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G&L Club Part 7

#17,004
Holdsg said:
Yes. Bars/blades Same thing.
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Bars/Blades are not the same thing when dealing with Nordstrand's nomenclature.

To clarify @Dark Horse , the "J-Blades" (Jazz shell) and the "Big Blades" (soapbar shell) are not the same pickup with different housings.

I recently had a conversation with Stew at Nordstrand about this. We were talking about the BigBladeMan pickup guts and he said:

"The guts of the BigBladeMan are actually Big J Blades so they have a bit less muscle and are subtly brighter than a pair of Big Blades mounted right next to each other."

This is different than the "Jazz Bars" Nordstrand sells which are just regular jazz pickups in soapbar shells.
 
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#17,005
MascisMan said:
Bars/Blades are not the same thing when dealing with Nordstrand's nomenclature.

To clarify @Dark Horse , the "J-Blades" (Jazz shell) and the "Big Blades" (soapbar shell) are not the same pickup with different housings.

I recently had a conversation with Stew at Nordstrand about this. We were talking about the BigBladeMan pickup guts and he said:

"The guts of the BigBladeMan are actually Big J Blades so they have a bit less muscle and are subtly brighter than a pair of Big Blades mounted right next to each other."

This is different than the "Jazz Bars" Nordstrand sells which are just regular jazz pickups in soapbar shells.
Click to expand...


Yes, that's why I posted the follow up post including the screenshot of the pickups ...


Dark Horse said:
Sorry, meant to say Big Blades....that said, it's easy enough to rout for soapbars if I decide to go that direction

View attachment 3891132
Click to expand...
 
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#17,006
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#17,007
jcburn said:
That is a great looking bass man.
Has anyone ever done a tone comparison between the MFD P and the EMG GZR?
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The GZR is more vintage sounding. Semi aggressive in a good sweet way. Somewhat subdued highs. An excellent pickup.

The MFD is all-out more aggressive in every way. More of everything and brash in a good way.

They really sound nothing alike, but both are awesome.
 
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#17,009
jcburn said:
That is a great looking bass man.
Has anyone ever done a tone comparison between the MFD P and the EMG GZR?
Click to expand...
I don't have a bass with MFD pickups here at the moment, but my Lakland P has GZR and I just re-watched the demo I did of the SB-2.
MFDs have more low end punch with tons of output, while GZR's are more open sounding, less output and have a high mid focus
 
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#17,011
Fairly new to TB. Thought I'd post a pic on the G&L Club of my 86 L-1000. I've had it for many years but until recently had a love/hate relationship with it. Couldn't bring myself to part with it cause they're a bit of rarity here in oz but had difficulties with a bit of a ski jump on the neck. Also found the MFD hard to tame. However I finally got it off to a good luthier and restrung with TI jazz flats and wow. Absolutely love it now. The flats tamed the MFD and the lower tension helped get around the ski jump. Now gone to being one of my favourite player.
 

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#17,012
donahue said:
The GZR is more vintage sounding. Semi aggressive in a good sweet way. Somewhat subdued highs. An excellent pickup.

The MFD is all-out more aggressive in every way. More of everything and brash in a good way.

They really sound nothing alike, but both are awesome.
Click to expand...
I agree with this assessment a %100:thumbsup:
 
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#17,013
Jim C said:
When you say MFD and aggressive:
I'm guessing grindy with lots of punch. How would you describe the treble, mid, and bass response?
I've found a lot of hot pups are a little dull on top but tons of bottom.
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That seems accurate. P-Bass sample below
 
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#17,014
fcleff said:
In March I purchased a Build To Order SB-1 from my local G&L dealer. It was an early birthday present and I hoped that it would arrive near or on my birthday in May. It was going to be a beauty: Alder Body painted Ruby Red Metallic; White Pearl Pickguard; 1 5/8" Medium C Quarter Sawn Maple Neck; Ebony Fretboard without Top Dots (Dot Delete); Vintage Frets; White Binding; Black Headstock. I was so excited.

