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The Official MTD USA Thread

#2,302
Hey guys,

I just finalized specs with Mike today and the wait now begins... Just wondered what you all thought about these specs:

MTD 635,
mahogany body
2 octave neck
multi-laminated bolt on neck blank, flamed ash/bubinga
world logo World MTD logo
unlined fretless
ebony fingerboard, striped macassar
chambers semi hollow bass body
redwood burl top
matching peghead veneer
matching truss rod cover
6 string piezo bridge and preamp system

Birthdate: Summer 2008:bassist:
 
#2,303
Halftooth said:
I'm curious...at what frequency do you hear the scoop with a Wenge/Wenge neck? I'm wonderring if I'm hearing something different, or maybe it's where I think the term "upper mid" is centered at.
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I'm thinking somewhere in the general vicinity of 1K? Maybe a little higher? I consider low mids to be 300-400. What are you hearing?
 
#2,304
Saluki said:
Here is #746. I love the tone. Exactly what I wanted.
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I played this bass tonight. All I have to say is HOLY CRAP! This bass is FRIGGIN' cool! It's a pretty straight up wood combo, maple top on ash, maple neck with a super nice piece of rosewood on it. It's been played a lot, but is still in very excellent condition. It's also got a neck profile that's fairly thin from front to back, a lot like my older red bass, but not quite as wide going down to the zero fret. SUPER comfy to play. Weighs in at 9.5 pounds.

Here's the thing... the tone is unreal. I really would have expected something fairly middle of the road, but with a bit more bite from the ash body. However, it's a lot more than that. It growls like junkyard dog that ain't had a bite to eat for months... especially when you favor the bridge, but it also slaps like drunk bar chick that just got told she looks fat in those jeans. :eek: It also has oodles of sustain. Yep, that's a scientific term. ;) You can definitely chalk one up for Saluki. He scored a special one!

Oh, and yeah, dibs have already been called, tho I don't expect it to matter. :D

A few quick snaps...

cory_535_1.jpg


cory_535_2.jpg


cory_535_3.jpg


cory_535_4.jpg


cory_535_5.jpg


cory_535_6.jpg
 
#2,306
Vic said:
I played this bass tonight. All I have to say is HOLY CRAP! This bass is FRIGGIN' cool! It's a pretty straight up wood combo, maple top on ash, maple neck with a super nice piece of rosewood on it. It's been played a lot, but is still in very excellent condition. It's also got a neck profile that's fairly thin from front to back, a lot like my older red bass, but not quite as wide going down to the zero fret. SUPER comfy to play. Weighs in at 9.5 pounds.

Here's the thing... the tone is unreal. I really would have expected something fairly middle of the road, but with a bit more bite from the ash body. However, it's a lot more than that. It growls like junkyard dog that ain't had a bite to eat for months... especially when you favor the bridge, but it also slaps like drunk bar chick that just got told she looks fat in those jeans. :eek: It also has oodles of sustain. Yep, that's a scientific term. ;)
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LOL! I love that description Vic! :D
 
#2,308
ubone said:
Thanks for the reply's Tom and Vic.

You're comparison's and definitions have been a big help. I totally agree with Tom when he says Marilyn would be da bomb for WorlBeat Jazz/fusion. It is and I use it primarily for that, and that leads me to my next question. I'm gassing real bad for a six string fretless and again it will be used primarily for the above genre of music. The bass will have to have serious Mwah and growl but with clarity of note and tone. Would a frettless Marilyn be the way to go or would you suggest a different wood configuration?

Steve
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I would think that a fretless chambered, alder body MTD would be great for fretless. Personally, I like ebony boards on a fretless, but that's a matter of personal preference.

And regarding a wenge/wenge neck for fingerstyle tone, I hear what Vic is saying, but I think that this is more of an issue with a tulipwood body than it is for an ash body - at least in my case, it is. I really like the tone I get from my ash/maple/wenge/wenge 435 and 535 for fingerstyle rock, though I do boost a little bit of treble on the bass (not much). And to put this in context, I play over the neck pickup, and my rigs are generally very balanced, from top to bottom (no real notable scoops or peaks in the response, and definitely a full yet clear midrange, though I do favor a tone that is a bit more present in the low mids, but I prefer to get that from the instrument).

Hope this helps, Tom.
 
#2,309
Dang Vic, You were up late with my bass. I hope you weren't abusing it to learn some of the techniques from your new Marcus Miller DVD. Let me know how it does on the gig this weekend. And you got dibs if it ever goes anywhere, which I doubt will happen.
 
#2,310
Vic,

I forgot to mention thanks for the killer pics. I think that some of the extra bite may be due to the thin top (which is not characteristic of all MTDs) which leaves a nice chunck of ash to complete the body. This smokes the bass I traded for it.
 
