NBD! I lost my head - NS Design CR5 Radius

[brianrost]

Also, how is the piezo pick-up? Can you get a lot of growl out of it, or is the configuration more designed for that stand up type of sound?

The piezo has a 3 way toggle for treble rolloff...flat, medium and max. I always use max because the piezo is super bright and has more bottom end than the mag pickups. There's a piezo/mag blend and a master bass/treble cut/boost EQ to sculpt the tone.

With just the mag pickups it has the usual J-bass on steroids kind of tone. Leaving the EQ flat and the blend at the center detent, the piezo adds some girth and a bit of high end sheen. Like all piezos, it picks up string and fret noise which will make you really get your left hand fingering together especially if you use roundwounds. With just the piezo at the max treble rolloff setting, fully cutting the treble EQ and slightly boosting bass EQ can give you an upright-like tone. I have the fretted model, so can't common on the fretless growl/mwah.

 

[drumvsbass]

I stared at this bass slack jawed for a good minute... Eets A Verrrry niiiiice.

 

[Krakmann]

What a beauty!!!

 

[MikePlaysBass]

I have an NSD Upright (CRM5) and I love it. I prefer unlined basses, but many prefer lined fretless basses as being a bit easier for intonation (although is still is all about the ears in either case). I actually own both types, but had to move the side dots on the lined one since I’m used to them for finger positions and not in between like on a fretted bass. Anyway, the NS Design use of the dots on the fingerboard is the best of both worlds.

 

[coy garcia]

Pretty!! I've had my eye on these for a while

 

[basshawk21]

Good score!

 

[sonojono]

I'm too busy scanning eBay and Reverb for a Radius CR5 FL...

If only you searched two years ago when the used market for em were around the 1k range

 

[BlueTalon]

Congrats on the new bass! It is gorgeous, and I especially love the unique fingerboard "fret" markers.

You are a skilled writer and story-teller. Your opening posts are always entertaining.

 

[murmur70]

Ned Steinberger is a genius.

 

[avi]

Not all who wander are lost...we might still be out of our minds, just not lost!
Great trip and a cool bass! I only had to travel an hour for my new bass today.

Heyyyyyyyyyyyyy once more!

So I do not really know where to start, except by stating the most obvious thing - I blame @monsterthompson for making this entire thing a reality. MonsterThompson got a small bass from a custom builder and it kind of fired off my want for a fretless bass, since that builder was making fretless or fretted, I thought to myself that I would slowly save up for a small fretless 6 string bass but it never happened because I saw this bass for sale... and I just got it yesterday.

View attachment 4395452

Thing is, the bass was on the complete opposite side of the country... so I took a train at 3am and spent an entire night and day just... traveling. 500km one way, that is 300 miles. And then the same distance back. I was so sleepy at the end of it all.

Road trip!
But the journey was nice and comfy, so there is that.

Finally, I got to my destination and I bought the bass from a very kind man, both me and him were happy with the transaction. He has some more high end basses to sell, so he will be working towards that

But, here is the case with the bass at the train station.
View attachment 4395454

And the bass itself.
More info soon.
View attachment 4395455
I played it at the train station thru my mobile rig, then I took it outside and played it on a bench until my train came to take me back home.

Fast forward to the next day - I'm at home with the whole thing.
View attachment 4395456
It came with a gigbag, NS branded one... some tools and a manual. Nothing great, nothing bad - just good enough with good material quality. Nice.
View attachment 4395457

I have had a small talk with @ficelles about the string choice for a fretless (since ficeless is all about the fretless) and I decided on some Daddario Nylon Tapewounds after doing some small amount of research, I think they're quite fancy and feel great. I feel like it was a good choice. My idea was to get something more of a typical, classical and upright tone out of this bass and it worked out quite well in the end.

Some more pics!
View attachment 4395458
Okay so lets talk about the meat of this bass. It has some custom made EMGs that follow the design of the body (yeah, the pickups are curved) and a piezo pickup. The knobs are volume, blend between the EMGs and piezo, bass cut/boost, treble cut/boost and the switches are bridge/both/neck as well as the piezo low/mid/high.

So, as you can guess... along with different playing techniques, positions and options, this bass is crazy versatile. I mean you can make it sound mellow but also clanky as hell if you want to, it is very responsive to changes and I am surprised of how well its voiced. Definitely liking it.

