New arrival: G&L SB-1 40th Anniversary bass. First impression, inspection and noodle made me very, very happy. To be continued...
Nice bass !! I saw several similar for sale in Japan
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Nice bass !! I saw several similar for sale in Japan
Perhaps it was this one. I bought it from Bass Shop Geek IN Box (via Reverb). They gave me such a sweat deal that even the shipping (to Europe) and import duties (was lucky with that one) couldn't spoil it.
geek in box
Do you get better service for not paying? Basses that don't need taking to a tech to be finished off, things built to spec the first time, truss rods that work, pickguards that fit, instruments built before you've almost forgotten the enthusiasm you ordered them with, yadda yadda yadda? G&Ls without the B&S, must be bliss
Gotta say, if/when I get my SB-1 back from Dysfunctionality Avenue, the last thing I'll be doing it ditching the MFD pickup.
we need a G&L support group for those waiting for a repair! I'm at week 4 or 5 now.
I've decided to take a deeply chilled out approach to this experience: the however long it takes to get my SB-1 somewhere as near as good as my LB-100 will still be shorter than the forever I would have suffered if I had chosen not to pay for it to go on a return trip back to the US. And once its done and the bass is behaving itself, the rewards will make the wait melt into the past. Ommmmm.
I feel the same! I have 2 other G&Ls that are nothing short of perfection. And my current BTO was completed in less than 2 months. So the fact I am having to wait for a truss rod repair doesn't bother me, because I'll probably still get it back quicker than the original 6-7 month wait I expected when I ordered it
Do you get better service for not paying? Basses that don't need taking to a tech to be finished off, things built to spec the first time, truss rods that work, pickguards that fit, instruments built before you've almost forgotten the enthusiasm you ordered them with, yadda yadda yadda? G&Ls without the B&S, must be bliss
Gotta say, if/when I get my SB-1 back from Dysfunctionality Avenue, the last thing I'll be doing it ditching the MFD pickup.
Mate, that sucks if you have had that experience. I have not. I owned 4 back in the day (97-2003) that were not an endorsement and were amazing. I have four at the moment since I became part of the fam a few months back and all are top notch, can't fault them at all. Also a mate of mine has the distribution in one of the territories in Europe and all the USA are top. It takes a few months to get an instrument after order but I gotta say, same with the Japanese Ibbys if they were not in stock and I had sandberg before that and they went from 3-4 month wait in 2016 to 9 and then to 11 months by 2023 when I went to order one from a mate. And their price went up 1/3 in that time. They are much more expensive than G n L and in my opinion, same good quality. So that sucks mate if you have t had a good experience.
Hey brother, the MFD pups are bigger so you would have to
buddy, the MfD is about half a centimetre wider and longer, so you would have to do some "crafty carving" to make em fit. I got nothing against the MFD pups at all, infact I really like them but EMGs DCs are just my magic "sit in the mix where I want to be any where I play" pick up and also I bend and shift a lot (Ala Billy Sheehan) so I need the one long on price magnet so as not to get signal loss. Got a punch of brand new MFDs if anyone wants em
Man, that's too bad. My woodworking skills aren't bad, though they're rusty, and I really have no decent shop to work in. If I can figure something out, I might buy one MFD from you. MFDs are my favorite bass pickups, bar none. My second favorites are EMG actives--I've used a few different configurations. However, I hate EMG passives. I pulled this one out and put in a Lace Alumibar. It's pretty good, but it's different.
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Man, completely agree, EMG passives are the pits, the worst. are you planning to pair it (MFD) with the original pre amp? I find the MFD run passive (like was the setup in my fallout bass) is still
Killer but it's a little dark. The G n L pre in active mode brightens it up a bit even without using the treble boost switch or any of the passive eq. My fave setting on the active circuit with the MFD is everything flat, active on and in parallel mode. So punchy and detailed. The series is wayyyyyy to over bassy to be useable for my own taste. But I am an EMG guy because of my L5500. I actually realised years after it was stolen in the early 2000's it was still the sound I was searching for since. Then one day I picked up a mates Spector with the DCs and BOOM, that was it!! So I ended up switching all the pickups in my Ibanez's to EMGs, and now, all my G n Ls. I did try the MFD in the fallout with an Aguilar OBP2 pre, it was good, but…… not the DC and BTC that I love so dear
This bass is a headless NS Design WAV4, which does have a preamp. Oddly, even though it has two EQs, they're both passive. I tried a few different things, and it's now a single pickup passive bass. I like it, but I can't help feeling there's more in there. Of course, and active EMG soapbar is a possibility.
you based in the states? I would do your self a favour and try a DC or one of the active soaps with a BTC control. No routing, no soldering, and there are like 5 or 6 different soap bar options. I don't think you could go wrong trying that out. That's my two cents anyway
I am based there. I've been back and forth with EMG for about a month checking out options for this bass. The way it's set up, whatever pickup I use would be the only pickup...it's in the "sweet spot" P-bass position, and I have a BTC and a BTS control sitting in a drawer. Maybe it's time to commit!you based in the states? I would do your self a favour and try a DC or one of the active soaps with a BTC control. No routing, no soldering, and there are like 5 or 6 different soap bar options. I don't think you could go wrong trying that out. That's my two cents anyway
Yes, it was Geek In Box. They had several like that, if I had the $$ I might have bought one. Good luck with it, it's a sweet looking bass ! I have an Okoume body SB-1, but a bit different than yours. Killer sounding bass !
