Renaissance/Turner Basses Club

[bherman]

OK, I know that I'm not allowed to post again without photos, so here it is (albeit a crappy cellphone photo). I've had the TI flats on it for about 6 weeks now, and they are settling in nicely. Using the bass with a jazz/samba trio (guitar, bass, drums) and its really working out very well! Still a bit of adjustment for me to the narrow neck - I'm more of a P-bass width guy - but I'm figuring it out. Also, some posters complained about neck dive; I have found that using a 4" wide leather strap works out just fine - no slipping at all. I still wish that there was a bit of bridge adjustment possible with these - it took quite a bit of fiddling around to get the neck tension and action to work acceptably without any significant string buzzing, but seems to largely be ok.

 

[EdwardofHuncote]

Nice! Is that quilted sycamore?

 

[bherman]

Seller listed it as spotted sycamore but looks quilted to me! Very pretty wood.

 

[EdwardofHuncote]

Yeah, Mr. Rick has an eye for nice lumber. Congratulations & Compliments.

Must admit I'm tempted to try the TI Jazz Flats on my fretless Renaissance too... since I already have them on the Electroline fretless it's easy to justify *not* switching. I'll think about it again once the AcoustiCores start wearing out.

 

[bherman]

Yeah, Mr. Rick has an eye for nice lumber. Congratulations & Compliments.

Must admit I'm tempted to try the TI Jazz Flats on my fretless Renaissance too... since I already have them on the Electroline fretless it's easy to justify *not* switching. I'll think about it again once the AcoustiCores start wearing out.

I couldn't bond at all with the AcoustiCores - the TI's make all the difference for me.

 

[EdwardofHuncote]

I couldn't bond at all with the AcoustiCores - the TI's make all the difference for me.

No doubt, they are quite a switch to acclimate to... and imo, they are unique-sounding, which may be why I stick with them on the Rens... glad to hear Jazz Flats work well too.

 

[mtb777]

No doubt, they are quite a switch to acclimate to... and imo, they are unique-sounding, which may be why I stick with them on the Rens... glad to hear Jazz Flats work well too.

I had tried AcoustiCores on my Tacoma ThunderChief 5 fretless loved the tone but struggled with them because of the really tight string spacing and never really gave them a chance. But, I absolutely love them on my Turner RB-5F. They are so responsive and you can get them to growl nicely digging in!

 

[mikeGJ]

Loved the sound of AcousticCores on my Electros, but could not get use to the feel of them, they roll under the finger tip a bit too much for me.

Haven't tried Chromes.

Happy to say that black nylon tape-wounds (Ddarrio or LaBella, both work) are fine for me, as on my other fretless basses.

 

[EdwardofHuncote]

Hey everybody... thought I'd bump the thread...

Just got home from a recording session with my fretless RB-5 and my upright. New River Bound is putting the finishing touches on our recording, and today was a couple punches and overdubs for the first hour, followed by some intensely surgical mixing. Upright bass is a hard thing to get eq'd just right, so that consumed a lot of time, but these darn Renaissance basses are a piece of cake. Just a little roll off of high mids, and a little push to the lows and you're done.

I think the best thing about them on this project has been the intentional departure from the upright sound for a certain effect. Hard to describe, but it's like a classical guitar tuned to bass frequencies. And the dynamic control is very 'acoustic' and natural sounding. They've really become an integral part of our sound.

 

[bherman]

Seller listed it as spotted sycamore but looks quilted to me! Very pretty wood.

Loved the sound of AcousticCores on my Electros, but could not get use to the feel of them, they roll under the finger tip a bit too much for me.

Haven't tried Chromes.

Happy to say that black nylon tape-wounds (Ddarrio or LaBella, both work) are fine for me, as on my other fretless basses.

Missed this post earlier - curious about this as Rick Turner steered me away from tapes when I asked about alternatives to the stock strings. Can you elaborate a bit on using tapes with your bass --what type and gauge, and how well do they play with the renaissance electronics?

 

[Cheez]

Here is my fretted 4 string (same as my avatar/pic).

 

[EdwardofHuncote]

A little project I've got brewing for one of my Electrolines...

The "Red Bass of Anxiety" aka "The Scarlett Terror" has a fingerboard issue developing. I believe it's mostly due to seasonal changes, but there's a strange buzzing that's happening only on the center "A" string. (keeping in mind, this is a converted lined fretless 5-string... hence the anxiety/terror ) Anyway, I believe what's happening is, despite keeping a case humidifier in with it, the wood fingerboard has contracted just enough that the flatwound strings I'm using (TI Jazz Flats) are buzzing on each of the pearl position dots that fall down the center of the neck. Theory goes, the wood moves, but the pearl doesn't. That pearl is sticking up microscopically, but just high enough that the chrome winding of the string is rattling off of it in a different way than with surrounding wood. Hard to describe, but these vestigial position markers are just enough in front of where each note terminates, that I'm getting this weird, undesirable zing... and it's quite frankly, corrupting my mwaah.

