NAMM-news

[Psycho Bass Guy]

If Ernie Ball wanted to sell its basses, it wouldn't keep raising the prices on them to Gibson-esque heights. Like Fender, for their most popular models, they're competing with their own past and when the new ones cost more than the vintage ones, they won't sell. I'd still love a Sabre and a double humbucker Sterling, but not for ~$2k!

[Dave W]

If Ernie Ball wanted to sell its basses, it wouldn't keep raising the prices on them to Gibson-esque heights. Like Fender, for their most popular models, they're competing with their own past and when the new ones cost more than the vintage ones, they won't sell. I'd still love a Sabre and a double humbucker Sterling, but not for ~$2k!

You're probably right about the Sabre, which is now discontinued, and the Stingray Classic, which starts at $2K and is a reissue of the the pre-EB Ray. OTOH you can still get a new regular production SR for about $1500, which is more or less in line with the G&L L-2000 or the Am Deluxe Fenders, or at least not much more. The other models aren't that old, there's no vintage to be competing against. Even the Sterling has only been around since '93.

I think the bigger reason is that compared to guitarists, relatively few bassists will spend that much. Look at the various MM Petrucci models. They start at $2100 and go up to about $3K, and they account for 40% of MM's volume. Look at the money spent on fancy Les Pauls and custom shop Fender guitars. That market is just a lot stronger for guitarists than for bassists.

[Aussie Mark]

They've had plenty of experience in ugly. That Bongo thing... yeesh.

They were wonderfully ergonomic basses though, and the 18v electronics are fabulous.  And, in the right light, they don't look too ugly (the same can be said of me LOL)

[66Atlas]

Thats a good looking Bongo...er, nevermind 

[Dave W]

I'm surprised Bongos have lasted this long. They really do sound good but I wonder how many are sold outside of the MM forum fan base. How often do you see them played at gigs?

[gearHed289]

Bongo was a daring design. I personally don't like it at all (to put it nicely), but they do sound damn good.

[Rob]

Mark there was nobody looking at you after she put on the red shoes and danced the blues.

[Basshappi]

Agree about the Bongo, never could get past the look but every one I ever heard sounded great.

[Alanko]

So it seems that NAMM will be stuff like...

• Brand X has started making vanilla-sounding Class D amps that fit in a small bag.
• Brand Y has started making a neo 115 and 210 cab (woop de doo).
• Brand Z is making another fuzz pedal for an already saturated market.
• Tech 21 make another cool Sansamp product that is still missing one or two vital features.
• Some metal guy gets a sig bass.

...to get the ball rolling...

[Dave W]

So it seems that NAMM will be stuff like...

• Brand X has started making vanilla-sounding Class D amps that fit in a small bag.
• Brand Y has started making a neo 115 and 210 cab (woop de doo).
• Brand Z is making another fuzz pedal for an already saturated market.
• Tech 21 make another cool Sansamp product that is still missing one or two vital features.
• Some metal guy gets a sig bass.

...to get the ball rolling...

You forgot some new snake oil being peddled by one or more string companies.

It's the biggest music industry trade show in the US, companies are going to come and show what they've got even if they have nothing new.

[Alanko]

I've got it!

Full-contact neck plates. I'm going to set up a company with a name that is either 1) A pick and mix of common and cherished phrases, such as 'Blues vintage guitar research limited', 2) an Eastern European surname that cascades hard consonants and Zs into each other in a way that nobody pronounces right but sounds disarmingly simple to pulled off correctly or 3) A brutish, bellicose and not entirely PC brand name that draws in the Nugent crowd, like "Rebel guitar alliance" or something like that. I can either have a bloatware-ridden website replete varying transparencies, smooth borders and reams of sub-menus with spurious graphs and diagrams or a circa 1995 Geocities-type website with a crude .gif of a Confederate flag fluttering merrily and a brash, in-yo-face Christian message scrolling incessantly across the top of the screen. No middle ground.

Leo Fender knew a trick or two, and didn't choose a flat, rectangular neck plate by accident. The neck plate functions like (your favorite hackneyed car analogy here) connecting the (part X) to (part Y). Modern manufacturers overlook the tonal importance of this component, and modern plates often have casting errors and sub-par chrome plating, all of which sap the tone from your instrument. Our new, higher mass full-contact neck plate is made from low-background steel/aircraft-grade titanium/pot metal, just like Leo used to do it. After all you wouldn't use (inferior car product A) on your prized (classic muscle car B), would you?

And wait it doesn't end there! A higher density neck plate will actually reduce eddy currents in your instrument, restoring highs. You will notice an increase in volume, sustain, girth and a number of other subtly veiled references to erectile dysfunction we sprinkle into this sort of marketese. Don't believe us? Listen to what a bunch of unqualified 2nd tier guitarists have to say about it!

Take it from me, I taught Stevie everything he knew about tone.
Cesar diaz

I've installed these on both my working guitars. They play like butter now.
Dude that did some TV work in the '90s

Honestly the difference is like night and day, plenty more top.
Deaf old rocker that played in obscure unloved '80s incarnation of UFO and was 2nd guitarist in the John Entwistle band for two months.

I can hear the difference. If you can't then too bad, I must just have better ears.
Guy on forum that traded a cache of potentially stolen 50s Les Pauls Juniors for a mint '66 Ford Mustang on an Internet forum in 2004 and still garners some notoriety as a result.

For the best results, liberally screen your neck cavity with wrinkled copper tape first, and don't forget that the best shims are cardboard shims!

[Chris P.]

      

[Aussie Mark]

This is cool though ....

[Pilgrim]

Hey Alanko, while you're at it, add to your product line by providing graduated solid steel neck shims available in thousandths of an inch.  These can easily be salvaged from automotive feeler gauges with the identifying marks removed and should be easy to sell at $10 each, while you can buy the entire gauge set for about half the cost of one "shim".

[Dave W]

I have a genuine 60s Fender neck shim that came off my Coronado II bass. It's the perfect complement to your new neck plate.

I'll sell it to you for $100....oh wait, now that I look at it, I never noticed before that it's signed by someone named Jimi. How about $5K?