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New Bass Day: MBJ Guitars Double-Bit

TJH3113

TJH3113

Jun 15, 2015
701
1,987
New Windsor, NY
www.youtube.com
#1
I picked up this bass that was built for me by Joey Kruse of Mbj guitars on Friday and haven't stopped playing it. It's my 3rd bass from Joe who has built for Carl Thompson for 18 years. The bass has a Mahogany body (and neck) and a Holly top. I'm not sure what the accent slice is. It has a passive EMG Precision pickup that is installed in "Reverse" position. The location of the pickup is pushed back further towards the bridge than it would normally be in a Precision-style bass. The hardware is Hipshot Products Inc and we went with threaded-barrels for the saddles on the B Style Bridge (I've got those on my Bruce Thomas Signature and really like them). It also has a StellarTone ToneStyler tone control, which is an 8 position frequency sweep sort of thing which is beyond my ability to intelligently explain.

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#4
Bass Viking said:
Beautiful woods on that baby! Congratulations! You get an A+ on your play-along. Navigating the time changes on that song is a mind $%#&er!

Oh yeah, weight? :smug:
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I'm not a fancy wood guy, but that's what Joe does. My basses are on the tamer side his usual stuff. This is the closest look to a painted MBJ as you're going to get. Man, the timing of the intro and getting back into the second verse were Murder! I would go to bed and drift off to sleep trying to come up with some way of counting myself in. I compromised with a count-in/intuition hybrid. His basses are surprisingly light... this one is 6.8 pounds. The Walnut one is like 6.2. Someone once commented on how heavy the bass looked and how awful that was. I told him the weight and he said, "Well, there's no way a bass that light could possibly sound good.":confused:
 
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#6
Looks and sounds great, congrats! How do you think it sounds like in comparison to the other four string in the photo? The E and A coil seems to be in a similar position to that one.

And on both basses, where do the pickups sit in relation to the “36th” fret harmonic if I may ask?

Thank you for your time, I always enjoy your videos, great playing!
 
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#7
I do like MBJ's style and these are 3 great looking basses. Nothing too fancy, but they do look like they mean business. It's nice that they each look like they offer you something different in the tone department.

I can certainly see the influence of his time with CT, as I can with other builders who worked with CT. It's a nice thing, kind of like the Somogyi lineage of acoustic guitar builders.
 

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