I just acquired a white, '83 Musician 3 days ago and LOVE THIS BASS! Your video is one of the reasons is one of the reasons I bought it. I wanted one back in the 80s as well but had to settle for a RoadStar instead; just wasn't the same. I got this one for only 630.00 from a guy in Japan; huge bargain compared to all the others I see around 1400.00. Now I need the fretless version!

Bummer. I have an NS Ethos which I absolutely love...EXCEPT for the fact that it has a terrible grounding issue. Thing hisses like a snake, which isn't that big a deal when playing a show, but gee whiz does it suck when recording. I'm going to bring it to a local shop to fix that issue, and considering that I got a really good deal on the bass, I'm not too bent out of shape about it. But if I'd have paid the full $1800 price and then had to pay additional for repairs, I would be pretty pissed. The Korean factory needs better quality control.

I bought one of these in natural mahogany two weeks ago - I have never played a bass with such a nice neck!! It really is an awesome bass with a lovely growl to it.

Great video, yep KC were some band!

great playing! loved the chord section especially. i've been really interested in getting into bass; have a charvel dk24, love it and was wondering if their basses are as good as their 6-strings, and i think your fantastic review really makes this model shine!

Hi Dave 👋 just subscribed to your channel after watching your cali76 review, best review on the pedal I’ve watched 🙌🙌👍 and just ordered one . Would you recommend I put it at the front of my signal chain just after my tuner ? Some say immediately after the tuner others say at the end of the effects??? I use all boss analogue effects ( tuner, lmb bass enhancer/limiter , chorus and octave ) thanks again Darran

Open the back cavity cover, then use the Philips screw driver fully turn down the preamp gain trim pot . YOu will get equal output within passive/active mode.

Silly question but i gotta know. Are there any qualities of the bass that would impede a beginner from learning on and growing into it?

Warwick thumb, the best Warwick forever ....

You forgot to mention Jamie Muir

I just bought the same model just 10 mins ago from a retiring bass player with his laney p150 amp and his kustom 2 x15 bass cab heavy as hell but who can go wrong at total spend off $562.50 aud for the lot bargain also bought a fender pt 100 rack tuner for $40 bucks and an old ibanez analog 18volt delay for $50 im happy gotta love the blazer bass im 57 and still remember back in 1981 as a kid looking at these new at music chains off the day

I've had a lot of Korean Spectors over the years, as well as Euros and a couple of Woodstock basses and I currently own 10 of them. First, aside from some of the lower end Spectors, the non-recessed cavity cover is just a Spector thing. In fact, when they released the updated USA NS-2s a year or so ago, one of the big deals was that the cavity cover is now recessed - weird, I know. That said, yours also looked scratched up and the plastic looked cheap. Not acceptable. Back to the Korean basses - I think the quality control issues have more to do with the fanned fret neck than anything else. Their regular necks are usually fantastic. On the higher end models, the brass nuts are usually pretty good if not 100% brass like the Euros and USAs. The weak point of the Korean basses has traditionally been their pickups and preamp, and to a lesser extent their tuners. (The plastic bushings usually crack around the 20 year mark). But the necks have always been on the slimmer side, well built so that you don't need to perform many truss rod adjustments, and they have always been well set up. Late last year, I bought a Skyler Acord 5, which is built on a Dimension 5 body but with regular frets. It comes from the factory with Gotoh tuners and a USA bridge. As I said before, the electronics were the weak point, so I went in knowing I was going to swap the Barts out to EMGs (40P5/40DC) and an LHZ Haz clone preamp. That completely changed the character of the bass. The QC on this thing was better than some Euros I've played, and the neck is one of the most comfortable I've ever played regardless of which factory it came from. It has become my #1, beating out my USA's not necessarily in build quality or fancy woods used or attention to small details - the Woodstock basses are true boutique quality - but the total package of playability, tone, and good looks at the $2k price point is very hard to beat ($2300 including upgrades, but it rivals and surpasses many $3-$4k basses). I think the QC issues are for the most part unique to the Dimension line because in my experience, their Korean basses, the neck thrus in particular, have been some of the most consistently well constructed imports that I've played.