A couple of days before my birthday I get a call from my dealer. He leaves a message asking me to call him. He didn't say, "Your bass is here and ready to be picked up." This was my first inkling that something was wrong. Indeed, they installed a flat sawn neck, not a quarter sawn neck. I had a choice to take the bass as is and knock the price down a negligible amount or send it back. I chose to send it back as I wanted my first custom bass to be right. And G&L shouldn't have made such a glaring error.

I have now waited almost two months for the replacement. My dealer had been reaching out periodically but was not getting any return emails or calls. Finally, today he got through.

Now, what I didn't know is that when a bass is returned to the factory, G&L has to issue a 'call tag' to the dealer so that it can be shipped back. Well, it turns out that G&L made the call tag but never sent it to the dealer. All this time my dealer has been calling and emailing them trying to obtain it. So yes, my bass has been sitting at the dealer's shop for two months waiting to be shipped back to Fullerton. I am furious.

After the phone call I wrote an email to the dealer explaining that I felt I was owed a significant discount or that I would ship the bass back to G&L and ask for my money back. The dealer agreed. He forwarded the email to Ron and Memo and got an immediate response from Ron. The bass is being shipped back tomorrow and Ron said that they would get right on the new neck now. The jury is still out as to what, if any, compensation G&L will offer me for their incompetence. But at least something is happening now. We'll see where it goes from here.
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Here is the first non sarcastic thing I have ever said to you - that sucks bro sorry to hear. I went through the same thing in 2018 except I cancelled my order at this point.

Good luck mang! I hope you bass gets fixed on the right day of the week.
 
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#17,016
Phat_Jack said:
Fairly new to TB. Thought I'd post a pic on the G&L Club of my 86 L-1000. I've had it for many years but until recently had a love/hate relationship with it. Couldn't bring myself to part with it cause they're a bit of rarity here in oz but had difficulties with a bit of a ski jump on the neck. Also found the MFD hard to tame. However I finally got it off to a good luthier and restrung with TI jazz flats and wow. Absolutely love it now. The flats tamed the MFD and the lower tension helped get around the ski jump. Now gone to being one of my favourite player.
Click to expand...
I also think a good portion of the aggressive nature of the GL sound is down to its construction.
My '17 LB 100 with alnico5 pickups sounded absolutely nasty to me with the factory exl rw strings. (It wasn't the pickup).
I'm really interested in getting a kiloton,but i imagine i will at least want half rounds if not flats when i do.
 
#17,017
woodyng2 said:
I also think a good portion of the aggressive nature of the GL sound is down to its construction.
My '17 LB 100 with alnico5 pickups sounded absolutely nasty to me with the factory exl rw strings. (It wasn't the pickup).
I'm really interested in getting a kiloton,but i imagine i will at least want half rounds if not flats when i do.
Click to expand...
Nasty in a negative way?
Funny that you mention the D'addario round wounds. G&L has converted me to them, haha. I've got Nickels 45-100 on both the LB-100, JB, my Lakland P and my Dingwall Super J now :laugh:
 
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#17,019
IvanBassist said:
Nasty in a negative way?
Funny that you mention the D'addario round wounds. G&L has converted me to them, haha. I've got Nickels 45-100 on both the LB-100, JB, my Lakland P and my Dingwall Super J now :laugh:
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Yes,the bad kind of nasty. I think the strings that came on my LB were stainless steel.
I greatly prefer nickle RW strings. Even so, i think my lb100 and my jb2 sound better with flatwounds.
 
#17,020
Jim C said:
When you say MFD and aggressive:
I'm guessing grindy with lots of punch. How would you describe the treble, mid, and bass response?
I've found a lot of hot pups are a little dull on top but tons of bottom.
Click to expand...
There's tons of bottom too. I run my L2K almost always with bass cut.

On my SB-2, you roll off the bottom by dialing in some bridge. If I had an SB-1 I'd use my HPF to control the lows.

I think you'll find the MFDs have a lot everything in them. For the music I play all of them punch through nicely.
 
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