The first time I've ever seen one of these in the flesh, and I had to have it! Sort of equal parts Jazz Bass, Starfire and Ibanez Soundgear, albeit with a chunky neck. An interesting confluence of bass designs. I bought this used a couple of days ago and almost immediately swapped out the knobs. I've also stuck on a fairly junked set of flatwounds, just to see what this bass can do. I remember these being all the rage about 15 years ago, at least on Talkbass.
(https://i.imgur.com/7WP6DdW.jpeg)
(https://i.imgur.com/Z5AdSvU.jpeg)
I think the wiring harness is the weak link? Typical Pacific Rim wiring harness from the nineties or noughties; all overly long red and blue wires flying everywhere, but not outright terrible. The Chi-sonic pickups are quite polite and balanced sounding, though maybe a bit dull on their own.
Lovely.
Pretty bass! I don't remember much about them.
Quote from: Dave W on March 16, 2025, 09:47:31 PMPretty bass! I don't remember much about them.
On the back of the headstock there is an inscription that states that Michael Tobias designed them. Lakland made them as a boutique offering back in the nineties, complete with Bartolini pickups.
Mine is from Indonesia and has chi-sonic pickups. They are either fat P90s or humbuckers. The pickup chassis need grounded, either way, as they are noisy when you touch them.
I've seen photos of one or two with Hammon dark star pickups.
Lakland then made a short scale follow bass (sort of a violin bass meets a Mustang, with a weird pointy cutaway) that phased out this model.
Wow, is that just chambered, or actually a hollowbody? I see the F-hole on the E side, but that must be a beautiful glue job if it's a hollowbody.
Completely hollow. The bridge sits on a fatter section of the top, but there doesn't appear to be any solid areas. I pulled the neck pickup out earlier, and the inside face of the rear is routed in very precise stair step increments.
Oddly the pickup covers and chassis aren't grounded, and there is no shielding or shielded wires in the bass, so it is a little noisy. Surgery time!
If this has Chi-sonics, it's after Dan Lakin had lost control of the company.
I believe they are Chi-sonics, but they don't have markings. They are potted with black epoxy, and are subtly over-engineered. The pickup cover and baseplate isn't grounded, however. The bass buzzes if I touch the neck pickup height adjustment screws or bridge pickup cover.
Is it a "real" hollowbody or a hollowed out solid like a Tele thinline? How it it constructed?
Quote from: Alanko on March 17, 2025, 04:00:06 PMCompletely hollow. The bridge sits on a fatter section of the top, but there doesn't appear to be any solid areas. I pulled the neck pickup out earlier, and the inside face of the rear is routed in very precise stair step increments.
Oddly the pickup covers and chassis aren't grounded, and there is no shielding or shielded wires in the bass, so it is a little noisy. Surgery time!
Than that is one excellent glue and finish job!! NICE!
Quote from: ilan on March 19, 2025, 02:41:49 AMIs it a "real" hollowbody or a hollowed out solid like a Tele thinline? How it it constructed?
Two hollowed out faces, glued together, at a guess. There is a seam running around the side of the body. I suppose it is constructed like a Rickenbacker 4005, but with two rounded, hollowed out shells glued together.
Now that I've had this bass a couple of weeks I've drawn up a list of improvements.
- Replace the electronics! It's a rats nest of unshielded wires, crackly pots and a worn out switch of the 'enclosed box' variety. I'm going to rewire it like an SG, but with a 4.7 nF cap acting as an overzealous treble bleed on the bridge volume to get me a sort of comb-filtered vintage Rickenbacker tone when I knock the bridge volume back to '8'.
- Replace pickup wires with braided Gibson-style wire.
- Ground the chassis of the pickups as these are currently floating and a source of noise.
- Replace the bridge. Turns out I don't like the feel of 20 mm string spacing, plus the bridge is slightly offset to the treble side. The neck is solid in the pocket, so I cannot do the standard Fender chiropractic procedure on it. Currently the G is too close to the edge of the fretboard above the 10th fret.
- Replace rattly pickup springs with surgical tubing.
- Rejuvenate the fretboard, round the edges of it, polish frets, have the top of the nut down or replace if it is soft plastic.
These were really hyped as being great for the price. Doesn't sound like it at all to me. I'm sure you'll get it fixed.
... that's a lot of work. One thing I learned to love about Danos was how they were designed to be cheap , and yet were very playable , but you had to accept the cheap tuners , wonky bridges and other eccentricities.
I started a project bass after buying a cheap Talman. Changed the pickup , but haven't yet changed the other pickup , pots and tuners I had planned to do. I'll never break even with it as it is.
Quote from: Dave W on April 01, 2025, 12:08:51 AMThese were really hyped as being great for the price. Doesn't sound like it at all to me. I'm sure you'll get it fixed.
The fretwork is great! Electronics are mediocre. Body and neck are well constructed.
To be honest the design is a bit weird. Maybe a bit too much Fender DNA. The back sits low in the body and the strings stay low over the surface of the body. Yet the pickups are difficult to set low enough as they use trim rings which naturally jack them up a bit by default.
Bridge pickup has a nice bark and the neck pickup does the neck-hugger splodgy thing.
A pretty bass. I've always been intrigued by these but never got a chance to play one.
Only Lakland I've ever played was a US-line Precision type. Very well made but expensive! I couldn't see them selling well enough at that price to sustain the brand, and sure enough, along came the Skyline series. Then Dan Lakin lost control of the company.
The same bass, now with some improvements.
I've replaced the stock bridge with a Badass II. The factory bridge was about 2 mm misaligned to the right.
I've rewired the bass with braided shield cabling, including the pickups. I've also added ground lugs to the pickup bases.
I've replaced the pickup screws sure longer versions as the pickups need to sit low on this bass to avoid the strings clattering into them. This seems like an unavoidable consequence of pairing a Fender-style bolt on neck with Gibson-style pickup rings and mounts.
I've not yet sorted one final problem. The pickup rings are metal and literally ring out periodically if I play over the bridge pickup. They must be ferrous metal as the pickup detects the ringing, despite the pickups not being microphonic.
(https://i.imgur.com/0s0RshR.jpeg)
That looks great, nice work!
Quote from: BTL on May 19, 2025, 07:02:11 AMThat looks great, nice work!
Thanks! A bit of a challenge and some silliness in the design that shouldn't have left the drawing board.
I guess there is an imagined Goldilocks bass design that captures all the mojo and cool points of a vintage hollow body bass with the more straight forward turnkey practicality of a Fender. Lakland were shooting for this design ideal here, but didn't quite hit the mark squarely.
I have one of the earliest Skyline HB bass and it has none of these issues. It has Bartolinis with zero noise issues and the neck bridge allignment are dead on. Of all the long scale HBs I've played, its easily my favorite. The Barts are deep and woody and i love the neck.