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Favorite Hand Made Jazz Basses

#2
I would definitely eliminate the distinction between a 'parts bass' and a 'handmade' bass, and find the instrument that speaks to you the best.

My current favorites of all these boutique J's are, in order:

Alleva Coppolo: These are 'handmade' by your definition, have in house wound single coils and a proprietary preamp, and sound very passive and vintage. Full size bodies, light weight, low radius fretboards. Simply amazing if you are looking, for example, for the 'best Fender Jazz ever' in a 4 or 5 string version. 34" scale. You can get 60's style (LG) or 70's style (LM)

Sadowsky NYC MV5 and RV5: While I guess technically a 'parts bass' (since the bodies and necks go through initial construction at another location), the NYC basses are the real deal. With the single coil pickup option, they are still J like but very active, big and aggressive sounding. The non-routed ash/single coil MV5 models (ash/maple) are just stunning if you dig a grindy, aggressive tone that doesn't sit right on the 'Marcus Miller' type thing (i.e., the Sadowsky is much more mid present and upper mid grindy). Lighweight, wonderful downsized J bodies, 34" scale, GREAT preamp, most models have 60's pickup positioning. I am one who, in general, really feels and even hears a difference between the NYC basses and the Metro's. If you are going for it, go all the way to the NYC!

Celinder Update: Totally J on steroids Marcus Miller bliss. Big, HEAVY, aggressive, sizzly, boomy... massive. These basses have even bigger than standard J size bodies, 35" scale, most are quite heavy (over 10 pounds... some significantly so), proprietary split coil pickups that sound pretty 'single coil' in 70's position, and a very aggressive Greengrove-designed preamp with no passive option. Chris also makes some very nice Classic and Vintage models that are lighter weight and cop a more vintage vibe, but you don't see them as much. His 'claim to fame' is the very aggressive 'hotrodded late 70's' Update model.

I tend to favor boutique J's that have a very integrated approach (i.e., pickups and pre's designed to work together versus just slapping bart pickups and an OB-1 in the bass, etc.). Hand carved or 'expertly assembled' means very little to me.

IMO. Here's a picture of examples of the above three so you can see the size difference, etc.

AshMapleGang.gif
 
#3
KJung said:
I would definitely eliminate the distinction between a 'parts bass' and a 'handmade' bass, and find the instrument that speaks to you the best.

My current favorites of all these boutique J's are, in order:

Alleva Coppolo: These are 'handmade' by your definition, have in house wound single coils and a proprietary preamp, and sound very passive and vintage. Full size bodies, light weight, low radius fretboards. Simply amazing if you are looking, for example, for the 'best Fender Jazz ever' in a 4 or 5 string version. 34" scale.

Sadowsky NYC MV5 and RV5: While I guess technically a 'parts bass' (since the bodies and necks go through initial construction at another location), the NYC basses are the real deal. With the single coil pickup option, they are still J like but very active, big and aggressive sounding. The non-routed ash/single coil MV5 models (ash/maple) are just stunning if you dig a grindy, aggressive tone that doesn't sit right on the 'Marcus Miller' type thing (i.e., the Sadowsky is much more mid present and upper mid grindy). Lighweight, wonderful downsized J bodies, 34" scale, GREAT preamp. I am one who, in general, really feels and even hears a difference between the NYC basses and the Metro's. If you are going for it, go all the way to the NYC!

Celinder Update: Totally J on steroids Marcus Miller bliss. Big, HEAVY, aggressive, sizzly, boomy... massive. These basses have even bigger than standard J size bodies, 35" scale, most are quite heavy (over 10 pounds... some significantly so), proprietary split coil pickups that sound pretty 'single coil', and a very aggressive Greengrove preamp with no passive option.

I tend to favor boutique J's that have a very integrated approach (i.e., pickups and pre's designed to work together versus just slapping bart pickups and an OB-1 in the bass, etc.). Hand carved or 'expertly assembled' means very little to me.

IMO. Here's a picture of examples of the above three so you can see the size difference, etc.

AshMapleGang.gif
Click to expand...

thanks , thats great, I have been looking into Alleva Coppolo's and
i think they suit me more than the others in fact. So Alleva Coppolo builds everything in house?
cheers
 
#4
I ordered a Hotwire 5 a couple of years ago. It was a bit of a disappointment, to be honest. The finishing was not all it should have been for a bass which cost that amount of money. I picked up a Bacchus 5 around the same time for a lot less money which blew it out of the water.
 
