30th Birthday porn - 1983 SB-2

[KenC]

I've posted some of these pics before, but since the body was stamped thirty years ago today (August 17, 1983) I thought it would be good to post them again. The sunburst finish, which was pretty uncommon for an early SB or SC series instrument, has held up pretty well over thirty years!

Slightly overexposed, but I'm feeling too lazy to take another full-bass shot:


Here's my best shot of the overall sunburst:


A closer shot showing the curl in the maple body:


And closer still:


There's very wide curl in the neck and headstock:


And wrapping things up with a logo shot:


The upper frets are worn all the way down. Since they are even across their whole length, I assume they were dressed this way. When this bass arrived I only had cheap round wound strings to put on it. They sound good with the single coil pickups, but I am going to change them over to a set of GHS tape wounds this afternoon to help preserve the fret life. A partial refret wouldn't cost too much, but I wouldn't want to take the chance of the board's finish being harmed.

Ken

[Fumble fingers]

looks great , specially for its age ..... I think I like the older burst better than the new burst

[KenC]

Thanks Eric!

[blargfromouterspace]

Great looking instrument Ken. I love the shape of the early basses, and the 'bursts are spot on.

How does it compare to a standard Jazz bass?

[darwinohm]

Ken, you have the best old one's around!-- Darwin

[KenC]

Great looking instrument Ken. I love the shape of the early basses, and the 'bursts are spot on.

How does it compare to a standard Jazz bass?

When I had round wound strings on, it sounded very Jazz-like - plenty of burp and growl. I recorded a quick sound sample yesterday before changing over to tape wounds. It's sloppy playing, but it should give an idea of the sound. I played a couple of arpeggios followed by a quick slap riff on the neck pup, middle position, and then the bridge pup:



Here's the same thing, after the change to tape wounds:



Ken

[KenC]

Ken, you have the best old one's around!-- Darwin

Thanks Darwin! I'm not far from my collecting goal of each Leo-era bass model. One inbound, and two left to track down.

Ken

[yowhatsshakin]

Ken,

My all black SB-2 sends congratulations to your SB-2. And some nice licks to showcase the difference between roundwound and tapewound. And a nice hint to learn about the subtle difference between flat-wound and tape-wound strings.

I'm not far from my collecting goal of each Leo-era bass model. One inbound, and two left to track down.

Is this one of the 2 you try to track down?


I found this one in a Basses by Leo post and apparently was first posted by Gabe Dellevigne on January 20, 2009, on the old GbL forum.

Oh, and is this number 2?


Larry Garrett showed that one in this post in the Whats the holy grail of G&L guitars thread.

These might be the 2 you try to track down but that prototype 5-string bass with 2 Z-coil pups I know exists would make 3.
Now I feel somewhat evil ...

- Jos, all in good fun

[green swirl]

beautiful beautiful beautiful...and since my birthday is August 17 I will give you directions on how to send it to me. LOL....OK 'Will it' to me if that suites you better. You lucky guy, it's a nice find...congratulations

[KenC]

And a nice hint to learn about the subtle difference between flat-wound and tape-wound strings.

My first G&L - an '83 SB-1 - came to me with tape wounds. That would have been in either '99 or '00. I loved the way those strings felt and sounded with the MFD single coil. The E string on that set just bit the dust a couple of months ago, so I've been hunting for the same set to try on both SBs. I don't think the GHS tapes in the sound clip are the right ones after all. The D and G sound great IMO, but the E is pretty lifeless. Oh well, the search continues for the right set of black tapes with red windings...

These might be the 2 you try to track down but that prototype 5-string bass with 2 Z-coil pups I know exists would make 3.

I had seen the one Larry posted before, but not Gabe's. I thought it was interesting as a one-off at first, but now that I think about it there could be a lot of potential. I would order mine as a Bluesboy Bass, with an El Toro/Interceptor humbucker at the bridge. With a good set of flats, that would be the ultimate bass for reggae or dub - especially with an L-1000 type treble cut "OMG" circuit.

Now I feel somewhat evil ...

Think of it as payback for the SC-1 GAS...

Ken

[KenC]

beautiful beautiful beautiful...and since my birthday is August 17 I will give you directions on how to send it to me. LOL....OK 'Will it' to me if that suites you better. You lucky guy, it's a nice find...congratulations

Happy belated birthday! I'm still waiting to find one from my birthday. I have several with neck or body dates that I can remember. On August 17th 1983 I was spending my last week with high school friends before heading to college. I don't remember that day specifically, but I can recall the things we did that week and what my state of mind was.

I did get lucky with this bass. I was in the right place (here on GbL) at the right time (last summer, when a collector decided to "thin the herd"). I bought this SB-2 as a counterpart to my '83 SB-1 (my first G&L), and picked up an '86 Lynx in the same deal. I was expecting the Lynx to end up as trade fodder, but it turned out to be one of my all-time favorite basses. I'll try to remember to post a birthday porn thread for it when the time comes.

Ken

[yowhatsshakin]

Oh well, the search continues for the right set of black tapes with red windings...

Have you looked at LaBella Black Nylon Tapewounds? Have heard a lot of good things about them.

