My LeCompte VBX has come home!!!!

YES! The bass came a day after Thanksgiving, I invited all of my bass player buddies over, I call them "The Skeptics", but on to that a little later. Lets get on with the review!

First and formost I know the "if theres no pics it does'nt exsist" rule but I cant post pics. FEAR not!, I actually have the first VBX to come out of Bud's shop and if you go to LeCompte's website, click on the VBX 6 sting drawing and you'll see a truckload of pics of this bass.

Fit and Finish:
I video taped the "unveiling" of the bass as I opened the box, the usual skeptics were around but had as much enthusiasm as I did. Bud had the bass packed really nice, kind of a technical shock system made of packing material and cardboard surrounding the custom LeCompte gigbag. After opening the bag the camera caught all of the jaw dropping and bulging eyes. All I could hear was "OMIGOD that is beautiful!!" and it was, the zebra top was some of the best I've ever laid eyes on. the AAAAA wenge neck was simply stunning, very thin and solid with a very smooth finish that felt like butter. the bass has a catalyzed laquer finish that just looks so gorgeous. The back of the bass reveals a beautiful mahogany body/w a seperate compartment for two 9v batteries. The fingerbaord is macassar ebony /w a flat radius and 19mm string spacing at the bridge.

Electronics:
Bartolini soapbars with an Aguilar OBP preamp and 18v system
Havent taken a look inside the control cavity yet but I will soon.

Sound:
I pluged into a Kustom Groovebass head with an ampeg 4/10 bx series cab. Each pickup has it's own three-way toggle switch for for series, single and parellel for a number of voicing blends. Full series mode gives you a VERY powerfull, rich and clean tone simular to an MTD, I could not believe how pristine and clear the highs rang out and the sustain was uncanny, just seemed to go forever, I plucked a few harmonics and they rang out as loud as the fingerd notes and also had that never ending sustain (I attribute this to the bass being a single-cut type bolt on and the all wenge neck).
Single mode was very punchy and growly kind of like an active jazz, yet still that same clean attack and response, great for some funked up fingerstylin'. Parallel was beefy and crisp, the skeptics were just truly amazed, as was I. I whipped out some funky slap licks and the pictures on the wall vibrated, and that was with the amp controls all set at flat! I just cannot believe how incredible the bass sounds.

Value:
Blows away nearly everything in my arsenal, and I have a LOT of basses, Warwicks, MTD, US Masters, Ibanez, etc. Which, dont get me wrong, are all great basses and I love 'em, but the LeCompte just far exceeds any expectation I had, see, I orderd one for two reasons. 1.) I saw how beatiful and unique they were when a fellow TB'r posted his. 2.) I kept hearing so much about the man and his work, how super nice he was and how great his basses are.
Bottom line, I'm already in preparation to have him build my next one(which is top secret ;-)). Thanks for listening.

 

Yeah man, the pics just dont do these basses any justice (no pun entended) . I think the Bart/Aggie combo is just unbelievable.

 

Thanks all, the bass balances perfectly and its not at all heavy, I thought the zebra/mahogany combo would give it weight issues but its actually lighter that my 535. Thanks Bud for chiming in with the pic.

 

bumpity, BUMP. questions?, opinions?, gripes?, obsessions ?

 

I was able to get some real MTD type boom out of it, I'm sure the Aggie pre and the Barts had a lot to do with that. I also ws able to get a little of that Ken Smith type tone when I had the pickups in single mode. Pristine and VERY defined. I just cant believe how good it sounds man, still blown away every time it's plugged in. Sorry but I dont know the first thing about posting sound clips . Maybe Bud did some before he shipped it.

 

The two switches closest to the bridge are coil tap and the one on the bottom is active/passive switch. Hey anytime Robear22, just let me know when you're available, just a warning though, you're gonna want one reeeaaaal bad if you play it.