Official Zon Club Part 4

[Bryan R. Tyler]

I was watching that one- great deal. Bass looks spotless too.

 

[J.Wolf]

Yep, looks to be mint, still got the plastic on the cavity cover and all! If I had a few more bucks and had seen that used Fretless TJ5 I might have gone that way, but I think I'll be more than happy with this beauty

 

[Mulebagger]

Just snagged this '06 ZON off of eBay. I really like the simplicity of the topless ash body and have been wanting one of their fretless basses for years. It has an upgraded Bart preamp, curious how it will stack up against the polyfysion, which I prefer for fretted zons.

Link Removed

I used an identical Zon to record my fretless tracks on our album. I normally favor the bridge pickup on fretless but a bad hum in the studio had me using both pickups.
Agentsofvenus.Blogspot.com

Stereo and weightless are two nice tracks with the Zon

I think you'll love yours! Congrats

 

[J.Wolf]

I had always kind of assumed the sonus pickups were slim humbuckers, but it turns out they're single coil.

 

[unlined4string]

The Sonus Special has slim humbuckers as standard equipment, but for a regular Sonus they are a custom option.

I had my 1998 Sonus upgraded to the humbuckers a long time ago. No more hum when running a single pickup, and really no sonic penalty that I can hear.

 

[Slaymus]

I ordered a Sonus 4 that should arrive within a month hyper
and the stock pickups (no upcharge) are humbucking narrowbars.

 

[Angus]

I had always kind of assumed the sonus pickups were slim humbuckers, but it turns out they're single coil.

Vertically stacked humcancelling singles, aren't they?

 

[pickles]

Mine are true singles.

 

[J.Wolf]

now I'm not so sure whats in it. Would be a good question for Joe and Mark.

 

[Vic]

Pretty sure mine are singles, but well shielded. They make noise when solo'd.

 

[lsu921]

I think they are all singles with the exception of the Special. And of course, custom orders.

I know my 519's and "regular" Sonus 5's have all had a little single coil hum when fully soloed.

 

[Mulebagger]

Mine are true singles.

The ones in my old Sonus fretless were true singles. That's why it hummed so much :/

I've got paired singles in my 6 and the hum some but not much

 

[Addison]

Vertically stacked humcancelling singles, aren't they?

Any of the newer ones should be, yes.

I had a conversation about this with Joe a while ago...

He told me he used to use true single coils but so many people complained about noise that he switched to pretty much only use vertically stacked hum-cancelling singles.

Not sure when this happened... I know my 519 definitely had the "skinny" humbuckers. It was dead quiet.

Now, this isn't to say that there aren't some that still get out the door with true single coils sometimes, but I think it's safe to say that, unless the customer otherwise specifies, any bass built within the last few years that has the "J-style" pickup configuration, also has hum-cancelling pickups.

Joe's currently trying to beat NAMM madness this year, and he has a good leg up for a change... but I'll shoot him an email and see if I can get a more definitive answer.

 

[Vic]

Any of the newer ones should be, yes.

I had a conversation about this with Joe a while ago...

He told me he used to use true single coils but so many people complained about noise that he switched to pretty much only use vertically stacked hum-cancelling singles.

Not sure when this happened... I know my 519 definitely had the "skinny" humbuckers. It was dead quiet.

Now, this isn't to say that there aren't some that still get out the door with true single coils sometimes, but I think it's safe to say that, unless the customer otherwise specifies, any bass built within the last few years that has the "J-style" pickup configuration, also has hum-cancelling pickups.

Joe's currently trying to beat NAMM madness this year, and he has a good leg up for a change... but I'll shoot him an email and see if I can get a more definitive answer.

I'll double check mine, but I still think my newer 519/24 (34") is singles.

 

[Bryan R. Tyler]

Here's a question that someone might know the answer to (probably Angus)- what inspired Zon to use that extended chunk of fingerboard on the TJ models? While they work great as a ramp, I assumed there was some other reason he decided to build them that way.

Oh, and I have a TJ5 now and a TJ5 fretless on the way, so I guess I'll be rejoining this club

 

[Mike Dimin]

Here's a question that someone might know the answer to (probably Angus)- what inspired Zon to use that extended chunk of fingerboard on the TJ models? While they work great as a ramp, I assumed there was some other reason he decided to build them that way.

Oh, and I have a TJ5 now and a TJ5 fretless on the way, so I guess I'll be rejoining this club

It was the ramp idea as put forth by Todd. My TJ doesn't have it. Can't stand ramps. Joe built it without for me

 

[Bryan R. Tyler]

Ah- thanks Mike. That's a pretty serious signature feature implementation then, as a lot of folks don't like/don't use ramps.

 

[Angus]

Here's a question that someone might know the answer to (probably Angus)- what inspired Zon to use that extended chunk of fingerboard on the TJ models? While they work great as a ramp, I assumed there was some other reason he decided to build them that way.

Oh, and I have a TJ5 now and a TJ5 fretless on the way, so I guess I'll be rejoining this club

It is as Mike suggested, plus another reason- the fret slotting jigs were only long enough for 26 frets, so that is why they HAD to stop there. He later made new slotting jigs, I think originally to allow him to make a lined fretless Hyperbass. It was around when I was having my 5 string built, and he said he was going to do something "special", which ended up being him making it 36 frets as a joke. Worked out great!! That bass is ridiculous.

As it turns out, the 26th fret is about as far as you can comfortably reach with that setup on a bolt-on anyway, so it turns out to be a good compromise.

 

[Bryan R. Tyler]

Cool- thanks for the info. Your bass is crazy- I can't imagine it being easy to fret way up there with any kind of comfort unless you can do the whole thumb position thing.

 

[Mulebagger]

Any of the newer ones should be, yes.

I had a conversation about this with Joe a while ago...

He told me he used to use true single coils but so many people complained about noise that he switched to pretty much only use vertically stacked hum-cancelling singles.

Not sure when this happened... I know my 519 definitely had the "skinny" humbuckers. It was dead quiet.

Now, this isn't to say that there aren't some that still get out the door with true single coils sometimes, but I think it's safe to say that, unless the customer otherwise specifies, any bass built within the last few years that has the "J-style" pickup configuration, also has hum-cancelling pickups.

Joe's currently trying to beat NAMM madness this year, and he has a good leg up for a change... but I'll shoot him an email and see if I can get a more definitive answer.

Joe told me the same thing about the true singles that used before. I opted for the custom Barts I have even though they hum a tiny but, I like that slight difference in sound.