I sold a bike yesterday so money was burning a hole in my pocket.

Loyalty Pawn #3 on Vernon St. has a fretless Yamaha 4-string bass I keep trying to buy but only one pickup works.

I had zero intention to buy the 5-string bass next to it, an Official Licensed Product (OLP), the authorized near clone of the expensive Ernie Ball Musicman Stingray bass.

Even four strings is more than I can handle sometimes.

I’ve always loved that Musicman fat humbucker sound and the Official Licensed Product 5-string sounds quite a bit similar. I probably would have preferred a 4-string but there it was.

No RF hum to speak of. Despite Web trash talk frets are pretty smooth. Love the maple neck with maple fretboard. Neck is not that wide and pretty thin. Weight is manageable.

Good raspy tone from the one giant humbucking pickup. I like it. I’m used to D’Addario XL nickel strings, and have a pricey eternal TI Jazz flat set on my Precision bass. Wonder what strings are common on OLPs.

Love a pawnshop buy, this one was $159.95. Now I need a website to learn starting on a B string 5-string. I know nothing. For now I’m just playing four out of five strings. That big low B is impressive though.

I’ll probably never spend big enough bucks to buy a true Ernie Ball Music man 5-string, or even 4-string. But maybe this OLP bass will be close enough to scratch that tone itch of mine.

Pics taken with Samsung Galaxy S5

Unless noted, all text and images produced and copyrighted by todgermanica.com.
Non-commercial, nonpolitical, non-religious, non-ideological use free with attribution.