NBD: SP (Stas Pokotylo) Monarch PJ Bass, Made in Ukraine. (Ex Fodera Employee)

[Shockwave]

Hello all. 

 

It's been some time since I have owned a bass (2 Years), that situation has finally been resolved.

 

Long story short My US Musicman Stingray was stolen shortly after I went through a divorce, where I lost my house and my job all at the same time. I literally couldn't afford anything beyond sustenance. 

 

I sort of have some semblance of a life again after 2 and a bit years, though Rent is extortionately expensive and I don't see it getting any easier ever... But life goes on! 

 

Managed to get a bit of cash together to Paypal Pay in 3 on this bass. I felt that getting a bass was more important for my mental health at this point. (Don't worry, I have a large emergency fund and some savings, I just don't like to outlay all at once). 

 

Made in Ukraine Stas Pokotylo PJ bass. Clearly a Fodera copy, but with a different headstock. Stas has no website, but conducts business through Email and his Social Media pages.  Stas Pokotylo (Стас Покотило) (@guitars.sp) • Instagram photos and videos

 

Mahogany Body

Maple Neck with Rosewood board. 

Bolt on 24 Fret neck, Medium/Jumbo ish frets.

Very heavy duty bridge. Not a clue what it is. 

Wilkinson Closed Machineheads. 

EMG P-J active pickups with no pre-amp. 

Roughly 7.5lbs in weight, Though this was taken on a very dodgy set of scales... regardless, it is light!

 

I needed to take apart the bass, clean, reassembly and set it up when it came in as the action was pretty high (Though it seems to have been by choice as the Truss rod position was perfect for low action). Dropped the saddles and all seems well. Very little buzz from the frets if any. 

 

I am not a fan of the P-J combination usually, but this is surprisingly pleasant sounding after changing the pickup heights a bit. The Jazz pup surprisingly overpowers the P pickup for a change, which is better to my ears. It has a nice clangy tone with the Tone control all the way up, bring the tone down it has a really nice and wiry finger funk sound. The strings that it came with seem to be used standard gauge nickels.

 

The condition of the bass in the photos is not representative of what it is like in real life, there are more dinks and scratches than I realised. I get the feeling the bass was un-played for quite sometime during it's life and probably stored in a bin liner in a moisture laden basement due to the dings all over and the slightly rusty screws. I cleaned off all of the rust on the screws and replaced the Pickup screws for new ones. There were a couple of sharp dents in the fingerboard which I used the Soldering Iron/Wet Tissue trick on and they are much less noticeable now (It didn't effect playability, just cosmetic). The Low E tuner is quite crusty so will be taking it apart to check out the gearing and get some lube inside it. The nut is a little skew whiff in terms of alignment of the strings, but for now is perfectly usable for the time being. 

 

It is certainly a lightweight bass considering it is of mahogany construction. I was very surprised with the pleasant weight. Plenty of sustain at the low end. No Dead spots or wolf notes. Whilst it is a bass of few features and built to a price point, it is clearly a quality made instrument. I believe Stas Pokotylo makes the basses for Jinjers Bass player. I might drop Stas a message to find out a little bit more about this bass, including it's age and original spec. 

So in conclusion, it's a fantastic bass for the money which needed/needs some TLC, It was certainly made with some care and attention. I am happy with the pickup sounds and I don't see the need for a pre-amp. The Playability is very very good and is on-par with my old USA Musicman Stingray. This bass will certainly last for many years to come

 

Short term I would like to get the strings replaced with some Nickel 40-95's and the Pots replaced with something a bit meatier as the current ones seem a bit crusty (I believe these are 425k rated, not sure what brand they are all I can see is the T on the pot with a wiggly character next to it, any recommendations? Long term, I may try and get it refinished (Just a sand back and reapplied clear finish)

 

So yes there it is! Not something you see everyday. It definitely scratches my Vincen Garcia itch as it can certainly cop that tone despite the reverse P and active pickups. Will I keep it long term? Hard to say, I did actually go into buying a bass that was Passive and Fender USA Jazzish... But came out with this instead. We'll see how it goes!
 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 23 by Shockwave

