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Recommended By
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Average Price
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Average Rating
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100% of reviewers
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$2,600.00
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10.0
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Description:
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Nordstrand VJ5 Bass
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Author
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GRoberts
Registered User
Registered: January 2003
Location: Tucson, AZ USA
Posts: 4010
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Review Date: Wed July 23, 2008
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Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: $2,600.00
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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Playability, Tone, Build Quality, Value
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Cons:
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None
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Nordy VJ5 review! 
Nordy VJ5
Alder Body
Indian Rosewood Fingerboard
Pearl Blocks and Binding
Tortoise Shell Pickguard (Or, scratch plate for my UK friends!) 
Nordstrand Big Single Pick Ups
Nordstand Active/Passive Preamp (Vol/Blend/VTC/Bass-Mid Stack) No treble knob by request. Don't need it!
Oly White with Matching Painted headstock
Standard Nordy HipShot Tuners and Hipshot Bridge
Special Memorium Neck-Heel Plate Honoring Adrian Garcia
Dunlop Straplocks
Battery compartment
Nordy Plush Gig Bag
 
The construction of my Nordy is exemplary. The superfluous build quality is clearly a reflection of a bass builder at the top of his craft. The small vintage frets are finished to perfection and make playability a dream. Intonation is dead on, and I cannot find, nor hear any dead spots. The VJ5 arrived with a very nice, low set-up. I was shocked and surprised to discover the bass was in perfect tune and still at perfect pitch when I unboxed it! How's that for stable? Nice job Maurillio! I tend to have a medium-to-sometimes aggresive right hand technique so I was initially thinking I would need to raise the action just a hair. But I have since played this VJ5 on two gigs and I may leave it alone for a while. It plays with such ease, it's like cutting butter with a hot knife! They should provide a loaf of warm, fresh bread with it!
The neck pocket is tight and flawless. The shade of the Oly White finish is exceptional. I love it. It's not 'stark white by any stretch.' But it doesn't have the aged yellow look that I personally never liked. The Tort Pickguard is a great color or deep red with lot's of nice swirly patterns that I just love. It offers a perfect contrast against the Oly white finish. It is so classy. Home run!
The Indian Rosewood Fingerboard is a rich chocolately brown with nice deep dark black streaks. This is an amazing looking fingerboard that feels wonderful, even with the relatively flat feeling 12 to 20 compound Radius. Some people whine about the flatness of the fingerboard, but to my hands, the shallow C neck profile paired with the compound radius makes the neck play like a dream. I prefer the Nordy neck to all other basses I've played. I have medium sized hands. the 19mm string spacing is absolutely ideal for my hands. The Nordy neck is simply incredible. Carey has opted to round the bottom of the fingerboard in an overhang style that affords nice access to the truss rod, but retains the classic, vintage, rounded fingerboard look. Brilliant! Vintage styled, with modern appointments. It works functionally as well as aesthetically. Kudos to Carey for this clever design.
The standard Hipshot tuners that Carey Norstrand installs are lightweight with the classic cloverleaf shape. Their operation is smooth and even, and they hold pitch wonderfully. There is no noticeable neck dive whatsoever. I requested the inclusion of Dunlop straplocks which is a nice touch. The strap buttons are preinstalled, and the mating Dunlop strap lock mechanism is included in the gig bag.
Speaking of Gig bags, the "N" Logo Gigbag is very heavily padded, has a velcro strap that can secure the neck so the bass doesn't fall out when you unzip the bag. The two lower pockets on the front of the gig bag are square shaped and are big enough to fit your real book, strap, spare strings inside another internal netted pocket. The top pocket is also nice and big. It is large enough that I can fit my Korg tuner, polishing cloth, X2 Wireless transimitter, pocket sized digital camera inside! Sweet! The padding is second to none. For local gigs when I am the one handling my bass, this gig bag gets the nod every single time! It is awesome. Well worth the price. I highly recommend it.
The weight of the bass is somewhere near 9lbs on my scale. Perfect. Not so uber light that it lacks punch. But light enough that it is friendly on my shoulder after gigging all night long.
This VJ5 was spec'd with Carey's acclaimed Big Single picks and his new Nordstrand preamp. The Outer shells of the Big Singles now sport a small Nordstrand "N" Logo on the lower right corner. Nice touch.
The Preamp can be ordered in multiple configurations. So bare in mind I personally requested the configuration that came on this bass. While speaking with Carey, I mentioned that I never boost treble on any of my basses. I keep my strings fresh and find there is always plenty of inherent high end treble for my taste. In fact, I most often roll off the treble to warm and fatten things up. With Carey's blessing and recommendation, I opted to omit the treble knob. Fast forward: quickly learned this was a brilliant move that I stand by 110%!
The configuration I chose is: Vol/Blend/VTC/Bass-Mid stack. The VTC knob is push-pull. (pull up for passive) Nice and clean design. Simple, functional and effective. The bass and Mid knobs perform boost as well as cut function. I was concerned that perhaps pick up / impedance loading would affect the taper of the blend knob. In short, I was wrong. The blend knob is very even sounding when panning from one PU full on, all the way to the other PU full on. I am very pleased since I find the blend knob faster and more user friendly to adjust during a song. Excellent!
The bass boost is pure magic. It adds punch and more authority on the low end without every sounding overly boomy. Furthermore, the amount of boost is not so strong that more than 20% is totally overwhelming like some other highly regarded preamps. I personally use boost judicisiously anyway. But its nice to realize how musical and useable the entire boost range is. The Midrange knob is boost/cut also. It was very easy to cut the mids and get a great slap tone. Boosting the mids was just amazing. Some other midrange eq's are either nasal, or wind up sounding dry. Not this one. and a little Mid boost goes a Long way! Maybe because this bass is loaded with Big Singles on an Alder/Rosewood platform. In any case, it is extremely usable and musical.
I briefly switched (pull-up on passive tone knob) from active (EQ set flat) to passive to hear how the bass sounds in passive mode. It sounds very, very natural and very good! It is clear that Carey's Nordstrand preamp does not simply offer a passive setting only in the event of battery failure! It is very musical and natural. Volume with the eq set flat was very close, if not identical from passive to active mode. I did however notice what sounded like a small amount of gain boost in active mode that I personally love. It seems to be a but punchier in active mode, even with the onboard eq controls set flat.
I was shocked to discover that my bass is Dead quiet! Both at home, and on a stage with Neon beer signs! These are Big Single Coil PU's! This is a testament to the impeccable shielding. I am simply awestruck by the complex, fat, punchy tone of the Big Single Pickups. My Ash/Maple Nordy has Big Splits which I dearly love. But these Big Single Coil pickups have punch and growl for days. They have authority in the lo end while remaining focused, articulate and never boomy.
So how does she sound? I gig tested the bass at two different gigs the weekend it arrived.
Gig Rig: Markbass LMII amp/Bergantino AE410 4 ohm cabinet
At the first gig, I was still getting acquainted and immediately, I wasn't so sure I am an Alder/Rosewood player. My Drummer even commented that it wasn't as bright and didn't have the high 'clarity' as my Ash/Maple/Big Split/Audere Nordy. He was right. Yet, another bass player who is highly respected in town was in the house. He loved the sound out in the room. It was a full moon that night. The tubes were acting up in the guitar players rig, and the resort was dead. We went home early and I was somewhat nonplussed. Yet, I know from experience that it takes time to get to know the new girlfriend.
Saturday night affored the chance to hear the bass in the best sounding club we frequent. My Guitarist changed his tubes, so he was happy. Off we went.
I first played my Ash/Maple Nordy to acclimate my ears to a familiar sound. Sounded killer. (This was about the fourth gig with my new Bergie AE410. It is a WINNER. She's staying!)
I announced to the audience that I have a new bass, and wanted them to give it a listen. It turns out there was another entire band in the club checking us out, and scoping out the club for a gig for their band. We quickly became fast friends. Nice people.
So I did the rest of the first set with my new Nordy VJ5. One thing that blew my mind. And I mean, BLEW my mind was the B String! What the heck did Carey do to this B string to make it so authoritative and thunderous? I mean it was like the biggest, baddest sounding B String I've heard since a killer Roscoe I owned. Easily as good if not better than my Roscoe, Modulus Q5, F Bass and even stronger than my Ash/Maple Nordy! Day-am! Me likey! 
The other thing I noticed was the meat, punch, fatness and tone in the low and low mids. Yikes! We were rocking out that night and to my ears, I have NEVER,I mean NEVER heard my bass sound so bold, musical and amazing. This was clearly the best bass tone in a loud, rocking band mix I have EVER Gotten! EVER. I took a couple slap bass solo's to see how she would perform. That is a style I've always reserved for Ash/Maple. But man, I was feeling so much love I played better and looked over at my guitarist who was watching me, smiling ear-to-ear with an impish grin as if to say; Gary, that bass Smokes!!! I ain't lying and I don't mean to sound like a fanboy who's had too many energy drinks!
The other bass player in the house commented to me while we were on break that he preferred the White bass, no contest! *That's the new Nordy VJ5. I asked why? He emphatically said; "The TONE!" I queried further asking what other differences did he hear hoping he would offer something more definitive. He said the low-end punch and fat, beefy fullness was better. He said the low punch and growl paired with the tone, it was not even close. (to him) Nice to get a subjective opinion. But the thing is, I heard the exact same thing from a couple other audience members I asked while on break. And they were not musicians. I can't quite describe the "tone" he was referreing to, but I heard tones from this bass in a band mix that I haven't heard since my '68 Fender Jazz bass. (Which was also Alder/Rosewood) I can't discount the wood differences are also attributing to the sonic differences between my two Nordy's.
I can't believe I was so on-the-fence Friday night? I even PM'd a couple TB'ers to ask if I was crazy. But Saturday night, this bass stole my heart! I even wrote an email to Carey on Sunday morning to wax poetic and say; You NAILED it!
I LOVE my new Nordy. It is the perfect compliment to my Ash/Maple Nordy. I didn't want a clone and now I have two basses that cover any sonic ground I will ever encounted.
After doubting her the first night, I love my new Nordy. Amazing bass. Great Preamp. Great pickups, world class build quality at a reasonable price. Collect the whole set I say!
Gary (aka - Nordy Fanboy)
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MarkBass Club #59, Nordstrand Club #2, Bergantino, In Loving Memory of Adrian Garcia. 5-String Bass Member #459
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