Madbean Sludgehammer (Sansamp Bass DI) OR the good, bad, and ugly of my bass adventure…

[Joben Magooch]

Build Rating

5.00 star(s)

Finished up (mostly) a Sludgehammer build today. I’m working on putting together a bass pedalboard and wanted some kind of ampsim/DI solution. It’s getting partnered with Chuck’s Bass Klon, Broughton HLPF (Frequency Interchange), an M9, and an old mini rat clone I’ve had kicking around. Should be fun.

Also… I ordered a Squier Classic Vibe 60s Precision and it arrived today. I previously had a mexi Fender active Jazz. Never bonded with it a ton and didn’t particularly love the active circuitry. All my favorite bass sounds tend to be more “P” than “J,” so I wanted to find a Precision… I was able to sell it for way more than I paid and found a good deal on Amazon Warehouse for the Squier P bass. Not quite ProAudioStar sale days type of deal, but pretty close.

So, the GOOD:
- Sludgehammer build was fairly straightforward with no significant issues. It sounds nice and has a more broad range of tones than I expected. I’d only ever done one other MBP build and it was years ago. I found it easy to follow with a really good build doc to accompany it.
- I ordered that bass around 9pm Wednesday (1/25) and it arrived to me around 2pm today (1/27). That was pretty impressive to me.
- I definitely do vibe more with the passive P sound than the active J sound.

The BAD:
- I initially wasn’t paying attention and went to test the Sludgehammer with my bass plugged into the effect out and my audio interface connected to the input. It just squealed like crazy and I had a brief moment of crisis thinking I screwed something up in the build and had no desire to troubleshoot at the moment.
- I don’t have any labels and am not sure which direction to go. My whole bass board is pretty much all black so thinking I may just do black label tape or maybe just like silver sharpie/paint pen.

The UGLY:
- unfortunately the bass Amazon sent me was a real dud. It was listed as “Used, Very Good” and just said “minor cosmetic imperfection on front” (kind of vague, but…)

It arrived in a single-ply box with a bit of bubble wrap and that’s it.
Right off the bat the action was insanely high. Like, bow-and-arrow 1/2” off the neck type of high. There was no output whatsoever. Popped the guard off - output jack had spun around and snapped the wiring. 10 second fix, but didn’t exactly inspire confidence. And there were some noticeable gouges/scrapes all over the fretboard.

Nothing terrible but alarms were going off. Nevertheless I set out to see if I could get a decent setup. If it played okay I could live with all that. I was aiming for a neck relief of something like 0.012-0.015”. It measured at approx. 0.035”. I spent a few hours tweaking the truss rod, tuning up, letting it “settle” a little. I tightened the rod all the way down, ran out of thread and felt like it was either stuck or about to start stripping out… at best I got it to about 0.020”. This in turn meant to get a comfy string action in the middle of the neck it was fretting out in the upper range; to not have any fretting out in the upper range it was uncomfortably high in the middle or lower down the neck.

So, all that to say… bass is getting returned. Sludgehammer stays, though!

I’m debating now whether I’ll try and find another CV Squier or maybe see about just a used Player series or something.

 

[Joben Magooch]

2 small addendums.

1. I’m not totally sold on the knobs. I went on the smaller size since it’s 6 knobs and didn’t want any space issues but now I’m kinda feeling like they actually look a bit undersized. I’m wanting something kind of lowkey, a bit utilitarian or industrial vibe. Any ideas for something just slightly larger than what’s on it presently?

2. Not sure if it’s normal or not but there’s not as much volume as I’d have expected, at least when going out the normal/effect (unbalanced) output. It’s not like unusably low but I have to have the level pumped up pretty high.

 

[Feral Feline]

Good build and build-report.


Utilitarian/industrial is subjective and you don't mention the current knobs' size, so I'll suggest:

Laser-etch the labels (ie burns the paint away to the "silver" of the enclosure). Add Silver Davies knobs.

