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Help on Choosing my next Bass


Andre Lower

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Hello everybody,

 

I had a very crapy Washburn Mercury series MB-8 (Status active pickups) for many years which is so bad that it kept my interest in playing at bay. You can almost tune into your local FM radio station with it (and many luthiers have tried to fix the problem, and failed).

 

Now I am considering trading this bass (plus some money, of course) for another axe. The best available options over here (Brazil) are a brand new Music Man SUB (one thousand bucks) or an Ibanez EDB-? (can't recall the number) Ergodyne (Made in Japan, some 600 bucks used over here).

 

Can anybody shed some light on which would be better for a novice bass player to learn the ropes? I personally liked the SUB's sound a little better, but given my inexperience it could have been a question of adjustment :( .

 

Thanks,

 

Andre Lower

"I'm ready to sing to the world. If you back me up". (Lennon to his bandmates, in an inspired definition of what it's all about).
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The SUB is a well made bass which should serve you quite well for years to come. If you like it's tone and feel then you should good for it!

 

Good luck whatever you decide and be sure to give us an update!

 

Cheers

Nothing is as it seems but everything is exactly what it is - B. Banzai

 

Life is what happens while you are busy playing in bands.

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Either bass would be fine. Try everything you can before buying.

 

$1,000 seems like a lot to me for a SUB. But prices here aren't prices there. And it should be a good bass.

 

All of us in North America should realize how lucky we are when it comes to these things.

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My second bass was a Yamaha RBX 3000. It was a limited edition that Yamaha used to introduce the RBX line. (most of the RBX basses were cheap and terrible. This one was more expensive than the rest of the line. I bought it in 1992 for about $700. It was active and had P and J pickups.

 

If you go inexpensive, check out the yamaha lines, but try every bass they have. Eventually you'll find a diamond in the assembly line rough.

 

Music Man SUB is a good bass. My frind has one and is thrilled with it.

I would check out Lakland Skyline and G&L.

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If the G&L Tribute line is available there, check out the Premium series.

You can stop now -jeremyc

STOP QUOTING EVERY THING I SAY!!! -Bass_god_offspring

lug, you should add that statement to you signature.-Tenstrum

I'm not sure any argument can top lug's. - Sweet Willie

 

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Carol Kaye is now swearing by the Ibanez SRX 500 and SRX 700 basses now. They are in that price range.
Music has no boundaries. It is yours to discover, to enjoy, to draw from and to pass on to others.
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If I'm not mistaken, that Ergodyne is active. If you have problems with the circuit, it'll be really hard to get fixed, I'd presume.

 

I think I'd go with a passive bass...and (I think) that SUB is passive. It is a punchy beast and I like it a lot.

Yep. I'm the other voice in the head of davebrownbass.
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Originally posted by Dave Brown:

I think I'd go with a passive bass...and (I think) that SUB is passive. It is a punchy beast and I like it a lot.

1/2 right you are. They offer an optional active preamp. The SUBs I see around here have included the active option. But I'm a fur piece from Brazil.
- Matt W.
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I would pick the SUB over the EDB, but I would pick an Ibanez BTB over the SUB :D:thu:
http://www.briantimpe.com/images/LDL/dots/blue.JPGhttp://www.briantimpe.com/images/LDL/dots/black.JPGhttp://www.briantimpe.com/images/LDL/dots/fuscia.JPGhttp://www.briantimpe.com/images/LDL/dots/grey.JPGhttp://www.briantimpe.com/images/LDL/dots/orange.JPGhttp://www.briantimpe.com/images/LDL/dots/purple.JPGhttp://www.briantimpe.com/images/LDL/dots/red.JPGhttp://www.briantimpe.com/images/LDL/dots/yellow.JPG
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Hartman, I realize you live in Brazil, but I have an 8-string custom that I dictated the specs on. The luthier was Chris Stambaugh at www.stambaughdesigns.com - He is building guitars and basses using on basic body design principles and turning them out at $1000. My 8-stringer was alittle more expensive about $1600, but it is well made and I cannot put the thing down. I've had it for about 3 years now. I know taking a risk on a limited budget sounds alittle foolish, but this guy does great work.
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There is only one true bass. Fender Precision (or Jazz)

I just bought a USA Jazz and I love it.

Music Man basses are nice, too.

So are Rickenbackers.

I almost picked up a used Ric 4001 for 780 bucks, it had a broken tuning peg. I could have bought new tuners, but I am such a Luthier I said to myself the Ric is such an elegant and godly bass changing such elements such as tuners may alter headmass of the stock and therefore alter the tone somewhat. I could have been, and probably am, wrong. Maybe not.

Anyway I went back to the musicstore and the Ric was gone.

