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First off, welcome to TalkBass!
I just looked at the pic of your bass in the Kiesel gallery, it was added since my last time there. It's stunning! I'm looking forward to hearing your impressions as you go forward.
Can you say what was wrong with the bass? How has Kiesel been on getting the issues resolved? And you mentioned that you saw in-progress pics - I assume that was on their FB page?
And thanks for your comments about the electronics. I'm thinking I may try to see if I can reverse the push-pull pot wiring so passive is down and active is up - which makes more sense to my little reptilian brain.
Can you comment on the reach to the nut when it's on a strap? That's my biggest worry right now - I've had headless basses which hung with a long reach compared to others.
Again, welcome!
Hey and welcome! Saw that bass...wow. I look forward to more reports...I may just go this route even though I'm NOT a fan of active. This combination seems too good and I HAVE lived w/ active(batteries-ugh.) before. I will own one or the other and we're moving, so I HAVE time to decide. Thanks for any and all posts-I'd love to hear about the neck profile specifically, as that seems to be my biggest peeve with some instruments. All me best~Although I will say this in direct response to your questions...
The 18v preamp is POWERFUL. Even with my GK pad attenuation, I have to keep input gain pretty low...
The passive voice is very usable. The controls are volume, push/pull passive tone, concentric bass and treble. The levels between active and passive are surprisingly close [more so than any such bass I've played]. If I had the active/passive functionality in a mini-switch, I think that I could foresee myself using it passive just as much as I would active. That being said, there's something about using an instrument with the pot pulled up. Maybe my despising asymmetry.
I wish I could find someone with a 34" scale Vader nearby so I could check out the first position reach - that's the one think I'm nervous about. I know that if I can't live with it I can always send it back and reorder something with 30" scale, hopefully they would be willing to do an AW5 as a 30" - I could live with the usual Vader 24 fret neck in that case. For me, the AW5 is all about that single HB.
songwriter21
I have an obsession for wood. The musical kind.
Child's play...mine (btw, not an AW5, but a VB5) is now past 20 weeks. I finally figured out what the status is from Jeff, but still.
Well, *that* could have been embarrassing!
Kiesel just hit the credit card I used for the deposit for the balance. I figured they would have come to me for payment instead of doing that. Luckily I had enough open credit, but I would have preferred paying a different way.
They must be getting ready to ship, eh? I sure hope I like this thing!
Kiesel just hit the credit card I used for the deposit for the balance. I figured they would have come to me for payment instead of doing that. Luckily I had enough open credit, but I would have preferred paying a different way.
They must be getting ready to ship, eh? I sure hope I like this thing!
Woot!
(Edit - the A string is centered on the diamonds, the photo is on an angle)
It arrived Tuesday, so they beat the ten week estimate. There were two minor specification errors - I had ordered a silver drop shadow logo and they gave me white drop shadow which is no biggie (and probably is better since the gunmetal grey metallic was lighter than I expected), and the back of the neck is body color which was an option I regretted not ordering - yay me!
I was having a nasty popping noise when adjusting volume in active mode only that I quickly traced to a bad solder joint on the hot from the battery box to the active tone board - it was probably making mechanical contact during QC but shook loose during shipping. It was a ten minute fix, and it was that long only because I had to pull the board from the cavity to reach the solder pad.
It sounds great and plays very nicely. It's 8 pounds 3.5 ounces which is a little heavier than I had hoped but is very well balanced, so I'm good. I'm not immediately noticing any first position reach issues which is something that concerned me. I'm using it at practice tonight and will have a better feel for things after that.
So, all indications are good so far! If this works out, I can see a woody fretless five similar to BassDjent75's in my future to replace my fretless Synapse.
(Edit - the A string is centered on the diamonds, the photo is on an angle)
It arrived Tuesday, so they beat the ten week estimate. There were two minor specification errors - I had ordered a silver drop shadow logo and they gave me white drop shadow which is no biggie (and probably is better since the gunmetal grey metallic was lighter than I expected), and the back of the neck is body color which was an option I regretted not ordering - yay me!
I was having a nasty popping noise when adjusting volume in active mode only that I quickly traced to a bad solder joint on the hot from the battery box to the active tone board - it was probably making mechanical contact during QC but shook loose during shipping. It was a ten minute fix, and it was that long only because I had to pull the board from the cavity to reach the solder pad.
It sounds great and plays very nicely. It's 8 pounds 3.5 ounces which is a little heavier than I had hoped but is very well balanced, so I'm good. I'm not immediately noticing any first position reach issues which is something that concerned me. I'm using it at practice tonight and will have a better feel for things after that.
So, all indications are good so far! If this works out, I can see a woody fretless five similar to BassDjent75's in my future to replace my fretless Synapse.
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Just mounted a new set of EBMM Cobalt flats, let's see how I like them on the AW5 - I like them on other basses.
Well, that didn't last long. I was tuning up at practice and the D broke at the saddle. I ended up using it sans D all night.
I just mounted up a set of DAddario EXL165-5 45-135 nickel plated rounds - the flats weren’t doing it for me on this bass, and I really like the EXL165-5s that came on my SR5. Let’s see how this goes.
Question for other AW5 owners like @MojoPenguin ...
I noticed something at practice the other night. I thought the passive and active tone circuits would be completely separate - that the passive tone setting would have no effect on the active and vice-versa. However, I’m finding that when I’m in active mode rotating the passive tone pot still affects things. I’m not sure if that’s correct or if something strange is going on with mine.
I’m not sure I like the Kiesel preamp and tone stack and am considering replacing it with EMG, but I’d like to give it a chance first.
I noticed something at practice the other night. I thought the passive and active tone circuits would be completely separate - that the passive tone setting would have no effect on the active and vice-versa. However, I’m finding that when I’m in active mode rotating the passive tone pot still affects things. I’m not sure if that’s correct or if something strange is going on with mine.
I’m not sure I like the Kiesel preamp and tone stack and am considering replacing it with EMG, but I’d like to give it a chance first.
Either way, that sounds like a bonus. More sound shaping possibilities. My Sadowsky has that feature (passive tone control).
I’d prefer they be totally separate; my only past experience with switchable active/passive basses has been with EBMM where they don’t interact. I’ll keep playing with it, though.
That said, replacing everything between the pickup and jack with an EMG BTS HZ and losing the passive mode is tempting... I prefer very simple control sets.
I think it's better to have the passive mode for piece of mind. I have some basses without it and I'm reluctant to gig them for that reason.
