In the last week I've gotten my hands on 2 Euro (non-LX) fivers, one with a Tonepump and one with some kind of EMG system - knobs were V, blend, T, B (BTS perhaps?) and the cavity had 2 chips made in Mexico. A couple of observations/questions:
According the info I have the EMG tone circuit should have been an EMG BT
1) Holy good lord why do they use that freakin' Tonepump? That thing sounded terrible BEFORE I heard the EMG pre. I couldn't believe how much better the Euro with the EMG sounded, and the setup on it was awful compared to the Tonepump bass. No contest at all.
OK. I know not everyone likes the TonePump. But I have a USA Spector (with the Haz 18v) and a Euro with the EMG BT, the same as what you probably played.
And I have a Euro with the TonePump and I installed a TonePump into my NS-2A... and honestly. I don't have any problem with it... the tone, etc... it's way hot if you don't adjust the trim pot... but that's the key to getting great tone out of it.
And the early TonePumps, before the trim pot... was a hot... often mess. But the Trim Pot fixed a lot. As did the changes the engineer made to it. Turn it down when you get your Euro to about 1/2 way and it makes the world of difference.
I'm also somewhat of a purist. And if Stuart says, "I feel this best represents the sound I'm going for..." I don't question it. And Stuart helped DESIGN the TonePump.
Listen to the NIN bass tracks I did with my Euro4LX and tell me if you think that it has a bad sound because of the TonePump... Really. It's all in how you set it up.
2) Compared to my US bolt-on, the B-strings on both Euros were rather loose and a bit floppy. This a normal thing? String guages didn't seem smaller than 130.
The older Euro5 you messed with. Did it have a pearl dot neck? It was probably a 34" scale Euro5. And yes, that's why most 5ers are 35". You don't get the same string tension.
3) The nut and bridge of one of them was very yellow, very bright looking, while the other looked a bit duller. Bridges and nuts weren't ever different materials, were they? The website doesn't seem to indicate that they were.
The older Euros had Solid Brass Bridges and Nuts, which were matte (dull finished) which goes along with what I suspected about the 34" scale.
Newer Euro models have a Brass-Zinc finish which is polished. I've worn the finish off my 8 month old Euro's bridge in one spot where I rest my palm if playing with a pick. I actually prefer the solid brass myself.
Also, I played what I think is a Performer 4 Deluxe (neck looked like plastic, SSD pups, some kind of 4 knob pre). Ugly as all get out, but I was shocked at the playability and tone from that thing. Had it been a 5 string I probably would have spent the $150 they were asking for it.
Yup, silver bridge, like what you'd see on a Fender? The issue with the performer was never the tone, it was the quality control with the Chinese factory that we contracted with to do them. Each shipment was a little less nice than the one before. And the clear-coat on those was brittle over time. Lots of chips and cracks would appear in the finishes.
But they played well and sounded great for an entry level bass.
