This is a very special bass. It has been assembled by us at the shop with a very clear idea in mind: come up with the best P Bass ever. Have we succeeded? We think so. Keep reading.
We started of with a solid Fender American Standard P Bass alder body (slightly used). The perfect foundation for a great instrument.
The neck is obviously very important so we pulled all the stops here and chose a Warmoth USA neck made of birds' eye maple (both fingeboard and neck). Dimensions are the traditional 44mm and deep D shape. If you like to feel a substantial neck under your hand this is for you. If you prefer thin necks then you are better off with something different. The thick neck adds stability and feels really solid.
The next important ingredient is the bridge. This was a no brainer for us as we knew it had to be the fantastic Badass II. This bridge, now discontinued, has been chosen as a retrofit for decades by players who wanted to improve the performance of their vintage Fender basses. It does improve tone and sustain, allows for easier adjustments and reduces dead spots. What's not to like?
Of course electronics are terribly important too and here we also grabbed the inspiration from hundreds of players who have upgraded their vintage Fender basses with active EMG pickups for years. While most of us relate vintage basses to passive pickups, the truth is that many players who installed active pickups in their instruments never looked back. There are several advantages to active EMG's such as extended frequency response, completely noisefree operation (including hum and ground issues).
The icing on the case is a fantastic John East circuit especially made for P Basses. Controls are Volume, Bass and Treble (stacked pot) but there's more than meets the eye here. Bass is boost only just as found on Sadowsky or Pensa basses. This is great as cutting the Bass EQ is never a good idea on an electric bass. This means that the center click is actually 50% bass boost. We love it because that bass boost actually sounds incredibly natural and organic. The treble pot on the othe side is Boost/Cut meaning you can reduce the treble and get a tone similar to a classic bass. Boosting the Treble gets you a lot of string detail which could be useful for some styles of when your strings are not as fresh as you'd like. Pulling the treble pot engages the bright boost just in case you need some extra high end detail.
A single 9 Volt battery is located under the pickguard and this is all you'll need for hours of use. Just replace the battery once a year and you should be good to go.
The sum of all these parts create an incredible bass all around. It's rock solid, plays and feels great and it covers the sounds of the best P Bass of the last decades. A true workhorse.
It sports Fender 45-105 Stainless Steel strings but of course we can install others if you prefer (including flatwounds which would be really interesting).
Your choice of padded gigbag or foam softcase.
Please note: this is a new bass but the body shows some minor wear.