I have had my eye on the Zenith for a long time now, from back when they were widely available to their current level of scarcity. I think I have taken note of every Zenith sold here or on eBay in the last year and a half. Seeing how the prices have been trending upward, they seem to sell immediately, and they have been fewer and farther between, I decided to jump on the next on that came available. Just got it on Friday the 13th, and she's beautiful.
I got the black fretted version. My GAS has mostly been for the amber fretless, but when one sold for over $1000 on the bay last December, I figured I could compromise. Glad I did! The black is gorgeous, very subtle and beautiful looking bass.
It is very heavy and hefty. The neck is fat, but comfortable. Not a petite bass at all! The cutaway makes it challenging to play seated, as it shifts the bass too far to the right. It hangs perfectly with a nice thick strap.
This bass sounds massive. With the neck (nano mag) It snarls and growls. But with the nano flex (bridge piezo?) it can also be gentle and polite. There is a big volume dip between these two pickups, with the nano flex being much more quiet and refined (they can output separately, which can help the mix). My room does bad things to single coil pu's, and the neck pickup brings 60 cycle hum. When I can reduce this, it sounds amazing, like no bass I have ever played. The flex-mag pickup is completely silent, and I look forward to running it through my URB preamp and gear. I'll get to that eventually. I haven't even played around too much with the tone settings.
Bottom line: glad I took the leap for this amazing and unique bass! I still have tons of experimenting to do, but everything I have heard so far has been golden! (The 60 cycle hum in my room causes my strat and jazzmaster guitar friends to pull their hair out, so I know it will sound better in other locations).
I think it might sound (and look) great with some tapewounds.
Zenith owners: what case best fits this bass? I would prefer a hard case, but could get a hybrid.
Thanks for letting me gloat TB!
~J
I got the black fretted version. My GAS has mostly been for the amber fretless, but when one sold for over $1000 on the bay last December, I figured I could compromise. Glad I did! The black is gorgeous, very subtle and beautiful looking bass.
It is very heavy and hefty. The neck is fat, but comfortable. Not a petite bass at all! The cutaway makes it challenging to play seated, as it shifts the bass too far to the right. It hangs perfectly with a nice thick strap.
This bass sounds massive. With the neck (nano mag) It snarls and growls. But with the nano flex (bridge piezo?) it can also be gentle and polite. There is a big volume dip between these two pickups, with the nano flex being much more quiet and refined (they can output separately, which can help the mix). My room does bad things to single coil pu's, and the neck pickup brings 60 cycle hum. When I can reduce this, it sounds amazing, like no bass I have ever played. The flex-mag pickup is completely silent, and I look forward to running it through my URB preamp and gear. I'll get to that eventually. I haven't even played around too much with the tone settings.
Bottom line: glad I took the leap for this amazing and unique bass! I still have tons of experimenting to do, but everything I have heard so far has been golden! (The 60 cycle hum in my room causes my strat and jazzmaster guitar friends to pull their hair out, so I know it will sound better in other locations).
I think it might sound (and look) great with some tapewounds.
Zenith owners: what case best fits this bass? I would prefer a hard case, but could get a hybrid.
Thanks for letting me gloat TB!
~J