As you can probably imagine, being a headless bass make it just a machine of total musical destruction - it's lightweight, ergonomic, balances perfectly and feels just as good. No sharp edges anywhere, it just feels like someone put a lot of thought into the design of the whole instrument, and it feels (and shows). If you take a peak at the manual, you will see this:
View attachment 4395464

All of this just comes together so well, and I definitely appreciate it. Just look at that!

Oh and btw, for some reason all my basses are made by the Chech - funny how this works out.
View attachment 4395469

Unlined ebony fretboard.
View attachment 4395470

View attachment 4395474

Matching maple neck.
View attachment 4395475
"Headstock" which accepts single ball end strings, tapered, preferably.
View attachment 4395476
View attachment 4395477
View attachment 4395478

Time to clean her up and put the strings on.
View attachment 4395479
View attachment 4395480

Damn. Those stainless steel strings definitely made some short work of that ebony fretboard. Need to clean it up and put some oil on.
View attachment 4395481
View attachment 4395482
View attachment 4395483
View attachment 4395485
And done!
View attachment 4395486
Just gonna make sure the intonation is spot on and then I'm off to playing her
Have a wonderful day, TB!

 

[FRoss6788]

Soooo well done... You have great taste in instruments.

Beautiful bass and road trip, congratulations

 

[sonojono]

Any chance you can give us more sound clips of the instrument? Just got done jamming around a Squier Fretless Jazz and I think I’m overdue for a Fretless upgrade

 

[RubyTuba]

Heyyyyyyyyyyyyy once more!

So I do not really know where to start, except by stating the most obvious thing - I blame @monsterthompson for making this entire thing a reality. MonsterThompson got a small bass from a custom builder and it kind of fired off my want for a fretless bass, since that builder was making fretless or fretted, I thought to myself that I would slowly save up for a small fretless 6 string bass but it never happened because I saw this bass for sale... and I just got it yesterday.

View attachment 4395452

Thing is, the bass was on the complete opposite side of the country... so I took a train at 3am and spent an entire night and day just... traveling. 500km one way, that is 300 miles. And then the same distance back. I was so sleepy at the end of it all.

Road trip!
But the journey was nice and comfy, so there is that.

Finally, I got to my destination and I bought the bass from a very kind man, both me and him were happy with the transaction. He has some more high end basses to sell, so he will be working towards that

But, here is the case with the bass at the train station.
View attachment 4395454

And the bass itself.
More info soon.
View attachment 4395455
I played it at the train station thru my mobile rig, then I took it outside and played it on a bench until my train came to take me back home.

Fast forward to the next day - I'm at home with the whole thing.
View attachment 4395456
It came with a gigbag, NS branded one... some tools and a manual. Nothing great, nothing bad - just good enough with good material quality. Nice.
View attachment 4395457

I have had a small talk with @ficelles about the string choice for a fretless (since ficeless is all about the fretless) and I decided on some Daddario Nylon Tapewounds after doing some small amount of research, I think they're quite fancy and feel great. I feel like it was a good choice. My idea was to get something more of a typical, classical and upright tone out of this bass and it worked out quite well in the end.

Some more pics!
View attachment 4395458
Okay so lets talk about the meat of this bass. It has some custom made EMGs that follow the design of the body (yeah, the pickups are curved) and a piezo pickup. The knobs are volume, blend between the EMGs and piezo, bass cut/boost, treble cut/boost and the switches are bridge/both/neck as well as the piezo low/mid/high.

So, as you can guess... along with different playing techniques, positions and options, this bass is crazy versatile. I mean you can make it sound mellow but also clanky as hell if you want to, it is very responsive to changes and I am surprised of how well its voiced. Definitely liking it.

As you can probably imagine, being a headless bass make it just a machine of total musical destruction - it's lightweight, ergonomic, balances perfectly and feels just as good. No sharp edges anywhere, it just feels like someone put a lot of thought into the design of the whole instrument, and it feels (and shows). If you take a peak at the manual, you will see this:
View attachment 4395464

All of this just comes together so well, and I definitely appreciate it. Just look at that!

Oh and btw, for some reason all my basses are made by the Chech - funny how this works out.
View attachment 4395469

Unlined ebony fretboard.
View attachment 4395470

View attachment 4395474

Matching maple neck.
View attachment 4395475
"Headstock" which accepts single ball end strings, tapered, preferably.
View attachment 4395476
View attachment 4395477
View attachment 4395478

Time to clean her up and put the strings on.
View attachment 4395479
View attachment 4395480

Damn. Those stainless steel strings definitely made some short work of that ebony fretboard. Need to clean it up and put some oil on.
View attachment 4395481
View attachment 4395482
View attachment 4395483
View attachment 4395485
And done!
View attachment 4395486
Just gonna make sure the intonation is spot on and then I'm off to playing her
Have a wonderful day, TB!

