New (used) G&L L-2500 owner

Mon Jul 16, 2012 7:13 am

Greetings. I'm old pre-CBS Fender user who literally wore out my last one and got a Gisbon made Tobias Killer B 5 string from relative in its stead. As light as it was -- 8.5 lbs like my '57 P bass, I've this love/hate relation with the thing. The fingerboard is flat. My hands are not. The volume output was never there. The sound was never funky.

As little more than a week ago I located a G&L L-2500 in rather pristine condition. I took off the neck and it seems to be dated March 20 1996 or 1998. It weighs a ton but is so balanced, the output is monsterous, the condition very pristine, and with some minor tweaks, I realized this is a jazz bass on steroids.

I still have work to do. I think the strings I have on it are too heavy. On the Tobias they were like mush. Go figure. Any suggestions on flatwounds in particular or a light gauge round-wound would be greatly appreciated.

Re: New (used) G&L L-2500 owner

Mon Jul 16, 2012 7:19 am

I have owned several different brands basses and find the L-2500 is the best of the bunch. They are great guitars.-- Darwin

Re: New (used) G&L L-2500 owner

Mon Jul 16, 2012 7:48 pm

gunther1 wrote:Greetings. I'm old pre-CBS Fender user who literally wore out my last one and got a Gisbon made Tobias Killer B 5 string from relative in its stead. As light as it was -- 8.5 lbs like my '57 P bass, I've this love/hate relation with the thing. The fingerboard is flat. My hands are not. The volume output was never there. The sound was never funky.

As little more than a week ago I located a G&L L-2500 in rather pristine condition. I took off the neck and it seems to be dated March 20 1996 or 1998. It weighs a ton but is so balanced, the output is monsterous, the condition very pristine, and with some minor tweaks, I realized this is a jazz bass on steroids.

I still have work to do. I think the strings I have on it are too heavy. On the Tobias they were like mush. Go figure. Any suggestions on flatwounds in particular or a light gauge round-wound would be greatly appreciated.



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Re: New (used) G&L L-2500 owner

Mon Jul 16, 2012 9:50 pm

Hi Gunther,

My basses are all four strings, but I've been very impressed with La Bella Deep Talkin' flats on my L-1000. They sounded good right out of the package, and feel even better after three months of playing. The windings are glassy smooth, unlike other "flats" I've tried recently.

Two of my other basses have D'Addario XL Chromes and Rotosound RS-77s. These are both marketed as flats. The XL Chromes do feel a lot like true flatwounds, although you can get a scraping sound by runnning a fingernail across the windings. The Rotosounds are, IMO, more of a ground wound set. I can feel the groove in the windings when I play them. They also have a much brighter sound than either of the other sets, although I wouldn't call any of them particularly dark. I also wouldn't consider the tension on any of these to be too high.

At some point I will probably shift these sets around, and put a set of La Bella Original 1954s on whichever bass is getting the most playing time.

Ken