MTD Kingston Heir 4-String

This is the passive MTD Kingston Heir with pick-guard, that's no longer in production. Almost the only bass I've used for five years. Now this model is active without pick-guard but maybe this rewiew can be usable even for the newer active model? It has four strings, maple neck and maple fretboard with no fret dots and a bit rough tobacco sunburst finish over a basswood body. Very slim and elegant MTD body shape that deserves to be a classic in the future! Made in South Corea. One fender jazz-style pickup in the neck position and one MM-style pickup in the bridge position made by Bartolini. I use the original pickups since two years back after using a replacement pickup for a while (Seymor Duncan bass-lines jazz-style SJB 2N Hot) that also worked well with slightly more hollow sound but not with the same good blending with the bridge pickup as the original one. The bridge is simple and made of thick bended sheet-metal and functional. The tuners allways stays in tune and seems to be "Gotoh Miniwear" or something like it. The strings has 34 inch scale. The neck has satin finnish that never feels sticky but it collects some dirt at the sides. The bass has jumbo frets I think and 24 frets. The neck is slim and easy played. No strings through body-design.

I always play with a pick. It sounds more woody than "pickup-artificial" (When the pickups creates the entire sound). Sometimes I think it sounds just slightly more cold than warm, but not always. This bass is not extremely deep-heavy but it's easily fixed in the mix or with an good amp if you want it so. Neck pickup alone has a little taste of a Rickenbacker bass with a slightly hollow sound but with enough midrange to cut through. The bridge pickup alone has a midrange-heavy penetrating and somehow "spry" and "electric piano-like" sound. Both pickups together give a more funky treble. The treble is not high-tech, rather a fat amount of low treble/high mid. The neck-pickup is more noisy than the bridge pickup, but not a problem. The sound pallette of the pickups is rather wide but not extremely wide. The bass responds well to playing technique. Especially to where on the strings you pick or pluck.

Just a little too rough tobacco finish and the neck collects dirt. And I resoldered the bass from volume-volume-tone setup to balance-volume-tone setup.

It allways stay in tune. The trussrod works excellent. No problems here. Allways sounds good without noises. The output jack still works.

Never needed any support.

I have played electric bass for 20 years and this is the best bass I've played so far. I play through good amps (Hartke Kickback, Ampeg) or through a good direct box (Ampeg SVT DI). I would like to have the same bass or the new active model if it were stolen. I choosed this bass at first because its lively and woody sound. But I would now like an high-teck treble switch (6000 Hz) and some kind of deep bass booster switch (active elements in this passive bass).

I paid $200 dollars for this bass in really sorry shape. The shop I bought it from was famous for vulturing parts, and they did it to this. It was missing the output jack, and one pot, but once those were replaced, I have only good things to say about this bass. The bridge is easy to work with. The tuners are rock solid, even through the most demanding slap routines. And I have never had any problems with the neck, even after travelling with this bass. The pickups are Bartoloni designed, and manufactured by MTD in Korea. They work fairly well. The Music Man style in the Bridge positions, tends to overpower the Jazz in the neck, creating for some balance issues, but not bad. And of course Buzz Feitin tuning. This bass introduced me to it, and I'll never agian buy a bass without it.

The sound of this bass is incredibly versatile, but not to the point of anything with active electronics. I have used this bass primaraly in a Jazz band, that plays everything from classic ballads, to modern funk and fussion, and it handles it all very well. With the D'dario prosteels that are currently on it, I would even dare play it in most rock bands. It gets a sound very much like an old Rhodes Piano, but on steriods. The only complaint is that it is hard to get very bright, without getting much to twangy.

Once I had this bass recovered from the local guitarshop, it was gorgoues. Very well put together, and a stunning tabacco burst over flame maple. I couldn't ask for a sharper looking bass.

This bass has been through everything with me. It's travelled thousands of miles, and played probably hundreds of gigs. And I've never had anything truly break. It suffers from normal wear and tear, but that is to be expected with the amount I use it. I find that regular intonations, and keeping the electronics clean, and this bass has no reliablility problems. Just need to keep on top it.

Mike is THE MAN. Everytime I have a question regarding this, or another MTD I own, he personally e-mails me back within 24 hours. He is always totally honest, and is not afraid to tell me what his bass will not work for, or what problems arise. He is by far the easiest man to do bussiness with in the bass bussiness. I would recomend MTD's for his customer service alone.

I love this bass, and would hate to part with it. I would have gladly paid full price, and still considered it a deal. This bass has lasted throught thick and thin, and gigs of every sort. It's played jazz, rock, bluegrass, and even in a University Pep-Band. It sounds great, and keeps on playing. I would recomend Mike and his instruments to anyone.

