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Reviews
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Views
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Date of last review
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1
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12646
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Fri March 12, 2004
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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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None indicated
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10.0
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Description:
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Zebra wood top, walnut body, wenge toneplate, ebony fretboard, ebony nut, maple control knobs, 6-string, 34" scale, 3-band Bartolini eq with coil-tap and active/passive, 5-piece wenge/bubinga neck, walnut control cover
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Author
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RAM
Self-appointed ambassador to Jerzy Drozd
Registered: May 2000
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 4841
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Review Date: Fri March 12, 2004
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Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: None indicated
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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Top notch wood-work, easy to play, great tones, excellent attention to detail
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Cons:
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slight neck-dive
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Overall, this bass is extremely to navigate. Transferring from 4 to 6 strings, I found myself comfortable in a very short amount of time. The 34\" bass practically plays itself!
Speaking of 34\" scale, I\'d put the B string against any. I\'ve played Roscoes, Foderas, Spectors, Alembics, Wals, Elricks, MTDs, Stambaughs, Ken Lawrence, and many more, and have yet to find a better B (though some of these are equal to the task).
The eq is a 3-band Bart with a 3-position mid-selector, such as found on Elricks and MTDs. IMO, it\'s well voiced and makes it easy to dial in good tones.
The shape of the neck is very thin, about the thinnest I\'ve seen, except Warrior. Initially, I was tentative, but found it easy to get around without cramping up. The neck is reinforced with graphite which probably plays a part in the fact that the neck is incredibly stable. It hasn\'t moved a bit in the varying Chicago environment, even when changing brand and tension strings! The fretboard radius is very flat, probably around 20\" or so. Since radius is a personal preference thing, I can\'t say it\'s good for everybody, but it\'s exactly what I like. My Spector has a similarly flat fretboard, so I\'m used to it.
The fret dressing and leveling was about average for a bass in this category. There were no rough edges and all frets were even, but I would have liked to have seen rounded fret-ends a la Lakland or Spector. Perhaps my standards are too high???
The only noticeable downside to this bass is that it\'s got a little neck-dive. With a small body and wenge/bubinga neck, I s\'pose that\'s par for the course. I\'ve played other basses by Jerzy Drozd with maple necks that didn\'t have this problem. With the extended upper horn (it extends to about the 13th fret), it balances fairly well on a strap.
The zebrawood top is close to 1/2 the thickness of the bass. It\'s refreshing to find a luthier who doesn\'t skimp on the thickness of wood. The ebony fretboard is also amazingly thick!
Nice touches Jerzy Drozd employs when he built this bass are a thick wenge \"tone plate\" separating the zebrawood top from the walnut body, maple stringers between the neck and body wings, a matching zebrawood veneer on the headstock, a walnut control cavity cover, an ebony nut (!), veneers between EVERY piece of wood, angled tuners, an angled input jack, maple control knobs, gold Gotoh tuners, and a gold ABM bridge (he now uses a signature style bridge).
There are many wonderful basses in the marketplace, and I feel that after combing the marketplace as much as I did, I found most instruments were overpriced, for what they were. I\'ve played about a dozen Jerzy Drozd basses and found every one to be built to the same exacting standards. I wouldn\'t hesitate to recommend one to someone who\'s looking at basses made by Mike Tobias, Rob Elrick, or Vinnie Fodera. With them, you may get a more well-known name, but you won\'t get a better bass.
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Too young to be reflective; too old to be young.
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