Good point for sure.
What I am going on is having heard the bass in the picture in my original post and that is the overall tonal range I am going for.
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Official Zon Club Part 2
- Thread starter Bryan R. Tyler
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Good point for sure.
What I am going on is having heard the bass in the picture in my original post and that is the overall tonal range I am going for.
I remember seeing in Bass Northwest about two years ago a blue fretless Zon in 4 strings, a regular model...It sounded amazing!!! I still regret not buying it!!!
My point is try any bass you can, maybe you can find your dream bass!!!
It should be noted that only the Hyperbass has a coated fretboard- the extended cutaway Sonus does not. He sounds like Michael on either, though there is a distinct difference in his tone between the two.
Since I bought Andy's fretless TJ, my fretless Sonus is not being played. PM me if this is close to what you are looking for.
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There is a couple of articles in the UK's Bass Guitar Magazine that may be of interest to people on this Forum. The first is "Taking Bass Further Michael Manring" and the second is "The Woodshed - Zon Guitars" by Nick Wells. I could not find out who wrote the article on Michael. Does anyone know? One thing I found interesting about the first article was the discussion about Michael's interest in Indian music and strumming patterns. In the latter article Joe Zon describes how the Michael Manring Hyperbase and the Vinny came into being. There is an interesting fact relating 9/11 and the VB. But you will have to purchase the magazine to find out more. Having both an article on Michael and Zon Guitars in the same edition - good idea! For those of you who would like an introduction to either Michael or Zon Guitars, this would be a good place to start.
However, although you will find a picture of Joe Zon holding a fretless TJ5, you won't find mention of the TJ in the article. I don't really understand that because I view the TJ as a big step forward for Zon.
Here you go:
http://www.bassguitarmagazine.com/
ISSUE 62
However, although you will find a picture of Joe Zon holding a fretless TJ5, you won't find mention of the TJ in the article. I don't really understand that because I view the TJ as a big step forward for Zon.
Here you go:
http://www.bassguitarmagazine.com/
ISSUE 62
Can you extract that picture (printscreen to paint program, screen capture tool, or copy directly from app if allowed)? Depending on which fretless you're talking about, I may know the reason why.
Sorry, not at the moment. Let me try to describe it. It has a redish top that may be bubinga or redwood (hard to tell from the photo). It has black hardware and a wenge layer (perhaps) sandwiched between the body and the top. The phenowood on the board is quite white.
The article on Michael was written by Nick Wells the editor of the magazine.
Ok, that's what I thought. And if it is the same bass, I'm betting the reason TJ wasn't in the article is because that bass is not really a TJ. It shares the body cut, but that's it. EVERYTHING else is different from an actual TJ model. I have personally checked that bass out. It was at NAMM.
The article did have a Zon/Manring focus, so perhaps adding a discussion of the new TJ Signature would have distracted from that? Otherwise they discuss the Zon range in quite a lot of detail: Legacy, MMH, Vinny, Sonus, Standard Series (Mosaic, Sonus and Legacy) and there is as I said a picture of Joe holding the bass we discussed. Furthermore there is a picture of Damian Erskine holding an extended cutaway 6-string that also looks like a TJ and no mention of that either. As I said good article - good introduction to both Manring and Zon with some detail about how each of the above models came into being. Maybe they are going to do a story on Todd? Maybe they have already?
Alastair
On closer inspection of the photos at the Bass Workout, there is one that states that the 6 is a TJ and it looks like the fretless 5 is also.
The TJ 5 has a 6 string body, and the TJ6 is a little bit bigger.
The bass with the bridge/mid pickups that looks like a TJ "isn't" because it was what was going to be the Damian Erskine model. So that fretless 5 isn't technically a TJ because it isn't the standard specs for the TJ model. There have been a bunch of the bridge/mid PU TJ-bodied basses made, I think.
The question becomes "what specs make X model...X model"? It's clearly not wood, since those tend to vary quite a bit. It appears to be "body shape + pickup configuration", since my 6 string with regular pickup positions but infrequent wood combination is a TJ, whereas my 5 string with an MM pickup and deep cutaway is just a Sonus Custom despite being ordered as a "TJ5".
The bass with the bridge/mid pickups that looks like a TJ "isn't" because it was what was going to be the Damian Erskine model. So that fretless 5 isn't technically a TJ because it isn't the standard specs for the TJ model. There have been a bunch of the bridge/mid PU TJ-bodied basses made, I think.
The question becomes "what specs make X model...X model"? It's clearly not wood, since those tend to vary quite a bit. It appears to be "body shape + pickup configuration", since my 6 string with regular pickup positions but infrequent wood combination is a TJ, whereas my 5 string with an MM pickup and deep cutaway is just a Sonus Custom despite being ordered as a "TJ5".
Angus' post explains a bit more (and I hadn't yet heard it was potentially a DE model), but the bottom line is, it's really only fair to call it a complete custom in the Sonus line, where one of the options was a TJ style lower cutaway. Pretty unique, really.
It is Alder then? The other thing "missing" is the ramp... did it come with one? Then, it looks like it also may have the wrong pickups for a TJ, though it's hard to tell in that picture. Then there's the other oddity... if you watch TJ's video, he says his has a bart preamp, but the Zon page talks about the ZP (Polyfusion) preamp which is from the "Custom" Sonus model.
This all just gets into what Angus was saying about regarding what it means, and what is or should be required, to be considered a/the signature model.
So if all else is different, then it's simply a custom Custom, with the TJ body being one of the custom options spec'd, and not really a TJ per se.
Looks like a different wood for the top and a bigger gap between the bottom of the fingerboard and the neck pickup. Nice bass though! Do you have any more pictures?
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