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Musicman Big Al Club

#1,643
dave64o said:
Nice! I've had mine for about four months and I'm still in the honeymoon phase with it.

I'm looking forward to playing mine at tonight's gig. It's only three sets instead of our usual four, but I'll still have loads of fun playing it.
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Holdsg said:
Tear it up
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It most definitely did. And I only used active mode on a couple of songs, playing it passive most of the night. Even without activating the preamp, the eight different pickup combinations give you a wide palette of tones to work with.

Over the course of the night, we met a few people in the crowd who just happened to be there and also were musicians. Four guys asked me what kind of bass I was playing because they had never seen one before - and were surprised it was a Musicman, They all thought it looked cool, but they said it sounded great (FWIW, I didn't bring my pedalboard last night, I just went straight into my amp).

I love my Stingrays, always will, but my Big Al has really impressed me in the four months or so since I bought it.
 
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#1,644
Well, I've now had my Big Al for about six months and the honeymoon hasn't ended. I've been using it almost exclusively at gigs (all but one have been four sets!) and only took my Stingrays to our last gig just to reward them with a couple of sets each for waiting so patiently while I get to know the BA.

I took it to rehearsal tonight while we worked on a bunch of new songs* we're adding for our next gig. They're a pretty eclectic mix of styles/vibes and have an equally wide range of bass tones in them, but the bass handled them all really well while playing passive mode exclusively tonight. So far, I've hardly used active mode and have found the options in passive mode to cover anything I might play.


* If you're curious, here's the list of new songs we worked on tonight: :D
- It Hurt So Bad - Susan Tedeschi
- Day After Day - Badfinger
- Love Her Madly - The Doors
- I Know A Little - Lynyrd Skynyrd
- Stay With Me - The Faces
- Soul Man - The Blues Brothers
- Twisting By The Pool - Dire Straits (we actually added this one last summer, but we haven't played it since our last outdoor show in August, so we were just dusting this one off)

The bass sounded just great on all of them (it gets most of the credit for that :facepalm: ).
 
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#1,650
LadyLoveStingRay5 said:
If you contact EBMM they might be able to tell you exactly how many were built.
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they are keeping that data pretty secretive. They told me everything else I know, about the 1 month order window. they also state that only 699 Big Al's were made, if my memory serves. But that is in every color, and configuration.
 
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#1,655
My lovely pair

20211128_155422_HDR.jpg
 
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#1,656
WOW!!!!!

The Dargie Big Al is really cool, but I might actually be more blown away by that 25th Anniversary. I'm not sure I'd spend the money if I saw one pop up for sale, but I can't help drooling over them whenever I see them. :drool:

I love the electronics/controls (love the versatility of my Big Al!), having that big humbucker at the bridge position might be even more useful to me than my Big Al SSS's bridge pickup (at least when used by itself), the body binding is a really nice touch, and that top/finish with matching headstock is to die for. I could be almost equally tempted by a Reflex, especially a white/tuxedo version, but the unique finish of the 25th anniversary take it to another level. :woot:
 
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