Newbie on double bass

[Tanner]

Hi all my name is Tanner I live in West London, I play double bass in a 3 piece jazz band and I have a few other electric basses but I'm getting interested in a Music Man after having seen some of the new models on the web, particularly a 25th anniversary fretless 4 strings has caught my eye. What are they like, do you get a rosewood or ebony board on them?

I'd love to find a dealer that has one for me to try.

I work for a famous London auction house in Bond Street which shall go nameless and I also collect Attic and Athenian Vases as a hobby, five children, one wife and no pets.

That's about it for me

 

[Manfloozy]

Hey there and welcome! 25th HSS is a great fretless with beautiful tone options. The 25th came with a Pao Ferro board. The Reflex is the new production model of the 25th and retains all the goodies except for the figured top.

There recently was a special order for Roasted Maple necks that came with ebony fretboards, you may want to see if anyone ordered one for stock.

Did you want lined or unlined?

Here is a quick sample:

[ame="Http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQmc9EzmiCI&feature=youtube_gdata_player"]YouTube - Ernie Ball Music Man 25th Anniversary Bass 5HSS Fretless[/ame]

 

[Tanner]

Nice sounding bass, thanks, unlined would be ideal, I have another bass with a 34" fretless scale, but I am not familiar or I should say I've never tried a pau ferro board before. Ebony would be more in my comfort zone with flats, they just go along so well.

Anyone else here alternates from upright to electric fretless? What is their favourite MM bass that get as close as possible to an upright?

Bongo fretless?

 

[Hellboy]

Nice sounding bass, thanks, unlined would be ideal, I have another bass with a 34" fretless scale, but I am not familiar or I should say I've never tried a pau ferro board before. Ebony would be more in my comfort zone with flats, they just go along so well.

Anyone else here alternates from upright to electric fretless? What is their favourite MM bass that get as close as possible to an upright?

Bongo fretless?

I´ve done rather little acoustic upright playing through the years and I sold my acoustic upright about two years ago. But I play alot of electric upright and I alter with fretted and fretless Stingrays. What model to get is all about taste really so I can´t really tell you what to get but my personal favorites when it comes to fretless Stingrays (don´t know much about Bongo´s and the other models) are the anniversary models. Don´t know if it´s the mahogany tone block that makes a different but I´ve noticed that mahogany seem to bring out more middle frequencies from the instruments. And I kind of like that. I have a fretless 30th Anniversary (4-string), a 20th Anniversary (5-string) and a 5-string 25th Anni fretless. The 30th is all in mahogany and the 20th + the 25th has the mahogany tone block. I personally like more middle frequencies in a fretless to get that typical "singing" tone. And I find that in the Stingrays that has mahogany in them. This is of course a personal opinion and I have friends that like their regular fretless Stingrays more than mine when they´ve tried them. So it´s really impossible to give a advice but I´d say mahogany, Yay Hooray!!

Mahogany is a heavier type of wood so they weigh more. Good thing to be aware of. My fretted 30th Anni Stingray is not very heavy but my fretless is a beast. Sounds incredible and it´s no problem to play one or two songs on a heavy fretless but I would have had a hard time to play a fretted for three hours night after night if it would have been that heavy. But I LOVE the tone!! Sounds incredible, indeed.

Don´t really know what to say other then try all the models if you can. They are all great and in the end it´s all about personal taste. I myself like mahogany in a fretless and I´m a Stingray kind of guy. And pau ferro boards works GREAT!

Sincerely//Jan

 

[Tanner]

Thank you both for the above info, I have been in contact with the retailers and one of them phoned the importers sadly the 25th is discontinued, as are the roasted neck, I've heard the reflex is the new 25th, and those are avaiable but no one has any in stock in UK, so it would be a blind sale with no preview or test, i need to keep an eye on the second hand market, and in the classified section here in case one of those becomes available.

Wish me luck

 

[Manfloozy]

Thank you both for the above info, I have been in contact with the retailers and one of them phoned the importers sadly the 25th is discontinued, as are the roasted neck, I've heard the reflex is the new 25th, and those are avaiable but no one has any in stock in UK, so it would be a blind sale with no preview or test, i need to keep an eye on the second hand market, and in the classified section here in case one of those becomes available.

Wish me luck

Go for the Reflex. You will be extremely pleased!

 

[Tanner]

I would love to try one when they are available in UK, at the moment the shops near me haven't even heard of them, to some people music man means only stingray and anything else by Ernie ball which is not a stingray is a risk to keep in stock. I detect that stores are afraid to be adventurous and they blame the public for not buying basses which are not mass distributed, but I wonder is it the clients who wear blinkers or are the store managers?
We can only hope here in England that a major artist plays a particular bass for them to become interesting to sell and in higher demand, it blows but it's a harsh reality. The proof of this is that a bassist like Mark King could put his name to anything and people would buy it!

 

[Jimmyb]

You can always have a look on the Strings & Things website, as they will ship a Bass to a dealer for you to check out.