# LIGHTWAVE systems (awesome bass!)



## hufschmid (Oct 13, 2009)

Lightwave Systems - Bass and Guitars - Spacebass Bass Guitar

Gorgeous! 

























> BODY
> 
> Body Wood Swamp Ash or Light Ash
> Top Wood Padauk, Walnut or Figured Maple &#8211; Flame, Quilt or BirdsEye
> ...


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## xtrustisyoursx (Oct 13, 2009)

that bridge is giant looking!


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## SD83 (Oct 13, 2009)

Interesting stuff... and that bass indeed looks awesome!

"*FAQ*

*1. Does it use lasers?*
No. We know that would seem sexier, but it uses infrared LEDs and photodetectors.? "


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## MaKo´s Tethan (Oct 13, 2009)

I like that, but...seems like there`s no much space for the right hand.
the action is high too, maybe you can play over the fretboard (27-36)


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## Apophis (Oct 13, 2009)

looks awesome, bridge is HUGE !!!!!


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## phaeded0ut (Oct 13, 2009)

They used to sound a bit thin and tinny way back when. MIDI tracking was a bit funky relative to RMC's, but were a step up from magnetic hex pickups. I love the changes they've made to the newer bass body/neck and to the individual housings for the bridge/saddle/pickup assemblies. The bridge assembly is much more round in these pictures than what I experienced. 36 frets on the instrument that is shown. WOW! That's news, used to be that they only offered 24.


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## TemjinStrife (Oct 13, 2009)

Very cool-looking bass. I'd wait till they get the magnetic/optical blend thing sorted out, as I found the one Lightwave I've played to be very, very good on the low end but totally lack any form of cut, mids, or treble. Some good magnetic pickups would sort that out if I could blend them in.


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## MF_Kitten (Oct 13, 2009)

when i saw the picture, i was like "WTF, that´s... quite nice, actually!" 

my eyes just had to adjust to what i was seeing or something. i like the idea of the optical pickups, but i keep imagining the interference you could get from other light sources... like, i´d probably only record in the dark to make absolutely sure i got a clean sound, even if it wouldn´t be needed


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## hufschmid (Oct 13, 2009)

I also love the neck taper, the overall body design, its all super classy and the wood work is awesome


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## phaeded0ut (Oct 13, 2009)

Unfortunately, they still can't be used with any form of magnetic pickup.  Dampens the string vibration too much for their pickups to handle the information. Please, pardon that this is a very generalized reply on this issue.


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## Mattmc74 (Oct 13, 2009)

Very bad ass! I love the body shape! And the wood and finish are sweet.


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## angus (Oct 13, 2009)

For what it's worth, the bass design is nothing new. It's a design by Tune Guitar Systems, who are an absolutely awesome bass maker out of Japan (there are some junky Korean versions floating around, but the real Japanese ones are custom shop only these days and are incredible; I've owned two over the last decade and they're awesome). Tune basses have been really popular as studio instruments since the 80's. Pretty much every big studio will have one in their collection of instruments. 

Tune first did this design back in the early-mid 90's- I think around 1994 or so. I've played two in the past: one a long time ago but I don't remember where, and one recently when I was in Japan. They still offer the model. They're pretty cool.

Tune went into a deal with Lightwave to make these, so the design itself isn't actually by Lightwave so much as licensed to them. It's a good thing, though, because Lightwave finally have a good luthier working for them (Mark Garza). The instruments they used to sell were some of the most expensive pieces of crap I've ever played. This one should be good.

Too bad Lightwave pickups still don't sound that great.

If you want this design, buy it from Tune in Japan. They speak English over email, have really competitive prices, and it'll probably be a better sounding instrument with mag pickups...just imo. Some people love them, and I think they work for fretless, but they sound too thin on fretted instrument imo.


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## phaeded0ut (Oct 14, 2009)

You wouldn't happen to have the "real" link for Tune's site, Angus? The last time I tried talking to someone I ended up talking to a bunch of Koreans who wanted numbers of instruments rather than a single 12-string bass (dual course 6-string).

