Hi all, Jeroen here from the Netherlands. I stumbled upon this forum on Google by coincidence and it seems like a nice place so far.
I started out as a guitarist and still play guitar at a regular basis, but I mostly consider myself a bass player. I currently play in The Bullfight, we make somewhat dark pop with a slight folkrock edge. When our first album was reviewed by a Dutch magazine, they dubbed it
'pop noir' and that name kinda stuck with us, we like it
.
I mostly play my fivestring Forza, made by Ellio Martina, a Dutch luthier of Italian origin. It's basically a Jazz Bass but with a slight edge. It has a swamp ash body and a five-piece maple/purpleheart neck with a maple fingerboard and flamed maple headstock veneer. It has two big singlecoils wound by Ellio himself, in beautiful ebony casings, and an Aguilar OBP3 preamp. The pickups have a very interesting feature, they have a coiltap that takes them from around 7200 windings to around 9200 windings for a little added output and a more pronounced midrange bark. The bass looks very basic and plain, but she's a real beast and incredibly versatile.
I also have two Ibanez ATK's, a '96 ATK300 and a '98 ATK305, both made in Japan. They're like a poor man's Stingray, but Ibanez took the concept just slightly over the top. They're big, heavy, the necks are huge but the sound is so worth it!
Then there's my fretless Sandberg Bullet 5, with Delano singlecoils and a Noll preamp.
I currently also have an acoustic fretless, a Cort NTL-B FL with Fishman electronics that I used on a number of (amplified) acoustic gigs. It doesn't get played often at this moment, but I couldn't stand parting with it, it's a very nice instrument even though it's not very loud when played acoustically.
And then the real oddballs: my Big Kydd EUB that I had Ellio Martina convert to lefty for me (but that one's currently for sale on Arni's site and I've already had some interest from a German who'll probably pick it up next sunday) and a Longbow American Classic fretless 2-string. It's little more than a square log of figured maple with recessed monorail bridge, two tiny pickups and a set of tuners, it looks absolutely rediculous but it's so much fun to play
. Sounds very big, it has an almost upright-like tone.
Here are some pictures, please click for a bigger version.
The Ellio Martina Forza:
Both Ibanez ATK's:
The Sandberg Bullet 5 Fretless:
The Longbow:
(I'm the guy on the left, the 30" Longbow on the right used to be mine too, I played that one upside down with the strings reversed, but when Longbow announced they were in business again, in october, I ordered a brand new 32" lefty and sold the other one to the guy on the right).
If you want to know more about me or any of my instruments, please feel free to bump in
! I may have a couple of basses to sell in the near future...79 rick and a 76 p-bass. Looking to buy an Alembic preamp for my rig. Keep you posted. Pooorlefty
