M-85 in action. It could be yours!

Happy Face

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Pix taken last night.

A lovely bass. Beautiful sound at home at low volumes. If I was still recording songs, I'd use it for most of them.

But it is not cutting it in my current band. I shouldn't really care, but last year I crossed the great divide = over 60. So I'm figuring that The Substitutes is my last serious band. Maybe there'd be a chance for a one-off "Cover-to-Cover" show of a Jefferson Airplane album, but that's unlikely.

So I'm thinking I'll sell it. The two links below lead to plenty of pix when I first bought it and then plenty of pix when I had to have the damage repaired.

PM me to discuss it, but I'm thinking that somewhere around $2600 shipped would do it. (With non-original case)


DJ01.jpg


DJ02.jpg


http://letstalkguild.com/ltg/showthread.php?169813-M-85&highlight=Happy+face

http://letstalkguild.com/ltg/showthread.php?170683-Straplocks&highlight=Happy+face
 
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gilded

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What will you use to replace the M85? Was it feeding back, or just not cutting through?
 

Happy Face

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I'll use my Darkstar'd JS-II instead.

Zero feedback, though I sadly don't have the occasions to crank up the volumes like I once did.

The criticism is "great thunk n thump, but not enough drive. When you switch over to the Ricky, the band comes alive."

I play in a very aggressive way. As I noted in the "Finally" thread, my JS-II kills it. Maybe the M-85 is too good for the likes of me.
 

gilded

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Happy,

I hear you, I'm just trying to understand it all. I guess I've never used Bisonics or Dark Stars on a hollow bass before, though I have used them both on semi-solids.

A few questions if you don't mind. What would be the ideal amp for the M85? What kind of strings do you like to use on the JS and the M85?
HH
 

fronobulax

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Wow. I think it is a good sign that my impending approach to both older age and the expected smaller place to store basses is that I have laid to rest my lust for a hollow M-85 and for a Green, vintage, Starfire II. Interesting that it doesn't "cut it". Maybe you're drummer needs a volume control? :)
 

Happy Face

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Happy,

I hear you, I'm just trying to understand it all. I guess I've never used Bisonics or Dark Stars on a hollow bass before, though I have used them both on semi-solids.

A few questions if you don't mind. What would be the ideal amp for the M85? What kind of strings do you like to use on the JS and the M85?


HH

Both basses are strung with TI Jazz flats. I recall that Mgod swears by Jazz rounds on the Guilds, so maybe that would be a way to go. But I use a Rick or Steinberger for "that round wound sound" that's not as appealing to me.

As to the ideal amp, I'm not heavily opinionated. I'd come to favor a tube head with the Guilds but the speaker cabs matter as much. (On the other hand, my Rick sounds absolutely beautiful through the Trace Elliot head I sold to a friend.)

Frono: "Interesting that it doesn't "cut it". Maybe you're drummer needs a volume control? :)" You are partly right, but I love his playing. I'm back up to five basses and I've tried to stick to a four bass ceiling over the years. (I'm selling a bass rig for the same reason.) It surprised me that the M-85 lost out, especially after all of the expense of the repair.
 

gilded

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Happy,

I had my Luthier-Dude put some TI Jazz Flats on my solid-body '73 M85 II on Thursday. Really, I can change strings, but it had been awhile since he looked at the bass (since the big repair) and I wanted him to check it out. He said the neck was behaving perfectly! Hurrah!

Any way, I got together with my bass player Thursday nite. My bass sounded fab with the TI flats (very thankful; $70 bucks!). It played well, too. I even used the dread baritone switch.

Of course, I thought of you and your Very Cool, no, strike that, your Super Cool hollow-body M85. Any action on the For Sale side of things?
 

Happy Face

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Happy,

I had my Luthier-Dude put some TI Jazz Flats on my solid-body '73 M85 II on Thursday. Really, I can change strings, but it had been awhile since he looked at the bass (since the big repair) and I wanted him to check it out. He said the neck was behaving perfectly! Hurrah!

Any way, I got together with my bass player Thursday nite. My bass sounded fab with the TI flats (very thankful; $70 bucks!). It played well, too. I even used the dread baritone switch.

