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a Modulus VJ4 review

bubinga5

bubinga5

Jun 6, 2006
1,113
582
51
cheltenham(UK)
#1
ive aquired a top of the line Modulus VJ4 and wanted to give a review for those who may be interested.. been after one of these for a while..

im going to do a Harmony Central style review here as it such a good format..

Specs are

Alder body
Quilted Sienna Maple top
Graphite neck
Graphite Finger Board
Bartolini pickups
Bartolini 2 band EQ
Modulus stamped tuners..
Volume, Pickup blend, Treble, Bass..
Trim on the preamp itself for adjusting to different outputs

Sound..

Ok, very bright if EQ'd that way..you can get away from the brightness..it is possible to EQ to take this away whether it be bass or amp.. through the Aguilar with treble 1/4 and bass 3/4 it gives a super fat bass thats just amazing...

The punch of the Bart pre is awsome with the trim on 3/4 to full....Sustain is of the chart, goes on for ever...Quite a modern tone but i can get some very super jazz tones...It has been said that these basses can get sterile in there tone..Not so..(well with this one)...Modern yes..Sterile no...depending on your finger attack...

No dead spots whatsoever..this bass rings every note beautifully... chords are very well defined..it def makes you think about your playing and i think will make me a better player when it comes to muting as it will show this up!... If this bass had anything but Barts it would be to harsh..i do love Bartolini pups...again this is prob down to the graphite...

Low down is a SUPER, and i mean super sharp punchy tone...this is not a Fender, but its like a super sharp Sadowsky.. its got some awsome sub bass tones.. gos knows what a 5 string version of this bass wouls sound like...how about a 35" scale version?

Action fit and finish..

Flawless...The best bass ive played in that respect...Would last forever this bass...ive looked it over and i cant find anything wrong with it...VERY well made bass...up there with any bass on the planet...Action is what you would expect..set it and set it forever...

the one thing i didnt like about the Fender was i couldnt get a low enough action..i can get the Modulus action so low, i cant get a credit card underneath the strings at the 12th...thats a graphite neck for you...

Reliability?Durability...

The best there is in the world...no worries here..

Overall Rating...

Alot is said that graphite necked basses have no character..i can see why this is an opinion..this may have to do with the player and his fingers, or the strings IMHO..

Dont even look at those few vids on Youtube of a VJ4...EQ'd to not give the bass its full potential.. there is so much more to it than that compressed sound..

A bit of EQ and a good set of nickles have brought this bass to life.. Flats may work to...For playability this is the best super jazz ive ever played..even the Pensa i played cant match this bass for string height and comfort...its soo comfortable its like ive been playing it for years...The tone to start off with was not to my liking..this may be down to me being used to a trad Fender sound...

Slap tone is killer!...lacks the mid of a Fender, when it comes to g string popping...think modern Gospel. loads of bass with a killer snap....could maybe do with an East pre but its still very cool...

all in all, now ive gotten used to the tone with the DR's i cant find a single this wrong with this bass...as good as it gets IMO...you may say a perfect super jazz bass.. depending on you tastes of course..

this is not a trad jazz tone...i would say its a super jazz, with a modern tone..this is its tone from the Modulus website at the start...not the jazz me thinks but i can get it..

http://www.modulusguitars.com/v3/

hope this helps anyone who is interested in a Modulus VJ4

i didnt want to give an all and all out big up to this bass but i cant see anything thats not great about it...
 
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#6
Here's a pre-Bart picture. I used to have a factory VJ that I butchered to make the the VP. I eventually regretted butchering the VJ so I collected the parts on Ebay and slapped together the home brewed VJ.

IMGP1534.jpg
 
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#7
see me avatar?^

That puppy has been all mine for 3 years now. It is a Modulus FBJ5 which is now the Funk Unlimited model. Mine doesn't say anything but Modulus on the headstock. In fact, mine is on the gallery section of the website. I changed all the hardware to black and it looks even cooler now! :)

So since they don't make a 5 string version of the VJ I got the next best thing. I must say that I agreed with most of what you said about it.

Sound: The sound can be very modern and zingy, but also a really warm and detailed jazz bass sound is there too. I didn't expect to get trad Fender tones out of it. I bought an American Standard Fender Jazz for that. It does however have plenty of versatile tonal character that I've used on the road for years now in multiple styles. The B string sounds AMAZING and it's a 34" scale. I have never wanted a 35" after dabbling with them. This bass feels lighter in weight and better on the left hand than say, a Q5 or Genesis 5. It is very possible to get a great B out of a 34", but that thread is neither here nor there.

Action, fit, finish: The neck is sturdy as hell. I never have to adjust it. It is by far one of the best feeling necks (esp for a 5) I have ever felt, and I've owned a lot of stuff (check my profile). Everyone that plays it says the neck is wonderful and feels already broken in. The action can be set as low as I want, which is pretty low. I have never had any issues with it on the road. It's a road warrior that easily trumped my old SR5 on less setups alone. Just set it up to your liking and it's good for life.

Looks: just look above^. SEXY BASS. esp with black hardware.

Overall: The best 5 I have ever owned. (I even owned an Fbass!) A keeper for life for me!
 
#8
Thanks for the review - I was very close to picking up what might actually be the same bass you now have (did you get the bass shipped this week from New York?). The only question I have is, have you played it on a gig with a band yet? A bass can sound amazing in one's living room but disappear in a live mix (one of the complaints I've heard about the VJs).
 
#9
No i got it in a Fender trade...a very special CS jazz too...i always wanted a Modulus VJ though...