Hello again. It's christmas day 2005 and I am spending the evening by writing this. About one and a half year ago I wrote a review here at harmony central about my bass, a MTD Kingston Heir 4-string with maple fingerboard, sunburst finnish, 24 frets and 34 inch scale. Now this bass is the only thing that I have played on for three years so I want to say something about it. I have played bass for 18 years and I am pretty fastidious about electric basses but I have mostly good things to say about this bass. This is the first bass that let me sound like I want to sound. Other people that I have played with are only possitive about it's tone. But as I previously wrote, I made two changes to this bass, first I replaced the jazz pick up in the neck position to a Seymor Duncan Bass Lines jazz pick up and second, I installed a ballance-volume-tone-system instead of the volume-volume-tone system that was orginally installed. This made this bass much better (for my taste) because I thought that this bass lacked low end power, such as heard in reggae music, with the orginal neck pick-up. A ballance knob for the pick-ups also comes in handy for easy tweaking of the tone. Also this bass looks good and perhaps this MTD body design will be a classic in the future. I especially like the odd pick guard. Sometimes in the future I would like to buy one more bass of the same model in fretless version to expand my tone palette. This bass is very easy to play and the fret-work is exellent and even across the neck, so I can have the strings very low just like I need to get a "funkier" or more "rocky" sound with a peace of fret-rattling.

I always play with a pick for everything that I play and I hit the strings at different positions for different tones (more deep and soft upon the fingerboard, rocky and funky at the end of the fingerboard and punchy and cutting near the bridge), I often make vibratos and I often strike the strings in a "lashing" way for a popping-like sound and this bass reproduces every technique in a pretty exposing way and this might be a problem for someone! Together with the tone control and pick-up configuration the tone palette is as wide as I need it to be. The bridge pick up is a music man style humbucker and it sounds soft, light ,"spry" and penetrating just like when Stanley Clarke played his quick chord-strumming in the eighties and it's focus is not placed very high up in the treble like an active modern hi-tech bass with lots of 6000 Hz treble, rather in the upper part of the middle (low treble) and this gives a fat, punchy and cutting tone that will NOT sound like broken glass in the mix. Somebody maybe want to say that they want more deep bass from it, but I don't do it, for me it's the ultimate soloing-pick-up and it's great for midrangy and punchy bass lines.To make it sound softer, I simply strike the string upon the fretboard for a deeper sound. The new jazz-pick-up in the neck position is a different story. It creates a slightly hollow and rattling sound that strengthens the low end character that has a fatness to it, and when I roll off the tone control, I get the lovely reggae sound. This pick-up works great over the whole fretboard and simetimes I think of a Rickenbacker-bass when I hear it. The orginal neck-pick-up had more of the same midrange as the bridge pick-up and slightly less deep bass and I think that the tone-palette is wider with my new neck pick-up. Both pick-ups together gives the deepness of the neck-pick-up, the midrange of the bridge pick-up and a pretty funky "old fashioned" treble -this is a passive bass- and if you are looking for the active high-tech bass sound , look elsewhere!! The bass can be slightly noisy if you stand close to the amp. Like all passive bass guitars (I think) you maybe have to turn up the 80 Hz region a few dB when you are lining this bass directly to the mixing board. If you think that that little thing is a problem, buy an active bass!!

I have experimented much with the adjustment of the pick-ups and of the strings, but I thought that the orginal adjustments was OK, probably for most of us bass players. One disadvantage with the finnish: where the upper part of the bass curves someone has polished to hard into the finnish with some sanding paper with a slightly lighter stripe as the result and I don't think this should occur in this half expensive price range!!

This bass is surely reliable, the neck never moves, and the tuners stay in tune, no matter how hard I strike the strings.

I have never needed any customer support, I have made all modifikations myself.

I play mostly Rolling Stones-like rock in one band and I jam wildly in rocky and funky styles in the other band and this bass works for everything, even reggae and jazz. If it were stolen I would like to have exactly the same one again but probably I then had to buy something cheaper but still very good such as some YAMAHA BB bass. I really like those basses (try them!!). I have played bass for 18 years. My influences among electric bass players are nowadays John Entwistle, Chris Squire and Stanley Clarke. I play with an ampeg V4BH amplifier into an ampeg HLF410 cabinett and when I jam I like to tweak the tone with my pedalboard sometimes. My MTD bass is vibrating very much and has a strong tone unamplified and this has to do with the fact that this bass is well made. I recommend this bass (especially with my two changes) to every serious bassist who looks for a great passive tone but if you are looking for a modern hi-tech sound with 6000 Hz treble, look elsewhere for some active bass. I can recommend the MTD SARATOGA which is an extremely well sounding active bass but with a softness to it's sound. But the Saratoga is costing plenty!!

