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Belvedere or Jack Casady?

#41
woodyng said:
The Lakland skyline is just about the ultimate ($) hollowbody. Or,for about half the price of that,,i can't say enough good things about the Italia Rimini.
I found the Epi JC to be very uncomfortable,plus I prefer 2 pickup basses. I can't comment on the belvedere,never checked one out. In addition to the Rimini,Italia makes a number of really cool HB basses,and they seem to be made well. I also just sold a Danelectro Hodad bass which had a great sound,but i think the Italia is even better. I've owned several other hb bases over the years,and the lakland and the italia nail it for me. You will probably have to do a little work (setup,frets) on the Italia,tho.
Also,if you find your 4003 uncomfortable and heavy,but like it,you should consider a 4004,they are usually lighter and way better ergonomics/feel.
Click to expand...

+1 I bought a JC two weeks ago and played it for a week but just couldn't get use to the dimensions. To me very uncomfortable. Tone wise, I was impressed - especially with a fuzz and a lot of OD. Great raw sound. Returned it minus shipping.

Haven't played the Skyline but it looks sweet. A lot of money for what’s on the market.
 
#42
1stnamebassist said:
Yeah, I know what your talking about. I just sold my Rick which is along the same lines with the sharp body edge. I adjusted to that rather quickly so i'm not anticipating any problems. At least I hope not! I'm picking it up Friday and using it Sat night!
I'll keep you all posted. Stay tuned!
Click to expand...

Great! With that issue out of the way, you're gonna love this thing. Tone to die for. Please do keep us posted....
 
#43
Good luck with the Jack Casady bass. A lot of people really
like them. I've heard of that jack problem (no pun intended)
more than once but it's easily corrected.

I've been to a couple bass guitar camps at the Fur Peace Ranch
with Jack instructing. Needless to say, many of the students
show up with JC basses. They have a variety of tones. I'm
guessing the differences were the strings. There was one that
I swear sounded like a tuba! It was actually very cool.
 
#44
Yes, string choice makes a huge difference on this bass: It's like a completely different instrument with flats vs. rounds. I experimented with different strings for years, and it sounded great with everything I put on it, but in very different ways. Roundwounds (like the Blue Steels Jack uses) really bring out the rich mids and upper mids that make it unique, but flats bring out a huge bottom end that's missing with rounds. I finally settled on TI flats, which seem to provide the best of both worlds. Also, the relatively low tension of TIs seems to me to suit the instrument, which wants to be played with finesse rather than power.
 
#46
I would love to check out a Belvedere , but I haven't seen one ever that I could get my hands on to try or one that was available with a lengthy easy to deal with return policy in case I didn't like it. My JC is coming to GC so if I don't like it I just bring it back and get a refund minus 20.00 or so for shipping. But yes, at some point would really like to try one.
 
#50
I don't have much experience with a JC, but I currently own an Allen Woody Rumblekat & have owned 2 different Belvederes in the past. They are nothing alike. I also own a Lakland Hollowbody...

The DiPinto has a lot of jbass tone to it, if you can believe that... VERY punchy, in fact it was much punchier than most... must've been those overwound single coils. My first one was awesome, it was stolen, replaced & never took to the new one like the first one. Mojo, I reckon... Belvedere is LONG, 24 frets & 35" maybe?

Woody's Rumblekat was designed to have much more of a lower output/mellow tone like the Hofner viola basses. Great bass, not as versatile, short scale.

Lakland Hobo is like a big, mean version of the Rumblekat - very smooth & consistent output/tone wise... much more versatile than the Rumblekat, much more consistent and smooth than the DiPinto.

Best of luck with your new bass... sorry I didn't chime in earlier. I'm pretty sure I've posted plenty about my DiPinto experiences, maybe searching through my old posts will tell y'all a lil bit more about the Belvedere.
 
#53
i'm running a set of flats on my Allen Woody & initially it was a bit too deep dark & delicious

so i opened up the controls & iirc, it had a .01 cap ( it's been awhile, but i think that was the correct value ) so i pulled it & stuck in a .047 typical jazz/p cap

still has all the lows but it opened up the top end, it sounds very nice indeed

just played it tonight thru a B-15 at rehearsal & the tone was stellar, i actually dig lower output pickups & the pickups in the Woody are superb
 
#54
Well I got the JC and to be honest at this point i'm not real impressed! The switch and knobs were loose so I tightened them with a dot of locktite. Well wouldn't you know it the switch is loose again! I had to set it up and such because the G string was buzzing but thats pretty set. The 3 point bridge looks like it may pop out at any moment. The bass sounds good especially with a pick. But all the other stuff is unacceptable for me. Right now i'm leaning towards returning it and getting a refund. I don't feel comfortable using a bass where I have to be concerned about stuff not working when i'm in the middle of a gig. I think i'm leaning towards grabbing another longhorn bass. Kind of missing my Jerry Jones! Thanks for all the input! Who knows, maybe i'll change my mind!
 
#56
1stnamebassist said:
I think i'm leaning towards grabbing another longhorn bass. Kind of missing my Jerry Jones! Thanks for all the input! Who knows, maybe i'll change my mind!
Click to expand...

My JJ Longhorn is the ONLY bass in my collection that I would never sell (and that's over my Lakland, Fender, etc.)
Too bad he doesn't make them anymore, but there are used ones popping up from time to time. Maybe hold out for one of those. MUCH better quality than the new Danos (and the old ones too for that matter). They are crazy good--records like a dream.
 
#58
1stnamebassist said:
Well I got the JC and to be honest at this point i'm not real impressed! The switch and knobs were loose so I tightened them with a dot of locktite. Well wouldn't you know it the switch is loose again! I had to set it up and such because the G string was buzzing but thats pretty set. The 3 point bridge looks like it may pop out at any moment. The bass sounds good especially with a pick. But all the other stuff is unacceptable for me. Right now i'm leaning towards returning it and getting a refund. I don't feel comfortable using a bass where I have to be concerned about stuff not working when i'm in the middle of a gig. I think i'm leaning towards grabbing another longhorn bass. Kind of missing my Jerry Jones! Thanks for all the input! Who knows, maybe i'll change my mind!
Click to expand...

That's the way the one I ordered arrived too + pick up rattle. Sent it back, ridiculous QC among other flaws. Maybe they were better a few yeasr ago. However, becasue of this I'm now the proud owner of a CS Jazz; no comparison.
 
#59
1stnamebassist said:
Well I got the JC and to be honest at this point i'm not real impressed! The switch and knobs were loose so I tightened them with a dot of locktite. Well wouldn't you know it the switch is loose again! I had to set it up and such because the G string was buzzing but thats pretty set. The 3 point bridge looks like it may pop out at any moment. The bass sounds good especially with a pick. But all the other stuff is unacceptable for me. Right now i'm leaning towards returning it and getting a refund. I don't feel comfortable using a bass where I have to be concerned about stuff not working when i'm in the middle of a gig. I think i'm leaning towards grabbing another longhorn bass. Kind of missing my Jerry Jones! Thanks for all the input! Who knows, maybe i'll change my mind!
Click to expand...

I'm really sorry to hear that: QC has always been mixed, and you clearly got one of the bad ones. But I have to say -- no offense intended -- that if you got this off Ebay, with case, for that price -- you got pretty much what you paid for. IMHO the bass, in good working order and properly set up, is worth way more than that. (They originally sold for $800 through Jack's own web site, and they claimed that he checked them out and did the setups himself.)

All of the problems you mentioned, and others that people sometimes report, are fixable, and once fixed properly should stay fixed. (One thing in particular: The bridge has to be set up just right to work properly and to prevent it from fallling out of the body.) If you want a good JC, you're probably going to have to spend a little more dough, either to get this one repaired or to return it and buy another one elsewhere (i.e., from someone who will add another layer of QC). I would consider bringing the one you have to a good luthier and find out what it would cost to make everything as good as it can be, and then decide if it's worth that much to you.

Another good alternative would be to buy a used one that, being "used," has proven itself to be problem-free. I bought mine through TB classifieds years ago and have never had a problem. I thought of it not as "used" so much as "pre-tested" -- and cheaper than new to boot!

Of course, if you don't think that one of these in top condition is worth more than what you paid for this one, by all means send it back and go get something different. But if you agree that the bass is really worth more than what you paid for it, then I encourage you to consider spending the extra dough and giving it a chance to prove itself to you.
 
#60
I got the bass through GC so I can return it within 30 days. Got it set up pretty good and tried it out last night. Everybody liked the look of it and one guy played it and liked it. Sounds great. Not sure yet what i'll do. Playing it at church tonight. I found the neck a little chunkier than i'm used to and also neck heavy to the point it was really digging into the web of my palm after awhile. One other thing when I turned the volume all the way down the bass could still be heard through the amp at low volume. Never seen that before. I wonder if that is fixable or do I need to replace the pot? I hate the strings it came with! I will put elixers on it if I decide to keep it. Not really a big fan of flats. I like a little more feedback from my strings. Flats are a little dead although when I put some on my rick it sounded great!
 

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