to try the mod just yet. My favorite sound is all coils on blended strait up the middle, followed closely by J-bass mode with a little blend toward the bridge. All coils blended toward the neck was killer with my BDDI ... so many great flavors in there.
 
Thanks everybody. It was $1500 without a case, and if I "paid" myself $50/hour for the cleaning and setup work thats $1700 so far ... pricey, but I DIG it and thats all that matters to me right now. Fortunately I already had a lakland double bag ... so I'm golden.

The hi-beam low B wasn't wowwing me, so I swapped it out for a fat beam .125 that I had, through the body, and now its in the A/A+ range. Sick. You can actualy pump burpy eighths on the C through E ... killer.
 
pickles said:
Thanks everybody. It was $1500 without a case, and if I "paid" myself $50/hour for the cleaning and setup work thats $1700 so far ... pricey, but I DIG it and thats all that matters to me right now. Fortunately I already had a lakland double bag ... so I'm golden.

The hi-beam low B wasn't wowwing me, so I swapped it out for a fat beam .125 that I had, through the body, and now its in the A/A+ range. Sick. You can actualy pump burpy eighths on the C through E ... killer.

Try out the Lakland strings on your bass! IMO, they have sounded the best of all of what I tried. And at like $22 a set you can't go wrong. The stainless and the nickel both played and great and are fairly durable.

Just my $.02
 
thehurlatron said:
Try out the Lakland strings on your bass! IMO, they have sounded the best of all of what I tried. And at like $22 a set you can't go wrong. The stainless and the nickel both played and great and are fairly durable.

Just my $.02

Already ordered ... 1 each nickel and stainless. I didn't love them when I tried them on my DJ5, but this is such a different bass I'm going to try them again. It'll be hard giving up that juicy hi-beam sound, but I'll give em a shot.
 
pickles said:
Thanks everybody. It was $1500 without a case, and if I "paid" myself $50/hour for the cleaning and setup work thats $1700 so far ... pricey, but I DIG it and thats all that matters to me right now. Fortunately I already had a lakland double bag ... so I'm golden.

$1500 isn't a bad price for a 55-94, is it?

pickles said:
The hi-beam low B wasn't wowwing me, so I swapped it out for a fat beam .125 that I had, through the body, and now its in the A/A+ range. Sick. You can actualy pump burpy eighths on the C through E ... killer.

That's funny you mention the Hi-beam's low B string. I have Hi-beams on my 55-02 for a while now, and I've never been satisfied with the tone of the low B. I'm actually thinking of putting the Prosteels on the 55-02, thinking that the warmth and depth of the Bart electronics might even out the Prosteels clank. That, or I might try the Sadowsky nickels.

Ahh, why can't I just lost interest in slapping so I can go back to TI flats?! :D
 
No, thats not a bad price, but with no case and lousy maintainence job that had been done on it I think its just fair. He wanted 1600 originally.

There are only a handful of basses that really work with that hi-beam B. The fat beam is better, but still a little hit and miss. Have you tried the Lakland strings? Or some labella HRS? That labella string is the opposite ... pretty much works on any bass.
 
ElBajista said:
$1500 isn't a bad price for a 55-94, is it?

$1500 is a STEAL!

I say again a STEAL!

That's less than half the street price.

I would give $1500 and never think twice about it.

+1 on the Lakland Strings.

I played the Steel strings for over a year and never thought about them until one day I was popping and the G string stretched out about 3 inches and didn't go back. The other 4 strings sounded great, then I took a close look the B string and it had rust on it. So I replaced all five. But they lasted over a year and still sounded great.

I love Lakland Strings...:bassist:

SuperT
 

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