Actually not quite NBD as I've had the bass for almost a month now, but thought I would wait and share my thoughts until I had a chance to play with it more. This bass had been hanging out at Chicago Music Exchange for a couple months and I had grabbed it a couple times to test out some new amps that they had received. While the amps were cool, I found that I thought the bass was cooler. Jake Serek of Serek Basses is a local Chicago guy, so I had a chance to meet up with him and talk potential options for a new bass, but after a couple days thinking it over, I decided that I knew I liked the bass at CME and that I should just go ahead and buy it and I've been extremely happy ever since.
The Bass Specs:
Mahogany body and neck with a Cocobolo fretboard
34" scale
Hipshot hardware
TV Jones Thunder'tron pickups wired in parallel with 3-way switching.
Super cool copper tortoise shell double binding
Weighs in right around 8lbs, though I haven't actually measured it yet.
The bass came well setup with medium to low action. Working well for both pick and fingerstyle playing. I've never really liked any bass with a neck pickup next to the end of the neck, IME they are too woofy and undefined for my liking. This is really the first bass where I find that placement not just tolerable but actually great sounding and usable! It really excels with a bit of grit added from a pedal like a Darkglass Vintage Microtubes. The "bridge" pickup is nice and punchy and a great go to sound for most rock style playing.
I have a couple of small issues with the bass, but both come down to personal preference. Not a huge fan of the tone with both pickups in parallel, in general its never been a sound that does a lot for me on any bass. I will have Jake rewire them to series soon. As mentioned, this bass comes with both front and back binding. If you use bad technique like I do sometimes, then the front binding can be a bit sharp against the arm. However, its proving to be a good excuse to improve my technique. Thankfully, if one didn't want the front binding, it is an option to just have a rounded front edge with just back binding on this bass.
in general, for a custom bass with excellent hardware options the pricing is quite competive and you can currently expect around a 3-4 month wait time. Jake is a great guy and gigging local musician, so if this or any of his other designs speak to you, I highly recommend reaching out to him.
And not the pics:
The Bass Specs:
Mahogany body and neck with a Cocobolo fretboard
34" scale
Hipshot hardware
TV Jones Thunder'tron pickups wired in parallel with 3-way switching.
Super cool copper tortoise shell double binding
Weighs in right around 8lbs, though I haven't actually measured it yet.
The bass came well setup with medium to low action. Working well for both pick and fingerstyle playing. I've never really liked any bass with a neck pickup next to the end of the neck, IME they are too woofy and undefined for my liking. This is really the first bass where I find that placement not just tolerable but actually great sounding and usable! It really excels with a bit of grit added from a pedal like a Darkglass Vintage Microtubes. The "bridge" pickup is nice and punchy and a great go to sound for most rock style playing.
I have a couple of small issues with the bass, but both come down to personal preference. Not a huge fan of the tone with both pickups in parallel, in general its never been a sound that does a lot for me on any bass. I will have Jake rewire them to series soon. As mentioned, this bass comes with both front and back binding. If you use bad technique like I do sometimes, then the front binding can be a bit sharp against the arm. However, its proving to be a good excuse to improve my technique. Thankfully, if one didn't want the front binding, it is an option to just have a rounded front edge with just back binding on this bass.
in general, for a custom bass with excellent hardware options the pricing is quite competive and you can currently expect around a 3-4 month wait time. Jake is a great guy and gigging local musician, so if this or any of his other designs speak to you, I highly recommend reaching out to him.
And not the pics:
