Yea, I'm a bit partial, I guess! This is the first bass I've ever had built, rather than just buying something that was already hanging on a wall somewhere. I have been a fan of Brian's basses at The LowEnd Bass Shop for over a decade, and last year finally pulled the trigger on having one made. I present to you, my LEJ5 Exotic MManP!
It's exactly what I wanted, and better than I expected! I met Brian yesterday afternoon to pick it up and I am still floored... I forget what the measurement was, but we went with a narrower nut than normal, because I have some reach issues with my left hand from shattering my elbow as a teenager. The narrower spacing at the nut allows me a much easier reach to the low C, C#/Db, D range, and we left the bridge spacing at the normal 19mm I believe. The pickups are made by Howard Ulyate, and as you can see we went with the Musicman/P setup. The Stingray pup is in the correct Musicman location, unlike in a Lakland. I really like the controls of my Skyline 55-02 so we copied that control configuration, and added a pull pot on the mid tone knob to allow bypassing the mid tone circuit, so you can get a 2 band eq option as well.
The body is ash with that gorgeous flame maple top, and the neck is a 5 piece, maple and purple heart, bound with pearl and sporting block inlays in the flame maple fretboard. My favorite color is blue, and I love bursts... this aquaburst came out even better than what I had pictured in my head! Just stunning.
I played for about 3 hours last night, and just kept loving it more and more. Brian's setups are fantastic, and it was exactly as I'd want it. Nice low action but not to the point of buzzy, and intonation is bang on. That low B is just FANTASTIC! This is a 34" scale it easily shames my 35" Lakland. Also, the evenness in response across strings is so much better than any other bass I've had. I can focus less on WHERE I'm playing, and more on WHAT I'm playing, if that makes sense. Speaking of where I'm playing... on my Lakland I was always kind of hopping between anchoring on the humbucker or jumping up to the single coil, and often I wasn't happy with either location. On my single pup Stingray you are either on the bucker or not, lol! 90% of the time it's just right, except when you want those softer, fat and round notes with less attack. Well, having this MmanP configuration is just perfect! I never really found myself having to think about where I was anchoring... I just naturally landed in the right place all the time, getting the attack I was looking for without pressure or forethought.
and MAN! Those electronics! Hats off to Howard for some killer pups! And Brian's preamp is just great. TONS of headroom... adding attack doesn't ever seem to get into limiting/crushing tone. Some other basses I've had just seem to get farty/boxy with too much aggression, but that doesn't happen here. I'm not talking about amp/cab giving up. I was playing at home at low volumes through a nice rig with a Heritage SVT 410 cab. This bass just gives you what you want, without putting the brakes on your fun when you get a little too rowdy! The 3 band EQ has a LOT of range! "A little dab'll do ya!" as they say!
I'm sure I'll come up with more to rattle on about later, but I should get back to work. (lunch break was over a few mins ago, haha!)
Let me stop for now with this thought... if you've ever wanted a bass built, and thought about talking to Brian about it but haven't gone through with it for whatever reason... call him! I spent 4x as much as I ever have on an instrument before and I am completely happy. I can't recommend his work, or HIM, enough. Great guy to deal with, and willing to put up with my indecision and help me to make the best decision for what I was wanting out of a bass. (Not what HE wanted, what I wanted... he just knows how to ask the right questions to help you make the right decisions!)
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