I'll be honest, I had never heard of Buscanti basses until I stumbled upon this one. These are built by Jeff Herman (who is a great guy and fellow TB'er) and his brother Randy. Since I had always wanted to try out the double P config, I decided to take snag it.
The Buscanti came quickly in a very nice hard case. My first thought was that the bass looked even better in person. Upon picking it up I noted that the bass was not as heavy as I expected. The body is ash so it's still up there, but not uncomfortably so like some ash basses. Usually when I play a new bass for the first time, it takes me a little while to get used to things, but with the Vibe I felt comfortable fairly quickly.
The neck profile and smooth fretboard feel great, allowing for easy note access and speed. Despite having a finished neck, which is not my preference, I don't notice it slowing me down any. Some finished necks are kinda sticky, not the case here. The bass feels good ergonomically.
This Buscanti Vibe features two DiMarzio Will Power P pickups with two stacked Volume / Tone knobs. The knob set up is not one you see every day, and makes dialing in passive sounds pretty fun. As you can imagine, two P pickups makes for a big sound. It really does sound like a P bass with more P, if that makes any sense. And if you want the normal P sound, you can just roll down the bridge P.
Overall, the Buscanti Vibe is a superb bass, especially for sitting on the lower end of what custom builders typically charge. Jeff and his brother make great stuff, however, I'm just not really a P bass kinda guy. I have a Fender P for recording, but I'm much more into J basses (luckily for me there is also a Buscanti J Bass). That being said, if I didn't already have a P, or if I was more into the P sound, I would definitely consider this an absolute keeper. It is the quintessential P on steroids.
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