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Official TUNE Club

That is indeed a nice piece of lumber. That's a monster bass too. Isn't the AJ signature Fodera 36" scale? And like $6000?!

I've never heard Anthony Jackson's stuff, but I must say I'm kinda surprised. For using a $6000 six string shredder bass, his playing is pretty basic (at least in those vids) and his muted tone doesn't exactly showcase the Fodera brilliance! Not quite what I was expecting as far as tone and playing but nice nonetheless.
 
I've had the TWB-6 back,for a minute now. To say the least, I am extremely pleased. This bass is a whole new monster. It's like having a whole new instrument with a sweet range of tones. I have to figure out how to get picks up so I may share.

Mad props to Tina at the Bass Exchange / Amp Shop for taking care of my electronics.
 
Sign me up!

Mine's a Korean TWB53FM. For me, this feels like a boutique bass - rare brand, beautiful flamed maple top, unusual shape, really good hardware & electronics . . . it's a real eye-catcher and definitely has an exclusive feel about it.

I got mine in Sam Ash in Vegas. I'm in Dublin, Ireland and a friend bought it on my behalf while on a holiday. Tunes are on sale here, but whereas I paid $650 for my TWB at the time (2005 IIRC), the price here was €900 (over €1300 at today's rate), so there's more of an "exclusive bass" factor attached to Tunes here.

Mine needs its action & intonation sorted out - it's been gigged and moved around between a storage room, my attic and my living room, so I guess there's been plenty of swelling & shrinking going on.

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So what number am I? :D


Mark
 
Good luck with your upgrades, Warnan. You have a great bass, so it should be worthwhile for you to fix it up.

By the way, some folks have asked how to distinguish MIJ Tunes from MIK Tunes. Most of the nicer old MIJ basses had the serial number stamped in ink on the back of the headstock, so that's one way to tell. However, not all MIJ Tunes have that type of serial number, so you can't always tell from that. Of course, if you can confirm that the instrument was made prior to 1999, then you can be sure it's a Japanese bass.

So none of the Korean ones have serial numbers on the headstock? I found 2 at a local store. One painted, one burl and the difference in quality was night and day. The burl had a nicer gold bridge, brass nut and nicer rosewood on the neck. The painted one felt kind of chintzy. Both had similar looking serial numbers on the back of the headstock starting with 'S'. I put some money on the burl, but I was just wondering where it was made...
 
Ok Tune players... What strings are you using? I had some Sunbeams on the TWB-63, like them too. They were not very deep but had a great warm tone to them. I then switched to the XL's since everyone raved about them. I love the sparkle but again not as deep of tone as my Black Beauties on the TWB-53. I don't mind experimenting so now I'm open to something new. I like the thump of my Black Beauties and the sparkle of the XL's. If I could get that combined in one set of strings, I'd be extremely happy.

So my question is. . . . . What strings should I try? FYI: The TWB-63 is armed with 2 Bartolini soap bars and an Aggie OPB 3TK. The TWB-53 is stock for now. I'm looking to do an electronic swap for another Aggie and a set of Nordstrands.
 
Hello All.I also am a proud owner of a TWB63 I bought from the Sam Ash Superstore in Buffalo Grove Il.2 years ago.It's made of Ovangkol with a satin finish.When I walk into a music store I will see the same ol' same ol' on the wall.You know.Paint,pickguard,and chrome.But then my eyes stop on this beauty!!WOW!!Natural wood finish,Gold plated hardware!Active electronics!Now before this encounter,I was intimidated by six string basses.But after seeing Adam Nitti play at The Bass Club,I had to jump in!A month later,I replaced the plastic knobs with some exotic hardwood knobs.The tone is perfect straight into the amp.No effects!The action was a little high for my taste,but most basses are set up fairly high.I.M.O.The string spacing is wide enough to slap comfortably.So a year later I bought another TWB63 to have converted to fretless.But unfortunatly, I ran into some financial trouble and had to sell the fretless last year.I DEEPLY regret having to sell that bass!!I would by another in a heatbeat,but Sam Ash no longer carries Tune Basses.So I am all the more determined to hold on to my remaining TWB63.Seeing that they are no longer available in the U.S.!Later!
 
