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Henman-Bevilacqua Bass
- Thread starter toothguy
- Start date
JAUQO III-X
Inactive
What are your questions?
Yes, that would be the very talented Scotty Bevilacqua. He was a ghost build for Ibanez.
JAUQO III-X
Inactive
I played one of these at the Chicago Music Exchange this summer.
The craftsmanship is impeccable, but the bass is lacking in the tone department, thanks mostly to the EMG-HZ pickups and preamp, which are a horrible pairing for this instrument, IMO. The example I played was cold, harsh, and lacking somewhat in the low end.
With better electronics, these could be good basses, but you shouldn't have to perform a pickup swap on a $7K instrument, IMHO. And even then, whether they're worth that much is in the eye of the beholder.
What makes it worth $6750? There's a great deal of parts that are custom-machined for the bridge and other hardware, and I imagine the neck costs more to manufacture than a typical bass neck, but I honestly don't know what makes them so expensive outside of those two points.
The craftsmanship is impeccable, but the bass is lacking in the tone department, thanks mostly to the EMG-HZ pickups and preamp, which are a horrible pairing for this instrument, IMO. The example I played was cold, harsh, and lacking somewhat in the low end.
With better electronics, these could be good basses, but you shouldn't have to perform a pickup swap on a $7K instrument, IMHO. And even then, whether they're worth that much is in the eye of the beholder.
What makes it worth $6750? There's a great deal of parts that are custom-machined for the bridge and other hardware, and I imagine the neck costs more to manufacture than a typical bass neck, but I honestly don't know what makes them so expensive outside of those two points.
JAUQO III-X
Inactive
I have to respectfully disagree agree with you on the tonal performance of this bass. I played one at CME as well. I do not at all like playing clanky sounding basses(their irritating to my ears).
I spent some serious time with one at NAMM last week, enough time in fact to purchase the one that I spent so much time on.
The bass seems to be very versatile and extremely lively. Every bass player that I know where blown away by it,Tom Bolus,Victor Wooten,and Bill Dickens just to name a few. It may have EMGs but the pickup wiring has been changed to a much higher quality and high quality conductors were also added.
This bass really has a very distinctive tone overall.
JAUQO III-X
Inactive
Play one for yourself, because we both had different experiences on the overall tone of this bass.
Mark Wilson
Supporting Member
We'll just have to agree to disagree for now. Any upgrade would have helped the bass I played this summer, and I'd like to hear the result of the changes made.
Whether it's worth $6750 is the big question, regardless.
This I will agree with. These are very unusual basses, and you need to play one for yourself to see what you think, especially considering the cost.
I just finished writing a review of the Hen-Bev bass for Guitar World. I know nobody here READS that magazine.... my dirty little secret is I've been writing bass reviews for them for 7 months or so...
Anyway, I spent a lot of time with one, and did a video demo of it (which will be posted on YT when it comes out in print).
I felt it was too expensive, but... it was a cool bass. The tension-free neck and the through-body individual bridge give it a very clear tone. The sustain and note purity are exceptional. Now, is it for me? No. I'm not a big sustain nut. Half the time I'm either palm muting or stuffing foam under the strings, so... not my taste. However, if you like a ringing, sustained tone with lots of individual note clarity... this bass does that really well.
The EMG Hz pickups are getting a bad rap I think, maybe because people are confusing them with the cheapo EMG Selects. HZs are EMG's passive pickups, they sell for around $200 a piece, they ain't cheapos. I thought they sounded good in that bass, they have a certain pristine quality that matches up with the intention of the builder.
Again, is it for me? Nah. I've been moving further and further away from a bright tone. Flatwounds, foam, and really old dead roundwounds are what I like these days. To each his own.
Enjoy the bass Jauquo!
Anyway, I spent a lot of time with one, and did a video demo of it (which will be posted on YT when it comes out in print).
I felt it was too expensive, but... it was a cool bass. The tension-free neck and the through-body individual bridge give it a very clear tone. The sustain and note purity are exceptional. Now, is it for me? No. I'm not a big sustain nut. Half the time I'm either palm muting or stuffing foam under the strings, so... not my taste. However, if you like a ringing, sustained tone with lots of individual note clarity... this bass does that really well.
The EMG Hz pickups are getting a bad rap I think, maybe because people are confusing them with the cheapo EMG Selects. HZs are EMG's passive pickups, they sell for around $200 a piece, they ain't cheapos. I thought they sounded good in that bass, they have a certain pristine quality that matches up with the intention of the builder.
Again, is it for me? Nah. I've been moving further and further away from a bright tone. Flatwounds, foam, and really old dead roundwounds are what I like these days. To each his own.
Enjoy the bass Jauquo!
Is that what they told you? "High quality conductors" is so vague as to be meaningless, and the difference in resistance between low quality wire (worse than EMG uses) and ultra high quality wire is so small for the distances used in basses that there is little chance you'd hear an audible difference let alone be able to attribute it to some distinctive tonal quality.
I have wire here thats $80/ft in 18awg and the difference between it cheap wire bought at Home Depot or Fry's is less than 2% over a 10ft distance. Big, but not that big.
Well, they certainly don't look like they're worth that kind of money, they look a bit cheap and tatty!
I first saw a pic of these basses in Bass Player Magazine. It was love at first site. That is my kind of bass (the look, that is. I've never played one.) The price is going to put alot of people off, even before they give it a chance.
