At the last European Bass Day 2007 fair we were able to try a number of excellent basses, ranging from the most traditional designs and brands to modern concepts. Of all these great basses, the one we liked the most was this simple passive 4 string: Windmill JB4 Swamp Ash.
Behind its simple (and elegant) looks you have a bass with an amazing powerful sound. This is one of these cases where the sum off all the parts give a much superior result. Wood selection is really important when you are aiming at a specific sound, and Windmill chose a nice piece of Swamp Ash body (medium weight) and bird's eye fingerboard.
Although Windmill offer several of their basses with nice active electronics and lots of swithcing options, they took a more straightforward approach for this bass, so they chose two BigMag pickups and 100% passive electronics.
The result is a bass that has one of the best Jazz Bass type of sounds we've heard in a long time. Just think of the powerful sound Rhonda Smith gets out of his '75 Jazz Bass and you'll be close. You'll find yourself playing powerful lines from the start.
This is one of these basses were you'll actually enjoy playing less notes, as the sound is so fat and powerful that you will notice these single lines fill up the songs nicely.
