Okay dudes, grab a cold one and make yourself comfortable. Sorry, this is going to be long. Here's how it went down this weekend...
I had someone interested in buying my Limited...well, in actuality there were many who were interested, but I had someone local. "Great," I thought, "I'll drive down and let him play it and see what happens." The night before, I took it out "one last time" to play it a little to make sure I was doing the right thing. And even though it hurt just thinking about it, I could stand to part with it.
The next day, I arrived at his place and I could hear him thumpin on his Fender from outside. We exchanged greetings and I noticed he had been playing through a Berg IP stack. I had played through an IP before, but not ever with this bass. So we sat down, he tuned up and plugged in. I explained the control layout, and he started off in passive. Man, sure did sound good. And the guy could play, so already I was thinking at least it'll be in good hands if he decides to buy it.
It didn't take long for him to declare, "It's a f***in Fender!" Now, that could have meant a couple of things...like in disappointment, "Ah man, that's it? This is just like a piece of crap Fender." Or it could have also meant in amazement, "Wow man, this is just like a killin' vintage Fender!" I think he was leaning towards the latter sentiment. And it was sounding really really good through his IP stack.
He then started messing with the preamp, setting bass and treble to varying degrees, and at one point had both dimed. Amazing thing was, even then, it never got out of control. It was on the brink of being out of control, but it never went there. I believe this speaks volumes about two things in particular. One, Jimmy's preamp is fricken amazing. At one point in our conversation, it was agreed that the preamp just takes the passive tone and makes it way huge. Second, that IP is one killer stack. In fact, I've never heard my bass sound so good. Btw, the bass went straight into the Berg, with no external preamp.
I'd say we spent the better part of an hour putting this bass and his Bergie through its paces. We briefly messed around with an MTD he had and my Hanewinckel. And then one last time with the AC. "It's a f***in Fender!" By then, he had already said that a handful of times. He wanted to sleep on it and would contact me the following day. He was nice and sent me home with some avocados.
So here's a summary of our phone coversation that took place yesterday:
Me: I was crazy to even consider selling this bass.
Him: I was crazy to let you leave my house with that bass.
Me: I'm going to sleep on it, put on some fresh strings.
Him: Yeah, it'll sound better with some nickels. I hate you.
So I picked up a set of Sadowsky blue label nickels yesterday. I have always had GHS Progessives on there since I first got the bass, and while it sounded great, I always felt that a good set of nickels was what this bass really wanted. I put the strings on at around 10pm last night. Between playing and dialing it in all night, I didn't go to bed until 6am this morning. I have never heard my bass sound and feel so good. Game over. It's perfect.
I feel like the prodigal son coming back home. I get to stay in the family!
GET THAT DAMN FLOWER POT OUT OF THE WAY!!!!
