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New 6 strings from Rondo ($170)

#143
coolrunner989 said:
I want one so bad - I need a better job...

oh wait, I'm about to be a full time student with no job....

damn.
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Noted - I feel your pain. I'm waiting for a new scholarship to kick in so I can actually have an income to spend frivolously on things like pre-amps and ramps.

And possible an Lake Placid Blue SX - if they back pay me.

*needs more crosses fingers smiley*
 
#144
yeah, I need a few thousand more in scholarships to even clear my tuition, much less pay for bass gear.

those basses look sweet - with a few hunderdred in pup/preamp upgrades you have a great sounding 6 string bass...

If I had the money I'd look into putting 6-string MM pups in it - cheapo 6-string bongo for alot less.
 
#146
Ok, i was one of the early posters in this thread. A year later-this bass is still getting played.

It looks like i'm the only one that doesn't think the spacing is super tight. To me-it feels a bit wider than what i am used to, but hey, my reference bass is a Ray5.

If you guys want to hear clips of this bass in action check out my myspace page and click "FEDC Idea"-if i remember correctly that entire song is tracked with the 6. Link Removed

So a year down the line impressions: I dig it. I use it about 50% for tapping and then 50% for normal finger style playing. I rarely ever slap and use a pick even less. I think the only thing i'd consider doing is swapping out the preamp to something w/a 3 band. However, the cost of the preamps would cost nearly as much as the bass-not worth it to me.

I've considered picking up another one, but i think the bass has done the intended job. I'm keeping my eyes peeled for those Bongo 6s to come out. The bass has made me think "i'll keep a 6 in the arsenal". So-somewhere down the line i'll end up getting either an MTD Z6 or a Bongo 6.
 
#147
andrewd said:
I would have been a lot more interested if they were passive. There's no way such a cheap active system will sound good.

I wonder if the pickups themselves are actually active, or if it's just a preamp.
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My thoughts exactly. A 2-band preamp on a $180 bass does not sound like a quality product. :D But hey, you can always easily replace a preamp. I'd rather have cheap electronics than shoddy fretwork.

If I got one of these bad boys, I'd definitely pop my Audere 4band preamp in. That would be killer!

Speaking of which, anyone looking to sell one of these basses? :D
 
#148
Since Rondo seems to have these ready to sell again I'll go ahead and share my experience from the first batch of fretless WEBs:

I've had the Douglas for over a year now and it is still treating me very well.

Here are the only bad things that I have to say about it:

the tone is pretty plain (probably the pickups' fault), the action is a little hard to adjust (one of the screws on my plastic "nut-cover" was nigh-impossible to remove), the neck is a little hard to fret from about the 16th "fret" up, and the body is a little neck heavy (this issue was resolved by using a Comfort Strap, or any other strap with lots of padding).

That said, for $180, it is a great, great deal.

It is still my primary bass (I don't have an amp, so I just run it directly into a GT-6B effects processor), and I do have a few short sound samples up if you want to hear it in action:

clean: Link Removed

distorted: Link Removed

and a short video with distortion (complete with the trademark youtube sound-quality killer):

If you have any more questions/requests, just let me know (and if you couldn't tell, no, the bass is not for sale ).
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Well, by "plain" I guess I mean to say that it's doesn't have as much "growl" and "mwah" to it as I was expecting.

Again though, this might be due more to my strings (flatwound D'Addario chromes) and the electronics (specifically, the pickups/preamp), all of which could be easily replaced for less than it would cost to buy whatever replacement parts you'd want and put them in some other fretless six-string.

Once you actually get to the two truss rods (which for me, was quite a pain due to a faulty screw on the plastic cover; I think my situation was probably a rare exception though), the action isn't too hard to adjust, though I have noticed that the included wrenches don't fit in the nuts too well.

Action isn't really the issue though, it's more the body and neck design that make it difficult to get all four fingers into "standard" fretting position on the higher parts of the neck (from about the 16th "fret" up, basically).

I've had to adjust my fretting style to a three-finger method on the higher "frets" because of that.

With six strings to work with though, it's not too hard to simply sound those same notes lower down on the neck by moving up or down a string whenever you want to hit a tone in one those awkward fretting spots.

As for the sound clips, you don't have to download them; you can just stream them. They are heavily compressed too, so even with dial-up it shouldn't take too long to load up.
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#152
Yeah it really is that dark; the body color is basically an "emerald" or "forest" green. The neck wood is nice and dark too. The body is also so shiny that I have had trouble taking pictures of it without getting any glare, tough it might be my poor photography skills that are at fault and not the bass itself. ;)
 
#154
shannons said:
I just ordered the Douglas WEB-846 in the flamed top green color. I can't wait to get it!

What's the string spacing at the bridge?
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I think I saw somewhere that it's about 18mm, a little less than a standard 4-string spacing.

I can't wait to hear your thoughts! I'm right on the edge of buying one of these basses, but I don't want to through my money away. Does Rondo have a return policy? :D
 
#159
ElBajista said:
I think I saw somewhere that it's about 18mm, a little less than a standard 4-string spacing.

I can't wait to hear your thoughts! I'm right on the edge of buying one of these basses, but I don't want to through my money away. Does Rondo have a return policy? :D
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I'll post up a review. I get it this friday & I plan to use it for my show that night. I'm moving this weekend, so I'll problably be back online sometime next week. Watch for the review. ;)
 

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