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Zon basses - is everything OK ?

#1,261
Proof of life!

I got a response from Joe today after two months of pinging him every two weeks.

FWIW the black bridge has apparently been the hold up on my build. From what I'm told, trying to strip chrome and black plate zinc (?) saddles can dissolve the saddles. I...don't even know anymore. The bridge has been mentioned in emails going back over a year with Joe. If you're wondering why just the bridge, it's because I provided all the other hardware in black, but his bridge is his design and to me a huge part of what makes his 8-strings special. If I'd known it was going to be this kind of an issue I would have ordered a painted bass and been okay with chrome.

But supposedly he has new saddles for the bridge and it's back at the plating shop. Kinda surprised they're zinc; both of the other 8's of his I have use brass for the saddles.

I'm sitting here finalizing the mix on my band's EP where I got to play 8-string on one song. It would have been sweet if I would have had my new Zon instead of using my old Schecter. Maybe the next record.
 
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#1,263
Otis Supreme said:
Jefus,

I have heard that Zinc is soft. Maybe he uses this metal because he makes the 8 string bridge in house and it’s easier to mill. Did he ever explain the use of Zinc over brass for a 8 string?

Looks like there are several people including myself that have their basses mostly completed. My neck and body have been complete for months.

Take care everyone!
Click to expand...

No mention of why that bridge had zinc saddles, even after he pointed out that the saddles on my other two Sonus-8s have brass saddles. I have a feeling that the bridge came off of something else; when I visited the shop last summer Joe pointed out his personal 8 (the purple one on the website) but it was mostly down to a body and neck as it had largely been harvested for parts. Maybe it was taken apart so a machinist could measure and recreate the bridge and saddles to reproduce them; I've gotten the impression that he doesn't have a drawing available for those parts.

The whole thing is weird.
 
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#1,265
Yes. When I went in to put my deposit down there were a few employees. However I didn't go into the actual shop that day, so I couldn't tell you how many. The day I p picked out my top was a Saturday and Joe and I had had quite a bit of wine from the place next door (Michael Manring was playing) and it was just the two of us.

It appears he moved into an already functioning guitar building shop. I didn't catch the name of the builder, but there are a bunch of guitars in various states of production. It says "Livermore Guitar Labs" on the outside.
 
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#1,266
I've been tardy checking back in on this thread, but last week I took delivery of my "twins" after about 27 months. I know some had shared QA/QC issues, but these were setup perfectly right out of the box with no issues that I've found. Very low action on both basses. Also happy to see these Zon gigbags are a step up from the old ones, they are really nice semi-rigid construction.

As others have shared, the wait is brutal but the final product is amazing... I'm very pleased with both basses.

IMG_8284.jpg


IMG_8286.jpg
 
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#1,270
VTbassplayer said:
I've been tardy checking back in on this thread, but last week I took delivery of my "twins" after about 27 months. I know some had shared QA/QC issues, but these were setup perfectly right out of the box with no issues that I've found. Very low action on both basses. Also happy to see these Zon gigbags are a step up from the old ones, they are really nice semi-rigid construction.

As others have shared, the wait is brutal but the final product is amazing... I'm very pleased with both basses.

View attachment 5267971

View attachment 5267972
Click to expand...
I hope you make amazing music with them and then share it with us!
 
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#1,271
VTbassplayer said:
I've been tardy checking back in on this thread, but last week I took delivery of my "twins" after about 27 months. I know some had shared QA/QC issues, but these were setup perfectly right out of the box with no issues that I've found. Very low action on both basses. Also happy to see these Zon gigbags are a step up from the old ones, they are really nice semi-rigid construction.

As others have shared, the wait is brutal but the final product is amazing... I'm very pleased with both basses.

View attachment 5267971

View attachment 5267972
Click to expand...
Marvelous! Those are beautiful
 
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#1,272
IMG_3480.jpeg
IMG_5145.jpeg

Ordered a Sonus custom special this fall. This is a pic of that bass that I tried about nine years ago at Planet Bass in Minnesota. Tony had about six or seven phenolic neck 5 string Zons in stock and with my own Sonus five I had a plethora of Zons to compare side by side, it was a real treat. They all sounded incredible but this one really stood out to me. It won best tone contest to my ears. The pickups grunted that killer tone you know when you hear it. Like a growl or grumble, hard to explain it but when you bonked it with your thumb or really dug into it that sweet tone activated like it was on steroids or something. I sold my Zon that I played for ten years to get this and it’s going to be absolutely phenomenal- I know this because I heard it. I recommend this build and these woods. Tony of Planet bass nailed it with these woods and design on this particular build. Of course so did Joe and his luthiers.
Sonus 5 custom special. Ash body with Purple Heart tone plate and Wenge top. The only change I made was 17 mm spacing and no matching headstock. I left the chrome hardware. Black would have looked cool also but I like the chrome. I don’t think I’d change the chrome on a 57 Chevy to black. Stoked
 
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#1,273
golower said:
View attachment 5273903 View attachment 5273902
Ordered a Sonus custom special this fall. This is a pic of that bass that I tried about nine years ago at Planet Bass in Minnesota. Tony had about six or seven phenolic neck 5 string Zons in stock and with my own Sonus five I had a plethora of Zons to compare side by side, it was a real treat. They all sounded incredible but this one really stood out to me. It won best tone contest to my ears. The pickups grunted that killer tone you know when you hear it. Like a growl or grumble, hard to explain it but when you bonked it with your thumb or really dug into it that sweet tone activated like it was on steroids or something. I sold my Zon that I played for ten years to get this and it’s going to be absolutely phenomenal- I know this because I heard it. I recommend this build and these woods. Tony of Planet bass nailed it with these woods and design on this particular build. Of course so did Joe and his luthiers.
Sonus 5 custom special. Ash body with Purple Heart tone plate and Wenge top. The only change I made was 17 mm spacing and no matching headstock. I left the chrome hardware. Black would have looked cool also but I like the chrome. I don’t think I’d change the chrome on a 57 Chevy to black. Stoked
Click to expand...
Looks totally killer!
 
