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Brice Freak Bass

#101
there is a simple trick to test if the top is real wood veneer or a foto finish, without pulling out the neck or a pickup:

if you move/tilt the body against an light source, real wood/verneer changes pattern/ is chatoyant and iridescent

a foto finish does not change the glow/fire/pattern tilting it against light beams
 
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#102
f.e. my gorgeous Harley Benton B-450 QTB from Thomann ..the finish is called Quilted Translucent Black, but it isn't real blackened Maple veneer...it is just an Fotofinish, because if i tilt it at light, it will not glow or change the pattern (Maplequiltes) like real wood would do:
bass2.jpg
 
#103
SMG said:
Interesting here:
View attachment 994690 From Rondo's website
View attachment 994692 Dabbler's bass
Look closely at the markings in/on the wood finish. Either these have photo finishes or these are one and the same bass.
Click to expand...
Hard to say for sure but I still see small differences between the two patterns that would suggest they are from the same piece of wood--when you shave the wood to a fraction of a millimeter I imagine you can get quite a few similar veneers from the same chunk of wood.
 
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#105
AsturHero said:
there is a simple trick to test if the top is real wood veneer or a foto finish, without pulling out the neck or a pickup:

if you move/tilt the body against an light source, real wood/verneer changes pattern/ is chatoyant and iridescent

a foto finish does not change the glow/fire/pattern tilting it against light beams
Click to expand...

Beware also though that some basses have a poly wrap, kind of like a car. Someone posted pictures of an older cort like that. I don't know for sure, but I think a wrap may actually have some of the qualities of 3D-ish-ness that a real top will, so buyer beware!
 
#112
I was looking around at the Freak basses and stumbled across this thread...mine was ordered about an hour ago, has been updated as "ready to ship," and should be here in 3-4 days! :) Looking forward to this! It's my first bass purchase in about 3-4 years!

I'll definitely be posting a NBD thread and sharing my thoughts. In the meantime, if anyone has any sound clips I'd love to hear them!
 
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#118
It got mine a few days ago, and haven't had the time do anything but a quick test run. Here are a few quick comments:
1. Neck is really straight....I hate getting instruments, especially new ones, where I have to do truss rod work, so this is very positive
2. I would like to get the strings just a bit lower then they will go, so I may put a small, thin shim under the end of the neck heel to give it a bit of an angle....actually my almost appears to be set a bit lower into the body then it should be, like a tiny bit of a backwards slope.
3. Fret work is fine right out of the box. Very cool!
4. Picks are set really low and there isn't enough spring under them to push them up so I am going to have to pull them out and add padding,
5. I have no idea who makes the pickups, but they sound very much like EMG HZ's or old EMG Selects (preamp off or preamp flat, but on, which provides a volume boost)...so, unless you absolutely hate they way those sound, the pickups are not bad. Through my small bedroom practice amp...a baby Crate from many years ago, the bass sounds pretty good. My judgement is that if sounds good through this thing, it will sound really good through my Markbass rig. Also, the pickups are stock EMG 40 size.
6. Top "burl" bleeds over the edge a bit if you look really close, which makes me suspect that that it is a photo finish, not real veneer. Furthermore, like the one seen earlier in the thread, my top looks identical to the one on the Rondo site.
All in all, I like the bass. Is it a high end masterpiece? No. Is it a good sounding, low priced, cool looking bass that could be a platform for upgrades? Yes.
 
#119
Watchootognbout said:
How do you know that you won't like the sound of the preamp?
Click to expand...

I don't...just curious to know if anyone else has done some upgrades, what they did, and how they liked it. I saw a guy on YouTube a few years ago (a gospel bassist) that bought a Brice (or Douglas? Can't remember now for sure) and he did some preamp upgrades that took it from good to really nice. Also, I'd like to know some options for upgrades in case I get it and there is a lot of hiss...Guess that I could always use it passive if there is though, huh?

I'd also like to know if anyone has upgraded pups, what they did, and how it sounds...All out of curiosity. Not going to make a change without playing it for a while myself first though....
 
#120
SMG said:
Interesting here:
View attachment 994690 From Rondo's website
View attachment 994692 Dabbler's bass
Look closely at the markings in/on the wood finish. Either these have photo finishes or these are one and the same bass.
Click to expand...
My thoughts exactly. I believe that Rondo is using foto finish as evidence by a recent B stock they had on sale which had a "print" line in the foto finish where the "veneer" was printed incorrectly :/ I wish I had saved a pic...
 

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