Gorgeous bass! I really like the way they did position markers - you're going to have a lot of fun with this instrument!

 

[charles hensley]

Looks glorious! And i gotta respect a bass player willing to go the distance to acquire such a piece.

 

[Barticus]

What’s the string spacing at the bridge?
Has anyone tried to replace the Piezo saddle to reduce string spacing?

 

[Katoosie]

What’s the string spacing at the bridge?
Has anyone tried to replace the Piezo saddle to reduce string spacing?

Ill messure it tomorrow but I think its 18mm

 

[frankie5string]

What’s the string spacing at the bridge?
Has anyone tried to replace the Piezo saddle to reduce string spacing?

The 5 is 18mm, the 4 is 19mm.

That pickup is basically a Polar pickup, similar to what's used on their double-basses.
But whole string feed from the tuners is designed for the spacing for that bass. If you set them narrower, they will pull on the corner of the new slots and either bind or break the strings, or cause really uneven response.

It might even interfere with the string latches, which rely on straight pulls from the gears to lock in place.

 

[TheBass]

What’s the string spacing at the bridge?
Has anyone tried to replace the Piezo saddle to reduce string spacing?

I think that would not be too complicated. The center piece of the bridge with the strings resting on is basically just a solid piece of aluminum that rests loosely on the actual piezo pickup. With some experience in metalworking you can surely build a replacement bridge with different string spacing.

However with a narrower string spacing the string routing at the bridge will not be straight any more and it might look a bit strange in the end. But I guess it can be done.

 

[amper]

I've been looking at the Radius line today, and I have to say, I really want one, now.

I think the EMG pickups, the piezo, and the preamp are all extremely bright, and that I don't think I've ever heard magnetic pickups on a bass that sounded as bright as these EMGs. The character of the package makes me think that these basses are probably best suited to flatwound and tapewound strings. Which is fine with me, since my main bass for the past 10 years has been my fretless piezo StingRay with Rotosound Jazz Bass 77 flats, and my "other" bass is a Warwick Custom Shop Corvette Proline fretless short-scale with D'Addario Prelude 4/4 medium tension cello strings (also flatwound).

I don't think I'd use a Radius to play rock, but I would definitely use it to play just about anything else. Of course, that's pretty much how I feel about my StingRay. That being said, I'd love to hear flats on a fretted Radius. I think that might be a combination I can live with, too.

I'm very, very interested in the Radius CR6. I've wanted a 6-string bass for a really long time, and since I don't really see myself playing rock on a 6-string, the Radius might just be the perfect 6-string for me.

 

[Esquillama]

I've been looking at the Radius line today, and I have to say, I really want one, now.

I think the EMG pickups, the piezo, and the preamp are all extremely bright, and that I don't think I've ever heard magnetic pickups on a bass that sounded as bright as these EMGs. The character of the package makes me think that these basses are probably best suited to flatwound and tapewound strings. Which is fine with me, since my main bass for the past 10 years has been my fretless piezo StingRay with Rotosound Jazz Bass 77 flats, and my "other" bass is a Warwick Custom Shop Corvette Proline fretless short-scale with D'Addario Prelude 4/4 medium tension cello strings (also flatwound).

I don't think I'd use a Radius to play rock, but I would definitely use it to play just about anything else. Of course, that's pretty much how I feel about my StingRay. That being said, I'd love to hear flats on a fretted Radius. I think that might be a combination I can live with, too.

I'm very, very interested in the Radius CR6. I've wanted a 6-string bass for a really long time, and since I don't really see myself playing rock on a 6-string, the Radius might just be the perfect 6-string for me.

I've been playing my NXT5a fretless with flatwounds for a couple of years now and I love it. That model doesn't have the piezo pickup however. But, I am in two cover bands, one mostly rock and the other country. Between the two I cover everything from Johnny Cash to Guns-N-Roses. This bass can do it all, convincingly, even with flat wounds. I know you can't really try it out before you buy one, but I can tell you from personal experience that they are very versatile instruments. I'm sure the models with the piezo pickups are bright, like you say, but even without that, I can get great sounds for whatever style I'm playing.

Good luck with your search for the 6!