A little backstory – I ordered this bass from Sweetwater last March; they had the 48-month no-interest financing thing going and I couldn't resist. They were out of stock at the time, but they would have them June-ish. No worries, I have waited this long, a few months won't kill me. Then that magical day in June comes, I get an emai – "Your bass has shipped!" I was thrilled, until I got the next email – "Here's pictures of your new bass!" It's the wrong bass. To be fair, the only difference is the neck – I ordered one with no fingerboard inlays; they shipped one with dot inlays.
So I shoot my sales rep an email…he checks and sure enough, they sent a bass with the wrong neck. It will be several months (again) before they have the correct model. They kindly allowed me to keep the "wrong" one to play until the new one was ready and sent me a hard shell case as an apology.
Fast forward to this past Friday…lo and behold…my new (correct) bass arrives! The overall fit and finish is even better than the one I'm sending back. The only thing I'm adding right away are a set of Dunlop strap locks.
The Good:
· She may be beauty, but this thing is a beast.
· Sustain for days! There's a reason I love string-through designs. When playing at church services, the other members of the team head off-stage and get some coffee…I'm still ringing out the low end. My worship director calls it my "flex".
· The tonal options are crazy. The preamp is incredibly versatile. Minor adjustments to the T/M/B knobs create huge changes. For most of my use, treble is at 12, mid at 12:30-ish, and bass at 1. I haven't needed much more tweaking there.
· The p/u switching options give a ton of variety as well. Even switching coils on the bridge humbucker provides a lot of variety. Mixed in with the neck J pickup, you have everything from deep warm tones to bright slap-happy goodness.
· This is my first bass with an ebony fretboard; my main bass for the past 20 years (Fender Urge) is pao ferro, and rosewood prior to that (Fender Jazz Bass Special). I've been very surprised by the warmth I can get; I was expecting more brightness. The ebony definitely has a different feel when adding a little vibrato.
· The neck is fast and comfortable. I prefer a satin finished neck vs. painted neck, and this one is fantastic.
· The matching headstock and inlay-free fingerboard kick it up that extra notch in the looks category.
· The 35" scale length was surprisingly easy to adjust to, and I've primarily played a medium scale bass (32") for the last 20 years or so.
The Not as Good:
· The finish is supposed to be 'Transparent Black' – definitely has a greenish hue to it in person. Certainly not as black as shown in the photos.
· I'm not a huge fan of the D'Addario strings; they feel a little "gritty" to me and have a slightly higher tension than I am used to. I will be swapping them out for a set of Ernie Ball Slinkys once these are dead.
So I shoot my sales rep an email…he checks and sure enough, they sent a bass with the wrong neck. It will be several months (again) before they have the correct model. They kindly allowed me to keep the "wrong" one to play until the new one was ready and sent me a hard shell case as an apology.
Fast forward to this past Friday…lo and behold…my new (correct) bass arrives! The overall fit and finish is even better than the one I'm sending back. The only thing I'm adding right away are a set of Dunlop strap locks.
The Good:
· She may be beauty, but this thing is a beast.
· Sustain for days! There's a reason I love string-through designs. When playing at church services, the other members of the team head off-stage and get some coffee…I'm still ringing out the low end. My worship director calls it my "flex".
· The tonal options are crazy. The preamp is incredibly versatile. Minor adjustments to the T/M/B knobs create huge changes. For most of my use, treble is at 12, mid at 12:30-ish, and bass at 1. I haven't needed much more tweaking there.
· The p/u switching options give a ton of variety as well. Even switching coils on the bridge humbucker provides a lot of variety. Mixed in with the neck J pickup, you have everything from deep warm tones to bright slap-happy goodness.
· This is my first bass with an ebony fretboard; my main bass for the past 20 years (Fender Urge) is pao ferro, and rosewood prior to that (Fender Jazz Bass Special). I've been very surprised by the warmth I can get; I was expecting more brightness. The ebony definitely has a different feel when adding a little vibrato.
· The neck is fast and comfortable. I prefer a satin finished neck vs. painted neck, and this one is fantastic.
· The matching headstock and inlay-free fingerboard kick it up that extra notch in the looks category.
· The 35" scale length was surprisingly easy to adjust to, and I've primarily played a medium scale bass (32") for the last 20 years or so.
The Not as Good:
· The finish is supposed to be 'Transparent Black' – definitely has a greenish hue to it in person. Certainly not as black as shown in the photos.
· I'm not a huge fan of the D'Addario strings; they feel a little "gritty" to me and have a slightly higher tension than I am used to. I will be swapping them out for a set of Ernie Ball Slinkys once these are dead.
