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Music Man Caprice: True Boutique Quality

#281
SLO Surfer said:
It's my spring break so I took a 2.5 hour road trip down the California coast today to finally try out a Caprice (and a Cutlass, and lots of other basses and amps!) at the nearest guitar center. Luckily the surf was good on my way down and I scored glassy, waist-high Rincon with only six other guys out in the water. So the day trip was well worth it.

Short version: The Caprice lived up to the hype, and now I want one....(and maybe a V4B with a 212AV)

Not as short version: I had the bass room all to myself for 2 hours. I AB'ed the Caprice against the Cutlass, MM Sterling, MM sting ray, Mexican P bass, classic 70's vibe squier P, and a few others while also trying several different amps. I loved the Caprice, and now I really want one. It was super light, felt solidly built, perfect shaped neck profile (Jazz Bass meets EBMM Sterling neck?), and was versatile as heck with the tones you could get out of it. The tone knob was actually usable all the way around the dial, as Joe Nerve pointed out in his thread. I'm more used to just off, on, and maybe halfway on with my tone knobs but this offered up way more sounds.

It did feel a bit more solidly built and much lighter than the other Music Man basses. It was lighter than all the other basses I tried as well. No dead spot on the G string around the 7th fret. In fact, there was great tone and even volume all the way up the fret board, and I like that it has 21 frets up to the high E. The only thing I noticed that some may take issue with is the Caprice put out slightly less volume than the other basses I tried it against, especially the Cutlass. The Cutlass was practically the loudest bass in the store!

Ok.... what to sell now? See you in the classifieds, I need some cash!

View attachment 1106163
Click to expand...

You got the fever! The Caprice would be less loud because it is passive.
 
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#283
Dr. Cheese said:
The Caprice would be less loud because it is passive.
Click to expand...

I tried the Caprice against mostly passive basses, and it was quieter than all of them. The Cutlass (passive) on the other hand was louder than the Sterling and Sting Ray (the only two active basses I tried in there). I spent two hours going back and forth from the Caprice to almost every passive bass in there, and the Caprice was consistently quieter. Not a lot quieter, but definitely noticeable. Don't think I would've noticed had I not bounced so many basses around to see how it measured up.

I was in a guitar center, and all the basses were in "guitar center" condition, so maybe not all Caprice basses have this anomaly. The Cutlass was even missing the volume knob, so maybe it was actually going up to 11?
 
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#284
SLO Surfer said:
I tried the Caprice against mostly passive basses, and it was quieter than all of them. The Cutlass (passive) on the other hand was louder than the Sterling and Sting Ray (the only two active basses I tried in there). I spent two hours going back and forth from the Caprice to almost every passive bass in there, and the Caprice was consistently quieter. Not a lot quieter, but definitely noticeable. Don't think I would've noticed had I not bounced so many basses around to see how it measured up.

I was in a guitar center, and all the basses were in "guitar center" condition, so maybe not all Caprice basses have this anomaly. The Cutlass was even missing the volume knob, so maybe it was actually going up to 11?
Click to expand...

I forgot the new Cutlass is passive. I was thinking about the old Cutlass that was a Stingray with a graphite neck.
 
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#285
SLO Surfer said:
It's my spring break so I took a 2.5 hour road trip down the California coast today to finally try out a Caprice (and a Cutlass, and lots of other basses and amps!) at the nearest guitar center. Luckily the surf was good on my way down and I scored glassy, waist-high Rincon with only six other guys out in the water. So the day trip was well worth it.

Short version: The Caprice lived up to the hype, and now I want one....(and maybe a V4B with a 212AV)

Not as short version: I had the bass room all to myself for 2 hours. I AB'ed the Caprice against the Cutlass, MM Sterling, MM sting ray, Mexican P bass, classic 70's vibe squier P, and a few others while also trying several different amps. I loved the Caprice, and now I really want one. It was super light, felt solidly built, perfect shaped neck profile (Jazz Bass meets EBMM Sterling neck?), and was versatile as heck with the tones you could get out of it. The tone knob was actually usable all the way around the dial, as Joe Nerve pointed out in his thread. I'm more used to just off, on, and maybe halfway on with my tone knobs but this offered up way more sounds.

