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New MTD Kingston Saratoga!

#103
Nice! And you can see the grain on your finish. So...now it is about a $600 bass. Any chance you can put up a sample of the tone? Even just open strings. Major GAS here :help:

scowboy said:
Here are some more shots of my Saratoga with the EMG's installed:

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EMG BTC Preamp
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Click to expand...
 
#104
dannoman said:
Here are a couple of pics. Again, when my arm is better i will do more and hopefully a vid too...
Click to expand...

Beautiful bass. Can you measure the width of the nut and at the 21st fret in millimeters? It looks like it's the same neck that's on the other Kingstons, but those 5ers are 24 frets, 35 in scale. I'm trying to figure out if they used the same neck and just put 21 frets on it, thereby increasing the width between the frets. And if so, how did they get the 34 in scale? Made the body smaller? Thanks.
 
#105
jmfresh said:
Beautiful bass. Can you measure the width of the nut and at the 21st fret in millimeters? It looks like it's the same neck that's on the other Kingstons, but those 5ers are 24 frets, 35 in scale. I'm trying to figure out if they used the same neck and just put 21 frets on it, thereby increasing the width between the frets. And if so, how did they get the 34 in scale? Made the body smaller? Thanks.
Click to expand...

Its not the same neck
 
#115
Here are are the clips as promised! It was very late and I was very tired when these where recorded and it shows in my playing, but it is good enough for now.

Gear used: MTD Kingston Saratoga 5 with maple board, Aguilar AG500 head, and Presonus FireStudio. The Aguilar was running direct-in to the FireStudio interface and had my usual EQ on most of the tracks (bright switch on, deep switch on, Bass at about 1 or 2 o'clock, Low Mid at about 1 or 2 o'clock, and everything else centered at 12 o'clock.).

Slapping, both pickups fully on. More to come in separate posts tomorrow.
 

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#116
Ds1 said:
Here are are the clips as promised! It was very late and I was very tired when these where recorded and it shows in my playing, but it is good enough for now.

Gear used: MTD Kingston Saratoga 5 with maple board, Aguilar AG500 head, and Presonus FireStudio. The Aguilar was running direct-in to the FireStudio interface and had my usual EQ on most of the tracks (bright switch on, deep switch on, Bass at about 1 or 2 o'clock, Low Mid at about 1 or 2 o'clock, and everything else centered at 12 o'clock.).

Slapping, both pickups fully on. More to come in separate posts tomorrow.
Click to expand...

Like the sound! That´s a really great aprox. to the tone that I liove on a jazz bass and for almost nothing money.
 
#117
Ds1 said:
Here are are the clips as promised! It was very late and I was very tired when these where recorded and it shows in my playing, but it is good enough for now.

Gear used: MTD Kingston Saratoga 5 with maple board, Aguilar AG500 head, and Presonus FireStudio. The Aguilar was running direct-in to the FireStudio interface and had my usual EQ on most of the tracks (bright switch on, deep switch on, Bass at about 1 or 2 o'clock, Low Mid at about 1 or 2 o'clock, and everything else centered at 12 o'clock.).

Slapping, both pickups fully on. More to come in separate posts tomorrow.
Click to expand...

The bass sonuds good, can you post a file where it's possible to hear the B string (C and D on it too)? It would be great to hear it :)
 
#118
"It still sounds MTD-Kingston-ish, but probably is 55% jazz bass and 45% MTD in sound. Think of it as a cross between the MTD Kingston Artists (the old passive model, which was kind of Mike's take on a MusicMan/Stingray or G&L bass) with a jazz bass. It's tone "home" is very much that of a J-bass, less in-your-face than the rest of the Kingston line so if you play in a rock band your bandmates might really like this bass.

Hardware is standard Kingston stuff of recent years, which is to say it looks good, is solid and highly functional. Weight is a tad heavier than I'd like, but it's not *heavy* by any means for a 5er. Setup / intonation were not bad at all right out of the box, and it's SO AWESOME to have a standard-scale MTD available... it's been years since I've been able to play one, and as a small guy this bass feels so familiar and comfortable that it has the unfortunate side-effect of making me want to overplay :-).

Playability is fantastic, as Mike's design just... *works* :-). Construction is very good, better than I'd have expected from China actually, with a few small blemishes mostly around where the wood is cut for the pickups. Pickup height seems a bit strange in that the bridge pickup is much higher than the neck J-pickup, favoring a midrang-y sound. I rather like it, and it feels like making you jam on 80s Rush records :-).

More to come after I gig with it in a few days.

Cheers!"
 
#120
Book 'em Dan-o! Thanks for that. I agree with the review that it has the Kingston-ish midrange quality (good thing!), and it sounds growly to me. A sort of refined growl, but it is there. I am going to check my local dealer, but this might be a sight unseen order for me.

Thanks again.
 

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