#2,311
tombowlus said:
And regarding a wenge/wenge neck for fingerstyle tone, I hear what Vic is saying, but I think that this is more of an issue with a tulipwood body than it is for an ash body - at least in my case, it is...
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Understood, and yeah, the tulip body is also a problem for me, but not all. I should have mentioned it, but to keep things more comparable, I was talking about my experiences with the ash bodied wenge neck'd bass. :)

At least for me, the wenge neck'd bass is still missing something in the mids that I want, and the maple neck'd bass definitely has it, and so do the ash neck'd basses.

A further data point, way back when I bought my first MTD (yeah, that red one that I still have was my first one), I actually ordered TWO basses... both ash bodies, both figured maple tops, both 24 frets. One was a maple/ebony neck, the other was a wenge/wenge neck (which was a first for me... did it after reading the usual TB raves about them). Both were killer.

I rehearsed in a full live mix with both, and was even hoping to like the wenge one more, 'cause I thought it looked cool. Well, the wenge/wenge bass went back. I felt/heard it then, revisited recently and ran into the same thing and re-confirmed it, and all luthiers I've read comments from and spoken to agree that the wenge has a scoop to it. Ok with others (and that's totally cool!), just not ok with me. :)
 
#2,312
Saluki said:
I think that some of the extra bite may be due to the thin top (which is not characteristic of all MTDs) which leaves a nice chunck of ash to complete the body. This smokes the bass I traded for it.
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Yeah, that could very well be the case, and yeah, the other bass was really nice, but this one drops it like a bad habit in so many ways. Dayam... :)
 
#2,314
Vic said:
I rehearsed in a full live mix with both, and was even hoping to like the wenge one more, 'cause I thought it looked cool. Well, the wenge/wenge bass went back. I felt/heard it then, revisited recently and ran into the same thing and re-confirmed it, and all luthiers I've read comments from and spoken to agree that the wenge has a scoop to it. Ok with others (and that's totally cool!), just not ok with me. :)
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Yep, there is certainly a narrow upper mid scoop in my tulip/wenge/wenge 535, which is probably similar to the scoop you heard with that ash model. When playing fingerstyle, it's nice to have a certain "bite" in the upper mids when you dig in...with the wenge/wenge neck, there is a scoop where other wood choices have this bite. However, wenge/wenge does have that bite, but in a different frequency (as I've mentioned before, I hear both a peak and a scoop in the upper mids on my bass as well as the high treble peak). I can see how the very unique bite of wenge/wenge wouldn't work for guys that want a more traditional bite.
 
#2,315
vision said:
Yep, there is certainly a narrow upper mid scoop in my tulip/wenge/wenge 535, which is probably similar to the scoop you heard with that ash model. When playing fingerstyle, it's nice to have a certain "bite" in the upper mids when you dig in...with the wenge/wenge neck, there is a scoop where other wood choices have this bite. However, wenge/wenge does have that bite, but in a different frequency (as I've mentioned before, I hear both a peak and a scoop in the upper mids on my bass as well as the high treble peak). I can see how the very unique bite of wenge/wenge wouldn't work for guys that want a more traditional bite.
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Absolutely.
 
#2,317
Well Tom and Vic, the two of you have nailed it for me. I was really thinking about it last night and came to the conclusion that I do love the more traditional tone when it comes to frettless. I've played my frettless Fender Jazz for nearly 30 years and just dig the tone. I love the broad spectrum of tone I get from the Marilyn 6 I have as it is similar in many ways to the Jazz. So I'm thinking I want to go with an MTD 635-24 lined frettless Marilyn with the same wood combinations of my current one.

Thanks guys, you've been a big help.

Steve
 
#2,319
ubone said:
Well Tom and Vic, the two of you have nailed it for me. I was really thinking about it last night and came to the conclusion that I do love the more traditional tone when it comes to frettless. I've played my frettless Fender Jazz for nearly 30 years and just dig the tone. I love the broad spectrum of tone I get from the Marilyn 6 I have as it is similar in many ways to the Jazz. So I'm thinking I want to go with an MTD 635-24 lined frettless Marilyn with the same wood combinations of my current one.

Thanks guys, you've been a big help.

Steve
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Glad to help! That is going to make an awesome pair of instruments! :cool:
 
#2,320
vision said:
However, wenge/wenge does have that bite, but in a different frequency (as I've mentioned before, I hear both a peak and a scoop in the upper mids on my bass as well as the high treble peak).
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+1 This is also what I am hearing, though again, for my playing style, right hand position, preferences, and associated rig, wenge/wenge works just fine for killer fingerstyle tone.

Tom.
 

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