Godin Shifter / Fret-King Ventura - Three pick ups a new trend?

[Dave W]

Where?  Is that the street price? 

That's the street price on the cream finish with either maple or rosewood board (list is $1095), there's a vintage burst that's $100 higher. MF, Sweetwater, Music Zoo and Cream City Music were listed on Google Shopping, no doubt there are local Godin retail stores who will match that or better.

[Chris P.]

The RRP in Holland is something like that. A bit above 1.000 dollars.

[Droombolus]

  Euro Dollars ? 

[Psycho Bass Guy]

If three pickups is a new bass standard, for once, I'm ahead of the curve:

[Highlander]

close up... pretty please... what a fin...

[Psycho Bass Guy]

Believe it or not, the back looks better, but I don't have any shots of it. I started out wanting a G&L swirl finish, but this turned out more like a bowling ball, much better. I didn't make the finish. It was a local auto-finish place that did some guitar work on the side a few years ago. It's an ESP body I got off eBay.

[Dave W]

That's a cool finish, it does look better than the G&L swirl finish.

[exiledarchangel]

Guess what? There's enough space for a Mudbucker!

[Iome]

Nice, looks like black marble. How's the electronic? 3 volume and 1 tone knob? is the P PU. usefull combined with the Jazz PU's that close?

[Highlander]

That looks like they "rag-rolled" with crinkled plastic over a silver base - gorgeous...

If you have no objections could I pm for a jpg...?

[Psycho Bass Guy]

Guess what? There's enough space for a Mudbucker!

..not on the control plate. It was already routed when I got it and cutting through that finish would crack it. I know you're just kidding, but I had thought about doing that.

How's the electronic? 3 volume and 1 tone knob?

Affirmative.

is the P PU. usefull combined with the Jazz PU's that close?

...when I get the right one it will be. That bass has had two complete pickups exchanges. The first Jazz set I had in it was a NOS set of Jacksons with a Lace Sensor P-pickup. I have a set of Jacksons in my main gigging Jazz and they are magic, but pretty low output. I hunted high and low for some old Jacksons on eBay for months, but could never find them. The ones I used ended up coming (ironically) from the asshole who owns the local vintage shop. I paid $130 for the set, but they were NOS, leads untouched and still in their original boxes. My plan was to use the Lace Sensor with them, all passive, since even though they are passive, they are very low output. Trouble was, all of them were seriously thin and nasal.

Since I don't want a preamp, I swapped the Jacksons for a set of Fender Custom Shop 63's Jazz pu's and the old pickup from my Mexi P-bass. The Jazz pickups sound killer. The Mexi sounds exactly like it did in the bass it came out of; very thin. There's no weird phasing, and there are few useful combinations, but only at low volume on the knobs. I'm thinking of trying an old Ken Smith P or one of the new Alumitones, which are supposed to be very top shy and beefy. The body wood is very soft, probably basswood or some other cheap wood, but the extremely hard finish and Baddass bridge make the bass very bright, even with flatwounds.

That looks like they "rag-rolled" with crinkled plastic over a silver base - gorgeous...

If you have no objections could I pm for a jpg...?

Sure.

[uwe]

That fin is purdy. Even on a Fender!

[Psycho Bass Guy]

That fin is purdy. Even on a Fender!

The only things "Fender" on that bass are the pickups and the neckplate. It's an ESP body with a Mighty Mite Neck that came with the decal already. I got the neck new really cheap on eBay. The decal was incidental. I just wanted a bound/block/rosewood Fender Jazz-style neck. The profile is much more Precision-like than Jazz. There is defintely a baseball bat quality you don't find with Jazzes. Since I got the neck so cheap and I hate to waste anything, and didn't have the time to flip it, I just used it.

The bass is probably 4-5 years old now and the finish was 1-2 year wait; the shop only did big batches of guitars and I had just missed the previous one. I wasn't in any hurry, and of all the finishes that came out of there, mine was, by far, the best. Most of the others were metalflake or total flat metallics. The finish shop was working with the local Fender dealer, who took new Squier guitars (mine may have been the only bass) and gave them custom finishes and hardware and sold them for the same price as Mexi-Fenders. They all sold very quickly, but it didn't prove as profitable as they hoped since the on-the fly-designed finshes ate up so much paint and were very easy to mess up.

[Pekka]

If three pickups is a new bass standard, for once, I'm ahead of the curve:

The Jazz pickups are in the standard position (or '60s) and the P is almost there, right?

I have a three pickup Jazz too:


A Japanese Hosco alder body and a Ville Tyyster neck. Ville also did the finish and the pickups and put it all together. The neck pickup has it's own ouput but the bass can be used in mono too. It's a single coil, only in a mudbucker cover. Better balanced that way and sounds great with flats. The inspiration was this guy, though I didn't know then (2006) that Mr. Rauch's Fender had a P-pickup in the place of the front Jazz PU.

[neepheid]

Been there, done that with the Gibson G-3:



Also I had for a short while a Danelectro Hodad: