Anyone familiar with BL Design Basses?

[Quebass86]

http://bldesign.us/home.htm

Does anyone own or have any experience/knowledge of the BL Design series?

[floaded27]

http://bldesign.us/home.htm

Does anyone own or have any experience/knowledge of the BL Design series?

not feeling those designs at all. (from a purely looks point of view)

[CallowHill]

I actually think he's one of the best builders in the industry.  The workmanship and attention to detail is as good as it gets.

[Torch7]

I actually think he's one of the best builders in the industry.  The workmanship and attention to detail is as good as it gets.

Wow, that's quite an endorsement.

[floaded27]

I actually think he's one of the best builders in the industry.  The workmanship and attention to detail is as good as it gets.

hey, u want our money or not. lol

[CallowHill]

hey, u want our money or not. lol

Hah!  Nah, I'd rather provide accurate info so potential customers will be satisfied with their purchases - even if it's not with me.  The builder of BL Design is a great dude, and the quality of his work is above and beyond instruments that cost over 7k.  People are sleeping on them, they truly are top dawg in the biz.  Take a closer look!

[ssabass]

Nice looking basses, but the tone is terrible & since they put that youtube video on there site, that must be how there basses sound & for $3000.00 plus, they better come better than that.

[CallowHill]

Nice looking basses, but the tone is terrible & since they put that youtube video on there site, that must be how there basses sound & for $3000.00 plus, they better come better than that.

Clips are never capable of rep'n a product.  That's the reason I don't offer clips on my stuff.  I'm a firm believer that tone comes from the fingers.  The BL Design basses are CRUSHING.  You don't really know until you pick one up. 

[ssabass]

Tone comes from the fingers? I wish that were 100% true, cause I could, we all could have saved alot of money. Tone comes from combinations of woods, electronics, certain finger boards, strings, amplification, pickups & yes, fingers. All of those things make up tones. If tone came strictly from the fingers, than what reason would there be to buy a Callowhill or a Sawdosky, Mtd, Ken Smith, Lakland, Fender, for $1000.00-$4000.00. I would just buy me a $100.00 Samick bass & a cheap crate amp & save a whole lot of money. Clips are very capable representing a product, if the product is good. I've heard plenty of youtube clips, where the tone of someones bass blows me away & the person playing is not necessarliy  good or even an average player. Then I've heard great players & there tone stinks. There's a this 10yr old cat on youtube that plays a Fender & he can barely grip the bass properly, but his tone is incredible. Naw, if the tone is bad from the beginnig, you could put anybodies hands on it, you might like what the player is playing, but the tone would still stink.

[Kelz-Da-Basshead]

the person in that clip could have done a bad job adjusting his EQ.  Thats one way a great player can play a great bass and the tone still suck.

[ssabass]

Then why would they choose a video to put on there websight, if it really did not represent the sound of there basses? That would probably be true if, this were just some video, but its on there websight. There also thanking him. Naw, what you hear is what get in this situation.

[rEaLiTy|cHecK]

Tone comes from the fingers? I wish that were 100% true, cause I could, we all could have saved alot of money. Tone comes from combinations of woods, electronics, certain finger boards, strings, amplification, pickups & yes, fingers. All of those things make up tones. If tone came strictly from the fingers, than what reason would there be to buy a Callowhill or a Sawdosky, Mtd, Ken Smith, Lakland, Fender, for $1000.00-$4000.00. I would just buy me a $100.00 Samick bass & a cheap crate amp & save a whole lot of money. Clips are very capable representing a product, if the product is good. I've heard plenty of youtube clips, where the tone of someones bass blows me away & the person playing is not necessarliy  good or even an average player. Then I've heard great players & there tone stinks. There's a this 10yr old cat on youtube that plays a Fender & he can barely grip the bass properly, but his tone is incredible. Naw, if the tone is bad from the beginnig, you could put anybodies hands on it, you might like what the player is playing, but the tone would still stink.

disagree. it's a held belief that people buy boutique basses for the comfortability and overall design quality, NOT primarily tone. if $$ = tone, then i better throw away my SX jazz! however i love that thing; i think it hits the j-bass vibe quite well!

[ssabass]

Not buying that one. If that were the case, you should just buy the bass, with no electronics in them. Not to many people spend thousands of dollars, for a comfortable feel & so-called superoir quality only. Everyone that plays bass knows or should know that "tone is king" & everything else is secondary. Because, you can eventually get comfortable with any instrument, once you play it for a while. I've never heard anyone say, hey give me that bass for $4000.00 I know the tone sucks, but it feels good. When someones spends boutique bass type money, they're looking for the total package, comfortabilty, tone & quality. Never said $$=tones, I said a good tone does not come strictly from the fingers. Cause you can find plenty cheap basses out there that are comfortable & pretty good quality & with a little more money get great tone, by swapping out electronics &  good amplification & spend way less than boutique prices. A friend of mine has a Peavy Cirrus, that he was playing through some cheap amp & cab & the tone was terrible. He picked up an Eden amp & cab & that made a world of a difference, like night & day.

[jeremyr]

tone is in the fingers bro.  electronics just give you the aility to make tweaks.  granted there ARE crappy electronics that can suck the like out of your fingers and will make your bass sound "awful" but i guarantee you could compensate with your attack. 

i could have all the eq in the world, but if i play the strings like I'm a seal with mittens on its a wrap.


i paid all the dough for my Hills by choice due to comfort.  a fender 5 (which i happen to own) doesnt come close to the comfort.

[ssabass]

Naw bro, tone is not fingers only, its just helps. There are some basses out there you can give it the lightest attack & still get great tone, thats because a good tone is there to begin with.  Yes it's true that a certain way you stike it, will bring out certain tones, but the bass has to already have those tones there, the person just has to know how too attack it. But, if the bass already has a crappy tone, I don't care how you attack it, or who is playing it, a good tone won't come out of it. I heard that  Marcus  Miller wouldn't even play a bass (on camera)at a NAMM show, cause the tone sucked. I've heard plenty cats in Guitar center, that did have a clue on how to attack the bass correctly, but that bass itself sounded good, even though what they were playing sounded horrible. Just like Kyle Busch couldn't take my 4cyliner Camry & race it in the Indy 500 & win, because the cars ability is not there, I don't care whose behind the wheel. Kyle Busch has the ability, but he would be driving a car that doesn't.

[Kelz-Da-Basshead]

In the other video the reason that bass sounded terrible is because it sounded like he completely cut the bass and boosted his mids and treble, but I could be wrong.

Another thing that can cause that bad tone is he may have been playing out of something that is not a bass amp. Playing out of anything besides a bass amp can possibly ruin your tone.

Or its just possible that it was the camera.  Some cameras dont pick up bass very well and some videos sound bad or distorted when everything is too loud because most camera mics are low quality.

Here is the same bass as the one on the home page this one sounds much better. Much better tone.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Tjv2dGY23c

[rEaLiTy|cHecK]

Naw bro, tone is not fingers only, its just helps. There are some basses out there you can give it the lightest attack & still get great tone, thats because a good tone is there to begin with.  Yes it's true that a certain way you stike it, will bring out certain tones, but the bass has to already have those tones there, the person just has to know how too attack it. But, if the bass already has a crappy tone, I don't care how you attack it, or who is playing it, a good tone won't come out of it. I heard that  Marcus  Miller wouldn't even play a bass (on camera)at a NAMM show, cause the tone sucked. I've heard plenty cats in Guitar center, that did have a clue on how to attack the bass correctly, but that bass itself sounded good, even though what they were playing sounded horrible. Just like Kyle Busch couldn't take my 4cyliner Camry & race it in the Indy 500 & win, because the cars ability is not there, I don't care whose behind the wheel. Kyle Busch has the ability, but he would be driving a car that doesn't.

my point was that more $$ doesn't = better tone. i get GREAT tone out of my Peavey Cirrus BXP with american electronics. total price = $450. sounds just like maurice's joint. so if you can get great tone out of a cheap (inexpensive) bass, why then would you spend thousands of dollars on a custom/boutique? it comes down to playability. when a bass is really comfortable, it leaves you to worry less about that aspect of playing, and focus more on the playing itself.