I have owned a 4-string MTD Heir bass with sunburst finish for almost one and a half year and I have playd with it amplified in the rehearsalroom two times a week so I have some opinions to share. When I first saw this bass, I immediatly loved its finish and "rock-look" with its unusual pick-guard so I picked it down to test it.

The playability is superb and it has a nice, thin and smoth finish on the neck that never feels sticky, not even with newly washed hands. It also always stays in tune, no matter how hard I strike the strings. The sunburst finish lokks great and it has a pretty strong tone when it is unamplified, a good thing about an electric bass guitarr!

What I first loved with this bass soundwise was the spry and penetrating sound that I got with both the pick-ups at maximum or with only the bridge pick-up on, perfect for funky and "lashing" playing. The top in the sound is not placed to high in the treble (for my taste), rather in the middle and upper part of the midrange and this gives a really cutting, but at the same time, soft tone. I thought that the neck pick-up was OK then but I was going to change my mind. After nearly a year I realised that the sound of this bass in fact slightly lacked low-end definition and power. I couldn't really get that deep reggaesound from it. I realised that the bridge pick-up was the best and most characteristic pick-up of this bass with its unique midrange voice so I decided to change the neck pick-up.

I changed it to a passiv Bass Lines jazz pick-up (Seymor Duncan SJB-2N HOT) that costed 925 SEK. The result was outstanding! Suddenly I could get much deeper cutting bass over the whole register, especially with the tone knob rolled off. I could also get some more hollow "rattling" treble from it. I want to say that the value of this bass was doubled soundwise! The two pick-ups are also blended perfectly both output-wise and sound-wise.

To really "make this bass finished" I later decided to install a balance-volume-tone system instead of the volume-volume-tone system that had originally been installed. This made it much more easy to blend the two pick-ups in five usable positions with only the balance knob (100%/0%, 75%/25%, 50%/50%, 25%/75%, 0%/100%). All the three potentiometers costed about 280 SEK (the balance knob is the most expensive one). I made the soldering myself.

With these two changes, that I strongly recomend, this bass is one among the best basses that I have ever heard (and seen) and I play it all the time and I will never sell it!

I live in Sweden and I bought this bass for 9200 SEK in january 2003.

I use an ampeg V4-BH amplifier with an ampeg 410HLF cabinet and sometimes runs it through a pedalboard.

This is a 4-string made in Korea designed by Michael Tobias. It has a fully accessible 2-octave neck. A jazz/music man pickup configuration is stock. (Jazz in the neck pos., music man in the bridge pos.) I am assuming that the pickups were also designed by MTD. Maple neck 1 1/2" wide @ the nut, not sure the string spacing. The fretboard is rosewood but maple is available. The basswood body has a flame maple top and a nice antique burst finish.

For the money, I have to say that this is the absolute best value of any bass out there right now. The neck is small and extremely fast with good string spacing for slap. I played the single pickup model before I bought this one and I recommend the 2-pickup model. the sound is fatter and this bass can growl with any Jazz or dub out with the front pickup solo. The MM at the bridge sounds kinda thin by itself IMO. The strength of this bass is the playability. The action is low and the neck is very fast. I have owned and played basses that cost twice as much, inc. American MTD's, and this is the best, THE BEST, playing bass I have ever owned! I do recommend, however, an aftermarket pre-amp. I play through the Aguilar DB924 OUTBOARD pre-amp and it sounds KILLER through my Ashdown ABM 500 head and Eden 210T. The aguilar preamp fattens the lows and makes the highs much more defined, just generally thickening the sound.

One word for the action: Butter! The factory setup is perfect with low action and no buzzing. The medium jumbo frets are all seated well with the ends perfectly filed and polished. The finish was even with no "orange peel".

Only had it 1 week, I can't say. it seems solid, tho...

I e-mailed the company before I bought it and Michael Tobias replied to my several questions. Really Cool.

I have been playing for 12 years and have owned mostly Fender Jazz style basses. I wish that this bass had other color options. The finish is nice, I like choices tho. If it were stolen I woould hunt down whoever took it and wring their neck before buying 2 or 3 more. ANYONE CONSIDERING BUYING A BASS IN THE 600-1500 DOLLAR RANGE NEEDS TO PLAY THIS BASS FIRST. Try it with the Aguilar pre-amp as I did and feel the magic. For the first time in my life I feel like I ripped off the Music Store, rather than vice-versa!!!