LeftyBassist.com

Jeroen wrote:Indeed I have never seen knobs that lock on to the pot shaft with two screws! I just checked the EQ knobs on mine, and it has the same thing: one screw opposite to the white index line on the knob, and one 90 degrees away. Interesting!

Don'tcha just love Japanese craftsmanship? They'll go the extra mile in a heart beat. My 62 RI Tele has the same design flaws as the original, they were intentionally built into the guitar.

Jeroen wrote:Is the pickup balance pot the one with the elevated knob?

Yes. Not so on yours?

No, the first series didn't have a balance pot but only a 3-way pickup selector switch. In the spot where your balance pot is, I have a master preamp boost/cut pot which allows you to set the EQ to a favourite setting, and then boost or cut the entire EQ preset.

Made some pics of my Italia Torino, Ibanez Musician and Fender Jazz today. The camera sucks, the lighting was a bit so-so, but at least I tried

Wow, that Italia looks sharp! And the '75 RI Jazz looks very accurate, though I always equate the black finish pearl block Jazzes with the later 70's, since about 90% of all the ones I've seen were '78s.

Regarding your Musician, both PUPs on yours are single coils, correct? It must sound fairly different than mine. I'm guessing they switched to the humbucker neck pickup in the later models to reduce hum, though the drawback is you don't get hum cancellation when both PUPs are on like a J/J setup and mine buzzes pretty loud on the bridge PUP because they matched the output of it's volume closer to the neck humbucker output.

Yes, they're singlecoils. They sound very clear and natural. Very warm and woody in the neck position, and bright and somewhat thin in the bridge position. The middle setting sounds awesome, very punchy and clear. Regarding the pickups on yours: I don't think the neck pickup is a humbucker. It should be a split-coil Precision-style pickup in a bigger casing.

I like the Italia, it looks sharp! Kinda reminds me of an Epi Jack Cassidy, tho I imagine it sounds completely different?

How did you manage to assemble all those thumbnails from Photobucket, and have them display as thumbnails? I've been trying to figure that one out for a while.

I like the looks of that Ibanez Musician - very classic looking. I'll bet it sounds good...

AzWhoFan wrote:How did you manage to assemble all those thumbnails from Photobucket, and have them display as thumbnails? I've been trying to figure that one out for a while.

In 'Account options', in the left column, there's an item called 'Album settings'. Click on 'Link options', and you'll get all available formats for linking from other sites.

About the Italia: it sounds quite different from the Jack Cassady. I think of the Cassady's tone more or less like a woodier and chunkier Precision type of tone. The Torino Bass sounds bigger and fatter thanks to that huge Gibson Sidewinder-type humbucker (lovingly called 'Mudbucker' by fans) in the neck position.

The Musician sounds incredible! Very well-defined, clear and open, and punchy as hell. I don't like the sound of the bridge pickup soloed, but the neck pickup sounds very open and woody with plenty of bark. A bit like the neck pickup of a Jazz Bass, but beefier and at the same time with more punch in the upper mids.

Jeroen wrote:I don't think the neck pickup is a humbucker. It should be a split-coil Precision-style pickup in a bigger casing.

Aren't they one in the same? A standard split coil P bass PUP does hum cancel.

You're absolutely right, the two halves are connected in series and do cancel hum.

I just stumbled upon a 1980 lefty Ibanez MC940, the fretless version of my MC924. I've emailed the seller, this might be cool! They're supposedly even rarer than the lefty MC924, and they're great basses. I'll keep you updated.

Jeroen, you seem to know about every lefty bass that comes on the market.... don't you ever sleep?!!

Haha, I do look around a lot. But I didn't find this one myself, I was pointed towards it by someone on another forum where I had mentioned I would like to own an MC940 to accompany my MC924.

A lefty 940L?! Go for it. Sting played one of these. I've seen 2 lefties in my lifetime.

I know
The only one I ever saw was in the 1981 Ibanez catalog.

Jeroen wrote:Haha, I do look around a lot. But I didn't find this one myself, I was pointed towards it by someone on another forum where I had mentioned I would like to own an MC940 to accompany my MC924.

what's that old saying? " You don't ask, you don't get?"
For me, that usually translate into " Be careful what you ask for, you just might get to put it on your credit card"

Finally made some pics of the G&L SB-2, so I removed the pics the original owner made of it (they sucked). Here goes. Note the colourful windings around the ends of the strings . Those are Rotosound Nexus strings I wanted to try:




I'm considering letting her go to get a G&L L2000, as I've lusted for one for a very long time. The SB-2 is a great bass, it definitely has that P-thing going on but with a lot of additional tones thanks to the bridge pickup and the neck is great (Jazz-profile). But an L2000 is a completely different beast with a character all of its own and those big magnetic field design humbuckers and that amazing preamp are just perfect!

Do those big-assed HB on an L2000 make it sound like a Sting Ray. Or put it in the same ballpark?

Not entirely, but similar. But they can do so much more!