NBD: SX Ursa 6 Fretless

[GWGuitar]

I found a “target of opportunity” the other day while surfing the Guitar Center web site. I’ve been looking for a long scale fretless (my other fretless is short scale) and I was excited to find this one. I found this used 6-string fretless and the wife said to go for it. I spent the evening cleaning, restringing, and setting it up. Plays great, but I have to get used to roundwounds again. It has “mwah” for days! Here are the pics.

 

[IronSpatula]

Wow, I've never seen a fretless one before. Is it a conversion? Epoxied?

 

[aus_bass]

Sweet looking bass, but that string spacing looks way to tight for me.

 

[bholder]

Sweet looking bass, but that string spacing looks way to tight for me.

Makes it perfect for me.

 

[GWGuitar]

Wow, I've never seen a fretless one before. Is it a conversion? Epoxied?

No, it’s stock. It looks to be thin strips of stained maple.

 

[GWGuitar]

Sweet looking bass, but that string spacing looks way to tight for me.

It’s 17mm. Isn’t that standard for a jazz bass?

 

[aus_bass]

Fender / Squier Jazz 5's are usually 18mm.

 

[IronSpatula]

It’s 17mm. Isn’t that standard for a jazz bass?

That's a very common spacing for six strings, but not Jazz basses generally. It's MY preferred spacing, for whatever that's worth...

 

[GTHintz]

It's 17 mill and that's still wider than my 16.5 mil Ibanez and Warwick.

 

[JC Nelson]

Nice find! I have the fretted version. I dropped in an Audere Jazz Preamp and it sounds amazing. One of my friends just borrowed it to record with.

 

[GodPlayedBass]

The more strings you have on bass, the closer together the spacing is. Learned that with my 5 string but I like it a lot. Sweet lookin bass

 

[B-Mac]

I found a “target of opportunity” the other day while surfing the Guitar Center web site. I’ve been looking for a long scale fretless (my other fretless is short scale) and I was excited to find this one. I found this used 6-string fretless and the wife said to go for it. I spent the evening cleaning, restringing, and setting it up. Plays great, but I have to get used to roundwounds again. It has “mwah” for days! Here are the pics.
View attachment 4709344 View attachment 4709345

Wow!
That’s a sweet lookin’ SX 6-er!

 

[GWGuitar]

Nice find! I have the fretted version. I dropped in an Audere Jazz Preamp and it sounds amazing. One of my friends just borrowed it to record with.

I’ll have to look up that preamp. Was it hard to install?

 

[GWGuitar]

One interesting thing I noted. I put the new 6-er in the stand next to my SX Vintage Ursa III 4-string and there is a significant difference in size. The 6-er is about a 1.5” shorter in overall length and the body is smaller. I noted the weight difference right off. The 4-string is almost 12 pounds, the 6-string is about 9 pounds. i thought the difference was the woods. The 6-string is swamp ash and the 4-string is alder. Side-by-side, there’s a difference in size and, surprisingly, the 6-er is the smaller of the two.

 

[dabbler]

Gee, I never noticed my SX 6ers having a smaller body than my other SX basses, they must have made a change.

Oh, waitaminute, let me go pull out the natural one to compare, there does appear to be a slight difference there, now that I look at my pic.

UPDATE: Just checked. All of my bodies are indeed the same size.

 

[GWGuitar]

Gee, I never noticed my SX 6ers having a smaller body than my other SX basses, they must have made a change.

View attachment 4710046 View attachment 4710052

Oh, waitaminute, let me go pull out the natural one to compare, there does appear to be a slight difference there, now that I look at my pic.

UPDATE: Just checked. All of my bodies are indeed the same size.

The one on the left looks slightly smaller. Maybe it’s an optical illusion.

 

[drumvsbass]

UPDATE: Just checked. All of my bodies are indeed the same size.

That second pic of the all natural collection you have there is a great optical illusion, and an attestation to the obvious attention to quality and detail in these instruments. I'm impressed.

 

[GWGuitar]

That second pic of the all natural collection you have there is a great optical illusion, and an attestation to the obvious attention to quality and detail in these instruments. I'm impressed.

I have four instruments I bought from Rondo Music. They all are a great value. I don’t know how they do it in that price range. They have good quality control and the quality of materials seems good, at least to the semi-pro level. My main SX Jazz Bass feels and plays just like a vintage 70s Fender.

 

[JC Nelson]

I’ll have to look up that preamp. Was it hard to install?

Super simple, just follow the directions. No soldering required. The only thing I might add later is a battery box. But quite frankly this battery has seen four gigs and several rehearsals over the last few years and is still good. So battery drain hasn’t ever been an issue.

 

[GandL_Bassman]

If these SX basses are so good, I'm a darned fool having bought 3 Fenders and a G&L!