SX Ursa 2 MN CT NA Ash Any experiences with the product?

Technically, no. But I've been buying SX basses, ash and otherwise, for a number of years now:







and even though I suspect they have not all come from the same factory, the quality has been pretty consistent. My short answer is that each of them has been a great value. You need to know how to do a setup, but I recommend them heartily.

 

It's not rocket science. I suspect there are some you tube how-tos out there (I bought a book... after a lot of trial and error). In fact most of my SX basses played OK out of the box, but when you get one that doesn't, if you have to pay someone to set it up, you lose some of the great value of the low price you paid for the bass. And IMO, the more you understand about your instrument (no matter how much or little you paid) the better.

 

I don't have that particular bass, but i do have one ss ash bass thats very similar. Great bass overall. IMO its superior to the Squier ss jaguars that get all the accolades. Although there's nothing wrong with them either.

 

My experience with SX was very poor. The one bass I got had the pickup routes so far misaligned, it was embarrassing. No foam or support for the pickups, which fell into the cavity after I played it for about 20 minutes. Terrible, slow heavy glossed neck and garbage tuners.

I'd go with something better out of the box than to use up your time and extra money to try to fix up a stock SX. A used VM Squier would be a much better choice for close to the same money.

 

Obsess much?

You are not a usual SX buyer. One can only surmise that you are heavily OCD from these pictures.

 

Cost effective modification platform if you have the appropriate set of skills. Not half bad utility instruments otherwise, if you get a good one. I personally have never gotten a bad bass from Rondo, but there are those who have, and their stories are a tad on the scary side.

Bottom line: quality can vary widely from piece to piece, so examine your purchase carefully. Be prepared to replace strings immediately and perform a full setup at the very least, and possibly do some fret work as well. Some folks elect to replace tuners, pickups, and do their own shielding.

 

Agree with most of the comments. Pick up routing can be poor and the natural ash bodies that sometimes have very different coloring seem to be the worst problems i have seen. On the upside all the necks i have seen were consistently good with nice grain and decent frets. I haven't had a bad sounding one either. I have had three of their basses, a Brice 6 string fretless, a Douglas Sculptor 5, and an Ursa 2 4 string fretless.

 

Don't pay someone to setup your bass, go to the setup sticky thread on the hardware page and learn to do it yourself.

 

Having owned 4 VM Squiers and two SXs I'd have to say I'd disagree. The $115 basswood SX with the fake roasted neck I'd say ok, but not the ash basses. They're as different as the VM is to an Affinity. At a bare minimum the difference in QA is about the same as a Squier. The neck is a touch thicker than a VM, but it's not slow and has proven much more stable thru humidity changes than all 4 of the VMs. Bridge is about the same, tuners about the same. That ash bass has garnered far more compliments than the Squiers did.

I like Squiers, but the ash one I bought is on another level above the VMs. YMMV of course, but I wouldn't dismiss them.

 

OCD? Naw, I just like havin', and playin', a bunch of basses.

 

+1

There are probably few people on TB more mechanically inept than me and I manage to do them. I bought a bass at Chuck Levins in the DC area a while back and when I brought it back to try out a cabinet the salesman reminded me that I had a free setup that I never used. I told him I set it up myself and he asked if he could try it out. I think he was surprised that I could actually do it. It isn't rocket science.

 

Not only is it reasonably easy, the best the tech can do is set it up to his best idea of what you want (usually more like what they would want, or even "close enough, done"). Learn to do it yourself, get it exactly how you want it.

 

Not that there's anything wrong with that!

 

I found Rondo's TalkBass account.

 

As a follow up to my last comment, if i had a place to put them and no one to curb my copious amounts GAS i would collect SX basses!

 

I have a p and a j, love them both.
Play them out often as well.

 

Not an Ursa, but I once bought a 5 string SX fretless to use for one song in a live production. It sounded and played really well, in fact, it had the best recorded tone from the entire performance, going up against a good Fender Jazz, MM Sterling and I think a Lakland 55-01. It boggled my mind, I'd still have it if I ever played 5's or fretless.

 

I have a 6 string SX jazz in Black and White. It's a nice bass and certainly saves me the time and trouble to build one. It's a bass built to a very tight budget, so the tuners are very generic, as is the bridge (better than a Fender but not by much) and the pickups are quite dull and low output. So my advice is to swap out the tuners for a set of Hipshots and drop in a pair of decent top grade pickups and maybe a John East Active circuit. It's a bass that certainly benefits in a "pimp out". Is it worth investing £500 in such a cheap bass? Well yes if you are used to top tier gear. All in all...a pimped out SX is very very nice.