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The Official Brice Club

#102
Fretless Z6 :cool:
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#103
BobWestbrook said:
Tell us about the Defiant 5. Is it worth the $$$? What do you think are the strong points?
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That's going to be hard for me to do, as I am a guitar player and this is my first bass...but I'll do my best with what knowledge I have.

The bass is MIK, I believe at the same factory as the Agile guitars. I have a few Agiles, and they are consistently well made guitars. The bass in neckthrough, with passive pickups. The pickups have a switch to split the coils. The strings are through-body. 35" scale.

The bass came with no finish flaws that I can see. The frets are level and the ends are smooth. There's no fret buzz, with the sole exception of when playing the first fret on the B string and that just a bit of buzziness. I attribute that more to the size of the string and the amount of motion it needs to vibrate more than to the setup - although I think a minor adjustment could fix that in a jiff. The body is plenty big to balance the neck, so there's no neck dive to speak of - even though I was using a relatively thin and slippery strap.

I like the pickups. Lots of flexibility in tone with 6 variations: bridge, middle, both. Then split and non-split. I though the split sounds were best, but that may be more my preference - a nice snappy sound.

When played acoustically, it's got a ton of resonance and projects well. The wood is as far as I can tell solid slabs of Alder for both wings.

I think with the splittable coils this will be a very flexible bass that will work well in lots of styles.

As with a lot of the Rondo stuff, you get a lot for your money, top notch customer service and generally well made gear.

For $440, it's not cheap by Rondo standards, but I think you'd have to pay a few hundred more to get these specs and quality in another brand.
 
#106
I just bought the 5 string J-Bass model from the bass player at my church. I was looking for a J-Bass knock-off because I have a MusicMan and a couple other basses, but nothing with a J-bass look or sound. And I definetly didn't want to pay around $500 for a Mexi or the huge prices of an American.

So I bought my Brice off the bassist at my church for $40. Best money I've ever spent. It sounds great, looks great, the block inlays give it a really classy look. I'm probably going to put Dimarzio's in it later on, after I finish another one of my bass projects. I'll upload pics of it later on.
 
#107
Hi guys, I've got a SX P bass- a 4 string & I've got a Dimarzio P pup in it- sounds great!!
Am thinking of grabbing a 6 stringer just for the fun of it- and to use at gigs if she( I ) can play properly ;-)
So are these BRICE 6'ers OR DOUGLAS 6'ers good value for the $$$$$ ??? I know there's a HUGE variation in opinions re the SX's etc... I'm one who thinks they can be great basses & are certainly superb for the $$$.
So was wondering re the BRICE 6'ers???? I mean-out here in AUS. I'd be looking at $1K for a cheap Ibanez 6. Some of the BRICE 6's at Rondo LOOK GREAT & their shipping $$$ are great too... so thats a no-brainer.
Would just like to know re your opinions on these 6 strings, Are they workable stock??? I'd-of course- give it a complete set up etc when it arrived. Are they easy to add better quality pups etc??? It LOOKS to me like Bartolini, or Nordy's etc soapbar pups would fit pretty much staight in them????? But DO they NEED this even???
Any info would be muchly appreciated.

Thanx,
Rod
 
#112
rodl2005 said:
Cool thanx. What are the Elecs in it like??? I was wondering whether these are worth the EXTRA $$$$$???

The BRICE DEFIANT 6 I like the idea of the coil tap, but was wondering if they're as good as far as EQ etc.??

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I personally like the passive eq of the defiant better, but that's just a personal preference. I don't have any direct experience with either, I have an older Brice that's great.
 
#115
rodl2005 said:
This one took my eye!!!

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I bought one of those about a year ago and absolutely love it. The preamp is kind of junky, but I kicked it in front of my Sansamp BDI copy and now I absolutely love the tone I can get out of it. The string spacing seems too narrow for slapping to me, but I play it mostly in an indie/pop band, so that's not really a problem. The only disappointment was that the spalted top on mine didn't have any "spalt". If you buy it, make sure to get extra long scale strings for the string through body.

Can I join the club? :hyper:
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I've got an HVB on the way to my house right now and can't wait!
 
#116
I just got my HXB-405 Fretless today! :hyper: I love this thing.
The TI jazz flats aren't half bad and remind me of the feel and sound of some old worn upright strings I've played. A little "thud-ier" than I was expecting, but they sure feel smooth. I'm thinking about changing the string out to halfs, and the pups and Pre to EMG's. Does anyone here have any experience/recommendations with replacing the electronics in these?

I apologize for the crappy pictures, my camera broke after a moth across Europe this summer. So I've had to revert to the laptop camera which makes it look like a lefty in some shots.
 

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#120
Don't officially have a Brice bass but I have a question about them. Mostly the 6 string fretless Brices. Is it definitely worth it to save up for a Brice Z6 fretless or will the HXB-406 be good. I ask only because I have heard a Z6 fretless and have been wanting to get a fretless 6 string for a while but I really don't have the funds to get a Z6 anytime soon. Any info will be greatly appreciated.
 

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