#5
Doctor J said:
I ordered a Hotwire 5 a couple of years ago. It was a bit of a disappointment, to be honest. The finishing was not all it should have been for a bass which cost that amount of money. I picked up a Bacchus 5 around the same time for a lot less money which blew it out of the water.
Click to expand...

Bacchus? ive never heard of these basses, are theu USA made?
 
#8
Japanese. They're maybe not as well known or as widely played as some of the manufacturers frequently discussed on this forum but I'd recommend you consider them.

Invalid Link Removed
 
#9
noirextra said:
thanks , thats great, I have been looking into Alleva Coppolo's and
i think they suit me more than the others in fact. So Alleva Coppolo builds everything in house?
cheers
Click to expand...

I believe Jimmy Coppolo does do most things in house (he just moved from NYC to a much larger shop in California). I know he winds his own pickups also. I believe he's been thinking about getting some of the early production stuff done using CNC machines (body blanks, etc.), but not sure if he's there yet.

There is a very active Alleva-Coppolo thread at the moment with lot's of pictures and reviews of these basses. They are very, very cool and really have a classic, vintage J vibe. The most unique thing about them is that they sound very passive and vintage with the preamp engaged, so you really have a sort of 'classic Fender Jazz with onboard tone controls' sort of thing, versus a more 'jazz on steroids' type vibe of other J's with preamps, if that makes sense.
 
#10
KJung said:
I believe Jimmy Coppolo does do most things in house (he just moved from NYC to a much larger shop in California). I know he winds his own pickups also. I believe he's been thinking about getting some of the early production stuff done using CNC machines (body blanks, etc.), but not sure if he's there yet.

There is a very active Alleva-Coppolo thread at the moment with lot's of pictures and reviews of these basses. They are very, very cool and really have a classic, vintage J vibe. The most unique thing about them is that they sound very passive and vintage with the preamp engaged, so you really have a sort of 'classic Fender Jazz with onboard tone controls' sort of thing, versus a more 'jazz on steroids' type vibe of other J's with preamps, if that makes sense.
Click to expand...
wow that sounds perfect, thats exactly what i was looking, ive noticed though that most people are ordering 5s, any special reason for this?
 
#11
noirextra said:
wow that sounds perfect, thats exactly what i was looking, ive noticed though that most people are ordering 5s, any special reason for this?
Click to expand...

I think that the 5 string thing kind of goes with the 'custom bass' sort of vibe. The 4 string Coppolo's are supposed to be awesome.

Another reason, quite frankly, is that Fender has done a great job with their classic 4 string models for the most part, but the construction, feel, etc. of the 5 strings have left many of us disappointed through the years. I believe one of the big selling points of all these expensive J inspired instruments is the quality, feel, and tone of the B string. So, I think once you get into a $3k+ instrument, many just go for the entire 'boutique' thing of including a low B. Pure IMO on that.

That being said, Jimmy's 4 strings also get rave reviews. Check out that huge thread... there are some 4's in there.
 
#13
needmoney said:
Machines yes, CNC no. Bodies and necks carved with pin-routers and jigs (just like the old-old Fenders), and everything else by hand. Killer basses.
Click to expand...

Yes. I personally have nothing against basses that have seen the love of machines. The distinction is artificial and has nothing to do with the quality of an instrument. At all.
 
#14
BurningSkies said:
Yes. I personally have nothing against basses that have seen the love of machines. The distinction is artificial and has nothing to do with the quality of an instrument. At all.
Click to expand...

There's no such thing as a bass that "hasn't seen the love of machines". Nobody's going to cut out a body with a handsaw and rout pickup and neck pockets with a chisel. If anyone did, it would probably go for upwards of 50k because of the time consumed doing this.
 
#15
Phil Mailloux said:
There's no such thing as a bass that "hasn't seen the love of machines". Nobody's going to cut out a body with a handsaw and rout pickup and neck pockets with a chisel. If anyone did, it would probably go for upwards of 50k because of the time consumed doing this.
Click to expand...

Aw, now you've gone and done it. And in a thread that also suggests that Sadowskys are nothing more than parts basses. This can only be trouble.

I prefer basses with CNC work.
 
#19
Noir, based on our, ah...exchanges in another thread, I would say that the Alleva Coppolos would fit you nicely. Jimmy makes great 4 strings, and I believe he has one in stock right now. His approach to building is similiar to the original Fenders and he even goes as far as finding the correct species of Brazilian rosewood for the boards. Very cool basses with a ton of mojo.
 

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