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New 6 strings from Rondo ($170)

#61
Joe Nerve said:
My Trip to Rondo

by Joe Nerve​

Almost made it out alive...

DAMN!!!!!!!!! I HATE THAT PLACE!!!!!

So I get there after getting lost even though I've been there 3 times, and right in front of all the hanging basses stand our new friends, the Douglas 6's. A brown burst one and a green one. I pick up the green, play it acoustically, it feels really, really nice, I'm thinking I'm in trouble. I ask for a cord, plug it in and my troubles were instantly over. Single coil hum, bigtime, I hate that crap, yay, I'm not dropping $170 today!

I turn around and I see another Douglas 6, almost identical to this, but it has soapbar pups and a different bridge. It's not on their website. Look at the price tag. Same price. I pick it up. Feels the same as the green one, real nice. I plug it in. I'm in trouble. Sounds great, tiny little bit of hum, but nothing compared to the other one. As much as I'm falling for this peice of wood and metal, I'm wondering... am I ever really going to use it? I really need an amp right now... I'll think about it. And I'll check out the discontinued Stingray clone that's sitting 3 feet away for $110. Neck was jazzbass thin on it, sound was cheap, the headstock doesn't look anything like a MM even though it's 3 and 1. The bass did nothing for me. I wandered around the store, played most of what they had, looked at some amps, even guitars, and decided I'm going home with all my money. Thanked them for their kind assistance, used their bathroom, headed towards the door - past their closout display. DAMN!!!!! The 6 string I liked - in red (which I like better than the other blue one), marked down to $99 for reasons unknown. It was sitting around for a while perhaps? The strings were dead? Someone had ordered it and returned it? It needs a little cleaning? I gave a real thorough inspection, and well... how the hell coudn't I!?!?!

Pics and a full review after I give it the cleanup and string change. :)
Click to expand...

Let me know should you decide to resell it. Seriously.
 
#62
This doesn't look too bad for the dough. Thru neck as well...

zpassprestige1.jpg
zpassprestige4.jpg
zpassprestige3.jpg


http://www.rondomusic.net/prestZbass.html
 
#64
Hey Joe, did you try just the one douglas with the single coil? or did you by chance try multiple ones, cause I really had my heart set on getting one, but I'm not sure I want to get it if theres alot of hum, although if its a fixable hum then I perhaps will consider it.

Jared
 
#65
ElBajista said:
Let me know should you decide to resell it. Seriously.
Click to expand...

If I resell it I'm selling it for $150 on cragslist. :D

Pix as promised and a quick review. Gotta say I'm pretty amazed at the quality, especially (duh!) at this price. I like the machine heads, they're smooth and accurate. The whole thing seems really solid, 5 bolts in the neck, no rattles, everything tight, neckjoint even looks seamless although I was able to slip a piece of paper in it. Has some tiny details I get a kick out of like rubber underneath the input jack, and felt beneath the strap-pegs. Fretwork seems fine, no sharp edges. Nice action, no buzzes. No complaints on the feel.

The sound is hard to tell really cuz I'm only playing on a practice amp here, and I never really know what a bass does till I play it in a band situation. For now I'll say it's got some warmth and punch, theres a hint of barkiness (not much) in the bridge pickup, more bottom and low mids in the neck, sounds best with both goin. I'd say it gets good middle ground sound. It ain't goin too dubby, and it's not going to sizzle and crack. If the treble control went to 11, it would be perfect for my tastes. Gets a good slap tone. Very little electronic buzz. Not enough to annoy me, and I'm easily annoyed by that.

Seems to balance well. I dunno what else??? Was going to take the plate off the back and take pics but I got lazy. :)

Oh yeah, only quirk that I noticed aside from a nick or 2 near the heel of the neck is that the blend control seems backwards. All the way clockwise is the neck pu, counter is the bridge. But it was only

99 freaking dollars!!!!
douglas1.jpg

douglas5.jpg

douglas4.jpg
 
#67
bass_player16 said:
Hey Joe, did you try just the one douglas with the single coil? or did you by chance try multiple ones, cause I really had my heart set on getting one, but I'm not sure I want to get it if theres alot of hum, although if its a fixable hum then I perhaps will consider it.

Jared
Click to expand...

I tried both that were out and they both had hum. I gotta tell ya though that I'm nuts with that stuff. People who play jazz basses and other passive single coil basses don't seem to even notice it. All of my basses have been active and must have had hum cancelling pickups. I'm sure you could easily swap the pickups if it bugged you.

Or maybe you should just wait for other peoples comments regarding that before dropping the cash.
 
#68
Thanks for the respose Joe.

My bass has some terrible hum when I use my P and J pickups together, but I blame that on really terrible wiring job that was done when I took it in to get the tone pot rewired, seeing as prior to that there was no problem. So in a nutshell some buzz isn't a biggy for me, but if its really bad then I'll definatly be switching all the electronics.

My first mod anyways was going to be an Aguilar OBP2 TK. Since the douglas only has a 2 band pre in it right now I thought that would be the right choice, I could be wrong though.

Jared
 
#69
Joe, now that I slammed you in my second to last post, I have a question for you. Did the low B on the 6'er feel acceptable to you, or was there any noticeable flop when you were playing it, acoustically or not? If you have an answer, thanks! If not, don't worry.
 
#70
Tired_Thumb said:
Joe, now that I slammed you in my second to last post, I have a question for you. Did the low B on the 6'er feel acceptable to you, or was there any noticeable flop when you were playing it, acoustically or not? If you have an answer, thanks! If not, don't worry.
Click to expand...

Gotta slam a little harder, I didn't even feel it. :) I think the B is awesome on this thing. Wish I knew how to quickly use the recording stuff I got here, I'd show ya'll. Maybe tomorrow.

