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NBD - Sonic Blue G&L JB-5

swafran

swafran

Nov 6, 2008
542
669
Paris, France
#1
My G&L JB-5 is here! Thanks to @RocketMusic for his great service, I recommend him.

And... wait for it... granddaughter and grandmother meet for the first time. '77 Fender Jazz meets 2016 G&L JB-5.

Alder/maple (of course). And sonic blue. And super low action. And and... well I'm off to play now.

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#8
swafran said:
it's Alder, about 10 kg total for the bass. I like heavy wood, for the tone.
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Is this a typo and you meant to say lb.s? If not, as beautiful as it is and I'm sure sounds, 22 lb.s is way beyond any sense of reasonable comfort for anything more than a super short set.

I will say though, I love the JB5 and hope to grab one of the lighter empress wood ones at some point when finances allow.
 
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#10
Gee Man said:
Is this a typo and you meant to say lb.s? If not, as beautiful as it is and I'm sure sounds, 22 lb.s is way beyond any sense of reasonable comfort for anything more than a super short set.

I will say though, I love the JB5 and hope to grab one of the lighter empress wood ones at some point when finances allow.
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Yes sorry of course that's 10.2 lbs, not kilos.

I've never liked lighter woods as much, even swamp ash which is very musical, doesn't do it for me. Too thin and spanky a sound (for me). I've never heard Empress, it looks like it's becoming one of the standard body woods for G&L. I'd be curious to hear it.

For me weight is not an issue, and I love the tone of Alder, so I was intent on it from the start. Alder/maple/maple was my first decision, all the other options came afterwards.
 
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#12
Sonic/Daphne Blue with a black PG is one of my fave color combos. Nice choice!

I've been considering ordering a tort guard for my LB-100, but they're quite expensive through the Chandler site. Almost $100 with shipping for that particular one. I haven't been able to bring myself to do it yet.
 
#13
ale29 said:
...Mm, ok, I will be That guy...the string spacing at the nut seems to be messed up, does it bother you / is it noticeable while playing?
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Yes I noticed that right away. It doesn't seem to make any difference playing it. My OCD side is like I'm going to get a bone blank from Stewart-McDonald and make my own nut (I've done that before, have the files, etc). But then I'm a bassist not a luthier and I'm loving playing it too much to bother. Playing you don't feel it at all, even though visually it's so obvious. It's funny too because the old Fender next to it in the pic also has a weird spacing in its original nut... on that one it's the D and G that are wider apart than the others.

The bass has superb tone, very reactive, a player's instrument for sure. The tone shape is much like the seventies Fender next to it.
 
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#14
friskinator said:
Sonic/Daphne Blue with a black PG is one of my fave color combos. Nice choice!

I've been considering ordering a tort guard for my LB-100, but they're quite expensive through the Chandler site. Almost $100 with shipping for that particular one. I haven't been able to bring myself to do it yet.
Click to expand...

Yeah... actually I love this sonic blue... the pic doesn't do it justice, it's very vibrant but still pastel. Maybe I'm too used to old guitars with faded colors, I don't know, but the G&L sonic blue jumped out at me.

I've paid more than $100 for a pickguard before, although it was a custom-made one. Obviously you're not gonna get the same aftermarket parts you would for a standard shape instrument like a regular jazz or p, strat, etc.
 

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