Daryl's been back with Lakland for 6-12 months, they're making his sig bass again.
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DLB (Dan Lakin Basses) Coming Soon!
- Thread starter Tommy Lotus
- Start date
I am actually very excited to see what this will be. The first Lakland 4-94's were pretty innovative and are modern classics.
I wonder what market niche they will be trying to fill? It would be hard to compete in the mid-price range, I would think. Then again, there are a lot of high end builders with established followings, too...
JAUQO III-X
Inactive
The basses will not be expensive and the pickups sound very very good.
And he will be offering what he calls the Masterbuilt series.
And he will be offering what he calls the Masterbuilt series.
will he also offer a 5 strings hollowbody? Just dreaming, you know...
Will he stay on the usual Lakland body shape or he's doing something even different? Or maybe he's just going back, hangin' to the traditional J/P?
Will he stay on the usual Lakland body shape or he's doing something even different? Or maybe he's just going back, hangin' to the traditional J/P?
what was innovative about them?
Not cynical, just curious as i do not know them all that well.
I was a big fan, and was one of the early adoptors of Dan's original 55-94.
It was not so much innovative versus just putting everything together in a great way. Its 'claim to fame' was that it combined a lot of different tonal footprints. With the coil-tapable MM style pickup in the bridge position combined with a J pickup in J position, you could do a 'reasonably' decent job of vibing a P, a J, and a MM (well not exactly, but for many, close enough). Combine that with super high end construction, and in general, light weight, it became a real 'working player's' bass. You say the 55-94 ALL over the Nashville scene back then. Nice preamp with bypass, 35" scale, string through body or bridge... kind of a Swiss Army Knife sort of thing.
I'm not quite sure what Dan will bring to the party with a new line. The new owners have done what seems to me a very good job with the Lakland line, and I don't believe Dan is a luthier himself. I wish him luck though... nice cat.
Sophisticated Bartolini 3 band eq with vol panpot and passive bypass. With possibility to select the mid freq with two dip switches.
Single jazz Bart pickup at the neck with MM Bart at the bridge; original bridge both stringthru/top
Ultralites tuners.
Reinforcement bars into the 5 strings necks
a more accessible lower cutaway body.
A clean and versatile bass that plays good anywhere on the neck, including hi frets of the Low B.
All in a large series bass. (The sales actually exploded when the Skyline series hit the market. The Usa series were just fighting to stay alive...)
EDIT: we wrote at the same time! Reading the post above, I forgot the split switch for the bridge pickup...
at the time (mid nineties) other than the Warwick dolphin, it was the first instrument I knew of that combined a musicman pickup with a jazz pickup and offered switching that would get you darn close to both the MM and J bass tone in one instrument. it also had a body shape and finishes that would generally appeal to fender and musicman fans, and be different enough to seem boutique-y. lots of builders adopted MM/J electronics in the following years. even Ernie ball.
at the time (mid nineties) other than the Warwick dolphin, it was the first instrument I knew of that combined a musicman pickup with a jazz pickup and offered switching that would get you darn close to both the MM and J bass tone in one instrument. it also had a body shape and finishes that would generally appeal to fender and musicman fans, and be different enough to seem boutique-y. lots of builders adopted MM/J electronics in the following years. even Ernie ball.
Also, with his 55-76 (which I also owned), he created the much desired MM Stingray vibe in a 5 string with full 19mm spacing. That model failed since most thought it was just a 55-94 without the neck J pickup. However, it was not, since it had the MM pickup in exact MM position.
GREAT bass, and unfortunately, the company did not make the market aware of what it actually was (I guess, to be fair, they couldn't since they most likely couldn't and wouldn't say what needed to be said: 'The 76 sounds exactly like a MM Stingray, the 94 doesn't;
any pics? There also was an interesting 55-XX that had two J pickups...
EDIT: found one 55-76... and the 55-63, too!!! With in between a standard 55-94
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I'm definitely interested to see what Dan Lakin has up his sleeve. But his current website doesn't indicate that anything is even on the way.
Nice! That 55-76 has the optional Seymour Duncan MM pickup. I had that pickup in mine. It couldn't do the true MM switching deal (no series setting, if I remember right), but is really did deliver the 'boutique MM 5 with full/standard string spacing' quite nicely. You can see the different pickup position versus the 55-94... made a HUGE difference in 'legitimate MM tone'.
The 55-63 never made much sense to me, since the 'tapped' rear coil of the 55-94 was in the same position and basically was the same pickup. So there, you really did only 'lose 55-94 functionality' versus gaining anything. The cool thing about the 55-95 MM pickup is that it kind of vibed 60's and 70's J bridge position when the individual pickups were chosen. Of course, those Barts sounded nothing like vintage single coil J pickups, but still pretty cool design.
Carey Nordstrand is now making a 55-76 type instrument that is pretty killer.
