I have seen these basses on Ebay and they really peaked my curiosity. For $300.00 dollars I took the plunge and hoped for the best. When it arrived I was very pleasently surprised...This bass is just beautiful. The woods look incredible, as doe's the whole bass (the pictures don't do it justice). It has wide string spacing...something I have to have in a 5 string. It weights 9lbs on the bathroom scale. I researched everywhere trying to find information on this bass with no luck. Here on talkbass I searched and found other members trying to find information also. Well I have the bass in hand and I will give a short review to hopefully answer any question there might be.
THE BODY: The woods look fantastic...The top is called Sapele. It is in the Mahogany family. It is very figured and has a reddish brown color. The body wings are Walnut and it has a 5 pc neck thru of Walnut and Maple. It has a oil finish (very nice). It is the first bass I have ever owned with a Walnut neck. It is very comfortable with a shallow C feel, but it is wide (because of the string spacing). The fingerboard is Rosewood and it has 24 frets (nice fretwork) with no fret buzz with low action.
The Hardware: The bridge and tuners are very good. I was especially surprised at how nice the bridge is. It has 19mm string spacing and you can lock down the saddles to the bridge base for a more solid contact.
The electronics: Here is where the bass falls alittle short. The bass has two MM humbuckers with a 3 band preamp. First off the electronics are dead quiet. The pickups sound very good but, the problem lies with the preamp. It seems to choke the tone of the pickups. It offers a huge amount of bass and mid, but not much of a top end. I really like a HI-FI sound, so a new preamp will definitely be added. I am not sure what preamp to get, but I'll do my research and figure it out.
Overall the bass is a fantastic deal at that price point. If someone is looking for a nice 5 string at a great price this is one to definately look at. Here are some pictures...
THE BODY: The woods look fantastic...The top is called Sapele. It is in the Mahogany family. It is very figured and has a reddish brown color. The body wings are Walnut and it has a 5 pc neck thru of Walnut and Maple. It has a oil finish (very nice). It is the first bass I have ever owned with a Walnut neck. It is very comfortable with a shallow C feel, but it is wide (because of the string spacing). The fingerboard is Rosewood and it has 24 frets (nice fretwork) with no fret buzz with low action.
The Hardware: The bridge and tuners are very good. I was especially surprised at how nice the bridge is. It has 19mm string spacing and you can lock down the saddles to the bridge base for a more solid contact.
The electronics: Here is where the bass falls alittle short. The bass has two MM humbuckers with a 3 band preamp. First off the electronics are dead quiet. The pickups sound very good but, the problem lies with the preamp. It seems to choke the tone of the pickups. It offers a huge amount of bass and mid, but not much of a top end. I really like a HI-FI sound, so a new preamp will definitely be added. I am not sure what preamp to get, but I'll do my research and figure it out.
Overall the bass is a fantastic deal at that price point. If someone is looking for a nice 5 string at a great price this is one to definately look at. Here are some pictures...
