NHoner from Chattanooga, TN
Subject:
Lots of positives, but a couple negatives
Quality:
I've only owned it a month, but it seems very substantial, particularly for this price range.
Features:
It looks great, and retails at a reasonable price. Fender should support this product by providing a case, or at least a gig bag!
Sound:
As with other reviewers, I found that it sounds better under amplification than acoustically. Acoustic sound is a little thin.
Playability and Feel:
Once the strings were lowered, it was fine. The Fishman electronics are pretty darn good, and the onboard tuner is sweet. I'm used to a P neck, so the J neck on this bass is fun to play.
Tone:
It's pretty easy to wander into Harsh Treble Land, especially with the bronze strings that it comes with. As a consequence, I'm going to replace them with nickles. Also, I noticed a slight lack of presence on the E string compared to the others, although it's nothing I cant adjust to manually by digging in a little on that string.
Finish:
It's a stunning-looking bass. The finish was gorgeous.
Action:
The China factory Fender uses has some quality control issues: the strings were sitting on top of the nut, and I had to get the nut string grooves filed out by a repair guy. Some other owners have noted this same problem, others haven't.
Do you own this product?:
Yup
Mark from Illinois
Quality:
I have found no issue with the quality other than having to tighten up the bridge pins a little. With the crazy temperature and humidity changes here the Midwest, a little movement in the wood comes with the territory.
Features:
For me it's the Jazz neck. To pick up an acoustic that has the feel of an electrics made it easy to play right away. No baseball bat neck like I find on many other acoustics. Only feature I would add is a tortoise shell pickguard instead of the boring gold. Still a beautiful instrument but could be made more striking with a cooler pickguard.
Sound:
Love the tone! Took it to church to play last week and plugged into my Ampeg BA-115 it made beautiful sounds. Since the guitarist plays acoustic it was a great fit.
Playability and Feel:
Everything feels great. Most ABG's have such a deep body that you can hardly get your arm around them but the slimmer body on the Kingman sits nicely on your lap and you can actually see the top and fretboard! Still retains good volume even without the body depth of most ABG's.
Tone:
I didn't get a lot of bright and snappy out of this bass, a good warm acoustic tone when matched with the Fishman electronics sounds phenomenal amplified. I am dumping the bronze strings that come stock on the bass for my preferred half round string which will mellow it even more and get rid of the scratchy sounds from the bronze roundwounds.
Finish:
The fit and finish is outstanding. The woods look great, binding is perfect. It really it well built.
Action:
Action was great out of the box - I planned on having to do some adjustments but it was dead on for my preferences
Date submitted:
February 22, 2011
Do you own this product?:
Yes
Tom P. from Cedar Rapids, Iowa
tpat8549@yahoo.com
Quality:
Good quality however the g string sounded a little flat compaired to others. Had to shim pickup on that side. It appeared crushed. I straightened it out and sound was 100% better. Otherwise the bass is awesome.
Features:
Playability, neck, simplicity of design.
Sound:
Tone was fat and mellow.
Playability and Feel:
All felt great...no issues at all.
Tone:
I replaced the strings with flatwound and that mellowed the tone considerably. Also plays faster and quieter.
Finish:
Finish was excellent
Action:
Action was right on
Do you own this product?:
Yes
Scott from Visalia, CA, USA
Subject:
One of my favorite basses
Quality:
Very well made. I don't foresee any dependabilty issues.
Features:
The Jazz bass neck. Feels exactly like the neck on my Geddy Lee J basses. Makes for a nice familiar feel.
Sound:
Very, very nice. It's got the nice woody sound I was looking for. The Fishman pre-amp is versatile without being very complicated.
Playability and Feel:
Excellent playability. The neck really helps. It should also be mentioned that the body is smaller than any of the acoustic basses I've played. This helps as well.
Tone:
Smooth and woody. But you can get some twang out of it if you want to.
Finish:
Beautiful. Not a single flaw.
Action:
Perfect out of the box. Not too high, not too low. Just right.
Do you own this product?:
Yes
luke. from woodland
Quality:
The bass seems well constructed.
Features:
Good features on this one - Fishman electronics with on board tuner make things really easy. The electric bass headstock makes tuning really easy.
Sound:
Nice tone for an acoustic electric bass. As usual, hard to hear without it plugged in.
Tone:
It has a good mellow tone to it with some woody snap when you play it hard.
Finish:
This is the best thing about this bass. It looks like no other acoustic electric bass out there. The finish was great and stunned me after taking out of it's packaging.
Action:
The action came perfect out of the box. I'll still set it up, but I did not have any difficulty playing it right from the get go. I'm impressed, Fender!
Do you own this product?:
Yes