Superb comparison video. Thanks for all the work - including truss rod adjustments - you put into this shootout!!! You got yourself a new sub (should have done this a while back, TBH). I currently use tape-wound strings, but the core is too light for my bass' ancient passive PUs. Commenting further below on round-core GHS Boomers, which I'm gonna try next, so I might be able to get the gauge back up, plus the fatter core that GHS' tend to have. BTW, round-wound string don't just wear frets down faster, but frets also wear strings down faster. On a fretless, I use round-wounds for absolute ages. I don't even like the sound of brand new strings. And I'm lucky that I have very dry hands, even on stage, even in hot weather, so the strings don't build up grime fast; and a well-aged, fine-grained rosewood fingerboard lets you use round-wounds for many-many months of daily working (when I still did that). Rotosound and GHS do 'half round' strings; they just call them pressure-wound; but same difference. The No.1 player who got me to finally go exclusively fretless for a couple of decades was Mick Karn! Saw him live in 1984 and, whilst I never got a Wal Mk1, I did manage to find the amp he was using. Innovative playing-wise, for me, he was the Jaco of pop, rock and avantgarde (and he'd played with many great artists, and his solo work was mind-blowing). R.I.P. to both of them. Both stunning in their very different and yet similar ways, taking bass playing to an 'out-there' level.

I've had the good luck of owning nearly every 4 string model, and like the foolish, no temperament 25 year old I was I didn't keep them long enough to make an opinion. Well, the silver lining is that I don't have a bunch of Alembics sitting around collecting dust. I own 3 Alembic that between them do anything I want, some are more "Alembic" sounding than others.

yes it's $pokane. i have family, friends, former bandmates hockey/curling/lacRosse teamates 'n' cousins who live Rosslyn and Trail. Cheers

I had NO problem with my NS Pulse II. ( Korean made) plays great I haven't had to re-set it up like most of the basses I have ever bought

I'm a pick player, I love the tone, I use the Tortex .88 Triangle. I think the triangle picks are the absolute best for Bass

I think I like the Rounds better , ive used GHS pressure wound a lot on fretless .

not me as a bassist using a 2mm pick and 0.73 mm for faster parts

Thanks for putting this together!

I've been using the .88 ones eversince I started playing with a pick seriously. Bigger, they sound too boomy, and thinner, wouldn't you know it, they don't sound boomy enough.

Wetton was in Family pre KC

I have the fretted version, love it. I play with a ukulele group. However, I stood up one day and the front strap pin went zing (popped right out) and I almost dropped the instrument! (@#$%). The screw was really, really wimpy. I had a luthier replace both screws with longer, more substantial ones. I suggest you check yours! 😮 I'm currently trying to figure how to replace the 9 volt battery with a rechargeable and a jack to charge it. I don't relish being caught with a low battery and taking out those four tiny screws is a pain. Any ideas? What device are you using to alter that tone to sound like a regular bass, is it a stomp box of some kind? I hadn't played a bass since HS. Remember those darn Beatles? Yep, I'm 75 and back in senior music scene. 😊 Thanks for the review. Got to my PC and see the 3Sigma link! I've also got the hollow body GT which is nice and light (built in tuner). It uses two CR2032 batteries in a tiny plugin holder.... I keep several in my case ready! Both are so nice to play with my old, soft fingers. Didn't learn the two finger method and now I use my thumb. I just love playing bass!

Roundwound grind up the fretboard. Flats produce a dull sound. Half Rounds are the worst of both world -- they have drag and no tone. The best string for fretless are the nickel compression series. They're oval shaped roundwounds that have clarity but aren't as abrasive.

🎉 Very good job man...! Best wishes from Brazil.

Thanks for this video. Ive been playing bass since 1963 but I just bought my first fretless (not counting double bass). While waiting for its arrival in 2 days, I've been wondering about the best strings for it. This is a huge help.

Ibanez should bring those basses back , it's a classic design, i always wanted a fretless version. I just can't get into their modern thinner basses for sale today.

Great video! Not to be a critic but at 3:18 you pointed to Mel Collins and referred to him as Ian Wallace. Wallace is actually the man below him with the smile. He’s sitting next to Peter Sinfield.

Sounds awesome!