Well yes ive been playing it through some headphones...ive played it through the Aguilar in my room ...my particular bass has so much power coupled with the Aguilar...i did worry about the mids in that respect though...

BUT.. i played it in rehearsal the other day and it was killer...super cut through bass...i just eq'd the mids and the bass came alive...im going to add a 3 Band east pre to give me more on mid control... its a smoking bass..

it really does need a 3 band though...
 
#10
The VJ's are workhorse instruments. I had one for a couple years, it never let me down. The neck was super stable and never moved. The bass went from indoor gigs to outside gigs without breaking a sweat in the sweltering Gulf Coast humidity and heat. My only real complaint was the weight. It was over 11 pounds, yet still had a very refined tone.

The combination of Barts and graphite neck gave the bass a very even tone. Some would say sterile or clinical, and I can understand that. It definitely didn't have the attitude and grunt of a vintage jazz bass. But the tone it has was great. I miss that bass dearly, though I'll likely never buy another one.
 
#11
i really do think any bass that is sterile in sound can be overcome by the way you play it..the dynamics of your fingers can overcome any sterile sound...

i do think the Modulus jazz has a huge amount character when played right...just like any bass.. a Fender jazz can sound bad when played with no feeling... Grunt and Attitude come from the player..not the bass...:)
 
#12
bubinga5 said:
i really do think any bass that is sterile in sound can be overcome by the way you play it..the dynamics of your fingers can overcome any sterile sound...

i do think the Modulus jazz has a huge amount character when played right...just like any bass.. a Fender jazz can sound bad when played with no feeling... Grunt and Attitude come from the player..not the bass...:)
Click to expand...
Yeah, sterile is a dreaded word, and I don't like it personally. I think that any bass can played to sound musical, and music is what draws people in. I don't personally like the sound of Wooten's bass at all unless he's the one playing it. He makes it sound very musical, but the tone itself is about as far from raw as one can get. Some people prefer a tone that jumps right out as soon as one note is struck. IMO, that wasn't one of the VJ's fortes, but it still sounded great when played musically. YMMV.
 
#13
I have the 3 band EQ BTW. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!! I keep the mids full on, and bump the bass a bit, and leave the treble flat. Tone for days! The mids really do bring the bass alive and add some warmth and grit as well. Panned to the bridge is an awesome Jaco tone, and panned in the middle is quite warm.

I would also have to echo the comments that technique matters a lot to the tones on ANY bass. I also think sterile is silly term for the tone. I would say that there is less fundamental, yet more harmonics on all carbon fiber necks I've tried. (MODULUS NECKS ARE NOT GRAPHITE) If you know how to get more fundamental out of different techniques or EQ then it fits in great.

I have never had a problem being heard in a mix with this bass.

The weight of mine is 9.25 pounds and I highly recommend a comfort strap for ALL basses. If a bass is over 10lbs, I don't want it.
 
#16
I heard a Modulus last week played by a good friend of mine. The tone was excellent - it had a nice edge, but the lows were still warm and solid.
This is not a slam against the Modulus, but the truth be told, it is hard to find basses that sell for > $3,000 that suck. They may be different, they might not appeal to everyone's taste or playing style, but there are a lot of very fine instruments out there. The Modulus is one of many great high-end basses.
 
#17
engedi1 said:
Has anyone played a VJ Genesis? I have often thought about how cool those basses might sound with the mostly wooden neck. Also...graphite, or carbon fiber composite? Seems like mostly a semantic difference to me?
Click to expand...
Yes, they're very nice instruments, but still tend toward the modern side thanks to the electronics Modulus typically uses. The do have more fudamental and sound a bit warmer if I must say that. I'm not sure I would choose one JUST because of the graphite spine. IME, the Laklands that I've owned with the graphite reinforcement bars are almost as stable as the fully graphite Moduli I've owned. They do need some very minor adjustments from time to time, but you'll never pull the instrument out of the case and have to make sudden, drastic changes as you would with many older instruments.
 
#19
elgecko said:
:confused:

Are you talking about the Genesis necks, differentiating between carbon fiber and graphite, or talking about the binding materials in the neck?

...the company WAS formerly called Modulus Graphite.
Click to expand...

I had a friend correct me time and time again about it, because he loves engineering and race cars. He told me that carbon fiber is a different ball game than graphite. That one of his favorite cars could steer so well because all of the steering mechanisms were carbon fiber. So even after arguing with him about it, I went to the modulus website and they currently say carbon fiber whereas before the company was called modulus graphite. So I suppose something changed along the line. I'm not very keen on the engineering materials, but that's my story.
 
#20
sethlow3 said:
I had a friend correct me time and time again about it, because he loves engineering and race cars. He told me that carbon fiber is a different ball game than graphite. That one of his favorite cars could steer so well because all of the steering mechanisms were carbon fiber. So even after arguing with him about it, I went to the modulus website and they currently say carbon fiber whereas before the company was called modulus graphite. So I suppose something changed along the line. I'm not very keen on the engineering materials, but that's my story.
Click to expand...

What changed is that Geoff Gould, aerospace engineer and founder of Modulus, sold the company. Here's a link to the patent for Modulus necks. Please note the liberal use of the word "graphite".

http://www.google.com/patents?vid=USPAT4145948

Furthermore, here's a link to an older Modulus that has "Modulus Graphite" right on it.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Modulus-Quantum...pt=Guitar&hash=item3a5fd73e0c#ht_17219wt_1280

I argue that the statement "Modulus necks are not graphite" is grossly incorrect.
 
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