Keep your current bass and put a really nice one on lay-a-away. This way you won't blow your whole wad and you will still have an axe to play while waiting for your new one. Get a hard case, too.

Good luck

"The world will still be turning when you've gone." - Black Sabbath

 

Band site: www.finespunmusic.com

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First of all, thanks for everybody's input, you guys rock :cool: !

 

I ended up trading my bad old axe for a Japanese Ibanez 4 stringer, Custom Made series. Good deal, they kept my Washburn, my used Sans Amp GT-2 and some USD 150 and I got a much better instrument on which to learn the ropes!

 

There is nothing written as far as model is concerned (Ibanez is famous for the vast array of model names...), but the luthier I had checking it believes it is an SR-805. It looks a lot like this one http://www.ibanez.com/guitars/guitar.asp?model=SR500, except for the fact that the pick-ups are all written AFR (original Ibanez, I presume) and its got a staggered pair on the neck and a long single one on the bridge. Can anybody identify the model :confused: ? Any opinions on my purchase?

"I'm ready to sing to the world. If you back me up". (Lennon to his bandmates, in an inspired definition of what it's all about).
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Originally posted by getz76:

Originally posted by II Cliff Burton II:

There is only one true bass. Fender Precision (or Jazz)

Wow, that's open minded.
and great math skilz! :D

You can stop now -jeremyc

STOP QUOTING EVERY THING I SAY!!! -Bass_god_offspring

lug, you should add that statement to you signature.-Tenstrum

I'm not sure any argument can top lug's. - Sweet Willie

 

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Originally posted by lug:

Originally posted by getz76:

Originally posted by II Cliff Burton II:

There is only one true bass. Fender Precision (or Jazz)

Wow, that's open minded.
and great math skilz! :D
True. :D

 

ii cliffburnton ii,

 

Question; apparently I'm not playing a true bass. Can you let me know what I should call it?

 

Currently, my favored model of instrument is a Warwick Thumb Bass. Just want to make sure I don't refer to it as a bass, since it's not a true bass. What should I be calling it, though?

 

Just wondering.

 

:D

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Not for nothing, if it isn't made in the USA its a piece of crap, as far as I'm concerned.

The foreign car theory does not apply to musical intruments. At least not in my opinion.

And speaking of opinions...they are a lot like a$$holes, everyone has one and they all stink.

 

And for all you math wizards, you should take some classes in english. I said p bass OR jazz bass, which still equals one.

 

I sure hope you are better bass players then you are critics.

"The world will still be turning when you've gone." - Black Sabbath

 

Band site: www.finespunmusic.com

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Originally posted by II Cliff Burton II:

Not for nothing, if it isn't made in the USA its a piece of crap, as far as I'm concerned.

The foreign car theory does not apply to musical intruments. At least not in my opinion.

And speaking of opinions...they are a lot like a$$holes, everyone has one and they all stink.

 

And for all you math wizards, you should take some classes in english. I said p bass OR jazz bass, which still equals one.

 

I sure hope you are better bass players then you are critics.

Sorry to fuel the fire, but does this mean I shouldn't plug my:

 

a) Fender P-Bass Special (Mexico)

b) Yamaha BB300 (Taiwan)

c) Yamaha RBX765A (Taiwan)

 

into my:

 

d)Digitech BP200 (USA)

e)Ibanez TubeScreamer TS7 (Taiwan)

f)Ibanez Distortion DS7(Taiwan)

g)BOSS HYPER Metal HM-3 (Taiwan)

 

then off to:

 

h) Peavey TNT 115

or

i) Peavey Microbass (both made in Meridian, MS, U.S.A.)

?

 

Perhaps you'd like to think your superior reasoning skills will endear more foreigners to America... :rolleyes:

 

Okay, I'm done with this crapload. Just play. I don't give a ****, anyway.

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iiCBii,

 

Great attitude. :thu: There's nothing that screams intelligent observation like unfounded stereotypes.

 

On a serious note, can you expand on your opinion? That's a sweeping generalization, it would be nice to know WHY you think non-US made instruments are "pieces of crap." It may help someone like Hartman make a purchase.

 

Is it:

 

-build quality?

-materials?

-initial set-up?

-Value?

-fit and finish?

-attention to detail?

-attention to decals?

-mojo?

 

PS - for what it's worth, you did write:

There is only one true bass. Fender Precision (or Jazz)
It's not a question in English, per se, but more a question of logic.

 

How can there be only "ONE" if you have named two distinct items.

 

The proper structure of the argument would ahve been "There are only two true basses; Fender Precision and Fender Jazz."

 

Think about it;

 

"There is only one number; 1 or 2."

 

"There is only one color; blue or red."

