SoundCloud/Google drive maybe a good place for sound clips.
I have alder+ eye maples..and believe the lows are not from the wood itself.
What's the spec of yours?
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The Official MTD USA Thread
- Thread starter johnpaulbass
- Start date
I have alder+ eye maples..and believe the lows are not from the wood itself.
What's the spec of yours?
Are you having to add any lows or is it just well balanced requiring very little adjusting?
Crotch maple top, poplar body, Chechen board, toasted birdseye maple neck
I get a great tone with the EQ flat and both pickups on. I could probably even cut some treble in active mode, for me it still has that MTD high end.
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Spoke with Mike yesterday and short answer is Nope Never going to build a Single Cutaway.
Long answer is it comes down to how much mass needs to be added to the top "horn" as you cut away more from the bottom. He equates it to cutting the bottom 12" off a rug and sewing it onto the top. You end up with the same amount of rug. But now the battle is keeping the neck stable. The neck will do twist and do funny things if you don't brace it properly. And in my experience it seems accurate, the nice sounding and playing Foders SC basses I have seen all weight over 14 lbs. not a bass you want to play standing.
He's also of the camp that everyone's doing it right now and he doesn't want to be that guy that's just on the bandwagon.
But who knows maybe hes playing with me and in 6 months he is rolls out a killer Single Cutaway.
Thank you so much buddy!
Means my money gonna be safe some some while.
Totally understand the decision of Mike and respect that.
I really love the feeling of MTDs neck
Fingercross! If Mike would change his mind someday.
Yea the blade pickups sound amazing as well with tones pot full on, but it's very hard to get the classic jaco vibe while the tones pot roll off .. lucky the active electronic helps
I have the Norm Stocktons in my 535, wired as a single coil with the traditional preamp and with just a small roll off to the rear pickup and its Jacoville. Well not when I play it but if I were better it would be Jacoville.
Had an appointment today with Mike Tobias to have him rectify my input jack issue and give my bass a set up and “his blessing”
I honestly can’t say enough about him...so warm and welcoming...treated me like family from the moment I entered the door. Even made a remark at how nice my instrument was and how it was in “like new” shape.
Truly a one of a kind man and I’ll treasure the time I spent with him today as he welcomed me into the MTD family...
I honestly can’t say enough about him...so warm and welcoming...treated me like family from the moment I entered the door. Even made a remark at how nice my instrument was and how it was in “like new” shape.
Truly a one of a kind man and I’ll treasure the time I spent with him today as he welcomed me into the MTD family...
- Oct 23, 2005
- 1,439
- 1,378
- Disclosures
- Endorsing Artist: MTD Basses, Bartolini, Genzler Amplification, GHS, Tsunami Cables, Sonic Nuance
Owner photo-driven curiosity:
Show of hands - how many of us set our own intonation?
Of those, how many have slowly abandoned the Buzz Feiten system in favor of standard intonation, and/or gone back and forth?
No value judgement either way, just curious from seeing many photos with pulled back E/B saddles rather than the BF-hallmark forward push of those strings, specifically.
I always did BF, but lately switched to standard on my 635. Results are inconclusive for me so far.
Show of hands - how many of us set our own intonation?
Of those, how many have slowly abandoned the Buzz Feiten system in favor of standard intonation, and/or gone back and forth?
No value judgement either way, just curious from seeing many photos with pulled back E/B saddles rather than the BF-hallmark forward push of those strings, specifically.
I always did BF, but lately switched to standard on my 635. Results are inconclusive for me so far.
I thought the BF was kinda baked in, specifically that the nut had been "compensated" to manage the intonation requirements associated with the system (if that makes sense).
When it comes to setting the intonation, I stick with the BF system. For tuning, I'll use BF sweetening if that mode is available, but standard tuning or harmonics by ear if it's not. Generally, it's close enough for rock & roll.
FWIW, there are a couple of chords I like to play that do seem to work better on a BF tuned bass, that are normally a bit problematic otherwise, even when everything else about the standard tuning indicates there shouldn't be any problems at all. It's not interval based, but more a function of where I'm playing the various notes in the chord and on which string. I think those are the sorts of issues BF was meant to address.