Apologies for the off-topic question.


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## angus (Oct 14, 2009)

Definitely! It's pretty hard to find, sadly. I have it on my other computer, so I'll get it and post it later today.


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## wackaboom23 (Oct 17, 2009)

'tis quite the hot bass. 
I imagine it would look super wowza with a q-tuner!


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## MaxOfMetal (Oct 17, 2009)

This bass will always be my favorite Lightwave bass:
MMMMMMMMM......CONKLIN


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## Esp Griffyn (Oct 17, 2009)

I remember reading about these back when they were simply pickups to be retrofitted to existing basses, like a soap bar with little holes in them to see the strings. Absolutely awesome stuff they are doing now, the bass patrick posted is killer.


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## Mattmc74 (Oct 17, 2009)

MaxOfMetal said:


> This bass will always be my favorite Lightwave bass:
> MMMMMMMMM......CONKLIN



 If your looking at the one bass with the multi wood body than I agree! It looks really sweet!


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## hufschmid (Oct 17, 2009)

I wonder how they make those organic cuts, its awesome stuff


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## Mattmc74 (Oct 17, 2009)

hufschmid said:


> I wonder how they make those organic cuts, its awesome stuff



I don't know but they doo look really nice. Very classy look to it.


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## Esp Griffyn (Oct 17, 2009)

Mattmc74 said:


> I don't know but they doo look really nice. Very classy look to it.



Shame about the price, I once was quoted something stupid like £7000 for a fanned fret 8 string, about twice what I was quoted for the same spec'd guitar elsewhere. Clearly Conklin believe in their pedigree, despite not having many big name endorsers. Cooley doesn't use his anymore, Jean Baudin and Bill Dickens (despite Bill being a monster player) are not really names at all since they have a very small listening base these days. Baudin got caught up in the ERB arms race making squillion stringed basses and never really making any music with them.

They have been very sly though, they gave Victor Wooten a bass as a gift that he has never used live and never recorded with, and yet they add him to their artists list. If you give a guy a free instrument and he starts to use it then sure, add him, but Vic has never used it. I bet it hasn't been out of its case since they day he received it!


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## MaxOfMetal (Oct 17, 2009)

Esp Griffyn said:


> Shame about the price, I once was quoted something stupid like £7000 for a fanned fret 8 string, about twice what I was quoted for the same spec'd guitar elsewhere. Clearly Conklin believe in their pedigree, despite not having many big name endorsers. Cooley doesn't use his anymore, Jean Baudin and Bill Dickens (despite Bill being a monster player) are not really names at all since they have a very small listening base these days. Baudin got caught up in the ERB arms race making squillion stringed basses and never really making any music with them.
> 
> They have been very sly though, they gave Victor Wooten a bass as a gift that he has never used live and never recorded with, and yet they add him to their artists list. If you give a guy a free instrument and he starts to use it then sure, add him, but Vic has never used it. I bet it hasn't been out of its case since they day he received it!



There prices are quite high, though, I have yet to see a single bad review or bad experience, unlike some other high-end luthiers. I think the fact that they are so expensive and usually on the weird/unique side keeps them out of the hands of some of the more "visible" artists. Though if you look up the musicians on their site, they are awfully talented. 

Victor has used his M.E.U. to record on occasion, though I doubt the 8 they gave him has seen too much use. It's not like he's at the top of their artist list in big bold letters. Hell, they gave Steve Vai a guitar and he's not listed. 

Rocco Prestia isn't exactly a nobody in the bass world.


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## Durero (Oct 17, 2009)

phaeded0ut said:


> Unfortunately, they still can't be used with any form of magnetic pickup.  Dampens the string vibration too much for their pickups to handle the information. Please, pardon that this is a very generalized reply on this issue.



