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The Official MTD USA Thread

#3,702
bassman74 said:
What do you prefer 21 or 24 frets?

Do you really use the extra 3 frets or it's more for the look!!!
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I have a 21 Fret and although it is probably better for slapping, I wish I had gone for the 24 fret model. I do far more fingerstyle stuff and am getting more into chordal playing in the upper register and the easier access to the higher frets you get with a 24 fret would be nice. If you are a slap man, get the 21, but otherwise, go for 24.

IMO
 
#3,703
I have 21 frets on my 535, and that's my only complaint.
I really ONLY like to have 24 frets, just because of the options and I'm not a big time slapper and when I do, it's very controlled and I don't need much space, buy Rodman was simply too awesome to pass up!

One of my old old band buddies was at church last night and came in during rehearsal and about fell OUT when he saw the MTD! :D It definitely gets noticed! :p

Man I can't wait to order my next one... all you guys posting these orders are driving me nuts! :D

Ash neck, maple board, 5A flamed maple top in dark cherry red, ash body, J/J pickups... drool! :help::help::help:
 
#3,704
Mark Latimour said:
If you are a slap man, get the 21, but otherwise, go for 24.
Click to expand...

+1...I slap maybe 5% of the time on the gig. I go up to those upper frets 0% of the time. So even though I don't slap to much on gigs I still do it sometimes so it's more important to me than having those extra few frets. If you slap, the 24 fret 535 doesn't leave you much room between the end of the fretboard and the neck pickup, which means you only have enough room to slap in one position. On the 21 fret, you have enough room to move your right hand forward or back to get some different slap tones.

But once again, if you're not slapping that much, or if you like playing chords up high on the neck, then go with the 24 fret.
 
#3,705
If cost isn't an issue, I recommend going with 24 frets. It's better to have the range and not need it, than to wish it was there. Probably goes without saying, but I absolutely love your wood choices, and I think you'll really be enamored with the sound. Plus, to my eyes, there's nothing like the look of an MTD body with a walnut top, against a maple fingerboard. Slurp. :D

Anyway. my fiver has 21 frets and the six has 24. Honestly, the five sounds so good that I would've bought it if it had 13 frets. :) That said, I like having the extra range, and from a playability perspective I find the difference to be minimal. Absolute worst case - those three frets may help resale value a bit, so if you're undecided and otherwise able to afford the upgrade, I'd go for an even two dozen.
 
#3,709
Vic said:
It just depends on what you want, and also your playing style. As much as I dig their look and physical feel, I'm not a fan of the wenge necks myself, but that's TOTALLY about my personal prefs AND playing style... NOT a slam on that neck, which is, as rockstarbassist says, part of a very popular wood combo, and works great for lots of folks.

In addition to the nice low mid push with the wenge, there's also a little bit of a "choke" (or modest attenuation if that sounds too negative for some folks :)) that the wenge necks have in the upper mids, or maybe even low treble, depending on how you prefer to describe stuff, and that drove me crazy. Mike's ash necks have that same low mid push like the wenge, but without that choke, which is exactly how Mike describes the difference, and I agree with it. It didn't bug me at all when slapping, but I do VERY little slap, so at least with my case, it was a "fingerstyle specific" problem, but since I rarely slap, that didn't really change things for me personally.
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Do the MTD's with maple fingerboards have a finish on them? Or do you guys just wash your hands diligently (I do anyway...saves strings big time). If they don't, is dirt and discolouration a big problem? (Yes, that's how Canajuns spell it).

I do need one more MTD for my bass life to be truly fullfilled...I was thinking wenge on wenge for the ultimate slap sound, and I do love the finger tone of those basses, and am familiar with their unique characteristics, but now the tonewood of choice seems to be ash on ash, a combination I haven't tried, and I hate buying stuff without trying it first. But I have YET to be dissapointed with any MTD I've played.

MTDsRig2504.jpg


Cheers,
Cameron
 
#3,711
Bassflute said:
Do the MTD's with maple fingerboards have a finish on them? Or do you guys just wash your hands diligently (I do anyway...saves strings big time). If they don't, is dirt and discolouration a big problem? (Yes, that's how Canajuns spell it).
Click to expand...
I haven't put enough miles on mine to see if there's anything to deal with there, but it sure feels like there's something on the board... maybe the same catalyzed poly type of thing as the body. Thing is, I'm also pretty diligent about keeping my hands clean, so I'm not sure I'll ever have a test case for this, but FWIW anyway.
 