- Oct 23, 2005
- 1,439
- 1,378
- Disclosures
- Endorsing Artist: MTD Basses, Bartolini, Genzler Amplification, GHS, Tsunami Cables, Sonic Nuance
I thought the BF was kinda baked in, specifically that the nut had been "compensated" to manage the intonation requirements associated with the system (if that makes sense).
When it comes to setting the intonation, I stick with the BF system. For tuning, I'll use BF sweetening if that mode is available, but standard tuning or harmonics by ear if it's not. Generally, it's close enough for rock & roll.
FWIW, there are a couple of chords I like to play that do seem to work better on a BF tuned bass, that are normally a bit problematic otherwise, even when everything else about the standard tuning indicates there shouldn't be any problems at all. It's not interval based, but more a function of where I'm playing the various notes in the chord and on which string. I think those are the sorts of issues BF was meant to address.
Yep, it sounds like you may be enjoying the exact fruits that the BF labor is designed to produce, in regard to those nicer sounding intervals across strings (I notice this when playing a perfect 5th across 3 strings). The system is baked in, but the effects and offset are arguably minimal. Guitars/basses can be factory made without the system and retrofitted for it - from my understanding, it mainly involves moving the nut closer to the first fret (for us, the zero fret closer to 1st) and subsequent offsets when setting intonation at the 12th or 7th frets, depending on string, but tuning the open strings normally. The thing is, those offsets are 1 cent - aka, one hundredth the pitch differentiation between one fret and the next, which is pretty minuscule, especially on bass. Aside from that, action and neck relief will play a part as well, since the further the string has to be bent down to meet a fret and where that fret is actually located relative to the midpoint and endpoint of the string will account for a number of cents one way or the other as well.
If I understand the system right, if you move the nut (0 fret) closer to the 1st fret, all the frets result in a pitch slightly flat of what it should be - by a very, very small amount. This helps offset for what I mentioned - the string going sharp as you press it down and it flexes and stretches to meet the fret, but another part of that flat pitch is offset by tuning the intonation to result in a slightly sharp pitch at the 7th or 12th fret. The underlying idea is that some intervals are more forgiving to our ears of not being exactly, bang-on pitch, and some are much less so... we rob from the former rich to give to the latter poor, in order to make a more pleasing overall result. But, in the end, we're talking about one or a couple of hundredths of a semitone, so you may not be able to tell with the naked ear whether a BF instrument is actually intonated with the BF offsets, or traditionally.
But aside from that, it just looks to me, and sounds like as well from a few of the convos I've had with fellow MTD users who don't understand the system well or just can't be bothered with it (or don't have a tuner that makes it easy enough to achieve), a number just choose to forego the BF intonation offsets and intonate traditionally. That theoretically should make the first half dozen or so frets a bit flat, but there are so many factors at play - is it significant? I can't say either way, just asking the question.
I am one of them...and don't even know about the BF until some floks were talking about it in club few months ago..
d sounds like as well from a few of the convos I've had with fellow MTD users who don't understand the system well or just can't be bothered with it (or don't have a tuner that makes it easy enough to achieve), a number just choose to forego the BF intonation offsets and intonate traditionally.
d sounds like as well from a few of the convos I've had with fellow MTD users who don't understand the system well or just can't be bothered with it (or don't have a tuner that makes it easy enough to achieve), a number just choose to forego the BF intonation offsets and intonate traditionally.
I set my own and use the BF preset on a Peterson tuner. That's the way Mike intends his instruments to be used and he sure as hell knows more than I do.
You probably couldn't tell on some intervals or chord positions, but you would very likely notice it on others. As I said, there are several chord positions I use frequently where I definitely notice a difference. Robbing the rich to give to the poor is an apt metaphor, as the results are a more even relationship between intervals no matter how those intervals are spaced up and down the neck.
+1. The BF system has been around a good long time now. It's used on guitars as well as basses. Even my Peterson clip-on tuner supports it. In fact, the last tuner I had that didn't support it was a Korg rackmounted tuner in the 90's.
If you own an MTD, you should own and use a tuner that supports BF. Otherwise, it's kinda like using SAE tools to work on a car that requires metric. You can make it work, but the results may not be all that great.
