I’ve found tapewounds to be a good halfway point, both tonally and feel-wise, between rounds and flats. Any of you ever try those?
Well, for a while now I’ve been telling myself a certain story…
- I have all the bases covered by my current stable
- I’m not a humbucker guy
- Not a semi hollow fan
- No need to spend any money before Christmas
…I went out and violated all four tenets. My favorite guitar shop up in PDX sent me a nice discount code, and who am I to turn down such a thoughtful gift?
After a little (who am I kidding, a lot) of research, I picked up a mouthful of an instrument, the Epiphone Inspired by Gibson Custom ES-355 1959. The principle is that it’s an Epiphone with a bunch of extra Gibson juice. The headstock is the traditional open book, the materials include an ebony fretboard with real mother of pearl blocks, Gibson-provided components and electronics, and most notably, a set of Gibson’s custom shop Custombucker pickups. Those alone would be a $500 purchase if made separately. Also a big fat ‘50’s neck.
For a Chinese-built guitar, it’s pretty immaculate. I did a little extra fret polish work but that’s it. Despite my reservations, I really love the humbuckers. They’re low output and unpotted and have a great open chime to them while still packing some punch.
I’ve been having a great time with it with only a couple days under my belt. To no one’s surprise but my own, I’ve found a bunch of tones I didn’t have in my arsenal before. Feels good too; I can’t put it down.
I’m perhaps in a bit of the same rut. Never really played a hollow body at all, I must admit.
On the other hand I wouldn’t want to spend significant money on an instrument I haven’t tried in my hands for a reasonable time. And the provincial town where I live no longer has any good music stores… alas.
I had thought of a Variax which might be good enough for live work and at least semi-pro recording. But those seem to be history….
And thats why I buy where I do. Easy returns, maybe even with free shipping both ways.
Great if you have found a place you can trust. Who do you use?
I’m in the UK, so maybe not immediately relevent….?
In the US, the big dog is Sweetwater. Could say a lot, but briefly, they do a good job of showing detailed pictures of each actual guitar they have, and they assign you a sales advisor that has experience with the instruments and styles of music you play. They can grab the actual guitar and talk-you you as they inspect it. Free shipping plus bit o honey in the box.
Guitar Center under their new CEO is experiencing a resurgence following the same model.
I buy from a small shop called Thunder Road Guitars. Similar treatment, but the small business experience.
In the UK, I hear Thomann does the same thing but I don’t have any specific experience.
Ooooo, pretty! Sounds like it plays as good as it looks.
Heheh, my only complaint about them is that they go a bit overboard on the customer service. I don’t need an email, a call and a text to see how the patch cables I bought are working out.
For me, Guitar Center is the place. I don’t know how close they are to everyone else, but in New Jersey there are a few in driving distance, and they ship store-to-store and accept returns from used or new online purchases at any store. Can’t lose with that kind of setup.
That’s why my JMJ came from Guitar Center!
My nearest big city that has music stores is Spokane, WA. I’ve tried Guitar Center a couple of times, but if you want to test out poorly setup guitars, that’s the place for you! The last time I was there, I was shocked at how bad the basses were. These were new! They should come from the factory better than what I was experiencing.
Nearby is Hoffman Music which has properly setup instruments.
I suspect there is a lot of variation between GC stores?
When I lived in San Jose CA, the local GC was a horrible place. They didn’t put price tags on anything, the sales people were clueless about instruments or equipment… it was very much a sort of “‘How much you lookin’ to spend, sonny?” operation. Left rather a bad taste in my mouth. Hopefully some of them are better now…
There’s a fair amount of articles and videos about their new CEO. He really pushing a set of policies to bring Guitar Center up to modern standards and while he’s got a lot of work in front of him, I really like what he has to say. They’ve been circling the drain for so long that I’m surprised there’s as much to build from as he seems to think.
Wow, either the East Coast stores are nicer or I have low standards.
I just want to get in, grab some basses off the wall and play them without being hassled.
Throw in the ability to return online purchases at the store and I’m sold.
I’m much closer to a great mom-and-pop music store, where the guitars are all set up correctly, but the guitars all have little signs on them telling you to get a salesperson before touching the guitar. And returning something…I get the “store credit only” vibe from the place.
I try to give preference to the mom & pop place, buying stuff that I am certain I will not return (e.g. my American Standard P-bass or my Cali76 Compressor) because I want to support local business.
I have to say the GC in Orlando FL, where I lived a bit later, was much better. The one in San Jose was notorious among local musicians, but the Orlando one was OK.
Two near me that I most recently (as in >2 years ago) tried to buy stuff from were misterable experiences. A tiny number of employees, engaged mostly in avoiding customers, a wide array of badly set up budget guitars, good stuff locked up (and see problem with finding a helpful employee, and the bad setup issue).
But then I went to the GC in San Francisco and it was really great. Almost bought the AV II ‘66 Jazzmaster they had, if not for the fact that someone had missed that some of the foam had come off its stand and chipped the nitro.
The CEO has said that his intent is for the store to become more like Disneyland for musician. Less for us on budget lines, nothing locked up, an investment in training employees (and finding a way to stop them from hiding), cleaner, better organized stores, and finally, doubling down on lessons.
In the DFW area, we have at least 5 Guitar Center locations that I remember going to. They all vary quite a bit in the quality of their staff. Some are pretty great, others are meh. The used to vary even more, but I had noticed even the meh ones were becoming a better experience to shop at (less people trying to sell you stuff, staff actually able to answer some questions). So maybe the new CEO is making some difference.
There’s also the Tone Shop chain in DFW that are pretty great, and sanely priced. Unfortunately, I have to drive past a couple of Guitar Centers to get to any of their locations from where I live. So, I don’t get to them as often as I otherwise would.
Back to the JMJ Mustang bass. Something that I noticed that is very cool: it really likes compression.
I always run my bass through a Cali76 compressor, and I find it to be reasonable but mildly underwhelming with a P-bass, adding lots of sustain but not helping smooth out as much as I would like. Something about the stronger fundamentals of a Mustang and/or those Seymour Duncan pickups seems to tickle the compressor in just the right way though.
I have found that I can play far more aggressively and the compressor makes it all sound as it should. What a fun combination: JMJ + Cali76!
Do you guys compress your bass? What is your tool of choice?
When playing with my group, yes, all the time. I use an MXR M87 and get good results from it. And like you find, with my Mustang I get more sustain, punch, and it levels it out. I also play fairly aggressively since we are playing music that lends itself to that style of playing.
Playing live, no. I just plug into the amp, maybe adjust eq on the amp a bit. Never been a fan of having a lot of pedals for guitar or bass, for what it’s worth….
Recording, yes, just about all the time. I use Reaper, which has a decent compressor tool built in. Though of course I apply the compression at the mixing stage: I like to record both guitar and bass completely raw to allow more flexibility later.
Well, for varying definitions of compression: yes, all the time. Sometimes a whole heaping mess of it. When I play with my band, I am running into either a Bassman 800 or a Super Bassman with the gain, blend and volume all dimed. It’s definitely compression, to the point where it distorts. Round wounds make awful screeching noises when you move your fingers, etc.
Fuzz is also a form of compression, and I currently use a Death by Audio Fuzz War with my band. My favorite will always be my Univox Super-Fuzz, though.
When we recorded, the guy took the output of my head’s preamp and ran it through a clone of a Neve 5015 preamp that compressed the hell out of the signal. I loved it, and plan to get a clone myself sooner or later. Probably a JHS Colorbox V2.
I had to look that one up. Definitely above my paygrade, and I would hope that it would do amazing things with one’s tone!