Stu Hamm Urge II Bass

hi- you might want to do a search for this bass. While its not a common model, there are a number of threads commenting on this bass...

Here I'll start you off
http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10261&highlight=stu+hamm+urge

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=189919&highlight=stu+hamm+urge

 

I have one... had it since February. She's black with the brown shell pick-guard. I use DR Hi-Beam MR-45's on her, which I string through the body.

FCM3 is right... this is a rather uncommon model, 'cuz you just don't see too many out there, much less here in Honolulu... and this is one of the things I like about my Stuey! I'm admittedly a little eccentric in my old age, anyway!

So... what's there to like about a Stu Hamm Urge-II? First of all, it has a surprisingly fast neck... almost guitar-like, and the neck is a full two-octave, 34" scale. You can easily reach the upper-register notes, and each one rings clear and true.

The body design is also different. It's sort of a morph between the Jazz body and the Precision body, which IMO adds to the eccentricity...

The stand-out feature of the Stuey is it's tone shaping capability. First, the pick-up array: 2- Jazz pups with a Precision pup in between. It has 9v active electronics... EQ's for treble, midrange, and bass, and then you have a pan pot that pans the neck J-pup & P-pup, all three pups, or the bridge J-pup & P-pup. Finally there's a 3-position toggle switch where you can choose: all three pups; P-pup only, or both J-pups. Of course, the EQ's work for all possible pick-up combinations. Now I ask you... do you think it's possible to find a tone you just might like here? Heck! I've had this thing for some nine months now, and I'm still finding amazing tones... actually, I think tone shaping with this axe is virtually unlimited once you include the EQ's of your amp.

I get a lot of bassists complimenting my axe. Some have said how they had an interest in getting one, but for one reason or another, they could just never take the plunge. I think a lot has to do with the fact basses like this are just not readily available for any hands-on tryouts. I believe that most music stores here in Hawaii (except for a couple of boutique shops), for sound economic reasons, are hesitant to hang such high-end basses on their walls, as they are afraid their money will be tied up too long, and the cost to do bid'ness out here... simply stratospheric! The market out here is fairly small when compared to the mainland; there's only about 850,000 of us here on our island of Oahu.

I also have a 1999 Warwick Thumb-5 NT. Just this past Monday, I received the Fender Marcus Miller-V Jazz, in "aged natural", that I've been jonesing for ever since the beginning of this year. You see... the MM-V was my original bass of choice, but the online sites I checked just never had one available, or not in the color I wanted. The Stuey was my second choice, and as luck would have it, Musician's Friend had a black one ready to go last February... now you know why I got myself one. However, I'm so very happy that I did, 'cuz this bass practically plays itself.

Now I get to learn how to play my new arrival...

 

Keeaumoku -

Thanks for the lengthy review -- I enjoyed reading it! You're right, the Stuey is more than a little ... er ... eccentric. (When you look at this bass, there is a LOT going on there!)

Having said that, I have always been kinda insterested in it also -- I'd love to be able to find/play one.

 

Always happy to oblige, my friend...

Good luck finding one to check out! However, if you do, I think you'll like it. I did forget to mention this: She wasn't exactly play-ready right out of the box. I had to have the truss rod adjusted, as the neck was slightly bowed when I got her. The string height had to be lowered a little, too. Fortunately for me, I have a friend who owns a music store out here, and he did all this for me for free (well... for the price of my first set of DR's). Now she's like my beautiful Asian wife... I can't keep my hands off of her...