OVERWATER J-BASS 4-STRING (SUNBURST)

[grayn]

This Overwater Jazz Bass has a body of swamp ash, a one-piece maple neck, with a rosewood fretboard, Hipshot tuners and bridge and Overwater’s own pickups.

The semi-transparent sunburst finish, with matching headstock and tortoiseshell scratchplate, have a classic and classy look.

It has 4 control knobs. Volume, pan, treble & bass (3rd knob is stacked) and finally a push/pull knob for passive/active, which is also a passive tone control.

The set up and finish is superb and is what I’d expect from Overwater. Everything is high quality and very solid. The classic jazz bass neck is smooth and supremely playable.

The EQ is a tiny bit disappointing. The treble is subtle, with enough scope to get what you want. The bass is almost too much. Crank it up and it just booms out too powerfully. So, one has to adjust this control, with care.

However, the pickups have a very pleasing tone. Not the most powerful, they have a very clean, charismatic sound, which is expressive, with a little bit of low end growl, if required.

I bought this bass as a twin to my other Overwater J-Bass 4-string. They are of the same design and components and feel almost identical to play. My original bass has a natural finish but the main difference is the pickups and pre-amp. The natural bass has DiMarzio Ultra Jazz pickups and a 4 band EQ, giving it a mid boost/cut and a mid sweep control. I feel these add a lot to the effectiveness of the bass’s pre-amp. The DiMarzio pickups are definitely more powerful. The Ovewater pickups have more of a subtlety and clarity.

Both basses share a sound characteristic, which I can only put down to them being Overwaters. To some extent they can cover the same ground, yet are different enough to make things interesting.

When I bought my first, natural finish, Overwater Jazz, I chose it over this sunburst model. I liked it’s bigger sound. But now I have them both at home, it’s hard to choose between them. Once the pre-amps have been understood and adjusted to preference and the subtle differences are determined, I’d have to score them equally now.

And that sunburst finish is really beautiful too.

[grayn]

I noticed a slight volume drop-off on the A-string of this bass.
I rang Overwater and Chris got some replacement pickups in for me.
I took a trip to Carlisle and Chris fitted the newbies personally.
These newbies have a blade rather than pole-peices and also have a ghost coil.
Wow, these new pickups are great.
Not as powerful as the Dimarzio Ultra Jazz p/ups on my other Overwater J. But they are perfectly balanced, with a full, very hi-fi tone, that sounds great with my band.

Great service from Overwater and a pleasure to meet them, in their workshop