 TalkBass Forums |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
Recommended By
|
Average Price
|
Average Rating
|
|
100% of reviewers
|
None indicated
|
10.0
|
|
|
|
|
|
Description:
|
* 34" scale, 24 frets
* Quilted maple top
* Alder body
* Wenge fingerboard
* 7 piece laminated Bubinga/Maple/Wenge neck
* Bolt-on neck, 6 bolts
* Poly finish
* Custom Wenge knobs and pickup covers
* Hand wound Hanewinckel pickups
* Bartolini 3-band, 18v preamp
|
|
|
|
Author
|
|
boogiebass
Registered User
Registered: August 2000
Posts: 3578
|
|
Review Date: Sun January 28, 2007
|
Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: None indicated
| Rating: 10
|
|
Pros:
|
Clarity of tone, playability
|
|
Cons:
|
Medium weight
|
|
This bass was originally constructed with Bartolini pickups and an oil finish but due to my gigging needs, I asked Pete to refinish it in Poly. While it was being re-done, Pete also came up with his custom hand-wound pickups so, of course, we opted to replace the Bart pickups. I also took advantage of the opportunity to have Pete construct matching Wenge pickup covers and knobs. The bass was also fitted with an extra toggle to allow coil-splitting. The focus of this review then, will be the comparison with the bass as originally configured (and I had a LOT of experience gigging and recording with it as originally built) and the new pickups/upgrades.
GIG
---
Typical Southern California bar; low ceiling, carpeted floor, hardwood dance floor with the stage facing the bar. My regular classic rock trio, The Funky Blue Monkeys.
RIG
---
My mainstay for pretty much everything but jazz these days: Epifani UL410 and Walter Woods Ultra. The Epi was sitting on a Gramma pad for a bit more definition on the carpeted bar floor. I had the internal preamp pot inside the bass set at about 3:00 o'clock which gave me plenty of punch and gain. Tone controls were set dead flat and I used the coil-splitting toggle to adjust for fingerstyle and slap. I like to run the Woods at about 11:00 o'clock and then adjust the bass volume as needed. I never needed to open the bass volume up full.
PLAYABILITY
------------
This is a medium-weight instrument so a wide padded strap is a necessity. It hangs perfectly, however, and caused me no issues over the 4.5 hour gig. The neck is smooth and fast with quite narrow spacing. Fast runs and chords are a joy to play on this bass. I prefer sixers these days and this one is the easiest and fastest playing I've ever used. Plenty of space in front of the neck pickup for slapping over the 24th fret and a comfortable right-hand fingerstyle area between the pickups, also. I tend to play fingerstyle right in front of the bridge pickup and this bass was effortless for me to execute anything I was inspired to try. A+
TONE
-----
Where to start? The new Hanewinckel pickups are a siginificant upgrade over the Bartolini's. I know that sounds effusive but the H pups are considerably broader in frequency response range and the upper register clarity (one of my main priorities) is startling. There's no bright, hacksaw sharpness in the upper register as can sometimes be the case with EMG's and others, however. These pickups are smooth and integrated within all registers. And the top-end in no way compromises the lows, either. The bottom register on this bass is tight and authoritative. The overall impact on this instrument's tone within the context of a band on a gig is that the bass not only cuts through but it does so without excessive volume or hard digging in or "pulling" on the strings by the player. This is no small feat and should be considered for a moment: this bass actually makes me relax more when I play because I don't have to worry about or fight to be heard! A++
SUMMARY
---------
I've never previously experienced all the subtle improvements these new pickups offer and I'm pretty excited, frankly. In fact, Pete is hard at work building me another sixer as this is written in order to get a backup to this one in my arsenal. I guess that says I'm pleased. Oh yeah.
------------------------------
Hanewinckel basses and Thomastik-Infeld strings
|
|
|
|
Powered by: Reviewpost vB3 Enhanced
Copyright 2010 All Enthusiast, Inc.
|
All times are GMT -6. The time now is 11:52 AM.