[Belka]

I used to live in Ukraine and knew Stas well. I still have a couple of his basses with me here in the UK (as well as one which is still stuck in Ukraine). They're very well made instruments. Going by the serial number, this bass was built in July 2009. I can't be sure but I'd guess everything is stock on it as he used those bridges and the Wilkinson tuners quite a bit on his no frills basses (for a higher price you could get fancy tops, Gotoh/Schaller hardware, etc. - at some points he used to get electronics/hardware from Fodera if they no longer needed them - their old bridges and Bartolini pickups when they switched mainly over to Seymour Duncan for example).  

[Shockwave]

53 minutes ago, Belka said:

I used to live in Ukraine and knew Stas well. I still have a couple of his basses with me here in the UK (as well as one which is still stuck in Ukraine). They're very well made instruments. Going by the serial number, this bass was built in July 2009. I can't be sure but I'd guess everything is stock on it as he used those bridges and the Wilkinson tuners quite a bit on his no frills basses (for a higher price you could get fancy tops, Gotoh/Schaller hardware, etc. - at some points he used to get electronics/hardware from Fodera if they no longer needed them - their old bridges and Bartolini pickups when they switched mainly over to Seymour Duncan for example).  

 

 

Thank you for that! Stas himself messaged me earlier this morning. He has confirmed it has all the original parts and it was made in July 2009 and is production number 78!

Definitely appreciate the other information and glad to see someone else who has heard of him! 🙂

[JoeEvans]

That's a good looking bass! And nice to have something unusual with a bit of a back story.

[PaulThePlug]

Sweet... +1 on the mental health... just picking that up to help calm the storm.

Take it Steady-Eddie...

[Belka]

Here's a photo of my bass collection circa 2015 in Kyiv. Apart from the MusicMan all the other basses are SPs. The birdseye fretless and the 4 string I still have now. The orange one I sold shortly after this photo was taken, and the purpleheart 6 is stuck in Kyiv (I intend to go back and get it but due to the war it's not that easy to get there and back). The sixer was made in 2004/5 when he still had Fodera parts. The bridge and tuners are all Fodera badged and the Bartolini soapbars were the ones Fodera used in the Anthony Jackson contrabasses before they switched to Duncans. 

Edited October 23 by Belka

[Beedster]

13 hours ago, Shockwave said:

Hello all. 

 

It's been some time since I have owned a bass (2 Years), that situation has finally been resolved.

 

Long story short My US Musicman Stingray was stolen shortly after I went through a divorce, where I lost my house and my job all at the same time. I literally couldn't afford anything beyond sustenance. 

 

I sort of have some semblance of a life again after 2 and a bit years, though Rent is extortionately expensive and I don't see it getting any easier ever... But life goes on! 

 

Managed to get a bit of cash together to Paypal Pay in 3 on this bass. I felt that getting a bass was more important for my mental health at this point. (Don't worry, I have a large emergency fund and some savings, I just don't like to outlay all at once). 

 

Made in Ukraine Stas Pokotylo PJ bass. Clearly a Fodera copy, but with a different headstock. Stas has no website, but conducts business through Email and his Social Media pages.  Stas Pokotylo (Стас Покотило) (@guitars.sp) • Instagram photos and videos

 

Mahogany Body

Maple Neck with Rosewood board. 

Bolt on 24 Fret neck, Medium/Jumbo ish frets.

Very heavy duty bridge. Not a clue what it is. 

Wilkinson Closed Machineheads. 

EMG P-J active pickups with no pre-amp. 

Roughly 7.5lbs in weight, Though this was taken on a very dodgy set of scales... regardless, it is light!

 

I needed to take apart the bass, clean, reassembly and set it up when it came in as the action was pretty high (Though it seems to have been by choice as the Truss rod position was perfect for low action). Dropped the saddles and all seems well. Very little buzz from the frets if any. 