[ssabass]

But comfortability does not translate into good tone. You are starting off pretty good cause Peavy Cirrus, aren't bad basses at all. Actually the peavy line is not bad. But, what do you play it through, what are your settings on your bass & your amp. Are you playing through, 210 cab or 410, with a 15 or a 12. are you using Gk, Eden, Hartke, Ashdown, Ampeg. How are your pickups configurated. Do you have humbuckers, soap bar, jazz, etc . How are your pickups wound. I haven't even mentioned any pedals. Is your neck maple, rosewood, ebony, pau faro. Do you use, Dr's, GHS, Sadowsky string, roundwound, flatwounds, nickel, stainless steel. Bartolini, Aguilar, Sadowsky preamps. All of those thing decide what tone comes out of your bass. All I'm saying is tone comes from more than just your fingers. You're right, you don't have to spend thousands of dollars to get good tone, but all of those things I mentioned determines ones tone. Be it good or bad. Stanley Clarke tone sucks & he has magic fingers &  is one of the greatest, but his tone still sucks. Victor Wootens tone is just ok, but his playing is second to none. Tone wise, Marcus blew them both away.   

[malthumb]

But comfortability does not translate into good tone. You are starting off pretty good cause Peavy Cirrus, aren't bad basses at all. Actually the peavy line is not bad. But, what do you play it through, what are your settings on your bass & your amp. Are you playing through, 210 cab or 410, with a 15 or a 12. are you using Gk, Eden, Hartke, Ashdown, Ampeg. How are your pickups configuratedconfigured. Do you have humbuckers, soap bar, jazz, etc . How are your pickups wound. I haven't even mentioned any pedals. Is your neck maple, rosewood, ebony, pau faro. Do you use, Dr's, GHS, Sadowsky string, roundwound, flatwounds, nickel, stainless steel. Bartolini, Aguilar, Sadowsky preamps. All of those thing decide what tone comes out of your bass. All I'm saying is tone comes from more than just your fingers. You're right, you don't have to spend thousands of dollars to get good tone, but all of those things I mentioned determines ones tone. Be it good or bad. Stanley Clarke tone sucks & he has magic fingers &  is one of the greatest, but his tone still sucks. Victor Wootens tone is just ok, but his playing is second to none. Tone wise, Marcus blew them both away.   

I guess I'll go ahead and jump in on this one.  And since we are still doing the Grammar Wiz thing, I gotta point out the configurated isn't a word, but configured is 

I'm so glad you mentioned Stanley Clarke, Victor Wooten, and Marcus Miller.  That will help me clarify my pov.  Stanley, Victor, and Marcus all have DIFFERENT tones.  And that is what customized and boutique basses can do for you.  They can give specific types of tones or in some cases broader ranges of tone.  Stanley's tone is very thin.  Victor's tone is sort of mid heavy.  Marcus's tone has the thickest booty.  In my opinion they all sound good, as long as you like that sorta thing.  If you like thick bottom and only thick bottom as a bass tone, you will not like Stanley.

Also, some people look for a certain edge or vibe to a particular tone.  Some like the Ken Smith tone.  Some like the Alembic tone. Some people like Music Man tone. Some people (I don't pretend to be one) swear they can tell the difference between a P-Bass and a Jazz Bass on a recording.  Now, there is no doubt in my mind that the ultimate filter of a player's tone is going to be the player's fingers, but the quality of the instrument sets the range of the palette that the player has to work with.  Stanley, Victor, or Marcus could make Best Buy bass sound good, but nowhere near as good as Stanley's Alembic, Victor's Fodera, or Marcus's Fender.

Peace,

James

[ssabass]

Yes, they have different tones, doesn't mean there good tones though. There tones compliment there style of playing. What Stanley & Victor does sounds good but, the Alembic tone sucks, no matter who's playing it. Also I played a Fodera & wasn't that impressed at all, especially with the price tag that came with it. Stanley, Marcus & Victor, will sound good playing a best buy bass, but the bass still won't sound good.