Wood&tronics Chronos 'Klimt' 5

[mcgraham]

Hi all

Well, I said I'd do a more complete review once I'd had my bass a little longer, so here it goes.

I've had it about a month now, and ended up tweaking the setup a little bit after the first week once it had a chance to settle and I had a chance to make initial adjustments to the new bass. I've been playing it extensively, getting it 'played in', tweaking my technique, getting the strap height right, learning what tones it produces as well as how and why etc... So, breaking it up into some kind of sensible order.

[b]Sound[/b]
The 'base' tone of this bass is a crisp and clean sound, very extended and lively response. There is a slight, natural compression to the notes, keeping each note very even but without making them sound choked. It has a woody character, with air, detail and articulation in shed loads, but it is balanced by the slightly smoother sounding pickups that emphasise the bass and low mids a tad more than the original Nordstrands.

The sound is throaty in the high mids and treble, and has the slightest touch of growl in the low mids and bass. But it is primarily smooth sounding. It has detail and articulation, but isn't undesirably polite. It really does shine in a mix, with each note capable of jumping out, or merely filling out the sound of a band.

I'm particularly pleased with the bright switch (see below) as it gives an almost piezo acoustic quality to the sound.

The parallel setting is beautifully smooth and even with a slight Ken Smith like quality to the upper register, i.e. the slight mid scoop we've all heard. It's so slight, but helps enhance the detail and articulation of the sound, whilst not causing the bass to 'disappear' from the mix or not cut through. The series setting adds a good strong low mid bump to the sound but without sounding unpleasant or gnarly. Good honk can be gleaned over the bridge pickup in this mode. Cuts through a mix brilliantly. Single coil setting adds some slight snarl to the sound, but doesn't thin out the sound. It's like series but slightly less thick, top end of the low mids drops down in volume and the highs become very extended and obvious.

In essence, there are loads of great tones in there, and I'm learning my way round. It's base sound is just what I was after, and just slight eq changes makes this bass into a plurality of different sounding basses, whilst still retaining its own character.

[b]Feel[/b]
It feels better than any other bass I've played. Period. I was reminded of this when I picked up my Geddy today to go over some songs. I hadn't picked it up since I received the new bass, so it was really was like trying a totally different and somewhat unfamiliar bass since adjusting to the new one.

Basically, the feel of the W&T is far superior to anything I have played before. It has an ultra-fine satin finish on the neck. I dislike gloss finishes as they stick to me, and I dislike most satin finishes as I find them too dry. This is neither. It is like a highly polished satin finish. That should mean it's a gloss finish, but it's not.

The neck is much wider than a four string as it is full 19mm string spacing at the bridge and 60s jazz nut spacing at the nut, but this is easily adjusted to. The board is, I believe, 16" radius, which is just right for chords, bending, barring and reaching across the board. The banjo frets help reduce fret noise, and create an almost 'fretless' feel to the bass. You feel a much stronger to the connection to the instrument as a result of this. Initially they feel odd, but you soon adjust.

Access to the 26th fret is totally unrestricted by the extreme lower cutaway and totally unique neck heel sculpting. What is of particular note is that the bass sits off to your right, bringing the headstock end of the neck closer into your left shoulder, making the stretch to 1st position a doddle. It also sits flush against your body, which is great. Makes it feel very compact. Even with these features, access to the 26th fret is not impeded by the bass being so close to you and so far to the right.

The upper bout feels great to rest your forearm on and doesn't stick to you nor dig into your arm. The finger ramp is set up nicely, and the pickups are setup to complement it and facilitate additional ramp area.

In essence, W&T have thought all of these physical attributes through and implemented them into a total instrument package.

[b]Aesthetics[/b]
I've stated the wood specifications in another thread; I'll add the pics over here in a bit together with the specs.

Not much to say here except, I love single cuts. I love the 'notch'. It's always a talking point.
The top appears to be deeper each time I look at it, and there's always something that catches my eye about this bass. Nice touches are matching backplate that is magnetically attached, matching truss rod cover, highlighted silver saddles on the satin black hardware, tastefully large abalone dot inlays, laser engraved 'Wood&tronics' plaque on the back of the headstock, and the subtle 'W' wave that is their logo. I particularly like the 7 piece laminate neck, especially the contrast of the padouk and zebrano.

[b]Features[/b]
The preamp is a W&T variation of the East preamp. 3 band parametric w/ mid sweep, passive tone w/ active/passive pull switch, volume, blend. Pull up on the treble to get the bright switch. Toggle switches provide series/single coil/parallel switching options, each of which can be switched separately for each pickup and sound totally different.

The frequency centres for the eq are voiced sensibly, and the slight bass boost that is ever present on the East preamp help to make this bass totally usable in all situations.

They also put on matching black knobs. The new bridge is an ETS Tuning Fork bridge (I believe) that now has the 'Wood&tronics' logo on, very classy.

Props to Enrico here. During our conversations I mentioned my sensitivity to nut height. He then, off his own back and without me telling him, or him telling me, went and made a brand new brass nut with appropriately V-profile nut slots to allow me to get the lowest possible nut height, effectively a 'zero fret' string height at the nut, but without the zero fret.

The preamp sounds great, and is very usable. The bridge is very easy to adjust and looks great. The matching backplate is easy to remove so performs functionally very well as well as looking great.

[b]Cost[/b]
As I said in another thread, for what W&T offered me in a bass, for the price they offered it to me, I couldn't say no. Mark @ Bass Direct was very helpful throughout the whole process, and offered a total customer service package, in that he discussed my needs with Enrico, and they together reached an informed opinion based on their experience about what would suit me, and they decided on a price that they felt was fair. All in all, I got the deal of the century right here, and I'm enjoying it immensely.

In summary:
The [b]sound [/b]is clean, clear, crisp, extended and articulate, with the eq providing great versatility.
The [b]feel [/b]is greatly superior IMO to all other basses I've tried, it makes me want to sell on my other basses.
The [b]aesthetics [/b]are just what I was after, and I always smile when I take it out of its case.
The [b]features [/b]really complement this bass and compound its fantastic initial feature set.
The [b]cost [/b]was a no-brainer and my bank account is still happy, as am I.

I'm one happy chappy

Mark

Edited February 17, 2009 by mcgraham

[OldGit]

Nice one Mark