 

I am not a fan of the P-J combination usually, but this is surprisingly pleasant sounding after changing the pickup heights a bit. The Jazz pup surprisingly overpowers the P pickup for a change, which is better to my ears. It has a nice clangy tone with the Tone control all the way up, bring the tone down it has a really nice and wiry finger funk sound. The strings that it came with seem to be used standard gauge nickels.

 

The condition of the bass in the photos is not representative of what it is like in real life, there are more dinks and scratches than I realised. I get the feeling the bass was un-played for quite sometime during it's life and probably stored in a bin liner in a moisture laden basement due to the dings all over and the slightly rusty screws. I cleaned off all of the rust on the screws and replaced the Pickup screws for new ones. There were a couple of sharp dents in the fingerboard which I used the Soldering Iron/Wet Tissue trick on and they are much less noticeable now (It didn't effect playability, just cosmetic). The Low E tuner is quite crusty so will be taking it apart to check out the gearing and get some lube inside it. The nut is a little skew whiff in terms of alignment of the strings, but for now is perfectly usable for the time being. 

 

It is certainly a lightweight bass considering it is of mahogany construction. I was very surprised with the pleasant weight. Plenty of sustain at the low end. No Dead spots or wolf notes. Whilst it is a bass of few features and built to a price point, it is clearly a quality made instrument. I believe Stas Pokotylo makes the basses for Jinjers Bass player. I might drop Stas a message to find out a little bit more about this bass, including it's age and original spec. 

So in conclusion, it's a fantastic bass for the money which needed/needs some TLC, It was certainly made with some care and attention. I am happy with the pickup sounds and I don't see the need for a pre-amp. The Playability is very very good and is on-par with my old USA Musicman Stingray. This bass will certainly last for many years to come

 

Short term I would like to get the strings replaced with some Nickel 40-95's and the Pots replaced with something a bit meatier as the current ones seem a bit crusty (I believe these are 425k rated, not sure what brand they are all I can see is the T on the pot with a wiggly character next to it, any recommendations? Long term, I may try and get it refinished (Just a sand back and reapplied clear finish)

 

So yes there it is! Not something you see everyday. It definitely scratches my Vincen Garcia itch as it can certainly cop that tone despite the reverse P and active pickups. Will I keep it long term? Hard to say, I did actually go into buying a bass that was Passive and Fender USA Jazzish... But came out with this instead. We'll see how it goes!
 

 

 

 

 

Nice to see you back Rob, sorry to hear you’ve had some challenges, but yes, bass is very good for the soul 👍

[Shockwave]

49 minutes ago, Belka said:

Here's a photo of my bass collection circa 2015 in Kyiv. Apart from the MusicMan all the other basses are SPs. The birdseye fretless and the 4 string I still have now. The orange one I sold shortly after this photo was taken, and the purpleheart 6 is stuck in Kyiv (I intend to go back and get it but due to the war it's not that easy to get there and back). The sixer was made in 2004/5 when he still had Fodera parts. The bridge and tuners are all Fodera badged and the Bartolini soapbars were the ones Fodera used in the Anthony Jackson contrabasses before they switched to Duncans. 

 

What a lovely collection! Your 4 stringer looks great, I would love to see some close up photos of it if you have any about. I love the Black lined white dot inlays. I do wonder what a Neck Thru version of mine would feel like. I do prefer the script style logo compared to the more modern one. 

Maybe if I get on more sound financial footing I can hit up Stas for something custom... And/Or refurbishment of what I have now. 

[Shockwave]

30 minutes ago, Beedster said:

Nice to see you back Rob, sorry to hear you’ve had some challenges, but yes, bass is very good for the soul 👍

Cheers Beedster, we are a long way from my Mothers Rental house in Bristol... 16+ish years ago. 

[BassApprentice]

Just had a look through his Instagram - he makes some nice basses! 

 

I do like the Fodera shapes - but not their prices 😅

[kwmlondon]

That's a really sweet looking bass. Personally, I'm much more into the subtle aesthetic than sexy tops, so to me that looks absolutely the business.