I have a scratchy volume pot in my Sonus. It’s a chronic problem. Zon does not do a good job of making their guitars easy to service. The pots are covered by a PCB in the back. I have to wick the cleaning fluid into the front of the pot in the tiny crevice between the pot body and the rotating cylinder. It stops it for a little while but it eventually gets scratchy again. Anybody find a better way of dealing with this? Anybody ever remove the PCB?
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What's the model/preamp?
A pro should be able to take care of that
Also you can always reach out by email for advices, work at the shop can take time but I found them quite responsive by email
Andychn, do NOT send your Zon back to Zon for repair, but it won't hurt to ping them for advice. If it were me, I'd bring the bass to my local tech -- he isn't cheap, but gets the job done right (and within a week or two, rather than years). I hope you have a good local tech, but if not, best of luck with a DIY fix.
It’s a 1990 something 5/2. Old Barts with the mid adjust in the back. I found it over 20 years ago on eBay for $700…(really, I hunted for it for three years and found it misspelled) it’s been my main squeeze since. I’ve rubbed off the Matte finish on the neck from years of playing and the previous owner wore a thumb ring and scratched the top of the neck in the only place the guy ever played… so I also need the neck refinished. Send it to Zon? No effen way man! I called and they wanted me to take it completely apart and only send the neck! Right. After reading here over the years I kinda knew better.
My go to luthier here has moved too far away. Currently looking for a new trust worthy luthier.
I’ve been itching to post the following here for years…
I totally LOVE my Zons I also have a fretless 5 lightwave that blows everyone who hears it away. I’ve also still got my (originally purchased new) vintage P and J and I’m a bit embarrassed to admit I had an Alembic Stanley Deluxe custom made for me. Which by the way is a bit too pretentious to play in public with. But my Zons are what I always go to.
That said Zon has made some rather significantly poor decisions over the years…
I bought a very expensive Zon hard case for my fretless lightwave when I got it. Right away I noticed that the wall wart charger for the battery did not fit in the case with the guitar. It had to be separate which made it real easy to misplace and lose. The material they used in the very fancy, very heavy case outgasses a caustic moldy smell that’s getting worse as time goes by and simply can’t be removed. I’ll eventually have to buy it a new case.
When the battery in my Sonus 5/2 goes the bass cannot be played passively. Ok.., I get it… but… why have the battery access behind a panel that requires a screw driver? If that battery dies at the wrong time it’s a bit more than just inconvenient! Why on Earth did Zon put the mid adjust in the back? What use case supports that? Why make the pots in accessible for what in my experience with over a dozen basses is regular maintenance? I.e., spraying the pots.
Once Zon moved to the Lightwave2 system they completely dropped all support to the original system… then when they dropped the Lightwave 2 pus they dropped support for them. Why? These are not cheap products. I paid a premium for it. At the very least Zon coulda shoulda been able to point to if not supply the correct battery replacements! Which by the way are needed after every 1 to two years!
There’s obviously a theme here. Joe Zon focuses purely and only on two things tone and playability. Everything else is secondary or simply ignored.
Like I said above, I love my Zons and I still favor them over what many on Talkbass would consider examples of some of the very best basses made… but none of the issues I have found with my Zons were ever the case for any other bass I’ve owned.
My go to luthier here has moved too far away. Currently looking for a new trust worthy luthier.
I’ve been itching to post the following here for years…
I totally LOVE my Zons I also have a fretless 5 lightwave that blows everyone who hears it away. I’ve also still got my (originally purchased new) vintage P and J and I’m a bit embarrassed to admit I had an Alembic Stanley Deluxe custom made for me. Which by the way is a bit too pretentious to play in public with. But my Zons are what I always go to.
That said Zon has made some rather significantly poor decisions over the years…
I bought a very expensive Zon hard case for my fretless lightwave when I got it. Right away I noticed that the wall wart charger for the battery did not fit in the case with the guitar. It had to be separate which made it real easy to misplace and lose. The material they used in the very fancy, very heavy case outgasses a caustic moldy smell that’s getting worse as time goes by and simply can’t be removed. I’ll eventually have to buy it a new case.
When the battery in my Sonus 5/2 goes the bass cannot be played passively. Ok.., I get it… but… why have the battery access behind a panel that requires a screw driver? If that battery dies at the wrong time it’s a bit more than just inconvenient! Why on Earth did Zon put the mid adjust in the back? What use case supports that? Why make the pots in accessible for what in my experience with over a dozen basses is regular maintenance? I.e., spraying the pots.
Once Zon moved to the Lightwave2 system they completely dropped all support to the original system… then when they dropped the Lightwave 2 pus they dropped support for them. Why? These are not cheap products. I paid a premium for it. At the very least Zon coulda shoulda been able to point to if not supply the correct battery replacements! Which by the way are needed after every 1 to two years!
There’s obviously a theme here. Joe Zon focuses purely and only on two things tone and playability. Everything else is secondary or simply ignored.
Like I said above, I love my Zons and I still favor them over what many on Talkbass would consider examples of some of the very best basses made… but none of the issues I have found with my Zons were ever the case for any other bass I’ve owned.
