I’m really excited! I just had this bass shipped to me on Friday of last week:
It’s a Brubaker JXB-5 Standard in Blue-Burst. It is the 2nd 5-string Kevin Brubaker built in this product line. It’s features:
- Modeled after a ’78 Jazz Bass
- Alder Body
- Maple neck, 34”-scale. The neck is FAST!
- Rosewood fretboard
- Curly/Flame maple pickguard
- Aguilar Pickups
- Bartolini, 3-band preamp with active/passive and midrange switches
- Fiber-optic side-dot markers illuminated blue. When not illuminated, the side dots also glow, being made out of Glow-dot material.
- Babicz bridge – 19mm spacing.
- American made.
- You can also see it on Brubaker Guitars website:
The bass was originally ordered in November with expectations for a 4-month build… it took a little bit longer, but it was well worth the wait. I play in a karaoke rock band (www.facebook.com/jamwtheband) and have a set of unique challenges every night. For starters, I needed a bass that can play everything. My Warwick Streamer Stage I has been doing alright, but has so much of that Warwick sound that I feel like I’m fighting it at times. I also face a lighting problem on stage. Between stage lighting at high angles and two computer screens at low angles, seeing the side markers on my Warwick became difficult in good conditions and impossible in bad ones.
This bass solves those problems. The bass has a full, yet balanced sound. The preamp lets me dial in (or out) more easily than any other bass I’ve gigged with. It has an excellent palette of J-style tones, fuller P-tones, and has the modern, hi-fi sound too. The bolt-thru neck helps the low end (more than I can probably ever use, unless I join a Dub band), but when you dig into it, it has a LOT of attitude (the good kind) \m/ Finger-style, pick playing, and slap all push through the mix equally well.
The fiber-optics are turned on and off by a switch that’s built into the jack-plate. They only work when the bass has a cable in the jack and the switch is activated.
Side-dots:
Jackplate:
I only have 3.5 hours of playing time on it, but 3 of those hours were at a gig; so, I’ve gotten to know it pretty well. The gig was a 4-piece karaoke rock band gig: 2 electric guitars, a drummer, questionable/drunken singers, and myself.
My initial impression was a sense of being overwhelmed by the low-end available through the pre-amp… once I dialed back my amp (Genz-Benz Shuttle 6.0 through 2 Hartke 410’s) and rolled off some of the lows everything fell into place. The side-dots were a cool thing to have, although the venue wasn’t a “difficult” lighting situation. I found myself using the mid-frequency and balance knobs more than any of the others. We played a good spread of tunes from the early 60’s through to modern songs. It slayed all of them.
The base price of the instrument was $2600 with the fiber optics and preamp as add-ons, bringing the bass up to around $3200. The pricepoint is perfect for an à la carte, American-made, Sadowsky/Lull killer. And, that's not even mentioning how awesome it is to work with Kevin Brubaker. Not only is his fret and finishing work incredible, but he kept me up to date on build progress with pictures and emails.
The last thing I'm amazed by is Kevin's paint skills. I photoshopped and emailed him a picture of the finish I wanted on the bass... he nailed it:
It’s a Brubaker JXB-5 Standard in Blue-Burst. It is the 2nd 5-string Kevin Brubaker built in this product line. It’s features:
- Modeled after a ’78 Jazz Bass
- Alder Body
- Maple neck, 34”-scale. The neck is FAST!
- Rosewood fretboard
- Curly/Flame maple pickguard
- Aguilar Pickups
- Bartolini, 3-band preamp with active/passive and midrange switches
- Fiber-optic side-dot markers illuminated blue. When not illuminated, the side dots also glow, being made out of Glow-dot material.
- Babicz bridge – 19mm spacing.
- American made.
- You can also see it on Brubaker Guitars website:
The bass was originally ordered in November with expectations for a 4-month build… it took a little bit longer, but it was well worth the wait. I play in a karaoke rock band (www.facebook.com/jamwtheband) and have a set of unique challenges every night. For starters, I needed a bass that can play everything. My Warwick Streamer Stage I has been doing alright, but has so much of that Warwick sound that I feel like I’m fighting it at times. I also face a lighting problem on stage. Between stage lighting at high angles and two computer screens at low angles, seeing the side markers on my Warwick became difficult in good conditions and impossible in bad ones.
This bass solves those problems. The bass has a full, yet balanced sound. The preamp lets me dial in (or out) more easily than any other bass I’ve gigged with. It has an excellent palette of J-style tones, fuller P-tones, and has the modern, hi-fi sound too. The bolt-thru neck helps the low end (more than I can probably ever use, unless I join a Dub band), but when you dig into it, it has a LOT of attitude (the good kind) \m/ Finger-style, pick playing, and slap all push through the mix equally well.
The fiber-optics are turned on and off by a switch that’s built into the jack-plate. They only work when the bass has a cable in the jack and the switch is activated.
Side-dots:
Jackplate:
I only have 3.5 hours of playing time on it, but 3 of those hours were at a gig; so, I’ve gotten to know it pretty well. The gig was a 4-piece karaoke rock band gig: 2 electric guitars, a drummer, questionable/drunken singers, and myself.
My initial impression was a sense of being overwhelmed by the low-end available through the pre-amp… once I dialed back my amp (Genz-Benz Shuttle 6.0 through 2 Hartke 410’s) and rolled off some of the lows everything fell into place. The side-dots were a cool thing to have, although the venue wasn’t a “difficult” lighting situation. I found myself using the mid-frequency and balance knobs more than any of the others. We played a good spread of tunes from the early 60’s through to modern songs. It slayed all of them.
The base price of the instrument was $2600 with the fiber optics and preamp as add-ons, bringing the bass up to around $3200. The pricepoint is perfect for an à la carte, American-made, Sadowsky/Lull killer. And, that's not even mentioning how awesome it is to work with Kevin Brubaker. Not only is his fret and finishing work incredible, but he kept me up to date on build progress with pictures and emails.
The last thing I'm amazed by is Kevin's paint skills. I photoshopped and emailed him a picture of the finish I wanted on the bass... he nailed it:
