ped

Another Jazz Bass clone? What’s the point? As someone who has tried many different basses over the years I have settled on something completely out of the ordinary rather than an off the shelf model – and I love it. Does a Jazz clone do anything for me now? Will it ever? Well, continue reading and you might just find out! An old dog with new tricks First let me run through some basic specs. The bass is a prototype which Jeff and his brother Randy put together over a period of about 3 months. The bass was made to evaluate an interesting electronics package and it’s aimed at the gigging bassist looking for a lightweight, usable and reliable instrument. -Maple neck and fretboard -Mahogany body with metallic blue paint -Chrome hardware (PING tuners) -EMG JV pickups (Alnico rods, dual coil. data sheet here) -Modified EMG electronics incorporating an EXB expander. So the bass is a little different in the electronics department. The controls on the bass, nearest the pickups first, are neck volume, bridge volume, standard tone control and then the EMG EXB bass expander control. There’s also a switch for flipping between the standard Tone and the EXB circuit. WTF is an EMG EXP The EXB Bass Expander is a clever little device that increases the low and high frequency regions while reducing the midrange simultaneously to provide extra gain and punch. It works a bit like an unconventional equalisation control that instantly serves up a more percussive sound. Quite useful if you’re a slapper. But it’s a Jazz Bass! I have heard the same comment from countless people on BC over the years. No matter how often a user posts a picture of a custom built one-off hand made bass, if it’s the shape of a Jazz Bass, someone will say it’s ‘just another clone’. I haven’t had a Jazz Bass shaped instrument for a long time, and I must admit to feeling more interested in basses that don’t fit the mould. When this bass arrived, though, I found it was nice to have a ‘classic’ in the stable. A bit like a motor enthusiast might like to have a Cadillac just to tick a box. Though I have a Jazz Bass model set up on myVigier with the Roland GK system there’s something about the feel of a Jazz Bass that’s hard to ignore. I always had the chrome covers on my Jazzes and so installed one on the Buscanti too, because it adds to the feel, the sense of occasion of playing a Jazz Bass. Adjustment I like the truss rod adjustment being nice and accessible at the base of the neck. It moved nice and smoothly as I turned it to try and straighten the neck a little. There was plenty of adjustment available and I was quickly able to get the relief just right. The fretwork is very good, but I did find that there was some choking in the upper registers on the G string, probably caused mainly by my penchant for super low action more than anything. However, the bridge was limiting the action by keeping the strings quite high up even with the grub screws in their lowest positions. I guess this isn’t really a judgement of the quality of the bass, because I have always found this with Jazz Basses so I suppose it’s inherit of the design of a bolt on neck where the fretboard sits quite proud of the body. I’m just used to everything being quite a flat surface. It made me realise how lazy I am as a player with my action and relief. In that respect I really enjoyed playing this bass near the bridge with the back pickup cranked for some tight honky growl. The high(er) action meant I had to work a bit harder and mixed with the feel of the bass I found I was playing quite differently. Still badly, but differently. Final thoughts This isn’t meant to be a review, really, because I can’t write them. But it hopefully has shown you the bass, a little information about what I like about it and my reaction to it. The bass would cost about $890 (around £560) plus a little extra for a hard case. Being based in the US this won’t make much sense against some European brands where we won’t pay import duty, but I can’t see any reason why Jeff wouldn’t be able to find a UK importer for these superb quality instruments. I like the little letter Jeff wrote to go along with the bass, and I really get the feeling that him and Randy are putting a lot of passion into what they do. And the ‘Jazz Bass’? it’s a classic. The Newport by Buscanti is a superb copy of a classic with a few subtle mods. Park one in your garage today!

[quote name='ZenBasses' timestamp='1386523534' post='2301018'] I saw Mr Bungle when they were touring the California album http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4rqXqpLCZ0 Perfect example of their music Ps is the bass player playing a Alembic or a reversed headstock pedulla? Or neither..lol . [/quote] Alembic Europa 5

This is my fave Bungle track! http://youtu.be/4L-RGT11mqg?t=21m30s

Bugger

Apologies if you've seen this already! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtdIbnEhJAI

Just to mention that Guitarchat and drumchat will only work when we have upgraded and updated Basschat. Don't worry about funds being ring fenced - in actual fact opening the other two sites will be relatively simple compared to getting us in a position to clone the work we've already done on BC.

