Alleva Coppolo RA4, Squier Affinity PJ and Squer Vintage V jazz blind test

[jazzpunkrock]

Hi again guys.
Sorry that I'm gonna repeat myself but I'm so surprised how good can Squiers sound! I took this Squiers directly from the wall of local music store without any setup. Affinity PJ costs about £200.-, Vintage V jazz about £280.- and Alleva Coppolo RA around £2 500.- All basses wear roundwounds.
I just marked basses like nr1, nr2 and nr 3. Which one is the winner? https://soundcloud.com/henno-kelp/blind-test-nr2

[LukeFRC]

I liked nr 1 the best - nr 3 was also nice.

But I don't think the lesson is that cheap basses sound good - the lesson is a great player can make any bass sound better than I could make it!

[jazzpunkrock]

For me the lesson is that you can find cheap instruments that sound as good as high end basses and it's good starting point for beginners for example. If someone tells me that "sorry this Squier is so cheap bass and because of that it doesn't sound good in my hands" then I can't be agree with that. You just should and need to do more practice and develop your technical skills. There is no difference if you have expensive or cheap instrument but not good skills to play bass then your bass playing can sound bad.

[interpol52]

I like the last one. My favourite bass at the moment is a Squier VM Jazz. It seems like if we just go by the sound of the VM Squiers then they are difficult to knock. The thing I have found though is that if you look at build quality and the overall finish, then you start to see where the difference is. In no way though is there an £900 difference in a Squier VM Jazz and a USA Standard. Just my opinion.

[HowieBass]

Big fan of Squiers here, hard for me to compare with Fenders as I've never owned one but I feel I hardly need to based on the quality of the Deluxe Active Jazz and Vintage Modified Precision that I own (plus it seems plenty of other bass players are finding current era Squiers just as capable as Fenders when demoed side by side). If I had to guess, listening to the fretting more than anything (quality of the neck?) I'd guess 1 = Affinity, 2 = Vintage Modified, 3 = Alleva Coppolo though again, in the hands of a good player they all sound pretty damn good and definitely all usable.

[JTUK]

Nr 3.

[jazzpunkrock]

Hi.
Right order is: nr 1Squier Affinity PJ 4string, nr 2 Alleva Coppolo RA4 and nr 3 Squier Vintage V

[Conan]

[quote name='JTUK' timestamp='1415261976' post='2598441']
Nr 3.
[/quote]
[quote name='jazzpunkrock' timestamp='1415286880' post='2598793'] nr 3 Squier Vintage V
[/quote]

[Mornats]

A bit late to this one but I was gonna say 1 is the Squire VM Jazz, 2 is the Coppolo and 3 is the Squire PJ. So other than getting the two Squire's mixed up I at least identified the fancy bass. It had that tighter, cleaner more focused low end that I've noticed is a difference - and one of the few differences - between the Squires and more expensive basses.

I bought a Squire VM Jazz last month and compare it directly to a Fender USA standard jazz and the differences were that the US one was a bit lighter and it sounded a little sweet - again, that tighter more focused bottom end that takes any hint of muddiness away. But I don't think that was worth the £900 extra. I've fitted a KiOgon wiring loom to my jazz which has helped (check out the before and after here: https://soundcloud.com/mornats/jazz-bass-electronics-comparison) bridge that gap. I've got a set of Entwistle neodymium pickups coming this week too. So for less than £100 I reckon the sound will be just as good as, or better than the USA model. We'll see! I also gelled with the Squire better. It just felt the more comfortable bass to play for me.

So I'm a big fan of the budget basses that are knocking around now. That's not to say that I don't appreciate a nice expensive bass, I just think that the Squires these days shouldn't be scoffed at for being cheap basses that are only good for beginners.