I was looking around a guitar store and came across a bass that looked pretty good. It was in cursive so I am not sure of the exact name brand but it looked like it said "Ocean" That was all that it said other than Made in Indonesia on the back. It was active with Bartolini Mark 1s or 2s, hipshot tuners, neck-thru with a stain finish. It was priced at $750. I could not find anything on the web about this bass. DOES any one know anything about these basses?
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Ocean bass?
- Thread starter mrguitardo
- Start date
don't know much about them... but i did play a couple at GC, and they sound and feel pretty good to me.
I think they're based out of OC California. My buddy works there as the guitar tech. I'll see if they have a website. They just got into GC.
My friend said that QC and setup are done in Orange California by him. The company importing them are Praxis Musical Distribution Center 714-532-6657. He also said the website for it won't be up for a while. I've never played one. I'd like to check one out.
These basses just got into the GC here in St Louis. I spoke to the General Manger at my store and he said that the basses are actually made by GC. He said that they simply sent the specs to a third party manufacturing company and then have them shipping to the stores so that GC will be the exclusive dealer for Ocean instruments.
Damn fine basses though. Neck through, flamed maple top, Bart MK1 pups and preamp...yummy
Damn fine basses though. Neck through, flamed maple top, Bart MK1 pups and preamp...yummy
I dont have a GC in my area, but it would be cool if some one who does could go and get some pics for us TB'rs here. Just a thought.
i played one for about 20 minutes two days ago. sounded great, felt great, looked ok. i was told that they were sort of a spawn of cort guitars by one of the gc employees.
I played the 5-string the other day, my first impression looking the instrument over was that it was of Cor-Tek (Cort) fabrication. Very nicely made, a bit thinner-sounding than the Ibanez SR-505/506, which also use Bartolini Mk 1 pickups (and the Ibbys are probably OEM'd by Cor-Tek themselves, Ibanez is a big customer of theirs.) The one I played wasn't as resonant unplugged as I like to hear, but that's just one sample. Should turn out to be an interesting brand. Maybe GC saw the success Rondo had with private-labeling instruments from a good Korean OEM, and decided to give it a try. Be interesting to watch, anyways...
Todd in Cheesecurdistan
Todd in Cheesecurdistan
made in indonesia. the naturals are made of a nice looking wood but i think they would scratch and dent easily. the bridge on these things looks substantial, and they all appear to have neck thru construction. they feel solid, but not too heavy.
I played a warwick standard, a warwick $$ double buck, and this new OCEAN Bass. The Ocean bass sounded better than both of the warwick's. I'm still hesistant to buy it though. I have 1000 blowing a hole in my pocket and have been eyeing a warwick for some time now but this ocean bass just steps right in the way.............. But its so new...will it hold its value down the road, are they really quality basses? So many questions so little to go by.
I saw some the other day, first from behind on a stand. I thought they were Schecters until I got a look at the headstock and pricetag. They seem to me to be a higher priced Schecter with half-baked Bartolini import pickups instead of the half-baked EMG import pickups that Schecters have. Not that they're bad, but if I'm buying a bass I'm eventually going to want new pickups for I'd buy the cheaper one.
Played one the other day at GC, a salesman came by and took it from me. He put an Alembic in my hands and said "Now THAT's a bass!"
Relax people- he knows me.
Overall impression- feels like an Ibby, looks a lot like the Cort A5 Artisan series, though it sounded better than the Artisan, fit and finish were good. Don't know about the resale value on them, as they're just now hitting the market. If I was buying a midrange bass, this one would bear consideration.
Relax people- he knows me.
Overall impression- feels like an Ibby, looks a lot like the Cort A5 Artisan series, though it sounded better than the Artisan, fit and finish were good. Don't know about the resale value on them, as they're just now hitting the market. If I was buying a midrange bass, this one would bear consideration.
My thread about these basses got closed so I GUESS i'll post in this one lol. Yea I played both the four and five string models in GC yesterday and was pretty impressed. The bluish finish on the body was BADASS but I'm skeptical on how bad it would show scratches. The one thing I can say about the five string model is that the string spacing seemed alittle tight to me like an Ibanez and I quickly went back to the four banger. So how does the $750 pricetag sound to you guys?
BTW, does the company have a website? I searched for Ocean basses on google and only got a lot of fish stuff.
I posted this thread and bit the bullet and just went and bought one. I had money to blow and it wasn't a huge investment. BUT I was very impressed. It sounded great, I had to turn my gain down on my amp cause the pickups are so hot. No noise whatsoever. Lots of tone options. The neck and the string tension was perfect. I don't even think I need to set it up. I play a SWR 750x through an Ampeg SVT810 and it rocked. I will be the first I know to stand behind the bass. It is a new product but I am not worried about resale cause I will keep this bass for a while. You never know, they might stop making these and they could become a collectors. It might show scratches but I am careful with my babies. I got the black/charcoal satin finish and it wont get ruined from sweat. It looks and sounds bad ass. The GC person told me it was a Cort spin off. If you don't have the money to by a Warwick or custom bass this bass is something to consider.
I played a 5 string Ocean at GC recently as well...pretty light, neck thru, Bart MK-1 pups and pre, hipshot tuners--nice bass! It was kind of a slap machine; didn't have a real meaty fingerstyle tone on its own, at least not compared to an Ibanez SR500 or a nice Spector for example.
For my buck, if you have to buy at GC, I like the sound of the Ibanez SR's/Spectors though, and they are better at resale. Just me
For my buck, if you have to buy at GC, I like the sound of the Ibanez SR's/Spectors though, and they are better at resale. Just me
The funny thing is... if they had made less of them and marked them up alot... let's say $1600 or so, and they had a different name (ocean is kindof a lame name for a bass) would they have gotten away with it?