Its gotta be daddario for me :) plus ya get points from player's circle to put towards free stuff ;)

Im loving .60 nylon on bass!

wetton was a game-changer. i still enjoy listening to Red in particular for that cranked up bass. what a power trio that was.

I am a first-time owner of a 1989 Alembic Elan 4 string bass and am just discovering the range of sounds I can produce with it. It is truly fantastic, and well-built bass and a dream to play! Thank you for the background on these truly iconic basses. This is the most informative background I have come across.

I've been using Dunlop Max Grip nylon .73 picks for the last couple of years and I really dig em.

Wow!! What a great tune!

Great video. Gives specs you can’t find anywhere else. Thanks bud. I appreciate your help

Please review and maybe compare Schecter Charles Berthoud signature bass with this one!

I own StreamerLX4 but I always interest Thumb bass because it’s tone😢

Very cool review! Just found out about the Schecter basses, love the Omen and Hellraiser, such clear guitars. Those Fishman P/U are the bomb. Great value for the money. You rock Dave!👍

Very good video, I like the emphasis on the bass players. But a few points need to be made. There are certainly more than 4 versions of King Crimson: Version 1, 1969, with Greg Lake [no version], 1970: the next two albums were essentially Fripp & Sinfield albums, with the King Crimson brand questionably printed on them. There was no set Crimson band, nor Crimson live shows. Bass players were visitors to the studio. Version 2, Spring 1971-Spring 1972. With Boz Burrell. Definitely a set Crimson band, with lots of touring. Version 3, Fall 1972-1974. With John Wetton, an entirely new band and all-new music Version 4, 1981-2008., with Tony Levin. You could break this version down into sub-versions, but the music and personnel were all similar. (No albums 2004-2008, but there were a few shows) Version 5, 2014-2021. Tony Levin is back, but this time he had to play the bass lines of 4 earlier Crimson bassists because this version played mostly vintage Crim album music of the past. This version is entirely unique, cannot be grouped-in with earlier versions.

Crimson’s studio albums serve as rough career guideposts, but they do not really define the band at all. This is because Crimson was mainly an *improvisational* band, much more than a composing band. Much of “Larks Tongues” was created onstage well before that album was made. “Starless and Bible Black” is largely a live album, with the audience cropped out. If you took all the pre-2014 live albums and erased everything except the Improvisations, you’d still have enough left over to make a whole lot of releases. And those all-improv releases would be the essential, true Crimson.

TONE WOOD DOESN'T MATTER WITH ELECTRIC INSTRUMENTS. YOU CAN BUILD A GUITAR OUT OF CONCRETE AND IT WOULDN'T SOUND ANY DIFFERENT. Tone wood only matters with accoustic guitars. God damn. Use your brain!

Great video! Finally someone with information on this much neglected subject. I just ordered a custom J bass style 30" scale tuned E-E with 14mm string spacing and 2" nut. I think these dimensions will be much more ideal for this instrument than the original bass vi spacing. Such a great tuning, I'm surprised that out of all the instruments you mentioned only the Hooky Bass vi pro has the same spacing I was looking for. I also have a Vader 6 and it is great but there was no leeway with Kiesel to do anything but the 16.5mm spacing at the bridge. Do those Stringjoy strings you got have small bass vi ball ends or regular sized bass ball ends? The Kiesel only seems to be able to fit regular bass sized ball ends.

therapist: "moustache-less Tony Levin is not real and he cannot hurt you." moustache-less tony levin: 6:50

Let's not forget the late great Louis Johnson.

same here, a squier is sold with a better setup from factory.... I kept mine because I really enjoy it, but definitely it had to spent some times at my luthier's shop.

Perhaps Spector expects their dealers to do a full setup, including the nut, before selling the instruments? I'm just thinking out loud here. As to the rear cover, that's unacceptable since it is all done on CNC machines and looks to be a standard pattern.

I worked on an Ibanez Musician bass from that era, it was neglected but turned out very nice: kzbin.info/www/bejne/haC0k2V8oM5sb6ssi=FVnys9hAGF-gtZWE

This is the best explanation of this pedal I’ve seen on KZbin! Thank you!

Round wound on fretless for me. I use Dunlop extra light 30, 40, 60, 80, 100.