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I have a question on these....
I have an Ashbory with Thunderguts, and if I play it too long it kinda bothers the arthritis in the knuckle of my index finger on my fretting hand. An electric that has too tall an nut height will do the same thing. If you can imagine what I'm talking about I was wondering how fretting these basses are in relation to that too tall 'feel'?
(Yeah like that post makes any sense! LOL)
I have an Ashbory with Thunderguts, and if I play it too long it kinda bothers the arthritis in the knuckle of my index finger on my fretting hand. An electric that has too tall an nut height will do the same thing. If you can imagine what I'm talking about I was wondering how fretting these basses are in relation to that too tall 'feel'?
(Yeah like that post makes any sense! LOL)
I always found the Thunderguts to be too sticky, so I use black Road Toad Pahoehoe. I wonder if the stickiness is adding to your arthritic problem. I recently evaluated a newly formulated set of less sticky Thunderguts for Mimmo at Aquila, certainly better, but still not as smooth as Pahoehoe.
I'm finally following up on my MB (23" acoustic). I ended up taking it in to a local guitar shop that I trust. The repair guy got it working for me and it turned out that it came to me (I assume from GoldTone since it was new from a dealer) with a partial plastic shim that was not "ramped" - it was a short ledge of plastic that meant the slot bottom was not functionally flat and the pickup was not getting even pressure. He routed the slot/shim to get it flat and now I have D&G strings that have comparable amplified output to their acoustic output (which was nice and balanced). I still like it best with the bass way up and the treble way down which does make the high strings a little lower, but that's a function of how I've EQed it, and not a fundamental problem with the bass. I'm very happy and will be getting a lot more use out of it now.
In fact I was so happy I went ahead and ordered a solidbody fretless to go with it (9v instead of coin cells, string ends not in the acoustic cavity, should hang on a strap better, . . . )
In fact I was so happy I went ahead and ordered a solidbody fretless to go with it (9v instead of coin cells, string ends not in the acoustic cavity, should hang on a strap better, . . . )
Quick solidbody ME-bass fretless impressions:
With my acoustic Microbass working much better for me i thought that a solidbody MEbass might go even beyond that. So I picked one up. I just sent of the email saying I wanted to return it, and it's because of a few design decisions that GoldTone made for the solidbody that are different than the acoustic.
I'll start with the plusses - the things I liked a lot:
If the neck on the solidbody had been lined & dotted the same way as the acoustic I might have kept it. But with the problems I didn't find the solidbody advantages compelling enough to keep, much less beat out the acoustic. If I had bought both at the same time I'd probably keep the solidbody and fix up the neck markings, but the acoustic has the look, meets my needs with less work, and is not returnable (I've had it a number of months) so the solidbody is going back.
I made the classic mistake of playing it "one last time" before boxing it up to send back, and couldn't put it in the box afterwards. So it's going to stick around - a little different flavor of the ultrashort scale "rubber" stringed bass. I would have just looked for the "next" bass to fill my last bass hanger anyway
. Time to track down some good tape & dot stickers to fix up the side of the neck . . .
7/21/16 edit: strike out paragraph about it being returned, add paragraph about keeping it anyway
With my acoustic Microbass working much better for me i thought that a solidbody MEbass might go even beyond that. So I picked one up. I just sent of the email saying I wanted to return it, and it's because of a few design decisions that GoldTone made for the solidbody that are different than the acoustic.
I'll start with the plusses - the things I liked a lot:
- the narrower body: for me it hung better on a strap (the acoustic works suprisingly well for me on a strap, but the solidbody was better). My right shoulder was happier not having to reach over the wider acoustic body. It is significantly heavier than the acoustic, but it's still light enough to feel like nothing.
- string-through design: I didn't actually use this since I didn't change out strings but I'm not looking forward to doing that with the acoustic
- 9V battery: again not something I actually used but I liked the idea of the more common 9V battery. It is behind 2 screws as opposed to the plug-in cartridge for the coin cells which would make it not as quick to swap out.
- balance and sustain: even with my fixed up acoustic I found the solidbody to have the upper strings much more present and easy to keep balanced with the lower strings.
- side dots between fretlines: On the acoustic fretless the side dots are on the fretlines, the same as on most other fretlesses I've had. The dots between the fretlines (normal on a fretted bass) means you are estimating where the fretline/position is past the dot, not right on it. Granted this could be alleviated with some stickers, whiteout, paint, etc. but to me it's an easy detail that was missed (I'm sure it's cheaper to have the dots in the same place on the fretted & fretless, but it makes the fretless harder). That goes along with:
- fretlines are not visible on the side of the neck: On my acoustic the fretlines extend on the edge of the fingerboard so I can see them without twisting or craning to see the front face of the fingerboard. That's really helpful for me since I'm an infrequent fretless player and the 23" scale is way different than my usual 34". Since the fretless neck does show the lines on the side on the acoustic it was a big shock/disappointment to not have the solidbody set up the same way. Like the dots it could be fixed with some stickers, tape, paint, luthier work, etc. but to my mind the acoustic fretless neck was done the right way from the factory and the solidbody was not.
- no built-in tuner: not a big deal but it's surprising how quickly you become accustomed to the built-in tuner in the acoustic. I use clip-ons for my regular basses so just mentioned for completeness (although it also means no 1-button mute).
- limited eq/electronics: this was much more painful. The only controls are volume and what seems to be a tone knob. With the tone knob anywhere but all the way off the piezo is super crispy, present, harsh and nasty. With it dialed all the way back it's just somewhat crispy/harsh/nasty. With the acoustic I find the sliders sufficient to deal with the piezo crispiness and add body with the bass. With the solidbody outside eq was direly needed. I have a Fishman Bass Platinum Pro so I used that and was able to eq the bass into a pretty nice tone with some help from the amp eq. It's never the muted, gigantic tone the acoustic can get. It always has some piezo crisp present but the high strings don't drop out the same way as happens on the acoustic as you dial up the bass for that big warm sound.
I made the classic mistake of playing it "one last time" before boxing it up to send back, and couldn't put it in the box afterwards. So it's going to stick around - a little different flavor of the ultrashort scale "rubber" stringed bass. I would have just looked for the "next" bass to fill my last bass hanger anyway
. Time to track down some good tape & dot stickers to fix up the side of the neck . . . 7/21/16 edit: strike out paragraph about it being returned, add paragraph about keeping it anyway
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I think they are using pretty cheap electronics in these, but I dig the shape of the Solidbody.
If you like the idea of the Solidbody though, go on kala's site and buy the parts to make a 4 or 5 string ubass (the 5 is the same scale as your gold tone). The lr baggs electronics are very good. I have a fender bridge on mine right now so that it can intonate correctly, but I'm trying to figure out how to go back to a wood bridge and be in tune because the lr baggs pickup speaks better in the wood bridge.
Anyway, good review of the gold tone, thanks.
If you like the idea of the Solidbody though, go on kala's site and buy the parts to make a 4 or 5 string ubass (the 5 is the same scale as your gold tone). The lr baggs electronics are very good. I have a fender bridge on mine right now so that it can intonate correctly, but I'm trying to figure out how to go back to a wood bridge and be in tune because the lr baggs pickup speaks better in the wood bridge.
Anyway, good review of the gold tone, thanks.
Yes excellent review. I had a fretted acoustic, but didn't really connect with it, but I though the solidbody would be cool to have. They announced it about 3 years ago but nothing happened until recently. I traded my GT acoustic for a Fender tbucket acoustic bass, but I still have and love my trusty Kala fretless mahogany ubass I bought a few years ago. I really think fretless is the way to go on these little rubber string wonders.
Picked up a fretted acoustic. The weight and scale will really help when my gimpy shoulder and damaged back won't let me handle one of my short scales. Love the 'boom' but the strings can be a bit sticky, so not sure if I like them or not. Got to play it a bit more. My Ashbory has Thunderguts and they don't seem sticky like this?
Wife keeps saying if one comes in one goes out,, so I'm thinking it'll be the Ashbory. The 23" scale on the GT doesn't seem like that much bigger but the extra scale seems to have a good bit more room than the Ash, my stiff arthritic fingers doesn't handle the Ash as well as it used too. So far the strings aren't causing my distal index pain like the Ashbory either, so always a good sign.
Wife keeps saying if one comes in one goes out,
, so I'm thinking it'll be the Ashbory. The 23" scale on the GT doesn't seem like that much bigger but the extra scale seems to have a good bit more room than the Ash, my stiff arthritic fingers doesn't handle the Ash as well as it used too. So far the strings aren't causing my distal index pain like the Ashbory either, so always a good sign.
You may want to look into installing the Kala Paehoehoe strings. They have a lot of low end and they aren't sticky at all. They void the warranty,but I did it anyway. It made it a much better more playable instrument, at least for me anyway!Picked up a fretted acoustic. The weight and scale will really help when my gimpy shoulder and damaged back won't let me handle one of my short scales. Love the 'boom' but the strings can be a bit sticky, so not sure if I like them or not. Got to play it a bit more. My Ashbory has Thunderguts and they don't seem sticky like this?
Wife keeps saying if one comes in one goes out,
Goldtone's warranty states that any string besides the Thunderguts voids the warranty. I'm really not sure why, except maybe they think other strings may do damage to the instrument.
Wow. I guess if they think so. They also built it to take labella flats, so not sure how that's the case (at least the solid one is), but I guess they have a right to their thought. Try the pahoehoes anyway.
If I remember right the standard ones should fit. They are longer than say a ubass, but the strings are a lot longer than a ubass scale when you buy them. Or buy from roadtoad and get a longer set. I believe the price is the same and you can trim the extra off if necessary.
Absolutely true, I think the longer scale ones are a tiny bit lighter in gauge but can't say for sure. Either way, you could probably string 2 basses with one string because they stretch so much.
FYE (entertainment, not info) I made the classic mistake of playing it "one last time" before boxing it up to return, and couldn't. I amended my short review post to that effect
Harder than it would've been if they had put a detachable hatch on the back but not terribly difficult. You have to reach into the sound hole to push the strings through the bridge which is annoying but doable as long as you don't have huge hands. Also depends on what strings you plan on installing.
