Overwater Aspiration Contemporary Jazz 4-string

[ead]

[b]Overwater (by Tanglewood) Aspiration - Contemporary Jazz 4-string[/b]

[b]Reviewer background:[/b]
I have been playing bass for around 6 years, five of which have been with the same rock band. We play a mix of as much of our own material as we think we can get away with at a gig, plus covers.

My main weapon of choice, and thus my main frame of reference, is my Spector Legend 4 (with P-J pickups and 3-band EQ), but I have a Yamaha RBX270 fretless (upgraded) that gets used too. Basses that I have owned but that are no longer in my possession include a Squire P-bass (my first bass), Washburn Force 4, Peavey Cirrus BXP 5, and a Rickenbacker 4003.

This is my first review, so please don’t throw things at me!

[i]Reviewer ability score: 6/10 if I’m being generous [/i]

[b]Purchased from:[/b]
The Bass Merchant who were very efficient. I had actually ordered and paid for the bass before it was in stock and have phoned a couple of times to check everything was OK. The Staff were universally excellent and very patient with me.

[i]Score: 9/10 – I would have liked an order acknowledgement, but they are apparently not sent when payment is by Paypal.[/i]

[b]Price:[/b]
£579, post and packaging were free of charge. The box was of good quality and well wrapped. The bass arrived undamaged 24 hours after it was sent.

[i]Value for money: 8.5/10 – In the price range that I can afford this is the best built bass I have ever handled. I also have in mind the RRP of a Spector Legend that is comes quite close on general quality to the Aspiration. To me it also sounds great (see below).[/i]

[b]Features:[/b]
From the Overwater site:
Machine heads: Deluxe J style
Neck: One piece maple natural gloss
Fret board: 22 fret maple, 19mm string spacing at the bridge, 38mm nut, pearl block inlays
Body: Light weight poplar, flame maple top, gloss transparent finish
Bridge: Overwater
Electronics: 3-band active, Overwater “soapbar” humbucking pickups
Controls: Volume (pull for Bright), Pan, 3-band EQ
Strings: Overwater – Light gauge nickel 40/60/80/100
Scale length: 34”

In terms of the bass I received: The neck has a satin varnish (which I prefer in any case); the EQ is actually a 2-band system (which, if I remember correctly, Chris said was designed specifically for the Aspiration series basses) that is mentioned in some of the posts on the “Overwater by Tanglewood” thread by Stu from Overwater as being an error in publishing the specifications.

The Contemporary Jazz is a very substantial bass and to me seems bigger in real life than it looks in the pictures. I measure the weight at 10lbs (the same as my Spector).

[i]Score: 8/10 – fine for me, but some may have been tripped up by the advertised 3-band EQ.[/i]

[b]Action, fit & finish:[/b]
The bass arrived very well set up. I understand that the whole of the first batch were set up in Carlisle by Chris and his team, and this was one of the reasons that I wanted to get a bass from this batch.

I would describe the action as fractionally high for me, but nothing to get excited about as this is obviously a very personal choice. I don’t slap/pop and so my preference is for a slightly lower action.

The workmanship looks excellent and there has clearly been a great deal of attention to detail (hopefully the images will show this). The various articles in the press would appear to be spot on in that respect.

The neck appears to be very well set into the body. There are no gaps that I can see; dead straight too. The frets were nicely dressed with no sharp edges. I played each string on each fret to check for any dead spots and buzzing but couldn’t find any at all.

The bridge looks very solid. I recall reading that the first batch of was machined from solid and that subsequent deliveries will have a cast bridge. Either way this is a very substantial and well designed unit (no through body stringing option). The machine heads work smoothly.

[attachment=75035:OW_CJ_06.JPG] [attachment=75037:OW_CJ_09.JPG]

The battery box and control cavity are very tidy, and mean quick and easy battery changes (unlike my Spector where screw drivers and finger nails are required to change a battery). There are two trip pots in there but I’m not sure what they do.

[attachment=75036:OW_CJ_08.JPG]

Being a bit picky I would observe that two of the control knobs are at different heights (by about 2mm). Whilst the finish is generally excellent there is some very light scratching where a Jazz pick guard would normally live, I think this will polish out though. Other than that, general fit and finish are excellent.

[i]Score: 9/10[/i]

[b]Sound quality and playability:[/b]
Now for the tricky bit! This is always very subjective but I’ll do my best to report as I found. For reference I use a GK MB500 amp through two Ashdown cabs, a 1x15 and a 2x10.

With all the controls set flat the bass produces a bright, punchy tone with an underlying warmth and balance. I normally used medium gauge nickel strings so the light gauge may be why it sounds a little brighter to me than I’m used to hearing. The pickups produce a strong signal with no obvious gaps in the frequencies I was hearing.
Rolling the pickup pan to the neck pickup and backing off the treble whilst boosting the bass changes things completely. The result is much darker with “growl”, and the ability to produce a good “thump”. The response of the EQ is quite pronounced and I felt that reducing the bass boost a little was a better compromise.

Conversely using the bridge pickup only, with enhanced treble and cutting the bass produced very bright results that were a bit too jangly for my taste, although I thought there was a bit more body from the lower frequencies than there was treble in the opposite situation above (if that makes sense).

The EQ seems quite sensitive with even 50% of the available adjustment making a substantial difference to the overall tone. To my ears is less is more, small adjustments producing very useable results. For my own settings I’m drifting towards the pickup pan slightly favouring the neck pickup, a small boost to the bass and a little nudge on the treble being all that is required.