- Jos

[KenC]

Oh well, the search continues for the right set of black tapes with red windings...

Have you looked at LaBella Black Nylon Tapewounds? Have heard a lot of good things about them.

- Jos

Thanks for the tip. The LaBellas will be next. I just checked the old strings, which I saved for reference. The windings were not as smooth as the GHS strings.

Ken

[KenC]

Ken - GREAT looking bass and happy belated Birthday! I like that idea of a "Bluesboy Bass" --- G&L ought to consider that one!

Thanks Tim! Just to be clear, it was the bass's 30th birthday. Mine is a distant speck in the rearview mirror.

I'll have to see if I can find the photo's, but we bought the 2 proto-type semi-hollow ASAT Basses that G&L originally made for a distributor (I want to say in Germany) who changed their mind. One was in a Honeyburst and the other Silver Sparkle. My wife used to do the photography back in the day for the website and we're talking 35mm as we didn't have a digital camera. If I find them, I'll post it.

I would love to see those. Please post them!

Ken

[Elwood]

Oh well, the search continues for the right set of black tapes with red windings...

These are for double bass , but I thought I'd throw this out there



http://www.uptonbass.com/LaBella-Black- ... s-Strings/

[KenC]

These are for double bass , but I thought I'd throw this out there

I'm going to keep those in mind for the upright. I've been impressed enough with LaBella's Deep Talkin' flats on the L-2KE that I may invest in an upright set when the time comes. Sadly, $170 is a real bargain for double bass strings. With some of the top-level sets, $170 will get you a single string!

Ken

[KenC]

Thanks Tim! The silver flake photo seems familiar. Was is used in George's book?

Ken

[fraidykat]

Hi, all,

I love these basses!
I don't have room for a full G&L collection,
but it's nice to live vicariously through all these pictures.

Quick question,
Why do the early SB-2s have 2 MFDs,
while the recent SB-2 has a P/J style pickup set?

Why wasn't the P/J version given another name?

Thanks,
Kate

[KenC]

Kate,

It's good to see you back around here again. Here's the quick rundown on the history of the SB models, as I understand it:

1. The SB-1 and SB-2 are introduced in late 1982. They have MFD pickups that are somewhat reminiscent of the Fender Jazz in appearance and tone.

2. The SB-1 is discontinued in late '83 or early '84. My guess is that it went away for the same market-driven reasons as the SC-1.

3. The SB-2 gets a facelift in 1984, including body contours and an optional rosewood fretboard. The name is changed to Lynx.

4. The SB-1 name is used again in 1985 for a new model, which is basically a remake of the original Precision design with modern G&L features (including a split coil MFD). It has a slightly scaled-down maple body, much like the earlier SB models.

5. The SB-2 name is used again in 1988. This model is an SB-1 with a second pickup added (the same MFD from the bridge position on the original SB-2 and the Lynx) and slightly different controls.

6. The Lynx goes away in 1991.

7. The SB-1 goes away in 2000.

In case this didn't answer your questions, here's another way of looking at it:

1. The SB models didn't evolve from the original '82 to the P and P/J configurations. The P and P/J versions re-used the names of discontinued G&L models.

2. The SB model have always used MFD pickups, with the exception of some of the very first second-style SB-1s in 1985 which had a Schaller made to G&L specifications. Those instruments were reportedly listed as "experimental" in the production log, and the Schaller was replaced by the current split-coil MFD within a couple of months at most.

3. I don't know for sure why the second-style SB-1 got the split coil, but it's worth noting that it came out within a month or two of the Broadcaster. The Broadcaster was intended to give potential buyers G&L innovations in a familiar body shape, so it makes sense IMO that the same idea was behind repackaging the SB-1. Then again, they might have just had a pile of unused SB-1 headstock decals lying around and decided to save money over printing a new name...

4. Since SB stood for "Standard Bass", reusing it for G&L's most basic instrument was pretty reasonable. It also linked the new bass with G&L's student model guitar of the time, the SC-3. By 1985 the SC-3 had also morphed from its original Duo Sonic inspired body to have the basic shape and contours of a Strat.

5. As I pointed out above, the current style SB-2 was not an update of the original '82 model. It was an update to the model that had taken the SB-1 name.

I hope this is helpful. If all goes well over the next couple of days, there will be a NBD post with an '85 SB-1 tomorrow and hopefully some A/B sound clips of an '83 SB-1 against the '85. I'll do my best to make it happen!

Ken

[fraidykat]

Thanks for that info, Ken!

That makes sense that they would reuse names, especially if they had old stock/parts available.

I have an old '87 Fender Lyte with the same P/J combination.
It's lighter and I like the combination of pickups.
I have to find an SB-2 to try out.
I would love a green one.

By the way, I use the LaBella Tapewounds on my Carvin AC40.
It's standard on that bass and they are so easy to play.
I bought it because the band I was in was into looking as acoustic as possible,
even though everyone was plugged in. Go figure
I like to use Flatwounds or Tapewounds on my basses.

Not to plug another company, but Carvin sells them for the cheapest that I can find them anywhere.


Thanks again,
Kate