 

"There is only one god; xyz or abc."

 

The sentences do not make sense.

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Any opinions on my purchase?
I find it odd -- based on your avatar -- that you want to learn bass. Do you plan to loop bass lines or just want another instrument for jamming and to help you write? Anyway, it seems to me that you've gotten out of a GAS attack only $150 down :D
A man is not usually called upon to have an opinion of his own talents at all; he can very well go on improving them to the best of his ability without deciding on his own precise niche in the temple of Fame. -- C.S.Lewis
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Originally posted by getz76:

Also, I hate to be a pain... BUT...

 

Didn't Cliff Burton use an Aria Pro II extensively during the "Kill 'Em All" tour?

 

 

Made in Japan.

You're right about the bass, but he used the Aria during the "Ride The Lightning" and "Master of Puppets" tours. During the "Kill 'Em All" tour, Cliff used his Rickenbacker 4003 bass.
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Actually, he's right on point of logic, if he's using 'or' as an exclusive disjunction: p or q, but not both p and q ((p v q) & ~(p & q)). There would be a problem if he were using an inclusive disjunction, since the truth conditions of an inclusive disjunction are consistent with the truth of both disjuncts: p or q, or both (p v q). That would be like saying, "There's just one, unless there are two." (More precisely, it would be saying, "There is at least one bass that is the best, and any bass that is the best is identical to that bass; and that bass is either P or J." If the latter disjunction is inclusive, then in the case in which both disjuncts are true, P and J would have to be the same bass. So we have to rule that out by making the disjunction exclusive.)

 

However, he buys this logical consistency at the cost of violating conversational implicature. It is a bit startling to be told to look for one thing, and be given two; and one would naturally conclude that he favored both basses, and yet the use of the exclusive disjunction requires that he favor exactly one of them & not the other. So it's hard to know whether it would be more charitable to read the disjunction inclusively or exclusively: on the inclusive reading he appears to take back what he had said earlier in the very same sentence, and on the exclusive reading one wonders why the rejected disjunct is there in the first place. One suspects this is just not very well thought out. I guess the most charitable reading is, "Either this one or that one, but I haven't decided which." Well, OK, but one wonders, though, why we don't just call it a tie & award two bests; there is nothing in the context that requires at most one winner. And in fact, what he actually says is that there is one "true bass." That's very strong. On the exclusive reading, this amounts to saying that one of these is a true bass, and the other is not; but surely there's a pretty big gulf between something that is genuine & something that is a mere poseur, and yet he does not tell between them. The conversational implicature generated by giving two possible bests, is that both are excellent, perhaps equally so; and yet to make the logic of the sentence come out, only one of them can be.

 

Then of course there's the statement's transparent falsity.

 

And most of all, there's a hearty helping of what we call the "troll factor."

 

PS Some of my best friends aren't made in the US.

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Originally posted by Hartmann:

 

I ended up trading my bad old axe for a Japanese Ibanez 4 stringer, Custom Made series. There is nothing written as far as model is concerned (Ibanez is famous for the vast array of model names...), but the luthier I had checking it believes it is an SR-805. It looks a lot like this one http://www.ibanez.com/guitars/guitar.asp?model=SR500, except for the fact that the pick-ups are all written AFR (original Ibanez, I presume) and its got a staggered pair on the neck and a long single one on the bridge. Can anybody identify the model :confused: ? Any opinions on my purchase?

Well, this thread turned out lots of things, except answers to my posting... Can any of you guys actually answer it? Like, do anyone out there know or use a Custom Made Japanese Ibanez bass?
"I'm ready to sing to the world. If you back me up". (Lennon to his bandmates, in an inspired definition of what it's all about).
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Originally posted by Hartmann:

Originally posted by Hartmann:

 

I ended up trading my bad old axe for a Japanese Ibanez 4 stringer, Custom Made series. There is nothing written as far as model is concerned (Ibanez is famous for the vast array of model names...), but the luthier I had checking it believes it is an SR-805. It looks a lot like this one http://www.ibanez.com/guitars/guitar.asp?model=SR500, except for the fact that the pick-ups are all written AFR (original Ibanez, I presume) and its got a staggered pair on the neck and a long single one on the bridge. Can anybody identify the model :confused: ? Any opinions on my purchase?

Well, this thread turned out lots of things, except answers to my posting... Can any of you guys actually answer it? Like, do anyone out there know or use a Custom Made Japanese Ibanez bass?
I'm sorry if we sidetracked from the original intent of your post. I'd guess that you might be better off e-mailing Ibanez, or calling them directly if you can. I did that for my Yamaha basses, and I got the info about them that I needed, most notably the years they were made.

 

Again, sorry for the mess. :)

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