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Willcox Bass Club (Lightwave)

#61
Chris Willcox #1
Marko5657 #2
JAUQO III-X #3
TRichardsbass #4
kirkdickinson #5
kiwi60 #6
QweziRider #7
IGotGas #8
joenoone #9
basehed #10
TimWinter #11


mb94952, when you pick up your new Lightwave, please post a photo. You know you are going to have to get it. That is a certainty. You need to negotiate the price a little. Brand new from Lightwave is $1250 for a fretless 4 in SL, now if it is a VL, I would snatch it up at that price, the VL is $1900 new.
 
#63
A new member of my Lightwave family finally arrived today. I finally have a 5 string hybrid!! I bought it from a very cool cat on evilbay. It arrived with Black Beauties tuned EADGC. I've got a tour coming up as a hired gun, so I'm going to drop it off to my tech in the morning to have it strung / tuned BEADG, intonated and a few other little setup issues resolved.

The Good: this thing played incredible right out of the box. I was stunned to find, after five minutes adjusting the onboard frequency controls and tweeting my large venue rig that I was able to not only get the super clean/clear Lightwave tone, but was able to replicate the tones from several of my Alembics all the way to the classic EBMM gnarl. That Roland humbucker really makes this such a versatile, yet predictable and repeatable instrument. Further, with the aforementioned versatility and repeat ability, I can literally handle ANYTHING on a long tour with lots of large venue gigs and travel involved. So, instead of having 5 to 7 basses (depending on who I'm playing for/with), I can do it with as little as 3 (two 5's and a 4) and hope nothing breaks. Also, this bass brings so much more to the table in the studio than any other bass I've ever played.

The Bad: it's ugly. I need to figure out how to make it more stage presentable.

ImageUploadedByTalkBass1375940392.656434.jpg
 
#65
#66
Man that looks very cool!!

I emailed Chris back about starting a custom build a few weeks ago, but never heard back from him. Kinda odd. Of well he's probably up to his eyes in alligators running the show there.

I can't decide if I'll have someone laminate my top, or just have a different builder do a complete custom rig for me.
 
#68
Does anybody know the exact neck dimensions of the Saber SL-5? I don't have the tools to measure it, but am curious.

I just picked up a Gary Willis GWB35 for cheap until I can afford to get a Lightwave Saber VL 5 Fretless. The neck on the GW is very thin and the Lightwave feels chunky when I switch back. I aways thought the lightwave had a thin neck. I guess that is all relative, especially since one of my other 5's used to be Squier Precision with an absolutely HUGE Horking neck.
 
#69
Hi all Lightwave proud owners-

Is there anybody that could share some clips of the Solid Body Lightwave fretless??? I'm really curious how it compares to the carved body fretless, excellently reviewed by BassWhidoerer on YT...

So far I like it a lit soloed but mist clips I've heard in YT of the carved body... sounds a tad too "scooped" or "airy" in other words too much typically carved body for my tastes... Wonder if solid body fretless packs more "punch" ?

But I really think hearing is the key here! If anybody kind enough to upload no3s / vids or whatnot of their Beauty.... great!
 
#70
Hi All,

New to the forum, just acquired a SL-4 and love it. I am currently researching options for a rig. I will be doing quite a bit of searching on here I'm sure. Anyway, wanted to say and introduce myself. Here's a pic of my girl.

IMG_1600_zpsd7637ae0.gif
 
#71
LightSaberSF said:
Hi All,



New to the forum, just acquired a SL-4 and love it. I am currently researching options for a rig. I will be doing quite a bit of searching on here I'm sure. Anyway, wanted to say and introduce myself. Here's a pic of my girl.



IMG_1600_zpsd7637ae0.gif
Click to expand...


Congratulations on your new lightwave. You will love it. I am saving up for more - like potato chips, you can't just have one.

Do you need a club number?
 
#74
I've been a fan of Lightwave since I first saw the ad with Rana Ross in Bass Player magazine. While everyone who heard her miss that raucous playing, it's also nice to look how the Lightwave pickup has evolved in these years. Cheers!
 

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#76
Being a Chapman Stick aficionado, I wonder how the Lightwave system could perform in a tap-instrument.

Guitars such as the Stick (or Megatar, or Warr guitars) have to use very low action to be tapped, so there is a very low amount of kinetic energy applied to the strings. That's why they need their magnetic pickups to be adjusted very close to the strings and to use their amps with lots of gain. That often leads to feedback issues and the dreaded "stratitis".

An optical pickup would be excellent for these players: no feedback issues, no magnetic fields to interfere the natural decay and tone, and a very fast transient response. And since both hands are always on the fretboard, the bulk of the optical unit at the bridge is no longer an issue.

Not to mention that since lots of Stick players are also heavy MIDI users, the daughterboard option would probably be a very popular one.

Plus, the instrument would be a lot lighter...

Of course, since the Stick uses a variety of string gauges and tunings, the optical units would have to be able to read from the whopping .130" to the tiny .010" while keeping the standard guitar spacing. Now that's a tough challenge! As if Mr. Willcox wasn't busy enough...
 
#77
Don't see why it wouldn't work and work well. From my understanding the system essentially has the same electronics package and monoblocks for the 4 string bass, the 6 string custom bass, and the 6 string acoustic guitar. So it should easily handle the strings on a Chapman Stick. However, the Lightwave system as it currently exists only has 6 channels. So for the Chapman stick, you would have to run two complete systems. Might be nice to be able to separately control tone on each half of the strings anyways.

How tight the strings could be spaced will be dependent on the width of the mono-blocks. I don't have mine here to measure right now.

I would think for dynamics, tapping, sustain, and volume control, the Lightwave system would be the perfect match for a stick.

Not sure why do you think the system would make it lighter?
 
#78
I guess a Lightwave system-based Stick would not be as heavy because it doesn't require magnets or long coils, arguably the heaviest parts of common pickups. Plus, the larger cavity required to house the Lightwave circuitry would certainly remove more wood than usual.

Keep in mind that every Stick-like instrument doubles the electronics because one hand plays the bass strings and the other the melody, and independent outputs are desirable. So they always use a double set of pickups with their respective controls.

And when MIDI devices are desired on a Stick, things get heavier very fast. They are simply add-ons installed at the factory. That red Stick has two Roland MIDI interfaces (one by each side) PLUS the pickup module. And that Warr Guitar is even worse: Each side has two magnetic pickups, a volume/tone/selector circuit AND a piezo bridge to feed the MIDI signal. Now, DOUBLE that to have full MIDI capability and the chiropractor's number comes free!

A comparable Lightwave Warr Guitar would still require two independent systems similar to the one installed in the Atlantis guitar, but there would be no need to install an additional set of magnetic or piezo pickups to get a MIDI output: just plug the daughterboards and go.

How's that for convenience?
 

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#80
Have a black SL5 fretless, now I've got it properly set up with Thomastik Jazz Flats it plays like a dream and sounds fabulous -- love the tone and sustain, and Chris was extremely helpful sorting out a couple of issues.

One peculiar finding was that the roundwound strings it came with made strange very high frequency swishing sounds when listening through headphones or a DI into a wideband PA/monitor, sounded like longitudinal soundwaves bouncing back and forth along the strings (try hitting a taut wire hawser with a hammer!) -- the Thomastiks fixed this, probably the silk winding gave enough damping to stop this happening.

Guess this is one downside of the wide bandwidth optical pickups, I've never heard this on a bass with magnetic pickups. On the other hand I've never heard a conventional bass which sounds like the Lightwave or has anything like the sustain...
 

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