#1,274
golower said:
View attachment 5273903 View attachment 5273902
Ordered a Sonus custom special this fall. This is a pic of that bass that I tried about nine years ago at Planet Bass in Minnesota. Tony had about six or seven phenolic neck 5 string Zons in stock and with my own Sonus five I had a plethora of Zons to compare side by side, it was a real treat. They all sounded incredible but this one really stood out to me. It won best tone contest to my ears. The pickups grunted that killer tone you know when you hear it. Like a growl or grumble, hard to explain it but when you bonked it with your thumb or really dug into it that sweet tone activated like it was on steroids or something. I sold my Zon that I played for ten years to get this and it’s going to be absolutely phenomenal- I know this because I heard it. I recommend this build and these woods. Tony of Planet bass nailed it with these woods and design on this particular build. Of course so did Joe and his luthiers.
Sonus 5 custom special. Ash body with Purple Heart tone plate and Wenge top. The only change I made was 17 mm spacing and no matching headstock. I left the chrome hardware. Black would have looked cool also but I like the chrome. I don’t think I’d change the chrome on a 57 Chevy to black. Stoked
Click to expand...

This is gonna be glorious! I really like the special pickup set up and even better with the 2 humbucker side by side.

There is a 519 on sale in Italy right now that have that set up but it's 35inch (and no truss)

I also played a Legacy Special 519 at a shop in few month ago...a bit heavy but sounded wonderful!
 
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#1,276
sullen-moon said:
Looks totally killer!
Click to expand...
I will be perfectly honest to each their own on whatever you want the top of your bass to look like. Out of all the 7 or 8 Zons Which included a used TJ and a Legacy , this bass was the least desirable in looks to me. I based my decision completely on tone, and not on looks whatsoever. The tone kicked my ass so much I thought I’m just gonna leave it the way it is and learn to love how it looks. The look of the wenge has grown on me a bit it is pretty exotic, but the choice was solely made from tone and tone only.
 
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#1,277
golower said:
View attachment 5273903 View attachment 5273902
Ordered a Sonus custom special this fall. This is a pic of that bass that I tried about nine years ago at Planet Bass in Minnesota. Tony had about six or seven phenolic neck 5 string Zons in stock and with my own Sonus five I had a plethora of Zons to compare side by side, it was a real treat. They all sounded incredible but this one really stood out to me. It won best tone contest to my ears. The pickups grunted that killer tone you know when you hear it. Like a growl or grumble, hard to explain it but when you bonked it with your thumb or really dug into it that sweet tone activated like it was on steroids or something. I sold my Zon that I played for ten years to get this and it’s going to be absolutely phenomenal- I know this because I heard it. I recommend this build and these woods. Tony of Planet bass nailed it with these woods and design on this particular build. Of course so did Joe and his luthiers.
Sonus 5 custom special. Ash body with Purple Heart tone plate and Wenge top. The only change I made was 17 mm spacing and no matching headstock. I left the chrome hardware. Black would have looked cool also but I like the chrome. I don’t think I’d change the chrome on a 57 Chevy to black. Stoked
Click to expand...
That will be a beautiful instrument!

Did they give you an estimated delivery date?
 
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#1,279
golower said:
A span of geologic time too much or forever and a day whichever came first. I have since taken up clock watching.Bell bottoms and heavy metal will be back in style……. But it’ll be worth the wait.
Click to expand...
Uff. Living that far North may have frozen your brain. I left Jamestown, ND about 6 years ago and I still don't think my mind has thawed. But I will say my Zon did really well in the wild temperature and humidity changes that your environment can put on an instrument. You'll love it when you get it. And welcome to the waiting list.

Cheers!
 
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#1,280
golower said:
View attachment 5273903 View attachment 5273902
Ordered a Sonus custom special this fall. This is a pic of that bass that I tried about nine years ago at Planet Bass in Minnesota. Tony had about six or seven phenolic neck 5 string Zons in stock and with my own Sonus five I had a plethora of Zons to compare side by side, it was a real treat. They all sounded incredible but this one really stood out to me. It won best tone contest to my ears. The pickups grunted that killer tone you know when you hear it. Like a growl or grumble, hard to explain it but when you bonked it with your thumb or really dug into it that sweet tone activated like it was on steroids or something. I sold my Zon that I played for ten years to get this and it’s going to be absolutely phenomenal- I know this because I heard it. I recommend this build and these woods. Tony of Planet bass nailed it with these woods and design on this particular build. Of course so did Joe and his luthiers.
Sonus 5 custom special. Ash body with Purple Heart tone plate and Wenge top. The only change I made was 17 mm spacing and no matching headstock. I left the chrome hardware. Black would have looked cool also but I like the chrome. I don’t think I’d change the chrome on a 57 Chevy to black. Stoked
Click to expand...
Nice. I’ve long yearned for that particular bass; would love to hear the results when done. Thinking about something similar.
 
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