#3,712
Bassflute said:
I do need one more MTD for my bass life to be truly fullfilled...I was thinking wenge on wenge for the ultimate slap sound, and I do love the finger tone of those basses, and am familiar with their unique characteristics, but now the tonewood of choice seems to be ash on ash, a combination I haven't tried, and I hate buying stuff without trying it first. But I have YET to be dissapointed with any MTD I've played.
Click to expand...

Typically I see more of the myrtl burl + tulipwood body combo with the wenge necks, but YMMV.
This is the setup I have, and lemme tell ya man! For slap and serious fingerstyle, I seriously doubt you could create a bass that accomplishes it's task better!
 
#3,713
rockstarbassist said:
Typically I see more of the myrtl burl + tulipwood body combo with the wenge necks, but YMMV.
This is the setup I have, and lemme tell ya man! For slap and serious fingerstyle, I seriously doubt you could create a bass that accomplishes it's task better!
Click to expand...

FWIW, and YMMV, but an ash body, maple top and wenge/wenge board/neck is one of my personal favorite combo's in an MTD.

Tom.
 
#3,714
Vic said:
I haven't put enough miles on mine to see if there's anything to deal with there, but it sure feels like there's something on the board... maybe the same catalyzed poly type of thing as the body. Thing is, I'm also pretty diligent about keeping my hands clean, so I'm not sure I'll ever have a test case for this, but FWIW anyway.
Click to expand...

Echo. On all counts, actually...feel of the board and my OCD about clean hands. (Not to suggest that Vic has OCD.) :D
 
#3,716
I have a few questions for all the MTD players here. What was your first experience with playing an MTD bass like? What was your reaction? Where did you try the bass? How soon after did you purchase your own?
I think it would be really interesting to hear the various stories you guys have. I'm sure all of them are great. :)
 
#3,717
Sterling_Bass said:
I have a few questions for all the MTD players here. What was your first experience with playing an MTD bass like? What was your reaction? Where did you try the bass? How soon after did you purchase your own?
I think it would be really interesting to hear the various stories you guys have. I'm sure all of them are great. :)
Click to expand...

For me personally, it honestly wasn't that great.
I had my first one about 2 months, if that, and moved it on to Vic. I'm not sure what his status with MTD's were at the time, but believe you me, I was VERY underwhelmed for what I paid for.

It had the wenge neck, some sort of burl top and the tulipwood body, which is EXACTLY what I have now!

But there was a major dead spot on the A string, 13th fret, the knobs were all loose, gunk on the board, frets were thrashed, and the electronics had issues. It definitely wasn't sold to me this way by a fellow TB'er, and was not happy.

I then got way into Modulus of all sorts for a few years, and still like them all. But, I came across a 535/21 Rodman in yellow, green and yellow, with the wenge+myrtl burl and tulipwood, a late 2007 model, brand new from Bass Central, and I have YET to pick up another bass.

I can't wait to order my 2nd, 3rd, 4th, possibly 5th! I've got 'em all planned out too. :)

Absolutely love what Mike does with wood, metal, plastic and some wiring!
 
#3,718
I didn't get the MTD experience until recently...yet I played just about every on my local store got in going back many, many years. I was always amazed at the craftsmanship and aesthetic beauty, blown away by the playability, overwhelmed by the price, and underwhelmed with the sound. It just didn't do it for me, "it" being relative and a little different on each instrument I played.

And then I played my 535. Bells rang, lights went off, and I needed a diaper change. :D

Still incredibly subjective - I'm obviously in love with the whole walnut-over-ash thing, but I've only heard a few others that knock me out.
 
#3,719
I first heard David Dyson play one at a concert. There were several bands on before his, and the basses sounded boomy. When he took the stage, I heard the bass as though it was being heard through my stereo. I then went to basstasters and listened to the 535, and compared the tone to the other basses. Then I by chance ran into an MTD dealer at Guitar Center, who told me that he had 4 of them at his business. I met him and tried all of them and fell in love with everything about them. I called Mike and told him what I was looking for as far as tone. He told me that he had just shipped one to Austin Bass Traders that fit my description. I called the owner of the store and he shipped it to me with a 3 day trial period, that was 3 years ago. I love it till this day.
 

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