[quote name='steve-bbb' timestamp='1384877739' post='2281767'] i found this one already in BC colours (sort of) [/quote] LOLZ Here's Nellie wearing a Snood!! [url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/chiscocks/10921929585/][/url] [url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/chiscocks/10921929585/]Nellie loves Tina's snood![/url] by [url=http://www.flickr.com/people/chiscocks/]chiscocks[/url], on Flickr Yes hats would be nice... I'll look into it. Reckon we can add a few things to the shop actually, including stickers.

Fixed? Should be fixed!

Nope you're right - I have emailed our chap! Sorry about that

[quote name='barkin' timestamp='1383571710' post='2265948'] That ties in with when, having switched to the full site on my iPhone, I no longer have the option to switch back to the mobile site... [/quote] Yup same here. Awaiting a fix, thanks for flagging it.

Strange - presume you have tried logging out and back in again? How about a different browser, same issue?

[quote name='KiOgon' timestamp='1383141257' post='2260671'] All that power - - - [/quote] It wasn't me, it was Nellie!! She's eyeing up my username now as you can see!

Also edited thread title, sorry about that

OK - seems Amazon weren't processing our payment properly, so I've made some changes and been in touch with them as their website is just totally awful and impossible to actually use. We'll reconfigure everything once it's processed and be back again ASAP.

Yeah, not you I'm probably just having a crap morning! We really do plan to add lots of functionality to the mobile app, however we're upgrading the forum software very soon, and that will have some changes included with it. We'll wait and see, and then adjust as necessary at that point. I agree with all the comments here, although it's important to remember that the mobile version isn't something we have a huge amount of control over, as it's built and designed by our software provider. We know from experience that modifying this can be difficult, and expensive. Cheers ped

Logical debate is one thing - flat out demands are another!

[quote name='ped' timestamp='1383003337' post='2259129'] I know what you mean. There's a lot of work going on over the next couple of months. An enhanced app is on out wish list but we'll be talking about that after we've sorted and upgraded some other areas. Cheers [/quote] As I said...

Yup I'm assuming it's everyone, cheers

lol. Yeah... Pizza menus, double glazing...

Lol yep sorry apparently I've fixed part if it.. Should be cool soon.

Wahey my bass is in one of the pics, just http://www.flickr.com/photos/bluejay_my_photos/10052316854/ Thanks Silv, some great pictures of a brilliant bash!

[quote name='BigBeatNut' timestamp='1383002465' post='2259115'] I beg to differ. I personally find the little blue circle for 'go to first unread post in thread' VERY hard to hit at times. Sometimes I go through 4 or 5 cycles of:[list] [*]carefully try and and hit the circle [*]oops I'm at the first page of the thread, must have missed. [*]scroll down to find the previous page button in safari, hit the button [*]see the original page but with the loading overlay covering the blue dot [*]refresh the page to get rid of the overlay [*]carefully try and hit the circle .... [/list] This gets a bit wearing. Using Talkbass via it's own app (which is essentially Tapatalk) is a joy by comparison. Could we please have Tapatalk enabled for basschat ? OR ... you could enlarge the target area for the 'first unread post' so it's easier to hit. But using an app like Tapatalk is actually much easier for me. (Apologies for cross-post) [/quote] I know what you mean. There's a lot of work going on over the next couple of months. An enhanced app is on out wish list but we'll be talking about that after we've sorted and upgraded some other areas. Cheers

Maybe. All I know is that the service is now back online so perhaps any posts made between it going down and coming back won't be 'notified'? We'll have a more detailed look at the weekend. Cheers

Should be fixed now. Just a little tidying up to do. I've told Dood to do it LOL. Cheers