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Club Moollon

#1,903
bnuiver said:
Just dropped the deposit for a lovely Desert Sand P-Classic IV. I turned 39 last week so it’s gonna be a wonderful belated 40th bday present!

Looking forward so much. As a true Pbass fanatic I’ve been eyeballing these basses for years and I’ve read every single comment in this thread. Thanks for sharing all your info guys!
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Congrats! My P IV is also going to be my 40th present. A few months build delay but can't wait to get mine soon.
 
#1,906
Derek DiFilippo said:
IMO the word "Sadowsky" will leave your vocabulary as you get to know the Moollon, because there's no comparison. (Yeah, I'm biased :) )
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You called it. I seem to have sold my Sadowsky. I may own another in the future, especially an NYC. But I came to prefer a passive bass. In every "what's the right bass for this?" shootout, I picked the Moollon every time. Somehow turning the preamp off never gave me the same thing.
 
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#1,907
600 Ohms said:
You called it. I seem to have sold my Sadowsky. I may own another in the future, especially an NYC. But I came to prefer a passive bass. In every "what's the right bass for this?" shootout, I picked the Moollon every time. Somehow turning the preamp off never gave me the same thing.
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Wow, we talked about that back in October 2019. It's so cool you remembered that. It does take time for instruments to settle in and to get to know them.

There's around a 3:1 price ratio between a Moollon and an NYC Sadowsky? I prefer having three different passive (but equally classic) basses rather than a single one-bass-to-rule-them-all with active electronics.

I had been saving for a few years to get a boutique-ish 5 string, kept trying expensive ones expecting magic, but nothing was feeling right. Then I realized my P-bass wasn't happening and decided to fix that first.

I started with a Moollon P-IV which was unbelievably good, all my friends noticed the change, etc., and then discovered I still had savings left :-). I have been able to order two more (a P-V and a J-V) since then.

No disrespect to any other manufacturers or any other players with different tastes. That's just my own experience/taste and I'm guessing others in this thread feel the same.
 
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#1,908
Derek DiFilippo said:
Wow, we talked about that back in October 2019. It's so cool you remembered that. It does take time for instruments to settle in and to get to know them.

There's around a 3:1 price ratio between a Moollon and an NYC Sadowsky? I prefer having three different passive (but equally classic) basses rather than a single one-bass-to-rule-them-all with active electronics.

I had been saving for a few years to get a boutique-ish 5 string, kept trying expensive ones expecting magic, but nothing was feeling right. Then I realized my P-bass wasn't happening and decided to fix that first.

I started with a Moollon P-IV which was unbelievably good, all my friends noticed the change, etc., and then discovered I still had savings left :). I have been able to order two more (a P-V and a J-V) since then.

No disrespect to any other manufacturers or any other players with different tastes. That's just my own experience/taste and I'm guessing others in this thread feel the same.
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Spot on.
 
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#1,909
I had a really nice Japanese metro that was my main player until I got the Moollon. Was the sadowsky more ergonomic? Yes. Was it more stable in terms of truss rod, and easier to adjust? Yes. Did the moollons vibe and fatness kick the sadowsky to the curb almost immediately? YES.
 
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#1,911
Derek DiFilippo said:
Wow, we talked about that back in October 2019. It's so cool you remembered that. It does take time for instruments to settle in and to get to know them.
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I never forgot that comment, because I didn't know at the time how it could be possible.

Derek DiFilippo said:
No disrespect to any other manufacturers or any other players with different tastes. That's just my own experience/taste and I'm guessing others in this thread feel the same.
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There's a place for all these great instruments. Players are funny about their preferences, and it rarely has anything to do with being rational.
 
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#1,912
The decision came after I finally figured out how to EQ the J for funk and R&B, something a Sadowsky does effortlessly, but I couldn't quite dial on this bass. Moollon's J pickups are a little bit dark, and 90% of the time, that's in the best possible way, but if you need to make your best Skeet Curtis or early Darryl Jones impression happen (and you sometimes do), they are found wanting in the very top octave. I had a much easier time with a couple of Fender CS Jazzes for this, but didn't like them as much for anything else.

The conventional wisdom of the "smiley-face EQ" I think is wrong. By doing that, you end up boosting too much bass to be useful, cutting too much midrange to be heard, and very often your amp's treble knob is probably cornered at too low a frequency (like 3.5k or 4k) so you end up boosting lots of "gank". Then you start wanting a HPF to deal with all that boosted bass.

The solution for me is a single 5k shelf and boost to taste, and this is just high enough to work around the gank. You don't change the tone of the bass at all, it just adds a little "air" without ruining what's great down below. Noble EQ knobs around 9:00 each for a gentle slope that sounds good on everything, and kick on the shelf EQ when I need it, with a pedal. That's it.

It sounds great with about 4dB of gain, but I can get pretty darn close to this, if I crank it high enough (like 15dB!):
 

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#1,913
600 Ohms said:
The decision came after I finally figured out how to EQ the J for funk and R&B, something a Sadowsky does effortlessly, but I couldn't quite dial on this bass. Moollon's J pickups are a little bit dark, and 90% of the time, that's in the best possible way, but if you need to make your best Skeet Curtis or early Darryl Jones impression happen (and you sometimes do), they are found wanting in the very top octave. I had a much easier time with a couple of Fender CS Jazzes for this, but didn't like them as much for anything else.

The conventional wisdom of the "smiley-face EQ" I think is wrong. By doing that, you end up boosting too much bass to be useful, cutting too much midrange to be heard, and very often your amp's treble knob is probably cornered at too low a frequency (like 3.5k or 4k) so you end up boosting lots of "gank". Then you start wanting a HPF to deal with all that boosted bass.

The solution for me is a single 5k shelf and boost to taste, and this is just high enough to work around the gank. You don't change the tone of the bass at all, it just adds a little "air" without ruining what's great down below. Noble EQ knobs around 9:00 each for a gentle slope that sounds good on everything, and kick on the shelf EQ when I need it, with a pedal. That's it.
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I will have to try this. I do struggle occasionally with getting a good modern slap tone out of my ash/maple JV. Like you said so well, most of the time, the voicing of the pick ups is just perfect, the only times I find it lacking or when I am looking for a slap tone. And I agree that the freq has to be high enough to avoid all the gank and just add air and snap. I think the upper treble on my Trickfish 1k can do it, as it has shelves at 4 or 8k. Gonna try opening it up a bit at 4 and see if it helps.
 
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#1,914
J.Wolf said:
I will have to try this. I do struggle occasionally with getting a good modern slap tone out of my ash/maple JV. Like you said so well, most of the time, the voicing of the pick ups is just perfect, the only times I find it lacking or when I am looking for a slap tone. And I agree that the freq has to be high enough to avoid all the gank and just add air and snap. I think the upper treble on my Trickfish 1k can do it, as it has shelves at 4 or 8k. Gonna try opening it up a bit at 4 and see if it helps.
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My experience exactly. You might get away with it at 4k if the slope doesn't push up too much 1-3k, but it just might. I'd guess that 8k is too high, but who knows? I never tried it up that high. I use a SA EQ2 pedal for this.
 
#1,917
NBD. J Classic V. Older one. I dig it ;)
 

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