Don't know where you heard this but it's not true at all. They've long offered models with the lightwave pickups and a magnetic neck pickup.

http://www.lightwave-systems.com/products/saber_sl_hybrid_bass_guitar.php


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## Esp Griffyn (Oct 17, 2009)

MaxOfMetal said:


> There prices are quite high, though, I have yet to see a single bad review or bad experience, unlike some other high-end luthiers. I think the fact that they are so expensive and usually on the weird/unique side keeps them out of the hands of some of the more "visible" artists. Though if you look up the musicians on their site, they are awfully talented.
> 
> Victor has used his M.E.U. to record on occasion, though I doubt the 8 they gave him has seen too much use. It's not like he's at the top of their artist list in big bold letters. Hell, they gave Steve Vai a guitar and he's not listed.
> 
> Rocco Prestia isn't exactly a nobody in the bass world.



Fair point, my friend. At least they are as stupidly overpriced as Alembic!


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## MaxOfMetal (Oct 17, 2009)

Durero said:


> Don't know where you heard this but it's not true at all. They've long offered models with the lightwave pickups and a magnetic neck pickup.
> 
> Lightwave Systems - Bass and Guitars - Saber SL Hybrid Bass Guitar



Nice!

I wish it had a bridge pickup though.



Esp Griffyn said:


> Fair point, my friend. At least they are as *stupidly overpriced* as Alembic!



True that! 

Why are such pretty things always so pricey?


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## moshwitz (Oct 17, 2009)

Sup? 



hufschmid said:


> I wonder how they make those organic cuts, its awesome stuff



Beautiful isn't it 

That is "CNC" cutting all the way,,the same way my stone inlays were cut for my custom 7V












MOSH ON

DAVE


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## angus (Oct 21, 2009)

Esp Griffyn said:


> Fair point, my friend. At least they are as stupidly overpriced as Alembic!



Yeah, man, a couple years ago they quoted me just shy of $40,000 for a bass.

Yeah. $40k.

Not going to happen. Ever.


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## Durero (Oct 22, 2009)

MaxOfMetal said:


> Nice!
> 
> I wish it had a bridge pickup though.



The lightwave pickup is the bridge pickup. It is actually in the bridge position and not a under-saddle type like piezo pickups. 

The bridge pieces look so large because they are covering a moving section of the string and need to shade that section from external light so the sensor system works. You can see the strings pass through each bridge piece under the light covers and to the integrated saddle which are at the back end of each piece (not the neck end.)


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## All_¥our_Bass (Oct 22, 2009)

Looks sexah. Needs the number of strings to be doubled though.


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## lefty robb (Oct 22, 2009)

moshwitz said:


> Sup?
> 
> 
> 
> ...



I doubt its CNC work at all. You would be amazed as some of the weird patterns you can get by gluing a bunch of different woods together with different thickness,angles, bends etc..then slicing it when its dry, sort of like how they make handmade wooden pens turned on a lathe.


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## ralphy1976 (Oct 22, 2009)

those are uber sexy!! nice!!


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## phaeded0ut (Oct 22, 2009)

Durero said:


> Don't know where you heard this but it's not true at all. They've long offered models with the lightwave pickups and a magnetic neck pickup.
> 
> Lightwave Systems - Bass and Guitars - Saber SL Hybrid Bass Guitar



Nope, this is an update and is much newer than my information from back in the '90's.  Really am glad to see that they've updated their pickup system(s). I'd love to know more about their "Custom Magnetic Pickup."

Also, I thought that they had a 6-string version that they were working on (yes, from way back when)? Hopefully it wasn't dropped.


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## MaxOfMetal (Oct 22, 2009)

Durero said:


> The lightwave pickup is the bridge pickup. It is actually in the bridge position and not a under-saddle type like piezo pickups.
> 
> The bridge pieces look so large because they are covering a moving section of the string and need to shade that section from external light so the sensor system works. You can see the strings pass through each bridge piece under the light covers and to the integrated saddle which are at the back end of each piece (not the neck end.)



I meant that I wish it had a bridge position _magnetic_ pickup. I tend to use those the most on my Carvin and Music Man basses, so it would be nice to get both my favorite as well as newer tones out of one of those basses.


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