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SIRE Marcus Miller V7 Alder-5 Fretless, freshly delivered...
Epoxied rosewood fingerboard with ghost lines
View attachment 1016549
In hindsight i wish i'd gotten a gloss finish when I got my Warmoth fingerboard epoxied instead of a satin finish. I thought a gloss would show wear too quickly but as it turns out the flats have polished the satin and showed wear in the first few hours of use. It's not showing much, if any, extra wear now after a couple of hundred hours of play, but it still has those polished areas under the strings.
- Dec 21, 2007
- 15,236
- 45,143
- Disclosures
- Lark in the Morning Instructional Videos; Audix Microphones
Thanks guys.
Trust me, it took quite a while to save up for this as well as my
entire family chipping in at my recent 50 years birthday.
Despite its very good condition its been played alot in the past,
causing the fretboard to be worn to a state where it had to be replaced.
It's been done by a very skilled luthier and the work is 100% acceptable,
but some may be of the opinion that its no longer a genuine Ken Smith which
also caused the price to be considerable lower than usual.
These Smith basses certainly have their own voice, and irrespectively of how you
dial in on the preamp and coil switches, the Smith sound is always present (which
is exactly what I'm after).
And playing an unlined fretboard has turned out to be alot easier than I initially thought
it would be. Probably also because its a 34" 24 fret neck, and the fretted Lull basses I otherwise
play are 35" 21 frets, so hitting the intonation correct with the shorter distance between the "notes"
is easier than anticipated.
Happy New Year to you all and stay safe.
Thomas
Trust me, it took quite a while to save up for this as well as my
entire family chipping in at my recent 50 years birthday.
Despite its very good condition its been played alot in the past,
causing the fretboard to be worn to a state where it had to be replaced.
It's been done by a very skilled luthier and the work is 100% acceptable,
but some may be of the opinion that its no longer a genuine Ken Smith which
also caused the price to be considerable lower than usual.
These Smith basses certainly have their own voice, and irrespectively of how you
dial in on the preamp and coil switches, the Smith sound is always present (which
is exactly what I'm after).
And playing an unlined fretboard has turned out to be alot easier than I initially thought
it would be. Probably also because its a 34" 24 fret neck, and the fretted Lull basses I otherwise
play are 35" 21 frets, so hitting the intonation correct with the shorter distance between the "notes"
is easier than anticipated.
Happy New Year to you all and stay safe.
Thomas
Look at what's coming my way soon!!!! Oh, boy!!!!
Have been suffering from a cold for several days I was in bed all day Friday and Saturday. Played with the band Sunday. Decided to go light. No pedals, no rig. Lighwave Saber VL Fretless --> JDI --> Soundboard. No effects. Struggled with the monitor system a little. We have the Beheringer personal mixers and I used my over the ear headphones because I don't have great in ears. Had trouble hearing my intonation a little. I couldn't seem to get the bass loud enough in my personal mix. Maybe not the best time to play fretless. Overall, Probably ok. I blew some clams. I usually play all these songs with the other band, but in different keys. I kept sliding to a note a whole step off. Bad one in Lion and the Lamb that I slid when it was quiet and realized I was wrong and instead of sliding on to the right note, I choked it off. Ugly clam with no place to hide.
If I had my choice I probably would have played the first two songs fretted and the rest fretless.
That Lightwave Saber VL bass is a striking bass. I think it is the nicest looking bass that I have.
Here it is for better or for worse.
That drummer (Josh) was a home from college and filled in. Our regular drummer was out of town for the holidays. Regular guy is 75 and played drums professionally for 40 years. He is a rock. The kid, Josh is normally a pretty good drummer, but we only got the one practice with him and I think he did an all night new years party.
Our church has a separate X32 for the live stream, but it is in the same room as the live music. I keep telling them that the best sound guy in the world will not be able to mix for a stream with headphones in the same room. It needs to be in an isolated area with studio monitors as the only sound source. I struggle appreciating the attitude that "it is good enough". It is what it is, and may be what it may be, but it is NEVER "good enough". There is always room for improvement.
The more I listen, the more pitch issues I hear with the bass. Uggg....
If I had my choice I probably would have played the first two songs fretted and the rest fretless.
That Lightwave Saber VL bass is a striking bass. I think it is the nicest looking bass that I have.
Here it is for better or for worse.
That drummer (Josh) was a home from college and filled in. Our regular drummer was out of town for the holidays. Regular guy is 75 and played drums professionally for 40 years. He is a rock. The kid, Josh is normally a pretty good drummer, but we only got the one practice with him and I think he did an all night new years party.
Our church has a separate X32 for the live stream, but it is in the same room as the live music. I keep telling them that the best sound guy in the world will not be able to mix for a stream with headphones in the same room. It needs to be in an isolated area with studio monitors as the only sound source. I struggle appreciating the attitude that "it is good enough". It is what it is, and may be what it may be, but it is NEVER "good enough". There is always room for improvement.
The more I listen, the more pitch issues I hear with the bass. Uggg....
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Hello All, first post on the forum. I recently sold my two basses to get a single fretless one. It's a Korean made Jazz copy specced and sold by a UK bass guitar retailer.
It's a semi Jaco tribute sort of thing, but shiney, shiney.
Can't post images so here's the link:-
Invalid Link Removed
Can I have a number?
It's a semi Jaco tribute sort of thing, but shiney, shiney.
Can't post images so here's the link:-
Invalid Link Removed
Can I have a number?
mark beem
Wait, how does this song start again??
Thank you very much! My first official Talk bass membership.
I have recently progressed from a long term "noodler" to a more focused student of bass/music. This site is a marvelous resource and motivator, but it does eat in to practice time - the talkbass paradox.
Hey, I think you did just fine and the bass sounds good despite the soundguy's worst efforts.
Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt
Administrator, Pedulla Club #45
Administrator, Tobias Club #133
Fretless Club #943
Big Cabs Club #23
My Basses
Pedulla Club #45
Over the years I have shunned headphones because I could not hear intonation properly through them. I recently decided to try again and spent a whole morning auditioning headphones with my bass and amp in a store and still struggled until I got to the Sennhieser HD280 Pro. They are full size studio cans so not really suitable for live work but they are the only ones I've really been happy with, including some supposedly high end phones in good studios...
I actually have those same headphones and was using them Sunday. They are big, but they work better than the in-ears for live. My struggle with hearing intonation was partially my head cold and partially the soundguy had the gain set wrong and I couldn't get the mix I wanted from the monitor system.
No modulation effects on the monitor. It is a behringer x32 system with behringer monitors. I am not absolutely sure, but I think the monitor feed comes out right after the gain setting on the board. It might go through the board eq, but I don't think so. Sound guy doesn't completely understand setting gain as high as you can without clipping to achieve the best dynamic range. I caught him once setting all the gains so that he could have faders in a straight line. If the gain setting is too low at the board, the personal mixer can have the bass volume all the way up and still not hear it well. I had the bass set to 100%, vocals to 20%, Drums to 0%, Guitar to 10% and still struggled to hear the bass well enough. I suspect he had the gain down and the fader way up to get it loud enough in the room. Once the service starts there is no way to fix it from the stage. And the sound guy doesn't listen to the "back up bass player" very well anyways. I have a Rolls PM?? mixer that I have thought about taking and then I could add more bass to the mix if I wanted. Would be more setup and fiddling though.Ha! How weird is that?Do you have modulation effects on your monitor feed?
