| JazzCat from Twin Cities, MN, USA |
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| Subject: | My top choice for big city giggin' |
| Quality:
| Made very well, I love to play this thing whther I'm practicin or up on those smaller stages. It's well worth the money I paid for it. |
| Features:
| The whole package, I like that I can practice in near silence (which is nice for my roommates), the mp3 connection allows me to learn songs much quicker and the portability. I love thaqt i can take this in a cab with me when I play local gigs and it has a Lifetime Warranty so I know i'll be covered if anything happens. The feel isn't 100% what I like from my upright bass, but we're talkin $600 compared to th $4800 I spent on my upright. I still use my upright for those big classy gigs, but around town, I bring my Stagg. |
| Sound:
| Sounds good through my earphones, and when I hook it up to an amp or PA system. It's not the same as the tone you get from a full size, but it sounds really good. |
| Playability and Feel:
| Like I said, the feel leaves a little to be desired, but you can't really compare this to a full size double bass. It works, it plays like it should. I'm happy with it. |
| Tone:
| Smooth and mellow, a little on the thin side, but not enough to complain about, I just adjust the lows a little heavy and a little on the mids and I can get the tone I want. |
| Finish:
| There's not much body space, but it lookd new, the finish was consistant all over. |
| Action:
| Smooth and Easy! There was very little I had to do, the action was set almost as low as my upright before I even did any minor adjusting. |
| Date submitted:
| Nov 20 '09 |
| Do you own this product?:
| Of course |
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| DVDiva from Los Angeles, CA USA |
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| Subject: | Not Bad for the Price! |
| Quality:
| I ended up having to exchange the first bass that I received from AMS because there was crack in the body, right where the neck bolts on. After receiving the second bass, my guess is that the first one must have been a returned item since the second one came to me completely wrapped up with paper covering the strings and entire neck. The second bass I have definitely has some finishing problems on the back where the metal covers meet up (there's a gap between the pieces), but otherwise this second bass seems pretty good. There is something that buzzes a little bit when you play - I think it's the electronics housing or maybe the battery compartment. |
| Features:
| I like the price on this bass and the fact that it is so portable! The AUX input is a nice touch and makes it easy to play along with an iPod. The sound is alright - it's a good practice/travel bass, but I have to admit that I still love my normal upright better (it just feels and sounds better). The only thing that I would change is that I wish the neck was a bit more curved like my upright. It's got a flatter radius to it, which isn't awful, but it does feel a little different than a real upright. |
| Sound:
| The sound isn't that bad through the headphones. There is a volume knob and a tone knob. The volume seems to be loud enough for the headphones and the sound is good with an MP3 player plugged in. The tone is a bit flat sounding no matter how you adjust it, but it's actually not that bad sounding - it sounds sort of like an upright (as it should!). I admit that I haven't plugged this into an actual amp yet, but that's because I mainly use it with headphones only because of apartment I'm practicing in. |
| Playability and Feel:
| It is a relatively heavy feeling bass, but I'm glad it is - otherwise I think it would be too light to play on. The heft is in the body where it should be. It comes with a vinyl coated metal "hook" that you attach onto the side that you can lean on since there is no body for you to put against your waist. It's a little uncomfortable, but it's much less fatiguing than trying to play without it and holding it upright with your left hand as you play. Knobs are easy to access. I think you definitely want to restring it with better strings - the ones that come with it are a little "sticky" feeling (although they are supposed to be smooth) and they leave black marks on your fingers after playing even though I've wiped the strings down a bunch. |
| Tone:
| The tone knob is your basic EQ sort of tone which allows for a bassier sound or a thinner, tinnier sound. It reminds me of my first electric bass (regular, not upright, which was also some cheap one) which only had a tone and volume - same sort of tone choices. |
| Finish:
| The paint job looks nice and the wood grain underneath actually looks very nice - I wasn't expecting that for an instrument at this price. The neck and headstock are simple flat black, but seem sturdy with nice metal tuning pegs. |
| Action:
| The action was a little high, but it was sort of easy to adjust with the included allen wrench and the bridge. However, I had a little trouble lowering the bridge initially, and one side ended up all the way down and I couldn't get it to come back up. I had to detune the strings and rotate the metal disc to bring the bridge back up. I can't get the action as low as it is on my real upright because the G string does buzz a little when you play it on open. |
| Date submitted:
| 10/2/2009 |
| Do you own this product?:
| Yes |