It did feel a bit more solidly built and much lighter than the other Music Man basses. It was lighter than all the other basses I tried as well. No dead spot on the G string around the 7th fret. In fact, there was great tone and even volume all the way up the fret board, and I like that it has 21 frets up to the high E. The only thing I noticed that some may take issue with is the Caprice put out slightly less volume than the other basses I tried it against, especially the Cutlass. The Cutlass was practically the loudest bass in the store!

Ok.... what to sell now? See you in the classifieds, I need some cash!

View attachment 1106163
Click to expand...
Cutlass and Caprice are great basses.
I went with the Cutlass because the neck felt better for me.
And there are no dead spots on these basses like some of their
competitors.
 
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#288
pickles said:
I thought cutlass and caprice have the same pickup, so probably just a setup issue. I find the caprice volume to be "normal".
Click to expand...

The Cutlass and Caprice have differently voiced P pickups from each other. It's indicated in their comparison on the Ernie Ball website, and very noticeable when AB-big them back to back. They describe it here: Passive Bass Comparison: Cutlass vs. Caprice I found their pickup descriptions held true in my test. The Caprice had a much tighter low end with just the P pick up on, and the Cutlass was almost too fat and big in the low end (for me).

I checked the set up for pickup height on both basses and both P pickups looked the same height, with the "J" pickup on the Caprice noticeably higher.

I found the Caprice volume to be "normal" as well, until I immediately plugged a different (passive) bass in to the same amp with the same settings. Time and time again the Caprice was slightly quieter. I did this test against 6 other basses through one amp, then did it all over again in sequence with 3 other amps. I did all the basses with tone wide open, then all of them again with tone rolled down, then again with tone at half. But again, maybe this guitar center Caprice had something wrong? It looked way older than a "new" bass should from just sitting in a store for just a year because it had some wear and tear on it.

The slightly less volume (comparatively) was not enough to deter me from making the Caprice my next bass purchase. But it was present and I wanted to share what I perceived. I doubt anyone will notice unless they are super anal like me and AB it for 2 hours straight like a mad scientist. I only see effects users possibly being affected.
 
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#290
The volume thing is true with mine. Noticed it yesterday. I've had my Ric plugged into my studio combo for the past few weeks, and there was absolutely a volume drop when I plugged the Caprice in.

So far for me the strong points of this bass are it's construction (fit and finish?), the neck which is absolutely awesome, the tone control that works all the way through, the size, and the weight. The tone sounds great in the house, but this weekend I have a wedding and a R&R show. I'll only know for sure after that. The one thing I'm a little disappointed about is there is a little bit of neck dive. Nothing like a T-bird or some other basses I've owned, but the Caprice does not balance perfectly on a strap.

Realized last night that I almost feel bad for any bass I purchase these days. They're being compared and have to live up to a Rickenbacker, Big Al, Bongo, Jazz that I'm in love with (after weeding through about 10 of them), an American P, and a bunch of other similar basses. I'm a tough customer. Definitely not easy to please :).
 
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#294
Subscribed to a bunch of Caprice threads and don't know where to leave a review :). Since this is the most active...

Was able to give the bass a thorough testing this weekend. A wedding on Friday, and a much louder club gig on Saturday.

I'll start by saying that I'm completely in love, and will not be letting this bass go. I buy a lot of basses, and I'm very hard to please. I'm also a huge Ric fan now, so the Caprice has some tough competition. I'm aware that this is an apples/oranges thing, but I never use my Ric in a Geddy/Squire way. And the Ric covers more sonic ground than any bass I've ever played in my life.

That being said - my new favorite bass neck in the world is on the Caprice. It just feels 150% right. Smooth as silk, and has a super comfy radius. This bass also has the lowest (buzz free) action of any bass I own. I have the action stupidly crazy low, and there isn't a buzz to be found. Is that just luck of the draw? I don't know, but I'm happy about it.