So I put in a call to The Boss-man yesterday evening for some advice. I believe it's within my own capabilities to replace the pearl dots with some wooden ones, perhaps even matching the grain up so they disappear, or just using some white holly or maple veneer in their place, but I'm wondering if Mr. Rick has a better idea.

Anyone else run across this?

Updates, and/or pictures to follow.

 

[RNG1]

Hard to describe, but it's like a classical guitar tuned to bass frequencies. And the dynamic control is very 'acoustic' and natural sounding.

That's actually a great way of describing the sound of these. It's not easy to explain it to someone but that's a good way.

I can't remember if I ever posted mine...

 

[EdwardofHuncote]

Had both the Turner RB-5's at a Country dance last night... dig the Dancemaster's Colonial outfit... Dang! I totally forgot to get him to pose with my Quilted Maple fretless... That would have been a cool shot.

I had the fretted RB-5 on stand-by most of the night, but it got played too. Love these things.

 

[EdwardofHuncote]

And for those interested, saw where RT posted some information and links about the latest CITES issue on his blog: Rosewood in the 21st Century

 

[Holdsg]

howdy folks. I know Mr. Edward well from another thread.
anyhow, I'm about to join the club, picked up this one off of Reverb earlier today.
I play upright in an Americana/Country band, 50% originals/50% covers, and needed a smaller body bass for some of the tight venues/spaces we get to play in. I'm looking forward to trying the Acousticores, but will have some flats on standby just in case.

Rick Turner Renaissance RB4 Studio Special Fretless Bass 2016 Satin Mahogany

 

[EdwardofHuncote]

Welcome my Mediocre Brother.

Looking forward to your review.

 

[johnp352]

Come on in, and welcome. I've been playing Rick's instruments since the last century. You picked a good time to get one, the shop in SC is killing it these days. btw, If you don't like the thoms, have a look at Labella nylon strings. I switched last year and really like them. I had Chromes on before, but these seem livelier. well, they ARE livelier.

 

[Holdsg]

I have spent some time getting better acquainted with the Renaissance RB4 I picked up recently.
I love how it responds to your RH position.
I also like how easy it is to play muted notes, as well as long-sustain notes, just by increasing LH fretting pressure.
I liked the feel and tone right away, not messing with that, but there are some ergonomic things that I will make the bass more useful for my needs (upright surrogate for tiny stages and dive bars, standing for 3-4 hours).
First, I gave the fretboard a good drink of Howards orange oil
Second, I didn't quite bond with the acousticore strings, so on went some used flats, for which I liked the tone much better. I will also experiment with some of the Labella nylon "purple haze" strings that Jason has at BSO (received, just waiting for the new tuners [next point]
Next to address the neck dive, I ordered some hipshot ultralight Y tuners. They are inbound as we speak. I think those will help. A suede strap should do the trick for the rest, but just in case, I've already worked up a quick and easy way to add a little more weight into the booty/electronics cavity, to better balance the bass.
When I get the new tuners on, I'll take the obligatory introductory pics.

 

[johnp352]

I have spent some time getting better acquainted with the Renaissance RB4 I picked up recently.
I love how it responds to your RH position.
I also like how easy it is to play muted notes, as well as long-sustain notes, just by increasing LH fretting pressure.
I liked the feel and tone right away, not messing with that, but there are some ergonomic things that I will make the bass more useful for my needs (upright surrogate for tiny stages and dive bars, standing for 3-4 hours).
First, I gave the fretboard a good drink of Howards orange oil
Second, I didn't quite bond with the acousticore strings, so on went some used flats, for which I liked the tone much better. I will also experiment with some of the Labella nylon "purple haze" strings that Jason has at BSO (received, just waiting for the new tuners [next point]
Next to address the neck dive, I ordered some hipshot ultralight Y tuners. They are inbound as we speak. I think those will help. A suede strap should do the trick for the rest, but just in case, I've already worked up a quick and easy way to add a little more weight into the booty/electronics cavity, to better balance the bass.
When I get the new tuners on, I'll take the obligatory introductory pics.

I switched from the Thoms to Chromes..partially due to my Ren also having a mag PU that the Thoms wouldn't do. I liked the Chromes, but wanted to go for a bit brighter, and have been playing the Labella whites for a year now...worked out great. Couldn't agree with you more on the touch position sensitivity..one of my main reasons for playing the Rens since they came out.