G&Ls

[tim]

MVIMG_20200712_135049_compress35.jpg (260.93 KiB) Viewed 23877 times

[Matt R.]

Love that transparent cherry looking one the best. Can’t believe I’ve still never tried a G&L.
Nice herd!

[dwibass]

A fine looking collection, well done!

[tim]

Love that transparent cherry looking one the best. Can’t believe I’ve still never tried a G&L.
Nice herd!

Thanks! That's my custom shop Kiloton. That order was a bit of an ordeal, but I like the bass a lot.

The blue SB-2 is my #1, though.

[Matt R.]

Oh yeah! I remember you posting about it now but forgot the issue.

[tim]

It was a vague post. I didn't want to leave a permanent, public comment about it at the time, because my order was in the first year of the then-new G&L Custom Shop and I hoped my issue was just growing pains. But G&L still seems to be in the habit of shipping non-conforming orders. They're also having issues with timeliness, and now I've heard about a few truss rod issues, too.

In my case, I waited 9 months for my bass, only to receive one that had the arm contour deleted and a binding added. It looked funny and was uncomfortable to play. I refused it.

At the 11-month point, the shop called to say my replacement was ready. But what I didn't realize is that G&L didn't have the neck (which was perfect) when they built the replacement body, so when the shop received the replacement body, it didn't fit the neck! So the shop sent the body and neck to a machine shop to have them put together.

I got a small discount for the hassle. And the bass plays perfectly and looks super nice from the top. But I'll put it this way: I've been dreaming about a G&L dual-P bass since getting my SB-2 years ago. But since G&L announced the dual-P Matador, I've bought two German Warwicks instead. I'm waiting for G&L to get their shit together before I risk all that again.

[Matt R.]

Whew. Man, I definitely have felt that custom shop (Not G&L) pain. Got mine all resolved but it wasn’t fun.

[tim]

Yeah, and everyone gets their issues resolved eventually and ends up with a bass they love. But I think folks deserve fair warning that there's a service element missing right now. G&Ls are still my favorite, but like I said, I'm biding my time...

[ch willie]

Jayzeus! Those are beautiful.

[superheavydeathmetal]

Killer arsenal, man! I like the jazz the best, of course, but they are all sweet!

I guess I got lucky; my G&L showed up perfect. But this was over four years ago, so maybe this issue developed later.

[tim]

Yup, the blue SB-2 was perfect first time. That was 2017-ish. Since then, though, I've hear more and more stories of irregularities.

[pjmuck]

What a sweet collection! It's so good to have a G&L aficionado here because they really are outstanding instruments that I feel don't get the credit and accolades they deserve. And it's a Leo founded company too. I just don't get it. People who own them know better though, and vintage ones almost never show up because nobody wants to get rid of them! They are, arguably, his finest creation after learning a thing or two at Fender and Musicman. I think an LB100 is next on my wanted list, since I can't ever seem to find a P bass I like.

[donahue]

Awesome collection. I forgot you owned that many!

[Murzenquest]

I just noticed the planet stickers on the first frets, great touch.
What’s the wiring on the blue one? Just volume and tone?

[tim]

Thanks!

SB-2s just have volume control for each pickup. I've never missed a tone knob. You can mellow the output by rolling off the volume. The first half a turn rolls off some highs and high mids without the overall volume decreasing much.

You can also adjust the relative volumes to get more shaping. If you run both volumes wide open, you get a nice, funky tone with prominent mids. If you roll off the bridge volume a bit, you add back some low end. So you can actually do more with less. It's quite elegant.

[Murzenquest]

Very cool, I like the simplicity of that.

[superheavydeathmetal]

What is the model name of that jazz, anyway?

[Jeroen]

That's the old-style SB-2: http://yowhatsshakin.com/yowhatsshakin/ ... le%29.html
The blue one is the current issue SB-2.

[tim]

What Jeroen said

[tim]

For those like me who are into strings:

The Kilo is wearing TI jazz *rounds*. Those work pretty well. I went back and forth between wanting bright rounds, dead rounds, or bright flats, and settled (at least for now) on the flattest-sounding rounds I know.

The SB-1 is wearing Fender stainless steel flats. Great match. But sometimes I think about trying some Pyramid Golds--they just feel so nice.

The SB-2 is wearing TI jazz *flats*. They will never come off. This is by far my favorite bass ever, particularly with these strings, and I would likely just buy another SB-2 if I wanted to try different strings.

The JJ-2 (first-generation SB-2) also has TI Jazz flats.

The L2000 has D'Addario half-rounds. I've tried a dozen (at least!) different kinds of strings on this bass over the last five or six years and it's pretty forgiving. Lots of strings have worked well including DR Lo Riders (both kinds), TIs, coated DR strings, and Chromes. Many of those *can* sound as good as the half-rounds, but the half-rounds work well across more of the different pickup modes.