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New MTD Kingston Saratoga!

#81
EagleMoon said:
The neck is chunky? Front to back? I've noticed on a lot of import MTD's that the neck thickness really varies a lot. Some are really thin and others are almost baseball bats. They must shape those by hand and get tired by the end of the week or something. :D
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Yeppa, from front to back, I say chunky, maybe thats not the right word but to me, its really comfortable. not like a Warwick chunky, but close to my Attitude.
 
#82
Here are a couple of pics. Again, when my arm is better i will do more and hopefully a vid too...

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#83
Nice...is the finish just a gloss black or transparent where you can see some grain?

I have a Kingston Artist 4 in trans blue...pretty nice, but I kick myself for selling of my Kingston 5 (black with goofy pickguard) a few years back as the B string just rang like a piano and it was passive.

How does the Saratoga 5 sustain?
 
#84
dannoman said:
It came today!!!!
Sadly, I had to go to the dr today and get a cortisone injection in my elbow so i cannot play it. I will have my wife take some pics later and will post them here. I did mess around alil bit to get a feel for the neck , check the B and hear the p'ups and i can tell you that it is an awesome bass. BassCentral had it shipped directly from the distrubitor and i couldnt have asked for a better setup. The neck is a lil chunky, but i like that and the B is great... As soon as my arm is back to normal i will try messin with my webcam to get some sort of video review for you guys and gals, but just wanted to let ya know. They do indeed Rock!!!!!!!


Sorry for the rambling, im kinda medicated and in pain...
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thx for the quick review, get btr and when you have time hit us with that video :)
PS nice pics
 
#85
Lync said:
Nice...is the finish just a gloss black or transparent where you can see some grain?

I have a Kingston Artist 4 in trans blue...pretty nice, but I kick myself for selling of my Kingston 5 (black with goofy pickguard) a few years back as the B string just rang like a piano and it was passive.

How does the Saratoga 5 sustain?
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It's trans black but, (mine at least) is more solid on the front. You can see the grain on the back. I cant tell ya about the sustain yet, my arm is still jacked from the shot. The cortisone has crystallized and its a bit swollen... Let ya know as soon as i can.
 
#95
Well it showed up today. Very hard to photograph indoors and it's 103+ here in the River City today.

The only thing I am not happy about with this bass is it's made in China. I thought the MTD Kingstons were from Korea!

Here goes. The fit and finish is amazing. From the body and neck finish to the fret work to the intonation and set up. I took it out of the box, tuned it and played it. Very light. I'd say easily in the low low 8's. The electronics sound very good if a tad thin. I was on the fence about dropping the EMG set up I have it it because they sound good. However I think I am going to go for it anyway.

The neck is great but the 4 string is thin to me. But I play a Stingray and P-bass and I personally like the wide nut on both of those basses so anything seems thin by comparison. I'd say the neck profile is slightly larger than a Fender Jazz like was said about the 5'er.

This bass has a great clean ringing sustain. I'd say the neck pickup has a J bass quality to it but the bridge sounds much fatter than a J bass does which makes for an interesting tonal quality. Came with Stainless stings which I don't like so I will restringing it with Nickels ASAP.

Really nice bass.

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#98
I am going to say on the wood and metal parts, yes. Electronics, I don't know mostly because it sounds very different than what I am used to.

I dropped the EMG's in last night and it now sounds like at least a $1000 MIA bass and the instrument itself would have you believing no different. I will post some pictures of it today in the sunlight.

It's sitting on my knee right now as I type this at 7:14 in the morning. Does that say anything?

Lync said:
Is this a $1000 bass if MIA?
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#99
scowboy said:
I am going to say on the wood and metal parts, yes. Electronics, I don't know mostly because it sounds very different than what I am used to.

I dropped the EMG's in last night and it now sounds like at least a $1000 MIA bass and the instrument itself would have you believing no different.
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I was thinkin about swapping out the p'ups before i got it but after messing with it somewhat last night, I think im leaving it stock, at least for a while. It is different from what i am used to as well, but after a little adjustment on my amp it sounded really good.

I have not played for any length of time in about 5-6 months due to my arm and after about 30 minutes last night it started to hurt again so i stopped. I will hit it again tonight and try to do a small vid just to show the sound. Nothing fancy on the playing though, just not really up to speed yet.

To me the neck is thicker (front to back) than a Fender American Jazz that my local GC has. And i completely agree with Scowboy about the sound having a much fatter sound compared to a jazz.

All in all, I'm sold on it and am looking forward to getting a 4 string as well.
 
#100
I got my p/u set and pre basically for free so what did I have to loose! Besides my p-bass I pretty much like an active bass anyway. When I saw the Saratoga the first time my first reaction was that it was really a looker and that just upgrading the electronics would make a it a budget tone monster. So far I was right! We will see though. Looking forward to messing around with it more today, I need to optimize the pickup height still and restring it with my go to strings, D'Addario Nickel's.

I'm really hopeful that it will be what motorhead (cars not the band) type guys call a sleeper!

dannoman said:
I was thinkin about swapping out the p'ups before i got it but after messing with it somewhat last night, I think im leaving it stock, at least for a while. It is different from what i am used to as well, but after a little adjustment on my amp it sounded really good.

I have not played for any length of time in about 5-6 months due to my arm and after about 30 minutes last night it started to hurt again so i stopped. I will hit it again tonight and try to do a small vid just to show the sound. Nothing fancy on the playing though, just not really up to speed yet.

To me the neck is thicker (front to back) than a Fender American Jazz that my local GC has. And i completely agree with Scowboy about the sound having a much fatter sound compared to a jazz.

All in all, I'm sold on it and am looking forward to getting a 4 string as well.
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