Re pickups....I was able to drop Bart Soapbar 6 stringers in, with no routing at all. They fit fine. I put in the 18 volt 3 band with switchable mids, too....they drilled a hole for the toggle, no problem.

As for strings, I've got DR Longnecks on the bass now, but I think I'm gonna go back to LaBella's.
 
First!! I am so truly happy to find this place, this gives me the great feeling, not to be the only happy musician in this world, owning, and playing a fine Tune bass.
Denmark is a fairly small country - in top of Europe...and for you americans ...Sweden is NOT the capitol of Denmark - Copenhagen it is!!! :O)...ok, just being funny(I hope)

Mostly I am a jazz oriented musician, and have played on both my old doubble bass(buildt in 1911) and my former Fender Jazz bass(1972) which I sold the same day I could lay my hands on a second hand pearlwhite battered fretless 4 sting bass, called Tune bass maniac from Japan.
This bass have a wonderful tone, and a very long sustain, is masterly buildt, and feels comfortable to wear...even for a four set gig, compared to my old trusty Fender bass.
On the net, I met another fine musician - and friend, Doug Ross, who has been to great help for me. he is a skilled musician, and compassioned Tune fan, and he wrote this e-mail to me, about the Tune basses, and their history.
I do hope this will be of interest.
I have to say though, that I have had the opportunity to play on a number of korean buildt basses, and always found them equally well buildt and good to play.
Please tell me about your experience about this, my fellow musicians.
the best of greetings
Allan
Denmark
Copenhagen
Link Removed
[email protected]


........................here comes Doug`s e-mail......................

Hello Allan,

Thanks for your email, it is always a pleasure to become acquainted with another pro bassist. I checked out your website and the MP3's of your band. I like it.....nice work!

I get a lot of emails from other Tune owners like you, asking for information about this mysterious bass company in the Far East! They really are outstanding instruments, it's a shame that they never became very well known. The original company, Tune Guitar Technology, was started by Hatsukazu Fujitani in 1983 and the first and most famous model was the Bass Maniac. It's a little difficult to tell from the pictures on your website, but your bass looks like an old one from the '80s. Did you buy it used? The extended fingerboard is cool.....looks like a special custom model.

T.G.T. expanded to build more interesting and adventurous basses in the '90s (when I lived in Japan) but then they got into financial trouble and Fujitani san disappeared with a lot of money and the company collapsed! For a while, you couldn't buy Tunes, but then a couple of years ago, they began to reappear. As it turns out, there are now at least TWO rival companies making "Tune" basses. The new Japanese company, Tune Guitar Maniac, still makes very high quality instruments virtually identical to the original T.G.T. basses. But unfortunately, there is also a Korean company making cheap copies, and the Korean company has the Tune trademark registered in the U.S.A. :(

Because I speak Japanese and I am friends with one of their long time endorsers, I have established a relationship directly with the Japanese company and I can get basses directly from them. In fact, I just got another wonderful fretted Bass Maniac 5 string from them! They asked me to be their U.S. distributor, but because of the trademark problem, I can't sell their basses here. It's a funny coincidence that you have a fretless, because they are making a custom fretless Bass Maniac 5 for me right now! If it turns out nicely, I might sell the five string I just bought and order a fretted custom 5 string to match my fretless! It's an addiction!

If you want to contact the Japanese company directly, you can try to email them from their website: http://www.cc.rim.or.jp/~tune/ I believe that they will ship to anywhere in the world, but they don't speak much English, so communication might be a problem. Let me know if you need my help, and I can contact them for you. Good luck, and let's stay in touch!

Doug
www.dougross.net
 

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