Review: Schecter Rob DeLeo Bass

Hey all. I just bought my third bass guitar (my first being a Fender Musicmaster, my second being a Musicman Stingray 5).

The bass is a Schecter Diamond Series Rob DeLeo model. As far as I can tell, it's modelled after the original telecaster basses Fender put out, with a P/J pickup combination. The neck is maple, the board looks like indian rosewood, and the body is extremely heavy ash (not a very well balanced bass; my back definitely aches after a gig).

I have money to spend for pro quality equipment, and almost walked out of the store with a Flea bass or Zon or another EB, but saw this bass in the corner. It was slightly used, and it had been on the floor a while, but was in great shape, and was going for 400 bucks. Although it's not the most expensive or highly praised, I think it's probably the fastest and best playing bass I've used (with the exception of playing some of the finer MTDs, Sukops, and Pedullas). The frets were almost perfect, and the edges are smooth and the fret filling is very even (even my PRS guitar has some unfilled fret slots). The hardware seems sturdy, and even in the bipolar-weathered city of rochester, in a 10th story apartment, warping hasn't been an issue, and I've only had to tune once.

For tonal evaluation I use very minimal effects (the occasional dunlop bass wah, though I plan on adding some EBS pedals) into a Working Man's 10. This is by no means an extremely expensive rig, but for some reason, the sound is simply massive. I've played a lot of high dollar rigs (EBS Fafner -> EA cabs, Eden stuff, Aguilar, etc.) and though I'm not going to say that the sound of this rig truly ranks amongst the previously mentioned rigs, I think it's a tone that many people strive for and simply can't get, no matter how much money they invest.

The tone is definitely large and full range. It is lively, dynamic, and is able to crunch slightly when I play hard, morph into a great slap sound, and get warm and fat for those big held notes in ballads. It's just a great sound. This guitar does everything I could ever want from a Fender-type bass, and more. All the agressiveness of a P, the smoothness of a Jazz, the clarity of a Pedulla Thunderbolt, with a hint of the warmth and fatness of a Tobias.

I should probably stop here on my tonal quest before things get insane, but I am determined to make this bass as good sounding as possible. I want to put some nice clean snappy Thomastik strings on it, and maybe have Aero Instruments pickups installed. From what I hear, the Aero's can bring even plywood basses to life. If that's true, they could probably do even more for my bass than the stock basslines clones.

It's a shame to know that eventually I will get caught up in the "ooo I need that amp, or ooo I need that 3k bass," and a Fafner rig is probably in my future, but for the first time ever (I'm mostly a guitar player with HUGE gas), I'm really satisfied with my tone. When I sit down on the combo during rehearsal and just hear that dynamic, warm tone, I have to admit: I grin from ear to ear.