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I have a Sonus5 on the way and I'm relatively new to Zon(I do have a Zon leather strap from back in the day lol). I got it off reverb so I didnt get to play it. What gauge stringes do these come with new? Does switching from 45-125 to 45-130 or vice versa affect them much other than adjusting action? I see where the newer necks have a truss rod? Is it hidden in the heel?
The necks are all a little different but you shouldn't have to adjust action between 45-125 and 45-130 (assuming they aren't tapered) and likely not the truss. Bigger swings in tension, then you might. The transition to trusses was around 2004-2006-ish I think- it's been a while so I can't remember exactly- but for bolt-ons the truss is in the heel, so you have to remove the neck.
In almost 20 years I've never had to adjust my TJ6 neck that I can remember, even though I've swung from standard B-C strings to very light E-e tuning variably over the years. My set-neck bass has needed some adjustment from time to time.
In almost 20 years I've never had to adjust my TJ6 neck that I can remember, even though I've swung from standard B-C strings to very light E-e tuning variably over the years. My set-neck bass has needed some adjustment from time to time.
Finished with a pickup upgrade I have never seen in a Zon. I installed a set of the Lake Tripple Agent dual coils with my Audere classic 3-band. This is similar to what Swan basses are using, only I have individual tone controls on each pickup before the buffered inputs. Totally different sound than the stock Barts, or any of the pickups I have ever heard or played in a Zon ( i have played many models with EMGs and the SD stingray pickups, even a hyperbass). The Lakes are higher output, clearer, more detailed, and have a glassier top-end than I am used to hearing from a Zon, and definitely more than my stock Barts.
These aren't like the Nordstrands, but more like the Fodera SD's, but more bottom with glassier more extended highs.
These make my Legacy seem even more hifi, but can still get that vintage thing with either the passive tone control or some eq tweaks.
Warning: these are P4 shape but a full inch in height, so the body has to be routed deeper for them to fit.
These aren't like the Nordstrands, but more like the Fodera SD's, but more bottom with glassier more extended highs.
These make my Legacy seem even more hifi, but can still get that vintage thing with either the passive tone control or some eq tweaks.
Warning: these are P4 shape but a full inch in height, so the body has to be routed deeper for them to fit.
As I'm in between houses and to avoid it stays in storage I loaned one of my Zon to a friend and he made a short demo video
Check it out !
(I already miss it)
Check it out !
(I already miss it)
Nope that's a "standard" Custom 5 with the polyfusion amp. He's also playing my MTD 535 AG5 in a different video if you want to compare with another "Double Bartolini Active Modern 5" sound
Not sure exactly what are the pickup on my Custom SB70V and SB70K, you guess is as good as mine
i would personally not use anything like steel wool on this. Joe will tell you if you want to clean gunk off the fingerboard, you can literally use WD40. It's not wood. It's a graphite composite that includes wood content with a protective finish on it. I would only clean gunk with cloth and cleaner (or WD40).
Yeah, I just use regular instrument polish on the back of the neck.
The back of the neck is also just paint, so I'd avoid steel wool. Normal cleaners for the back of the neck that are paint-safe should be fine. I've never had mine go sticky in ~20 years but everyone's hands are different.
NBD Zon Sonus Special 5 - 1998
Always wanted to try the Special so I jumped on the opportunity to acquire this 1998's.
Martin confirmed the birth year and also this one has the dual coil pickup that do not seem to be manufactured anymore (though I got some dual coil barto to replace the singles in my 519-24 a couple of years ago, not sure what are the differences)
The pots are scratch and the bass knob does not seem to be effective but my tech will fix this, I'm also considering an active/passive switch, I do trust my tech to make it super clean with the switch in the front.
It sounds MASSIVE, super easy to play. I'm not a big fan of the Gloss finish (both the body and the neck) but I can live with it
9.2lbs of goodness!
Always wanted to try the Special so I jumped on the opportunity to acquire this 1998's.
Martin confirmed the birth year and also this one has the dual coil pickup that do not seem to be manufactured anymore (though I got some dual coil barto to replace the singles in my 519-24 a couple of years ago, not sure what are the differences)
The pots are scratch and the bass knob does not seem to be effective but my tech will fix this, I'm also considering an active/passive switch, I do trust my tech to make it super clean with the switch in the front.
It sounds MASSIVE, super easy to play. I'm not a big fan of the Gloss finish (both the body and the neck) but I can live with it
9.2lbs of goodness!
It's very cool that people are getting used Zon's and posting them here and that is AWESOME!!!! My question is I haven't noticed anybody receiving brand new Zon's that I've noticed in a while.
Hasn't anybody received a brand new build yet?
Hasn't anybody received a brand new build yet?
New ones a are coming out, earlier in the thread you have that brand new Special 5, we've seen the 5 strings hyperbass, dealer in China getting a couple, some artists as well..and that's the ones that are visible.
But probably yes production output is limited
Very nice! My first Zon was a fretless '97 Sonus Special. Shouldn't the pickups on yours be multicoils? I eventually replced the Bart preamp with a passive VVT harness I made for it, and installed a kill switch for gigging.
Ah yes you're right, hence my confusion, that's what Martin was mentionning, multi-coil Barto that are not factured anymore. They sound awesome!
Shall I understand from your mod that those works well in passive? I really want that option