The “pull for bright” option I guess is aimed at those players favouring the “slappity/poppity style that is very alien to me. When nobody was watching I did try a few pops and the sound was most nice and bright with some good “snap” to it. This probably tells you nothing so I’ll cease and desist and move onto more familiar ground.

In common with most Fenders (IMHO) the bass does require a little support when playing the bass on your lap. The headstock is quite long and, coupled with the traditional offset waist of a Jazz bass, contributes to the tendency to “dive”. On the strap however it feels well balanced.

Overall I think this bass is very flexible and easy to adjust on the fly, but remember to make small adjustments! It has a distinctive tone and I found no problems at all playing and being heard through my normal rig in a rehearsal situation. In fact I backed off the gain slightly as this bass appear to have plenty of headroom.

[i]Score: 8.5/10[/i]

[b]Reliability/durability:[/b]
Clearly too early to say, but nothing has fallen off yet. Given the attention to detail noted above I don’t expect anything to fall off either. Hopefully the finish will also maintain its lustre, although I’m sure the UK manufactured Overwater basses might well do better in this respect.

[i]Score: 9/10 – So far so good.[/i]

[b]Customer support:[/b]
Given that my experience in customer service in action is limited to Spector, who frankly are peerless in this respect (hats off to PJ), my contacts with Overwater and Chris May have been mostly enquiries as to when the Aspiration series would be in the shops. In that respect they have been excellent given that they must have been up to their necks preparing for the launch whilst being pestered by prospective customers.

Include in this the vagaries of a very long supply chain and the fact that this is the first time Overwater have produced basses in the far east, I have to say well done! If I was looking for areas to improve upon I would say that there was a slight disconnect between the desire to stimulate interest whilst keeping customers engaged and the limited amount of information that was published in the run up to the launch.

I think that from a Customer Service point of view time will tell on this range and I’m not sure as yet whether any problems that may occur will be handled by Overwater or Tanglewood. Hopefully Overwater’s established reputation will ensure prompt and professional problem solving for customers (I have no experience of Tanglewood other than a very quick response to an e-mail about the range).

From a personal point of view I would have liked a brief User Guide just to explain the controls and the purpose of the trim pots in the electronic cavity as I don’t know enough for this to be obvious to me. Maybe it’s just me though!

[i]Score: 9/10 – Very good so far. No details on whether the Overwater 5 year warranty extends to this series, or indeed how to register ownership.[/i]

[b]Overall rating:[/b]
I have not had the pleasure of owning or even playing a boutique bass. My opinion therefore is based on my experience of intermediate/mass market instruments that I have tried in stores before spending my hard earned cash.

In terms of the quality of the instrument this is the best bass I have ever owned. You can feel the care and attention to detail that has gone into making it and it is a genuine pleasure to play. I do not sit naturally in the Fender camp, but this bass is distinctive and I like the design and feel of the instrument.

Do I feel like an Overwater customer? On balance, yes I do. It also now makes me wonder what a “full chat” Overwater instrument must be like, and I think this is exactly the intention (and the reason for the series name come to think of it) in developing these basses….Matron, my pills please…

[i]Score: 61 /70 or 87%[/i]

Edited March 18, 2011 by ead

[vsmith1]

Thank you for your great review. I was already chomping to get my hands on the same model (but in blue) and I'm just waiting for my local dealer to get them.

Could you answer me some details:

Do you get any sort of gig bag?
I am wondering if I need to add in the price of another gig bag or case.

What sort of strap locks or fittings for the strap?
I do have schaller strap locks and would be wondering again if I need to swap out the supplied fittings.

I agree that a small manual of some sorts would be useful.

Clearly they need to update the website with the 2-band 3-band EQ error, and specify the finish of the neck as you pointed out it is matt rather than gloss.

Did you also try any of the other models and what made you decide on the Contemporary J?

Thanks

[ead]

[quote name='vsmith1' post='1166966' date='Mar 18 2011, 12:21 PM']Thank you for your great review. I was already chomping to get my hands on the same model (but in blue) and I'm just waiting for my local dealer to get them.

Could you answer me some details:

Do you get any sort of gig bag?
I am wondering if I need to add in the price of another gig bag or case.

What sort of strap locks or fittings for the strap?
I do have schaller strap locks and would be wondering again if I need to swap out the supplied fittings.

I agree that a small manual of some sorts would be useful.

Clearly they need to update the website with the 2-band 3-band EQ error, and specify the finish of the neck as you pointed out it is matt rather than gloss.

Did you also try any of the other models and what made you decide on the Contemporary J?

Thanks[/quote]

Thanks for you comments. To answer your questions:

No gig bag or hard case is included.

The strap fittings look fairly standard (although I'm no expert) with nice long screws though. I had some spare black Schallers which went in no problem as my other basses have them so I can swap over easily as I only have the one comfort strap.

The main drivers in my decision making process were firstly budget i.e. <£600 so that narrowed it down to 3, and secondly some variety in tone to what I have already. My other 2 basses are P-J and I wanted a different sound so that knocked out the Trad Jazz design and although I was tempted by the Artist, ultimately there were some great comments about the Contemp. Jazz on this forum from the lucky individuals who were able to try them ahead of the London show. I was hoping to go down myself to verify this but wasn't able to so I just took the plunge. Absolutely no regrets though!

Hope that helps.

[vsmith1]

It does very much - thanks again. I will plan for a new bag/case and strap locks.

I have sold my first bass a Vintage v940b which was a bit of a P/J and only have a Cort c5h with twin humbuckers - so I want to replace the Vintage and get some different tones that the Cort and preferably a 4 string. So the Contemporary J was looking the business for me and I adore the look of the block fret markers.