I think I mentioned earlier in this thread that there is some neck dive. I'll update that with saying it wasn't noticeable at all at either gig. Either my shirt dug enough into the strap, or it was overridden by the rest of my excitement with the new bass. As far as sound goes, the bass does not cover the ground that the Ric does, but I didn't miss it. I'm pretty sure all I'd have to do is re-EQ my amp a bit if I wanted that, but I was loving so much what I was getting that I left my amp at pretty much it's usual setting. The Caprice is an incredibly expressive bass. It sings. It reminded me of my very first gig with a Sterling around 20 years ago. I suddenly heard things in my playing I don't hear with other basses. Unlike 20 years ago this didn't frighten me at all :). It got me super psyched. I could bend strings and play with lots of dynamics, all now coming out crystal clear. The sound is tight, and super focused. I had more fun playing this bass than any other that I've played in a while. Including the Ric - and I had a lot of fun with that.

There is one tiny drawback I feel I need to mentions. It's the ol D and G string deal on certain MM basses, and I'm not sure what that's all about. When I was used to playing only MMs it didn't bother me at all, I think I just believed it was like that will all basses, but the output of those strings is less than on a Fender or Ric. High notes on other basses tend to cut through even more than the lower ones, on this there was a volume drop. I noticed it Friday night, raised the pickups on the higher strings a bit Saturday afternoon and it helped some - but those notes are still not as prominent as on my other basses. Could have something to do with the strings too. I don't use EB strings on my basses. I'm going to play around a bit more with pickup height too. It's not horrible, but I want more.

Last thing I'll say for now is that I loved how gnarly it can get if I really dig in with the tone (almost) wide open and a little rolled off the neck pickup. I love the bass sound in Paramour's Ain't It Fun, and I had something really close to that going on, with no effects at all. This bass can do that, and a WHOLE lot more.

I'm in love.

That's all.
 
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#296
Dr. Cheese said:
Do some research. Sterling Ball is dead set against 19mm spaced fives. Maybe seven years ago, he dared TB members to preorder a certain number of wide spaced SR5s, and he would make them. We did not pony up. He basically called us tire kickers since he felt we proven his point about actual demand for wide spaced Music Man basses.
Click to expand...

Still one of the goofier things I've seen an MI company do. And a lot of the fans here were no better. They acted as if 19mm were offered it would only be as the only way to get a bass. They didn't want other bassists to have the opportunity to have a wide spaced MM bass. Pretty funny stuff.
 
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#297
Brad Johnson said:
Still one of the goofier things I've seen an MI company do. And a lot of the fans here were no better. They acted as if 19mm were offered it would only be as the only way to get a bass. They didn't want other bassists to have the opportunity to have a wide spaced MM bass. Pretty funny stuff.
Click to expand...

I remember him needing 50 orders in 30 days, but you could only have black and dealers couldn't order and no international orders. The way it was done turned a lot of people off and they only got a handful of orders.
 
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#298
MultiScaleMale said:
I remember him needing 50 orders in 30 days, but you could only have black and dealers couldn't order and no international orders. The way it was done turned a lot of people off and they only got a handful of orders.
Click to expand...

Yep... and if you don't jump through these arbitrary and frankly childish hoops you're not serious. That and the reactions from fans was an absolute hoot. Particularly when it's a business acting that way.

:D
 
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#299
Just want to drop another quick update.

After raising the pickups, the D and G now seem fine. I'm seriously SERIOUSLY getting into this bass. Have another wedding and club gig this weekend. The bass just feels "right" in every way. It's instantly shot up to #1 on my list, and that doesn't happen often. I buy lots of basses, many I don't even mention here, and most either wind up going right back out or sitting on a stand most of the time. This bass is giving me the same high my Ric gave me, but in a very different way.

That's all. I don't think there's anything left to say about it :). From me, anyway. I need to start posting some pix.
 
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#300
Joe Nerve said:
Just want to drop another quick update.

After raising the pickups, the D and G now seem fine. I'm seriously SERIOUSLY getting into this bass. Have another wedding and club gig this weekend. The bass just feels "right" in every way. It's instantly shot up to #1 on my list, and that doesn't happen often. I buy lots of basses, many I don't even mention here, and most either wind up going right back out or sitting on a stand most of the time. This bass is giving me the same high my Ric gave me, but in a very different way.

That's all. I don't think there's anything left to say about it :). From me, anyway. I need to start posting some pix.
Click to expand...

Out of curiosity, did you raise the pickups just under the D and G string or did you raise the pickups equally at both ends? I'm wondering if I should try the same on my MM basses but not sure if I should raise the entire pickup or just the one end.
 
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