I say look at Ibanez TMB 605. It is very high quality for a $600 bass. I say get one and either shield it or lose the Nordstrand Big Single at the bridge and install a Big Split to shut down the 60 cycle hum.
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“Sleeper” 5 strings in the $800-$1,500 range?
- Thread starter AngelCrusher
- Start date
The Maestro was one seriously one of the most unique suggestions! Inexpensive basses are at another level now compared to back in the day.
Ric5
Inactive
- Jan 29, 2008
- 29,772
- 30,452
- Disclosures
- I like 5, 8, 10, and 12 string basses
nope … the pickup is a cheap passive stingray style pickup. The factory wiring did not even work when I bought it, it was wired volume, volume, tone. So I put in a battery box and a 4 band Audere preamp and it really rocks now. The blend control sweeps between single / parallel / single operation. I can get an aggressive single tone sound out of this bass and I can also get the classic stingray tone. And it came from the factory without a string tree … they just left it off. Also the shark fin inlays are after market stickers. So out of the box the bass was unimpressive, but with a few mods it became a great player for a bargain price.
Warmoth 5J Deluxe. I would check out their in-stock necks and bodies. With what you are willing to spend you can get a finished body and neck and have enough left over for nice hardware and pickups. Also, Warmoth lists the weight of their bodies, so you can hopefully avoid ending up with a boat anchor.
Pretty much any Yamaha. G&L. You could probably get a used Stingray 5 in there. Or a new Kiesel (with minimal features) or used Carvin.
I'm kind of amazed that this thing wasn't on my short list the whole time. There are so many guys using this bass. I guess it just flew under my radar.
The main thing that's kept me from buying and trying an L-2500 is the string spacing. I was surprised how hard it was for my right hand to adapt to the 16.5mm spacing of the Schecter Stiletto, and I didn't want to gamble that the 17mm of the G&L was different enough. I know I'm OK with 18mm.
True, I actually really dig it. It's one of the things that drew me to the Stingray 5er as well. I have had 18-19mm 5's and while I can adjust to anything, when I played the Ray, I really enjoyed how easy it was to mute the strings so I didn't have stuff ringing out when I didn't want it.
I would put the Yamaha BB735a at the top of the list. I have gas for this bass. The active/passive electronics makes it versatile
These, honestly pretty awesome 5 string tone. I dug the squier version more so (though the fender has more tonal options if you find the 2 pickup version), but the B has good tension to not feel slack compared to the other strings. It's on my list of 5 string basses to own (had gifted my GF the 4 string squier version & honestly great bass for the money at the time).
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