Official Zon Club Part 3

[Angus]

Edit: Maybe I shouldn't say that here.

Anyway, I remember that bass. It was a big custom order that had a lot of difficult particulars that made it very intricate...but it's not a shock to see it up for sale for reasons I edited.

Really cool bass though!

[iD Entity]

Originally Posted by rulyongo

By the way: Have you seen this?:

eBay - New & used electronics, cars, apparel, collectibles, sporting goods & more at low prices

If I had the extra cash!!!

Wow..... just, wow...

[ialma]

I've owned three sonii.
The three had no truss rod.
Last two, a standard 4 and a special, have no issues in neck.
My first Zon (sold a week after having bought it) had a severe neck issue.
Warped, and quite badly.
I've bought a Sonus Custom 5, which also had some neck issues.
This one has been sent to Zon and I asked to put a truss rod in it.

Originally Posted by AndroWal

Curious what opinions are about Zons that don't have trussrods.

[AndroWal]

Originally Posted by ialma

I've owned three sonii.
The three had no truss rod.
Last two, a standard 4 and a special, have no issues in neck.
My first Zon (sold a week after having bought it) had a severe neck issue.
Warped, and quite badly.
I've bought a Sonus Custom 5, which also had some neck issues.
This one has been sent to Zon and I asked to put a truss rod in it.

Many thanks for describing your experiences. Good to learn about them. It helps in my decision making.

Best

[ehque]

Originally Posted by AJ Brown

Anyone else notice that Joe raised the prices of the Vinny by about $600 on the ZON Builder? It's about time. I've said it many times that the Vinny is the BEST value in basses. I guess the demand caught up.

Whoa. It's about a $400 raise since the last time i checked. For what I paid for my VB-6 (quite heavily customed), you would now only be able to get a barebones VB-5.

[bucephylus]

Originally Posted by Angus

Enormously happy with it. I've tried a lot of preamps in my very old 4 string and my 6 string, and the East is by far the best. It's one of two preamps in my opinion that have a usable treble control, as it adds sparkle and clarity without the nasty sizzly clank. The depth of the bass and the sweepable mid allows you to really control the character of the bass and accentuate or avoid any eccentricities in the particular bass.

My 5 and 6 string are totally different sounding beasts, but he East in each allows me to get what I find to be the best out of each instrument. My 5 string, in particular, sounds much more full and rounded out with the controls on the East.

I've had good luck with a Pope preamp in my 4 string, too.

I also prefer a simple, dependable 3-band Bartolini preamp to the polyfusion, too. I just think it works better for me with the composite neck.

Excellent! thanks! Nice to have options.

[Angus]

Quick pic story:

Looks normal, right?



Wait, uh oh, what's that?












I moved to CT from CA recently, and I put up some Hercules wall hangers to save some space in my tiny apartment. Put three up- one for this Zon, one for my Fodera, and one blank one for another bass I don't have here yet. I hung the two basses up, went to bed, and when I got up the next morning, the Zon was laying face down on the floor. The plastic hanger had actually broken in half at the yoke. Nice. Still talking with the company about it.

End result, though, was that the Zon took a gnarly ~5-6 ft drop! It must've landed on the strap pin, which is kind of perfect. The only other damage was two indentations on the back, caused by something it bounced off of.



Amazingly, there was no damage to the neck, no damage to the headstock, and the adjustment rod is still completely seated. Still in tune, too.

Not bad. I've seen (and had) worse happen from much smaller drops.

Anyway, just wanted to share the relatively minor damage from what could've been catastrophe. Anyone know any good luthiers in southern Connecticut?

Two quick pictures, too, since I haven't really posted many pictures of it before.

[ppal]

Wow Chris, sorry to see your bass needing a little help...luckily, it looks as though its just cosmetic damage, and inconspicuous at that. I hope you can get it fixed by someone locally, she's a beauty.

Paul

[rulyongo]

Yikes!!! Sorry to hear that!!!

I have these:

Hercules Stands Wallmount Guitar Hanger: Shop Accessories & Other Musical Instruments | Musician's Friend


I've had them for about two years and have been reliable. I wonder what happened to yours...

[Vic]

Originally Posted by Angus

Quick pic story:

Looks normal, right?



Wait, uh oh, what's that?

UGH!!!!!

Hey, you know what you could do, is make it a recessed lock. Just drill the hole even deeper and mount it inside like some other builders have. If you feel gutsy, do the same with the top horn. Otherwise, I'd imagine you're looking at gluing a wood plug in there and simply re-drilling it (or having Joe do it).

[iD Entity]

Ouch, glad to hear it only took that bit of damage it did... could have been much worse.

[Angus]

Originally Posted by Vic

UGH!!!!!

Hey, you know what you could do, is make it a recessed lock. Just drill the hole even deeper and mount it inside like some other builders have. If you feel gutsy, do the same with the top horn. Otherwise, I'd imagine you're looking at gluing a wood plug in there and simply re-drilling it (or having Joe do it).

Yeah, that's exactly what I'm planning on doing (like minds...)! I don't have the right bit nor the time to spend to do it myself (otherwise I would, like I do with all my other work), but it's a <10 min job for someone else. I put them on my 6 string on bout and top horn years ago. I'm glad I didn't get to it on this bass...the strap lock is what absorbed most of the energy of the fall!

Luckily impact crater created by the fall is still smaller than the outer diameter of the recessed lock, so it's an easy repair.

Can't have Joe do it, unfortunately- doesn't make much sense to ship it 3000 miles to have the work done. I'm no longer down the street.

I'm off to go play it now. This bass has a better B string than my Modulus did...

[kesslari]

Ouch. Glad that your beauty is fundamentally OK.

[taowin]

Hi there,
Not a member but I would join if someone sold me a high-end six string fretless Zon. Anyone have one they're thinking about letting go? There was a Zon legacy elite with piezos a few weeks ago going for $2400 and I missed it. I mostly play a new Skjold six string fretted and I'm looking for its twin sister.

[iD Entity]

<Caveat: In the grand scheme of things, below is totally irrelevant and worth an 'LOL', and I don't actually care when I consider the 'big picture'. But in my microcosm of bass playing, I'd like to get some input>

Hm, so... further to my above post regarding Customer Service, I'd finally received my order (black Sonus 5/1 bridge, nothing complicated) earlier today. 'Yay!', I'd thought. Martin had told me the bridge would be mailed out on the 3rd of August... yet looking at the postal date, turns out it wasn't mailed until the 19th August, 2 and a half weeks late. Ugh, ah well. I also noticed I was over-charged on shipping fees. Ugh, ah well. I open up my package, keen to move on, and pull out the bridge. It's indeed black, and for a 5 string. Whew! But, wait... er... where are the mounting screws?

I checked the package again... nope, no mounting screws.

So a month and a half of emails to get some paypal details, over-charged on shipping, delayed shipping by two and a half weeks without notice, only to find I have a useless hunk of metal because the mounting screws were left out. Now, could I buy screws for it? Of course, but should I have had to?

Before I call up Zon as an upset customer, should I be feeling somewhat ripped, or would people consider the above to be normal?

Cheers.

[rulyongo]

Originally Posted by iD Entity

<Caveat: In the grand scheme of things, below is totally irrelevant and worth an 'LOL', and I don't actually care when I consider the 'big picture'. But in my microcosm of bass playing, I'd like to get some input>

Hm, so... further to my above post regarding Customer Service, I'd finally received my order (black Sonus 5/1 bridge, nothing complicated) earlier today. 'Yay!', I'd thought. Martin had told me the bridge would be mailed out on the 3rd of August... yet looking at the postal date, turns out it wasn't mailed until the 19th August, 2 and a half weeks late. Ugh, ah well. I also noticed I was over-charged on shipping fees. Ugh, ah well. I open up my package, keen to move on, and pull out the bridge. It's indeed black, and for a 5 string. Whew! But, wait... er... where are the mounting screws?

I checked the package again... nope, no mounting screws.

So a month and a half of emails to get some paypal details, over-charged on shipping, delayed shipping by two and a half weeks without notice, only to find I have a useless hunk of metal because the mounting screws were left out. Now, could I buy screws for it? Of course, but should I have had to?

Before I call up Zon as an upset customer, should I be feeling somewhat ripped, or would people consider the above to be normal?

Cheers.

Man, if it was me I would be very upset. You should try to contact them, the least thing they should do is ship you the screws... That's my opinion.

[Angus]

They'll probably just send you the screws if you ask.

Is the bridge you have currently black?

[iD Entity]

Nah, and it's a Hipshot A to boot, so I couldn't even paint the heads black, screw them in, and call it a day.

Actually it was the 5/1.5 bass from back in January, if you remember me messaging you about it Crazy good bass, as you'd said

Heh, and if it took Zon that much kermuddling to get a bridge ordered, I'm not looking forward to the drama of them sending me 5 individual screws lol.

Ahh... le sigh.

[milo]

ANGUS can you post some high-res photos of your beautifull bass

[Angus]

Uhhh, I can try later. I'm a horrible, horrible photographer though.

I have some high-res pics that Zon took, though:
























And then two bad cell phone pics from the first time I changed strings:






I'll see if I can get some higher res photos for you though when I have the time.