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G&L Club Part 7

#18,121
TomB said:
Agreed! I understand why some players want to mod their SB-2 to make it more versatile, but man, for so many it is a wonderful and unique instrument as is. Sure, other variants would be cool, and maybe even sell better to a broad market, but let's not kill the goose that laid the golden egg!
Thanks Steve, for surfacing that line of G&L thinking, and thanks Ivan, for sharing it.
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Since I can't edit my post - Say, what about an SB-3?

My only suggestion to enhance the existing SB-2 would be a quieter bridge pickup, like maybe a stacked coil? It does it's "presence enhancement" thing very well, even without a tone control IMO, but it can be noisy. Shielding would be a nice touch on the US models (dream on).

Has anyone here shielded their SB-2? Did it help?
 
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#18,122
IvanBassist said:
...Having comments/messages always helps when trying to work with companies...
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I'm not sure that this is the kind of comment that you want or are looking for, Iv@N, but one HUGE improvement that G&L could do concerning their basses is to uniformly shield them. As you can see in this thread, the customers notice this.

I remember going into a store here in my home town. For what ever reason, the electronics in the store was pretty bad. Several G&Ls that I tried were really noisy, compared to other companies. Now, I know that this is because other companies shield their basses and G&Ls don't...but still, this makes a really bad first impression.

It can't cost that much for a company to uniformly shield their basses. I'm sure it would increase sales tremendously. It's also demoralizing to pay $1500 to $2000 US for a new instrument only to have to do mod it immediately in order for it not to hum.

It's weird, because G&L is really good about construction in most ways. I don't understand why they purposely set themselves up for failure in this way.

Concerning Steve...I really like Steve and his playing too. Very knowledgeable, seems like a really cool guy. One thing that separates your demos from Steve's is that his style brings out the string rattle so loud..it's hard to actually hear the bass. Maybe the guy is just a very physical player. I don't know. Maybe string rattle is the hot new thing and is actually requested. I don't know. I just know that this isn't what I want to hear when I listen to a demo.

This isn't a put down to Steve in any way. It's just a comment to share what I appreciate in a bass review.
 
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#18,123
jfh2424 said:
I'm not sure that this is the kind of comment that you want or are looking for, Iv@N, but one HUGE improvement that G&L could do concerning their basses is to uniformly shield them. As you can see in this thread, the customers notice this.
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I'll forward this to my sales rep :) Thanks for the input!
 
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#18,124
I'll second the shielding suggestion. I just purchased a brand new Fullerton Deluxe JB a few weeks ago and it's the noisiest single coil bass I've had in a long time...if not ever. I did shield the control cavity with copper tape, but haven't got to the pickup cavities yet.

Don't get me wrong...the perfect G&L tone is still there. And and single coil him is not unbearable. It would be nice to have the bass shielded from the factory to reduce a little of the hum.
 
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#18,125
richwag said:
I hope they keep the SB-2 as it is also.

An L2K pickup in the rear with the SB-2 split in the front could be an interesting bass especially if you can go single coil mode. You could still get the SB-2 sound in single coil or using both rear coils get more of an L1500 sound.
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I built a custom bass with this setup and can confirm it's an outstanding combo.
 
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#18,126
blmeier7 said:
I'll second the shielding suggestion. I just purchased a brand new Fullerton Deluxe JB a few weeks ago and it's the noisiest single coil bass I've had in a long time...if not ever. I did shield the control cavity with copper tape, but haven't got to the pickup cavities yet.

Don't get me wrong...the perfect G&L tone is still there. And and single coil him is not unbearable. It would be nice to have the bass shielded from the factory to reduce a little of the hum.
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My MJ-4 was super noisy even with its split coil jazz pickups. Ended up doing the pickup and body cavity and that quieted it down.
 
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#18,129
Hello! I own 5 L2000s. (I know, I know...it's a disease, what can I say). All very similar sounding. Except this one, with a maple top. Body is ash, like the others. It sounds decidedly...snappier. Less lows. Very defined. All that can be fixed with the twirling of the knobs, it's not that big of a deal. But it is noticeable. Immediately.

I have a couple of questions. Would the maple top have that big of an effect on the sound? Does any one else have a bass with a maple top and if so, have you heard this difference too?

This one is much lighter than the other ones, clocking in a 8lbs exactly. I would have thought that the maple top would've made it heavier but no. Do you guys think that G&L uses especially lightweight ash when they do an ash/maple top combo?

I notice that this bass has longer tuner stems than my other one. On the build sheet, it just says G&L ultra lite tuners, like the other ones. I bought this bass NOS from a reputable dealer, I have faith that they did not tamper with it. Are there different sizes of stems from G&L?

Thank you for your input!

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#18,133
Its my understanding that Hipshot provides the tuners for the USA made G&L's I do know that they (Hipshot) does make tuners with both a long and short stem.
I have a project bass in the wings and needed to specify short stem tuners for it - so that's my knowledge reference.

In my estimation, I don't believe the maple top cap will have a significant influence on tone. If it were a maple bass body that would be different.
How about the neck construction? Are is the bass with enhanced treble response buit with a quarter sawn neck? That can brighten things up.
 
#18,134
jfh2424 said:
Hello! I own 5 L2000s. (I know, I know...it's a disease, what can I say). All very similar sounding. Except this one, with a maple top. Body is ash, like the others. It sounds decidedly...snappier. Less lows. Very defined. All that can be fixed with the twirling of the knobs, it's not that big of a deal. But it is noticeable. Immediately.

I have a couple of questions. Would the maple top have that big of an effect on the sound? Does any one else have a bass with a maple top and if so, have you heard this difference too?

This one is much lighter than the other ones, clocking in a 8lbs exactly. I would have thought that the maple top would've made it heavier but no. Do you guys think that G&L uses especially lightweight ash when they do an ash/maple top combo?

I notice that this bass has longer tuner stems than my other one. On the build sheet, it just says G&L ultra lite tuners, like the other ones. I bought this bass NOS from a reputable dealer, I have faith that they did not tamper with it. Are there different sizes of stems from G&L?

Thank you for your input!

View attachment 4040913 View attachment 4040914 View attachment 4040915
Click to expand...


Yep newer tuners have longer stems. I prefer the older shorter ones.
 
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