Ohh.. I've been messing around with this thing since I got home, and thus far - tha 6th string seems pretty damn useless. Gotta come up with some new stuffs. :)
 
#72
sheepdog said:
in regards to the obp3, an ebassist member found a source for the 3 band wired: vol, blend, treble/bass stack, mid/mid freq stack. probably easy to mod it with an active/passive push/pull on the vol knob. 4 knobs.
Click to expand...

My TB Arcadia custom uses an active/passive push-pull along with stacked knobs- difference is that I have a frequency switch for the midrange frequency.

I bought an SX jazz 4 once and was very happy with it for the price- good bass. I ended up selling it to a missionary's son for next to nothing cause I don't really play 4-bangers much. Everytime I buy a 4-banger I end up selling it within a coupel months, hahah.. Dunno if a 6 would be different. I am really really tempted to buy that thing because I am SUCKER for green flamed maple, and I want to string up a EADGCF bass for playing guitar licks without losing my bass range :D. Rondo really is like a cheap TB crack dealer....Kurt is horrible man, it's a shame he's so nice ;)
 
#74
Rondo's page says - String spacing at the bridge 2 15/16"

= 2.9375"/5 spaces between strings = 0.588" or 14.923 mm

do people consider that wide or narrow? I have not had a six in 4 or 5 years so I don't remember what it had and I'm not sure how that compares with other six strings. I like my 4 strings 18-20 mm but I dont know what I might like in a six. Do you think this bass might be too narow for my right hand?

Peace,
S
 
#75
TheSuzie said:
Rondo's page says - String spacing at the bridge 2 15/16"

= 2.9375"/5 spaces between strings = 0.588" or 14.923 mm

do people consider that wide or narrow? I have not had a six in 4 or 5 years so I don't remember what it had and I'm not sure how that compares with other six strings. I like my 4 strings 18-20 mm but I dont know what I might like in a six. Do you think this bass might be too narow for my right hand?

Peace,
S
Click to expand...

The spacing feels fine to me. I believe this is considered a pretty narrow spaced 6. The catch-my Ray5 has pretty tight spacing too, so it's no big deal to me.

Sounds clips are probably going to be put on hold till sometime on Saturday.
 
#76
T. B. Player said:
+1000 on the V2 comment. Phil - put some DR Black Beauties on it next time. With the coating, the feel is almost like flatwounds but with a roundwound sound. It's pretty freakin' awesome on mine. CANNOT believe they could do that with a $200 bass - maybe that's why they're discontinued.
Click to expand...
Absolutely nothing will ever replace the LaBella nylon tapewound strings on this bass.
 
#77
Joe Nerve said:
Ohh.. I've been messing around with this thing since I got home, and thus far - tha 6th string seems pretty damn useless. Gotta come up with some new stuffs. :)
Click to expand...
Chords maybe? That's what I use my high string for. A 6 string is not appropriate for every musical situation, but it's a nice thing to have in a well rounded bass arsenal.

That bass you found was a regular in Rondo's stock about 6-9 months ago. The reason it was $99 is that it was an old discontinued model. I got my V2 for $168 from the store as an outdated floor model for the same reason. My V2 had horrendous action was basically unplayable on the showroom floor. I took a chance that a neck tweak would fix all since everything seemed solid, and I was correct.

The dual truss rod thing is kind of funky, huh?
 
#78
Joe Nerve said:
Almost made it out alive...

DAMN!!!!!!!!! I HATE THAT PLACE!!!!!
.......

Thanked them for their kind assistance, used their bathroom, headed towards the door - past their closout display.
Click to expand...
Joe,

Never, ever, ever look at the closeout display at Rondo, never, never :rollno: Unless I'm going there to specifically buy something, I close my eyes when I walk past it coming in, and I completely ignore it when I leave. I have walked out of that store with more unnecessary basses because of the prices in the closeout section ....:rolleyes:
 
#79
Joe Nerve said:
Gotta slam a little harder, I didn't even feel it. :) I think the B is awesome on this thing. Wish I knew how to quickly use the recording stuff I got here, I'd show ya'll. Maybe tomorrow.

Ohh.. I've been messing around with this thing since I got home, and thus far - tha 6th string seems pretty damn useless. Gotta come up with some new stuffs. :)
Click to expand...


Sounds good.
 
#80
The bass came today packed in a double cardboard carton with hole punched through the first carton thanks to Fedex but no damage done.
First I'll say the finish looks nice, the quilted maple top is done well and except for the few finish flaws here and there it's an eye catcher. The fretwork is done well, the neck has a nice flat feel to it (that I like) but the string spacing is a little narrow for my big hands, but after playing it for awhile I got used to it. The basswood body is light and with the large heatstock and stock tuners there is huge neck dive while sitting and it's somewhat better with a strap. Tuners seem to work very well and the string through bride adjusts easily. And now for the sound, volume all full, balance, bass and treble centered, it's thin on the bottom with pronounced highs, crank the bass up and it sound pretty good, nice bottom, not muddy and balanced across all strings. The B is not bad for a 34” scale and sounds clear and distinct. As stated earlier in this post moving the balance toward the neck or bridge pickup brings on the noise, not unbearable but there, centered its dead quite. It also got noisy when adding treble past center, but with accented highs I found myself backing it off if or keeping it centered. With a few bridge and neck adjustments you’ve got a very useable 6 stringer in your hands, all for under $200 bucks. I don’t know if I’ll keep or not because I already have a Yamaha TRB 6P and a buddy I owe a birthday present to, but if you’re looking for a 6’er, low on cash and deal with the neck dive, this could be it.
 

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