I received my Dan Lakin JO today and thought I'd share it. Mostly good, though I have some concerns as well.
My bass is actually 001, in Fiesta Red. So it was a little surprising when I opened the shipping box and found...
But I opened it up and was relieved to find it was indeed my bass. Did anyone here get number 009 in CAR? Or whoever may get my box, I'd love to trade and keep everything together if possible.
The next part was kind of a bummer. It was shipped without any protective plastic bag or anything at all. So there are quite a number of wear spots that likely resulted from rubbing up against the cardboard box. Primarily on the back and also on the bottom. I tried to take a few pics but they are hard to capture. Pretty obvious in person though.
I like the way the color turned out though my photos make it look different in every shot! I'd say it's more of a faded Fiesta in person.
The knobs are on full. I'd prefer them pointing differently so I will re-orient those.
Back of the headstock.
The case (box?) candy is pretty cool! Shirt, COA (signed by Joe as well), warranty and adjustment tool.
How awesome is this tool? Everything you need in one device. I like that it has the logo too.
The string spacing on the E and G don't line up between the polepieces. I think this should be adjustable and I will spend some time on it but I'm not sure it's going to line up quite right or without some weird spacing.
As for playing it...
First, tuning with reverse tuners is annoying. There, I said it. They work fine, they are good Hipshot tuners. Just an adjustment for me since I don't have any others like that.
The neck feels great. Not thin, not thick. The finish is very smooth. Very comfortable to play.
The low end is very nice. The top end seems kind of constrained. I don't know if that's a manifestation of the string spacing or just how it is. It's there but it's not overly bright. Slapping sounds good but benefits from compression.
Overall, it's a very comfortable bass to play. It weighed in at 8.6 pounds. The neck pocket is great, all the "fit" is very good from what I've seen so far though I sadly can't say that about the finish as it arrived. The neck feels good, the bottom end sounds good. If you're a high end guy you will probably want some EQ. To my ears it actually sounded "vintage". Deep and rich more than bright and snappy.
I wrote to Dan regarding the shipping box. I think that's an easy fix going forward. He had previously said he doesn't have cases or gig bags yet but he is working on a bag in the future. I think it really needs something to protect the finish in shipping.
That's about it for now. I hope others will chime in when they get theirs!
Resolution updated here: http://www.talkbass.com/threads/nbd-dan-lakin-jo.1083583/page-24#post-16239019
My bass is actually 001, in Fiesta Red. So it was a little surprising when I opened the shipping box and found...
But I opened it up and was relieved to find it was indeed my bass. Did anyone here get number 009 in CAR? Or whoever may get my box, I'd love to trade and keep everything together if possible.
The next part was kind of a bummer. It was shipped without any protective plastic bag or anything at all. So there are quite a number of wear spots that likely resulted from rubbing up against the cardboard box. Primarily on the back and also on the bottom. I tried to take a few pics but they are hard to capture. Pretty obvious in person though.
I like the way the color turned out though my photos make it look different in every shot! I'd say it's more of a faded Fiesta in person.
The knobs are on full. I'd prefer them pointing differently so I will re-orient those.
Back of the headstock.
The case (box?) candy is pretty cool! Shirt, COA (signed by Joe as well), warranty and adjustment tool.
How awesome is this tool? Everything you need in one device. I like that it has the logo too.
The string spacing on the E and G don't line up between the polepieces. I think this should be adjustable and I will spend some time on it but I'm not sure it's going to line up quite right or without some weird spacing.
As for playing it...
First, tuning with reverse tuners is annoying. There, I said it. They work fine, they are good Hipshot tuners. Just an adjustment for me since I don't have any others like that.
The neck feels great. Not thin, not thick. The finish is very smooth. Very comfortable to play.
The low end is very nice. The top end seems kind of constrained. I don't know if that's a manifestation of the string spacing or just how it is. It's there but it's not overly bright. Slapping sounds good but benefits from compression.
Overall, it's a very comfortable bass to play. It weighed in at 8.6 pounds. The neck pocket is great, all the "fit" is very good from what I've seen so far though I sadly can't say that about the finish as it arrived. The neck feels good, the bottom end sounds good. If you're a high end guy you will probably want some EQ. To my ears it actually sounded "vintage". Deep and rich more than bright and snappy.
I wrote to Dan regarding the shipping box. I think that's an easy fix going forward. He had previously said he doesn't have cases or gig bags yet but he is working on a bag in the future. I think it really needs something to protect the finish in shipping.
That's about it for now. I hope others will chime in when they get theirs!
Resolution updated here: http://www.talkbass.com/threads/nbd-dan-lakin-jo.1083583/page-24#post-16239019
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) and most of the issues look fixable. The saddles are adjustable, PU height adjustment would likely brighten the tone, and the finish spots would likely buff out.
