AtelierZ

AFAIK they are made by the same facility as Sad Metros, or at least the luthier who used to make Metros makes Atelier Z basses, or something close to that

Great rep, but often heavy suckers.

 

What model? What year? If its an older model 2000-2008 its was likely done by Mas Hino.

They can be heavy but they are killer basses!

 

Do you mind telling what model of bass is it?

 

Thats gorgeous. you should get it.

 

I think you only have three questions:

1) In your hands, does it feel great?
2) To your ears, does it sound great?
3) How bad will it gnaw at you that you didn't get a Sadowsky?

I don't think you are just gassing through another bass this time. I think you are trying to take a step up and maybe slow down your bass churn, at least for a while. And I know something about question three...

 

Wow, that's definitely some nice hard ash there.

 

I completely get it. I am at a point right now where any dollars I can round up - extra or otherwise - need to go in my daughters direction, not mine. It remains to be seen whether or not another bass can squeeze its way in there somewhere. If not, I am far from hurting for decent instruments to play.

If now is your window of time to do this, you should make the best decision you can and move on it. It sure looks like you get to choose between two right answers.

 

The problem I have with all of this is that now I am probably going to be sitting around at home on my couch, feeling sorry for myself, thinking, "man, even Cheese has a Sadowsky!"

 

they are special basses, very heavy yes, but the tone is unreal.

 

1000.- for a Z is a great price. I have the M265 Tomohito Aoki model. Bought it on E-Bay about 6 years ago.When I got it I immediately knew I had to either sell it or make changes. It had the pickups in the 60s position and since I wanted to get the Marcus tone I had to move the bridge pickup. I also didn't like the fact that there was very limited access to the high notes. I also knew I liked the bass enough to do surgery to it.Do a search on this forum there are a few posts and Pics of my bass floating around. I love the bass.I'm not sure if it's my favorite in my collection. I have a Moon JB-5 a 74 Jazz a Modulus Jazz and a totally souped up KSD Proto J, so there is competition for the top spot. But there are times when I think the Z is my favorite. It does have better sounding B string that my other 5 strings and it sounds very much like my 74 Jazz.

 

Cheese - I would get the Z and add a Sadowsky preamp later if you REALLY need the Sadowsky sound.

J

 

Dr. Cheese,

since you have access to the instrument already, I don't think you really need a spec table... but just FYI Atelier Z's website in English:

http://www.atelierz.co.jp/english/product/bass/aoki/index.html

For the current #265's, there's the Tomohito Aoki model and the standard one. Some difference in the hardware (tuning peg, bridge...), maybe string spacing is slightly different.

Regarding who actually builds the Atelier Z-branded basses or the Sadowsky Metros, it's highly likely (but don't quote me on this because it's business info that's not publicly available..) that the current batch is made by a company called T's Guitars north of Tokyo. They also seem to be known for building the Xotic XJ and XP basses.

I vote for getting the Z and a Cirrus 5 like you suggest.. although the newer Metros are damn fine instruments too (and come with additional nice features like spoke wheel truss rod and graphite support rods...)

Cheers