my new '88 SSII

iuserneim

iuserneim

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hey folks.

finally, my "new" streamer stage II arrived. it's from '88, wenge neck, janI, emg-pickups.
i'm the second owner.

now, please tell me what wood it is made of.
i know, the SSII always was afzelia, but the wood on THIS one looks different....

i'll post better quality pictures when i have my digital camera back. until then, here are some pictures i took with my mobile phone:









now, give me a few minutes, so i can record some sound clips real quick, so you can get a idea of how nice this bass sounds....
 
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now, here are some sound clips.

i played directly into the soundcard (lexicon alpha).
there was NO eq-ing, there was NO compression, NO amp-simulation and NO effects and such.
it's the pure signal of the bass, onboard eq is set flat.

the strings are warwick red labels, they are used, but not dull. i would say, that is the sound of the strings, after they lose that extra of metallic sparkling that brand new strings have at the beginning.

i played fingerstyle and slap&pop.
and i played 3 clips for each: bridge pickup, neck pickup and both pickups.
i was always plucking over the pickup i was using. when i played through both pickups, i was plucking between them.

by the way:
what pickup height do emg pickups need ?
i read, that they should be as close to the strings as possible, without the strings rattling against the pickups. but what exactly does that mean ??
 
I watched that bass and thought that it had a very similar patternation to my Afzelia SSII, yours has a 'J' prefix and mine a 'C' so I assume that they just had a good stock of woods in 88 :)
 
That sounds soooo good...I must get my hands on a Stage II 5 soon.
 
very nice
It is azfelia I believe
there are several 88s Stage 2s around with a similar burl

I think when they started with the stage 2 it was the top notch warwick and
they had quite a stock of what they call "azfelia pommele" nowadays.

I had a red one once (see pic)

It sounds very nice as well (your's)

I gave mine back to the original owner who had his from his father and
regreteted very much that he had let it go.
The frets and the fretboard needed a renewal anyway so I sold it back to him.
My 89 is immaculate and sounds even better so ...

cheers
 

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I know of at least one other '88 SSII owned by a forum member (who lives not far from me) and his bass has a very similar burl to the wood, I'd go so far as to say I've NOT seen an 88 SSII that hasn't got this wood! As Sascha says Warwick probably used a lot of top-notch samples of Afzelia on their flagship bass in the first year or so of production.
 
cool, thanks for the info.

do your SSII sound the same ? or similar ? mine has a very snappy sound, there is that nice high end punch, i don't know where it comes from.

what pickup height do you have on your bass, warwickhunt ?
you have emgs, too, right ?

so, you think it's afzelia ?!
what material are the frets made of ?
 
warwickhunt said:
I know of at least one other '88 SSII owned by a forum member (who lives not far from me) and his bass has a very similar burl to the wood, I'd go so far as to say I've NOT seen an 88 SSII that hasn't got this wood! As Sascha says Warwick probably used a lot of top-notch samples of Afzelia on their flagship bass in the first year or so of production.
Click to expand...

I have to disagree:-))

I have a 88 Stage 2 that has a rather regular azfelia body
only some burl at the piece where the pus are.



It is the one with the MM J bart config I have.

But probably most 88s have the burl:-)

cheers
 
iuserneim said:
cool, thanks for the info.

do your SSII sound the same ? or similar ? mine has a very snappy sound, there is that nice high end punch, i don't know where it comes from.

what pickup height do you have on your bass, warwickhunt ?
you have emgs, too, right ?

so, you think it's afzelia ?!
what material are the frets made of ?
Click to expand...

You can jack the pups right up under the strings with no worries other than the string scouring the top of the pup.

Afzelia can take on many colours and differences but I've seen enough (in the flesh and on this forum) 80's SSII basses to be confident that it is Afzelia; with or without the 'Pommele' tag, it is still just Afzelia.

Mr Rabble said:
Iuserneim, you have a wonderful bass
Click to expand...

+1

schlobodan said:
I have to disagree:-))

I have a 88 Stage 2 that has a rather regular azfelia body
only some burl at the piece where the pus are.



It is the one with the MM J bart config I have.

But probably most 88s have the burl:-)

cheers
Click to expand...

So you disagree BUT agree that most have! :lol:

I had a '90 SSII that was very plain Afzelia in comparison to my '88, so plain in fact that I had it refinished black! However, it still had the exact same characteristic tone as all of the early SSII's that I have heard, so the burl in the wood doesn't seem to add/detract to the tone.
 
man, that black streamer looks very nice. maybe even noble...

does that edgy high end sound on my streamer come from the SSII, or from the emgs ?
does your streamer with bartolinis have that, too, schlobodan ?

i'm curious, since it's my first SSII, and my first bass with emgs.
but if it comes from the emgs, i think these are my favorite pickups then......
 
iuserneim said:
man, that black streamer looks very nice. maybe even noble...

does that edgy high end sound on my streamer come from the SSII, or from the emgs ?
does your streamer with bartolinis have that, too, schlobodan ?

i'm curious, since it's my first SSII, and my first bass with emgs.
but if it comes from the emgs, i think these are my favorite pickups then......
Click to expand...

Describing tone is very subjective but I'd say that (your own fingers aside) 90% of the tone of a SSII is from the woods and the construction (inc' neck/fingerboard woods). One of my SSII's had MEC pups and it was tonally almost identical to the EMG equipped bass. Do a search on any bass forum and you'll get varying views on the tone imparted by pups and EMG's in particular, inc' the fact that early EMGs (as in your bass) sound different to the modern EMGs; if you like how your bass sounds I'd just be happy with that and not worry where the tone is coming from (wood or electrics). ;)
 
too much science kills art, right ?

i was just wondering, it's not like i can't sleep at night without knowing where the tone comes from...
 
iuserneim said:
man, that black streamer looks very nice. maybe even noble...

does that edgy high end sound on my streamer come from the SSII, or from the emgs ?
does your streamer with bartolinis have that, too, schlobodan ?

i'm curious, since it's my first SSII, and my first bass with emgs.
but if it comes from the emgs, i think these are my favorite pickups then......
Click to expand...


I like the sound of your recordings - I have to admit I don't see the problem:-)
 
Beautiful bass iuserneim!!!

I listened to the tracks, the sound is typical for a SSII. It is first the woods and the construction. This is the way a SSII will sound with any pickups. Different pickups will add different flavors, but you can hear the bass's voice through any pickup.

.....................................
A good setting would be with 2,5 mm for the bridge pickup. Then set the neck pickup to have the same audible output.

Cheers, Florin
 
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