Of course, I thought of you and your Very Cool, no, strike that, your Super Cool hollow-body M85. Any action on the For Sale side of things?

Good to hear! Glad the repair is holding. Yeah, the Jazz Flats are pricey, but they are a fine product.

0.0 interest in the M-85 so far. I figger if there's no interest here, I'll throw it up for sale in September. August is not a good month for sellers.
 

gilded

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Good plan on waiting for a September sale.

All of the bass players in my band (4 out of 5 of us! Everybody but the drummer has played bass in different bands before!) have played my M85 II with the Thomastiks in place. Everyone digs it, everyone feels the 9.5 lbs. Ah, the joys of being 60+

How much does your hollow-body M85 weigh?
 

Happy Face

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Change of Plans.

Fickle bandmates. Last night at practice I used two basses,, the M-85 and a fretless Styeinberger I am trying to master, with so-so results. But after one song where I was getting it on with the Guild, the lead singer yelled "Doesn't that bass sound great?" and the main guitarist agreed. I told them "Hey guys, that's the bass you all were complaining about at that function gig!" I think it was more a function that the Rickenbacker pickups were hotter, which surprises me since the Darkstars on my other Guild are noticeably hotter than on the Ricky. (Unless I had the Guild plugged into the Active input by accident.)

Anyway, that just closed the debate for me. I was already leaning towards keeping it. So it is no longer for sale.

I'll end the the great fretless Steinberger experiment instead. It could be yours!! You don't just want it, you need it!!
 

gilded

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Happy, let me see if I have this straight. You think the issue now is the relative strength of pickups, those being Original Bisonic, DarkStar and Rickenbacker.

Your M85 has Bisonics and your other Guild has DarkStars, right? I would think that the DarkStars would be hotter than the original Bisonics.

Harry
 

Happy Face

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Yes Harry. That's my belief, but I just need to sit down with both and A:B them. But it shouldn't matter as long as i know and compensate when I change basses.

Beyond that, some of the hoohaa is thanks to the never-ending battle between stage volume and FOH volume. A lot of sound guys want my stage volume down next to inaudible so they can crank the bigass subwooker in front. I get that in terms of making it easier to control. But it seems clear that my bandmates miss having the real thing on stage where they can hear it. Bless their souls!!! (In theory we should just run the bass through the monitors, but often as not guitars & bass get squelched ini favor of vocals, even when we have the time to do a good sound check.)

Anyway, that saga is over for the moment. I'll focus my liited attention on trying out those ultra-lite tuners you mentioned.
 

fronobulax

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Glad to hear you are keeping it. And you should be pleased that you are gigging at venues that are big enough to have sound for the house. Lots of folks are in places where the stage sound is the house sound and the sound system, if one exists, is for vocals and instruments that are being miked.
 

gilded

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Got it.

Got to have good monitor to get all the band info in it, too. We use a good sound man regularly, but he forgets to put the drummers vocals into my mix
most of the time. Not that big a deal, but since the Drummer sings harmony for me on the 3-4 songs that I regularly sing with the band. It makes a difference when I can't hear the harmony on the Chorus parts, etc. I always get the worst monitor, too. Sound Man has good mixer, rest of equipment is so-so.

As well, we probably don't play as loud as you do on stage, but the bassist usually plays his rig loud enough that everybody can hear it a little. He's right next to the drummer, so Sticks gets most of the bass content, ya know!

The Never Ending Battle, Indeed!
 

Mungi

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I would gladly buy that cool shirt you are wearing in the pictures.

I do hope I will look that young when I am sixty.
 

Happy Face

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I would gladly buy that cool shirt you are wearing in the pictures.

I'm surprised you aren't after the pants! Actual vintage.

The shirt really isn't that comfortable, but my wife found it so.....
 

Happy Face

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Frono - I didn't say they were pants I actually wore back then! No way I could fit into them if that were the case!
 

Mungi

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Sure, I'd take take the trousers too.

It sucks when you find out your cool vintage clothes has mysteriously shrunk, doesn't it. :playful:
 
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