Well, after the "Gibson Grabber 3 70s Tribute Bass" fiasco, I consoled myself with an Epiphone Jack Casady. In gold, of course, gold is the colour of winners (medals) after all. Well, unless you are literally coloured gold, then you lose:
But I digress. I always liked the look of these, and let's face it - the chances of me owning a Les Paul Sig are virtually zero - I've never spent more than a grand on a bass (my wife bought me my RD
). However, I tried one in a shop a couple of years ago and thought "meh" to myself - it didn't particularly stand out or do anything special. So I put it down and tried to forget about it.
But I started finding YouTube vids of it sounding tremendous:
So it got me thinking again. So I ended up with some money after the refund. So I bought one. You've seen them all before, so I'll only bore you with one pic (to prove that I have it,
naturellement)
Had a very successful band rehearsal on the day it arrived (only had time for a quick tune up and off I went) and it performed very well - I did experience a little feedback if I stepped too close to the amp, but rehearsal rooms are cramped both physically and acoustically so I'm sure it won't be so much of a problem in a bigger environment. Since then I've put my preferred strings on it (Hartke nickel roundwound 45-105) and tweaked the setup. Also did a wee recording of a song idea (varitone on 250, tone at 10) -
I am really fond of this bass, it definitely has a sound all of its own - it has no problem being heard in a band mix, but at the same time is quite old-school and warm. And growly. I've located a gig bag it'll fit in. I am going to pimp it up a little - got a set of Hipshot Ultralite tuners on their way - there is but the slightest hint of neck dive - more like a slight tugging on my sleeve than any actual movement, but also one of the press fit bushings is lifting out of the headstock under string tension. I do not like press fit bushings. They're fine if they're properly installed, but if the hole is even a hair's width oversized then this stuff is bound to happen. And the three pointer's got to go. I'm not saying this to stir the pot, just a declaration of my intentions.
But consider me a happy camper. Got another band practice tonight, and I've just acquired a Zoom H2n so I hope for some tasty recordings