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Joe dart .. Ernie ball jazz !

#201
the first one and this one are silly. preamps are good actually, and why not have a tone control at that price. musicman builds a really good solid bass, honestly they physically feel like the pre-cbs fenders do, but i feel like they could probably price this accordingly. neat to see them building something new after a long dry spell, hoping to see them make more than sting ray specials again

eastcoasteddie said:
Just like the $7000 Cliff Williams Stingray…?
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in a really funny turn of events a 79 stingray is actually cheaper than the cliff williams reissue. but there is a big caveat there, if your 79 stingray ever blows any of its components, musicman will not fix them because they dont carry the parts, having a 79 that is able to be serviced for as long as musicman exists, is maybe worth the bump up in price. I got to run into one at a local music store actually, and they do actually play a lot like the 79s do. the big difference though is tantalum caps in the preamp, however it does have the inch long pole pieces, string through body and microtilt neck. apparently the smoothie has those pole pieces too which makes me extremely bummed i didnt get one way back when i had the money to!
 
#207
Dr. Cheese said:
I respect the music majors. You can’t bring the Seventies back anymore than we can bring back post war Chicago. After a while, genres become codified and at least a little formulaic. No matter what I will always love a good Funk groove.:bassist:
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ha! yes. some of my best friends are music majors ;)
no disrespect intended in my comments just a reflection of my own personal tastes and outlook. I'm also not inclined to bring back the 70's (or any other era for that matter), life and creativity moves on and morphs the past into present. I'm happy that bands like Vulfpeck gain an audience. It gives me hope that someone listening to one of their tracks might dig a little to discover the roots of the style that they borrow from, and gain new appreciation for bands/styles from the past.

it's all good Dr
 
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#208
rashrader said:
Meh. I’ve never really appreciated basses that try to be cute or funny.
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yeah this smacks of that, its obnoxious, i can hear the "why you need a preamp when you got an eq pedal" coming from it immediately lol.

Wood and Wire said:
In terms of parts, yeah.

But any time they make an instrument that isn't a standard StingRay Special, it disrupts their production line.

StingRays are their bread and butter - guaranteed money in the bank.

If they're not making as many StingRays, they're effectively losing money, so the cost of anything that isn't a StingRay has to cover the disruption, and help mitigate the risk.

They've already stated that due to Covid, and the resultant global supply line issues, they've had to temporarily cease production of anything other than StingRay Specials (that's why they aren't currently making StingRay Classics), and the range of available colours will be more limited.

Consequently, there have been more BFR offerings, whereby they've taken the StingRay Special, and dressed it up for the ball.

And yet they've still managed to release the Tim Commerford, the DarkRay, the Cliff Wiliams, the Joe Dart short scale, and now the Joe Dart 2, all during the pandemic.

It seems they were only able to remain that agile, by being a small family owned company, that had the autonomy to be able to scale back, focus on the essentials, and do right by their highly valued, highly skilled American work force, paying taxes in California.

Who wouldn't want to pay less for their instruments?
But I get why they're priced the way they are.
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yeah didnt think about how it would be losing money to do anything else but sting ray specials. at the same time though i think the existence of 1000 dollar sterlings by musicman has cut into their price flexibility a lot by creating direct competition with themselves in their own former price market. that is to also acknowledge that most USA production basses are around 2.5 and musicman on the other hand out of all the companies actually was selling their basses at a lower rate than the majority of their competition for a long time. One of the reasons i think there is a strong musicman loyalty is cause they were offering something that had more options than their competition(fender, gibson) for a lower price. So maybe on the other hand that choice to have 1000 dollar SBMMs was a way to price basses closer to what their value is, and maybe give everyone a pay increase or something. otherwise it could be just how the market kinda works and the normal line had adjusted in price like that because of the change. I cant really fault them either way
 
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#215
You can get a legit vintage 70’s fender jazz for that much. Joe dart is a great player, Jack Stratton I can’t stand his overly smug and ironic hipster humor, he comes off as an out of touch d bag. Joe seems able to put up with it. The band itself is comical since Joe Carries the whole band, none of the other guys can really touch Joe playing wise. It’s like theyre all a vehicle for his bass solos, just doing basic stuff here and there to augment the Joe show. Should rename the band joepeck.
 
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#217
So, looks a bit cro-magnon to me. Maybe that’s the point?

I’m not a fan of VVT as a control layout, because of how badly the volume controls affect the tone of the instrument, and because you can’t just turn one knob for volume. This bass keeps what I don’t like about a VVT setup, and discards the part that kinda works (the tone knob). It may be someone’s ideal user interface, but it’s definitely not mine.
 
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#219
Tough crowd!

I’m not a knowledgeable Joe Dart fan, but I dig what I’ve seen of him. Great player and he’s bringing retro funk to new ears. He seems to be all about retro with a modern twist so this bass suits him and his vibe.

No tone control? Do you really need one? He seems to get along fine without it. Active bass are ok, but personally, I dislike any bass with tone controls that take me more than one minute to figure out. I think I could master this setup in 30 seconds or less.

Do I want one? Not particularly, but so what. Apparently EBMM had already sold half the run.

It costs too much? Get used to it. Everything costs too much. Did I mention that EBMM already sold half the run.
 
#220
micguy said:
So, looks a bit cro-magnon to me. Maybe that’s the point?

I’m not a fan of VVT as a control layout, because of how badly the volume controls affect the tone of the instrument, and because you can’t just turn one knob for volume. This bass keeps what I don’t like about a VVT setup, and discards the part that kinda works (the tone knob). It may be someone’s ideal user interface, but it’s definitely not mine.
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If i play a jazz, its dime, dime, dime, all the time. The styling is not my jam.
 

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