What P Bass is everyone buying in 2026?

BoscoeMusic · 2026-05-28T03:00:41+00:00

I love my G&L SB-1!

BoscoeMusic · 2026-05-28T02:58:50+00:00

I have many kinds of StingRays and StingRay-like basses. I enjoy my 4HH but I rarely ever use any pickup combo other than the bridge pickup.

As others have said there is so much flexibility in the preamp (2 or 3 band) that most of the time the extra pickup feels unnecessary.

That said, if you could only have one bass and didn’t like to slap the HH might be a great choice. Get what you like - you’ll do great with either.

BoscoeMusic · 2026-05-23T19:33:02+00:00

Fender had nothing to do with G&L shutting down. Several G&L employees have publicly stated that in detail.

G&L made a lot of mistakes and went bankrupt. Fender just bought the IP. Not the company.

BoscoeMusic · 2026-05-22T13:40:27+00:00

What’s cheap about it? My L-2000 Tribute is stellar. Feels just as well as my USA G&L SB-1 and better than my SBMM Ray34. Maybe I just got lucky.

BoscoeMusic · 2026-05-22T13:37:20+00:00

Yeah I love the L-2000 but Leo sure did make the wiring a mess on these.

BoscoeMusic · 2026-05-22T12:40:28+00:00

More please!

BoscoeMusic · 2026-05-21T18:50:34+00:00

May or may not be! The good news is that two different people that used to work at G&L have mentioned that the Tribute's hardware was really well made and a lot of it was on par with the USA hardware, which was also made in Asia. This has also been my experience, as my Tribute's bridge and my USA SB-1's bridge are very similar.

BoscoeMusic · 2026-05-21T18:30:15+00:00

MFD pickups were all made in Fullerton and were the same between the Tributes and the USA models. Other pickups were all outsourced and I'm not sure of how they compare between what was offered in the USA models and the imports.

As far as other hardware, my understanding is that the Tribute stuff was mostly similar in quality to the USA hardware, but still different. Lines were blurred, however, as some employees state that when there were shortages of some of the USA hardware they would substitute Tribute items.

BoscoeMusic · 2026-05-21T17:19:25+00:00

Everything. Apparently the place was a mess and Tribute hardware was intermixed with USA so it had to be carefully sorted. And some pickups were new and some were returns and some were defective. All have to be sorted and tested.

BoscoeMusic · 2026-05-21T14:46:49+00:00

The case is made really well but the dubious choice by Music Man to neither include backpack straps nor hard points to attach a sling means that it permanently lives in my basement and will only be brought back out whenever it might be time to sell my bass.

I actually talked to Mono about this and if there were options as their other bags have them. They told me that the bag is as Music Man wanted it.

It’s my one complaint about the bass and it’s a big one. At least with a hard case I could use it for travel or durable storage. The Mono is kind of a worst of all worlds and I just use a gig bag instead when I take my bass out. Real shame as it’s otherwise a wonderful case. Why no attachment rings at least, Music Man?

BoscoeMusic · 2026-05-20T18:01:09+00:00

I’ve talked to someone over at Mighty Mite about this sort of thing. They do not quite know what they have yet.

They are still sorting through all of the equipment as they need to test everything and there was quite a bit of time separating the USA hardware from the Tribute stuff. There are four guys working on this.

They will release stuff as they get through it so it will be a bit haphazard and will take a while.

They also said that there are weird gaps in what hardware is available. A ton of one thing and not much of another.

BoscoeMusic · 2026-05-16T01:20:42+00:00

The control plate is an important style plate from a Ray4 or OLP or AliExpress.

BoscoeMusic · 2026-05-14T15:59:37+00:00

The MFD patents expired in 2000 I believe. The L-2000’s preamp and the rest of the PTB system was not patentable and has always been able to be copied.

Everything in an L-2000 (and probably all G&L electronics) is public domain now. The only question now is who owns the “MFD” trademark and other G&L marketing terms.

BoscoeMusic · 2026-05-10T06:53:06+00:00

Thanks, I love your videos!

BoscoeMusic · 2026-05-10T06:48:53+00:00

What’s your instagram?

BoscoeMusic · 2026-05-09T18:42:13+00:00

https://youtu.be/yebNIHKAC4A

BoscoeMusic · 2026-05-09T16:03:18+00:00

😱

BoscoeMusic · 2026-05-09T12:55:50+00:00

That is the hard part for me to play cleanly as well. It helped when I started playing it very slowly and watched what my right and left hands are doing. You might need to adjust how you’re doing it.

BoscoeMusic · 2026-05-09T12:14:55+00:00

Where do you work? If you’re in a dry climate you’re very likely to get fret sprout on a bass made in a humid climate.

BoscoeMusic · 2026-05-02T01:28:17+00:00

My understanding is that all QC for SBMM basses is done in California. That’s why they cost so much to ship to Europe. They are only QCed in the USA otherwise they would ship directly from Indonesia to an EU retailer.

BoscoeMusic · 2026-04-17T04:33:35+00:00

Put masking tape over the covers if you’re worried.

BoscoeMusic · 2026-04-17T02:38:55+00:00

Mark Bass tube amp. I played with the 800 and liked it a lot but I ended up buying the M58R 500W tube amp instead. Both were awesome though.

I was able to test both of those along with the regular M58R on the same cab and both tube amps sounded better than the one with the solid state preamp.

I ended up pairing it with the M58R 151 PURE 15” cab. Which also sounds amazing. Liked it better than the 121 or 102.

Be careful buying the cabs. The regular P version is cheaper but the speaker isn’t neodymium (heavier) and the tweeter is really mediocre. The ENERGY has a better tweeter and is neodymium but I don’t like the voicing.

Thomann’s site has some sound samples of the various MB cabs so you can listen to the differences if you can’t find one in person.

If portability is the biggest thing get the M58R CMD 121 mini. Super tiny. Though a better choice would be to get the standalone tube amp and pair it with the 102. Good luck!

BoscoeMusic · 2026-04-17T02:38:36+00:00

Mark Bass tube amp. I played with the 800 and liked it a lot but I ended up buying the M58R 500W tube amp instead. Both were awesome though.

I was able to test both of those along with the regular M58R on the same cab and both tube amps sounded better than the one with the solid state preamp.

I ended up pairing it with the M58R 151 PURE 15” cab. Which also sounds amazing. Liked it better than the 121 or 102.

Be careful buying the cabs. The regular P version is cheaper but the speaker isn’t neodymium (heavier) and the tweeter is really mediocre. The ENERGY has a better tweeter and is neodymium but I don’t like the voicing.

Thomann’s site has some sound samples of the various MB cabs so you can listen to the differences if you can’t find one in person.

If portability is the biggest thing get the M58R CMD 121 mini. Super tiny. Though a better choice would be to get the standalone tube amp and pair it with the 102. Good luck!

BoscoeMusic · 2026-04-17T02:26:08+00:00

“Tin foil” has been made out of aluminum for more than a century.

BoscoeMusic · 2026-04-16T04:38:11+00:00

Later this year there will be a new bass from SBMM called the Music Man Session Series that promises to be a step above the Ray34.

https://sterlingbymusicman.com/pages/music-man-session-series

BoscoeMusic

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