Or... my favourite knobs, Garnet:

Come in several sizes now available at Tayda, 22mm or 26mm should be about right though there are bigger sizes 33mm & 40mm.




Best of luck with the bass hunt!

 

[Joben Magooch]

Not sure if this will get much traction any further but if anyone has any input on a fairly common bass dilemma...

I've more or less settled on getting a P-bass but am going back and forth between trying to find a decent CV Squier or paying up a bit more for a Fender Player series...

The short of it is that it's looking like Squier CV60's P's are going for about 350-400 nowadays ("like new" or "refurb"/open box type pricing) vs about 550-600 for a Player series.

I really do like the CV Squiers in general and think they are good instruments. I still own a few (guitars) and play them regularly. At the same time, I've never owned a Player series but I do own a few Mexican Fenders/have in the past and as I understand it the new(ish) Player series is the replacement for the old MIM Standards. They are more expensive, BUT in general from reviews and people I've talked to they tell me that the current-run Player series is closer to the old MIA Standards than old MIM Standards. In general, I think CV Squier represents about the best bang for the buck out there BUT if we are talking just purely overall quality (without considering price) I think in general MIM Fenders still tend to beat them. So ultimately it's a question of diminishing returns and that's where I'm at.

I'm kicking myself for not just pulling the trigger on a CV Precision during the big ProAudioStar sale. I did manage to snag a couple guitars but wasn't in the market for a bass at the time...but I remember they had the CV 60's Precision going for $200 "open box". At that price I'd certainly sooner just save the extra $3-400 bucks with the Squier and maybe throw in some new pickups or something if it really needed it.

But now at the going rates I'm seeing I'm not so sure. At +$400 more I don't think I'd pay up for Fender...at $150-200 more though it seems like maybe that makes more sense...

Anyone have any thoughts? I'm really back and forth on it.

 

[owlexifry]

Not sure if this will get much traction any further but if anyone has any input on a fairly common bass dilemma...

I've more or less settled on getting a P-bass but am going back and forth between trying to find a decent CV Squier or paying up a bit more for a Fender Player series...

The short of it is that it's looking like Squier CV60's P's are going for about 350-400 nowadays ("like new" or "refurb"/open box type pricing) vs about 550-600 for a Player series.

I really do like the CV Squiers in general and think they are good instruments. I still own a few (guitars) and play them regularly. At the same time, I've never owned a Player series but I do own a few Mexican Fenders/have in the past and as I understand it the new(ish) Player series is the replacement for the old MIM Standards. They are more expensive, BUT in general from reviews and people I've talked to they tell me that the current-run Player series is closer to the old MIA Standards than old MIM Standards. In general, I think CV Squier represents about the best bang for the buck out there BUT if we are talking just purely overall quality (without considering price) I think in general MIM Fenders still tend to beat them. So ultimately it's a question of diminishing returns and that's where I'm at.

I'm kicking myself for not just pulling the trigger on a CV Precision during the big ProAudioStar sale. I did manage to snag a couple guitars but wasn't in the market for a bass at the time...but I remember they had the CV 60's Precision going for $200 "open box". At that price I'd certainly sooner just save the extra $3-400 bucks with the Squier and maybe throw in some new pickups or something if it really needed it.

But now at the going rates I'm seeing I'm not so sure. At +$400 more I don't think I'd pay up for Fender...at $150-200 more though it seems like maybe that makes more sense...

Anyone have any thoughts? I'm really back and forth on it.

ive owned a mexican fender p-bass, and currently have a squier CV p-bass.

i can tell absolutely no difference in quality, feel, playability, and tone (maybe i got lucky with a good one?)

so given that i'd recommmend get the cheaper one and use the change for other fun things..

 

[Mentaltossflycoon]

I can't comment on those specific models, I've owned a mim jazz, 70's American precision, and now most recently a squier VI. Just wanted to say that I like the squier more than the mim. Less than the p obviously... I prefer the p to all the other bases I've ever had in my hands. It's a good stick.