Acoustic Image Focus head into Flite Sound cabinets. Shockingly lightweight rig...and astonishingly gorgeous sounding.
I've had my MB-2 for ~10 years now, but I don't think I posted a pic in this thread yet:
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Show Us Your Rob Allen Basses Part IV
- Thread starter smperry
- Start date
Acoustic Image Focus head into Flite Sound cabinets. Shockingly lightweight rig...and astonishingly gorgeous sounding.
I've had my MB-2 for ~10 years now, but I don't think I posted a pic in this thread yet:
It is indeed. You shoulda seen it after we had it refinished! Don't live there any more, but swanky wood floors definitely helped the resale value!
I like hard wood floors. I took out all the carpet in my home and installed hard wood as a DIY project. It makes a home look and feel warm and comfortable. IMHO
Great looking Rob Allen!! I haven't gigged mine yet. I haven't had the jazz gig call yet since I got it and the right church song hasn't come up, but they are really nice.
Well, my fEARless cabinet is about 90% complete! Waiting on the Duratex, but I cranked her up with my Wyn and I'm impressed, but I don't know if it's the Wyn or the fEARless. 
Next I'll hook up my Rob Allen to her and shake some walls!!
Next I'll hook up my Rob Allen to her and shake some walls!!
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Rob did them custom. Subsequently the custom pickups by Duncan delayed the build and I'm probably the reason Rob won't ever do that again.
So, that's an interesting looking Rob Allen MB-2 with the exposed pickups. To me, the clean top is what gives the Rob Allen that different 'look'.
It's hard for me to put a dollar figure on it.
It's hard for me to put a dollar figure on it.
In retrospect, I wish I kept it plain and/or ordered it as a 6 string. On the 6 string, the added weight of the pickups prevent it from being neck heavy. I often take risks with custom gear. Sometimes it pans out. Sometimes it doesn't. I'm always trying to sneak in an extra tone or two.
Agree that it's hard to put a value on such an odd duck. I think the hassles of dealing with Seymour Duncan means he probably won't ever do this again and he stopped using spalted tops.
If the "market value" isn't very good, I could potentially restring it with a high C and tune the E to dropped D.
Seymour Duncan took much longer than anticipated. Rob's LaBellas sound PERFECT through the piezo, but the D string is a little weak though the magnetic pickups. I also learned that the piezo has such a dynamic and responsive touch that you can more or less get a very similar tone to the magnetic pickups. The magnetic pickups are inherently limited dynamically and can't come close to the piezo, at least with Rob's heavily chambered bodies and LaBella strings. I've heard that the Rotosounds have a better magnetic response, but I ended up using the piezo 99.999% of the time on both of these basses.
I also have a Conklin fretless wth a piezo and round wound strings. The mags seem limited while the piezo is much more lively and dynamic. That being said, I've never been wowed by a piezo on a fretted bass.
I had said the same thing until last January of 2016 when I heard John Pattitucci play with Victor Wooten and Steve Bailey. John's bass - 6 string Yamaha fretted - definitely had a different sound to it, and it was gorgeous.
I would have been interested to hear that. With tone in the fingers, their fingers are way better than mine. About the only interest I'd have of a piezo in a fretted instrument would be for the MIDI.
I like the piezo sound of my fretted uke basses. I think metal strings+metal frets can get too tinny with most piezos. I also question the buffer in a lot of the active preamps. A higher 10mohm buffer makes a huge difference in tone on upright piezos. I don't think most elec bass piezo preamps go that high