It's not a dumb question but Warmouth say right on their site that their necks are 'incompatible' with G&L, Musicman, and other basses. To get what I want looks like a custom build if I get any traction on my research on that will be reportintg back here. Although I can get that purists would not care for such a mod.
Question for this group, and another thing like the polish question (still unanswered https://www.talkbass.com/threads/g-l-club-part-7.1035742/page-1455#post-27920127) a bass buddy I highly respect is also against doing -
what have any of you done to get the rust or corrosion off your pole pieces and their seatings? The bridge p/u is fine but the neck p/u is messing with my OCD. I've been warned against using steel wool, which I think is good advice:
what have any of you done to get the rust or corrosion off your pole pieces and their seatings? The bridge p/u is fine but the neck p/u is messing with my OCD. I've been warned against using steel wool, which I think is good advice:
Yeah man, and if you don't like it, it's easy enough to try a different EMG or then try routing for a different t pickup or what ever. The fallout has the pickup in the P position too. But I went for the DC over the P soap bar. But those are my two fave EMGs, the original P or P in the soap bar Config or the DC. But in my G n L basses, it's all DC. So far. I can eq them to sound like anything. I can get Music man outta them, P bass, vintage, modern, what ever. I hear people say they are scooped. I have never had that experience by ear or looking at them through a spectrum analyser. They do have a lot of booty and highs though, which may give a false scooped perception but there are plenty of mids there, and my secret weapon? The BTC with the dip switches on/on for that extra bump of high mid. I never need treble with those pups I still can't figure out why EMG get such a bad rep. Maybe because of the passives. But for me? I mean reasonably priced for pro level gear, user friendly, interchangeable pickups, pretty much any sound you would want through all the lines they have now…… far out, its 5/5 for me look no further kinda vibe. Oh, and the other thing, sterile??? That's another one I don't get. Especially the DC and the P. Between those two you can get almost any modern or vintage tone you need, and plenty of mojo on tap or clinical precision too if that's what you want, but sterile?? I love how people rave about let's say the Aguilar DCB pups. I had them in my Ibanez basses. Essentially they are aguilars version of the DC. They are twice more expensive and don't have the same presence and aggression as the DC. They are great pickups, but when I swapped them out for the EMG? Wow, massive difference. A guy callled me today from Spain, I sold him a 6 string headless Ibanez that I routed out for EMGs. He dropped me a line after 6 months to tell me how great it sounds at gigs and I. Studios and he always has sound guys asking him about his sound. So, yeah, I say try it mate. What, less than $100 for one pup, break a pre amp outta the draw and after 30 mins of unscrewing and screwing and plugging and you are good to go with a new killer bass
I have never used an EMG active with one of their preamps. I have a couple of the HBs in an '88 Steinberger XL2 I have. They're just P-bass pickups in a guitar-humbucker-size casing. I put an EMG P-J setup on an Ibanez I rebuilt a long time ago, and that P-bass EMG in that Inanez P-bass copy. All of these had passive EQs. I had a 4- and a 5-string Steinberger Synapse with active EMG soapbars standard and active EQ. They sounded great, but nobody at EMG could tell me what model it was,, and Gibson, who built those at the Epiphone plant in Korea, stopped building them years ago and has no info available on them, or so they say. I think the DC was the one I was looking at recently. I'll find it in my Wish List on Reverb. I heartily agree with your assessment of EMG actives.Yeah man, and if you don't like it, it's easy enough to try a different EMG or then try routing for a different t pickup or what ever. The fallout has the pickup in the P position too. But I went for the DC over the P soap bar. But those are my two fave EMGs, the original P or P in the soap bar Config or the DC. But in my G n L basses, it's all DC. So far. I can eq them to sound like anything. I can get Music man outta them, P bass, vintage, modern, what ever. I hear people say they are scooped. I have never had that experience by ear or looking at them through a spectrum analyser. They do have a lot of booty and highs though, which may give a false scooped perception but there are plenty of mids there, and my secret weapon? The BTC with the dip switches on/on for that extra bump of high mid. I never need treble with those pups I still can't figure out why EMG get such a bad rep. Maybe because of the passives. But for me? I mean reasonably priced for pro level gear, user friendly, interchangeable pickups, pretty much any sound you would want through all the lines they have now…… far out, its 5/5 for me look no further kinda vibe. Oh, and the other thing, sterile??? That's another one I don't get. Especially the DC and the P. Between those two you can get almost any modern or vintage tone you need, and plenty of mojo on tap or clinical precision too if that's what you want, but sterile?? I love how people rave about let's say the Aguilar DCB pups. I had them in my Ibanez basses. Essentially they are aguilars version of the DC. They are twice more expensive and don't have the same presence and aggression as the DC. They are great pickups, but when I swapped them out for the EMG? Wow, massive difference. A guy callled me today from Spain, I sold him a 6 string headless Ibanez that I routed out for EMGs. He dropped me a line after 6 months to tell me how great it sounds at gigs and I. Studios and he always has sound guys asking him about his sound. So, yeah, I say try it mate. What, less than $100 for one pup, break a pre amp outta the draw and after 30 mins of unscrewing and screwing and plugging and you are good to go with a new killer bass
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