Gherson 70's Jazz soundclips

[Happy Jack]

This is an early-70's Gherson (Italian) J-bass copy I bought off eBay a week ago. It came to me with the worst set-up I've ever seen on a bass, and it's taken me a week to gradually bring the truss-rod back to something vaguely sensible.

I'm not a J-bass player, I'm strictly a P-bass man. I bought this bass because the vendor described it as "the lightest bass I've ever owned". He wasn't wrong. The bass weighs dead on 7lbs! Given that the neck weighs what a neck weighs, that means the body is about 3lbs lighter than a J-bass would normally be. This thing feels like balsawood and the bass neck-dives like you wouldn't believe.

I ran the bass through a Citronic Hot Direct DI box into a Behringer 1604 desk (no fx, flat EQ) and thence as a Line In into a Zoom H2 recorder. Each clip has the volume on the bass fully up - the enormous difference between the neck and bridge pickups is just how it is.

Please take as read the ritual disclaimer and apology for "my poor playing" etc.

Cissy Strut - neck:

[attachment=63150:Sample_1...rut_neck.mp3]

Cissy Strut - bridge:

[attachment=63151:Sample_2...t_bridge.mp3]

Tanqueray - neck:

[attachment=63152:Sample_3...ray_neck.mp3]

Tanqueray - bridge:

[attachment=63153:Sample_4...y_bridge.mp3]

[yorick]

I had a Gherson jazz. The bass itself was unremarkable, but the pickups in it were amazing.... don't know what they were though.

[KiOgon]

In 1973 I went to that London with £400 + Barclaycard in pocket & my heart set on a Ricky but every one i tried was horrible to play. Then I saw a Gherson Blonde Jazz, fell in love & spent the next few years very happy with as my main gigging bass, lovely bass. Wish I'd still got it!

Cheerz, John

[deste]

Hi everybody. Reading "Gherson" brought me back to my teen years.
My first electric guitar (before switching to bass, but that's a long story...) was a 70's Les Paul copy. Pretty light, great neck.
About the pickups: a famous luthier here in Italy told me they were Ace, the same used by Gibson in their old budget series (like Les Paul Junior), anyway they sound great by what my guitar friends tell me.
Is it possible that good pickups were mounted also on bass?
Gherson was slightly different respect other italian brands (Eko, Crucianelli...), you can find many informations here: http://www.fetishguitars.com/castelfidardo-recanati/gherson/ (but the while website is very interesting).