Pasta Primavera anyone?

[Barklessdog]

Its supposed to be the "white mahogany", the other meat.

Dead strings do not help either.

[uwe]

Thanks for the candid review, John, I appreciate the facts as they are!

There are basses that sound good (if not as good) even with dead strings and there are (sometimes even high price) basses that die a death if they don't have fresh strings. My Stingray, my Bongo and my Kubicki come to mind (funnily enough all of them active basses).

I'm not gonna tamper with the guts of the Primavera, much as I don't care for the Bart circuit it is what was originally (and period-fitting) on this bass. If there were more basses of this type out there, I might think about it, but this is a prototypes so it will stay unmodded. But I will certainly get it into a playable state and get it to sound as good as it possibly can (and if that means frequent string changes, so be it) AND it will be played.

Then again the fact that its sound is less than eye- and ear-opening might be the exact reason why it never made the production line in the first place. That is what prototypes are made for I guess.

Uwe

[uwe]

Primavera issa here, Signorrre Ferrrtig!!! Grazie mille!

And you know what? I have a hunch this is something they played around with when they designed the Lee Sklar. Its shape (which always reminded me of something, but I couldn't put my finger on it) is a more organic, gently elongated Lee Sklar shape and it features mandolin frets (even thinner than on the Lee Sklar by the way!). Even the case is a Lee Sklar one. Even with the dead strings, I can hear something in that bass that will eventually make it sound good. Not rock'n'roll, but musical ... As is, the sound is less artificial than on similarly equipped maho body and neck, maple top basses.

Uwe 

[Barklessdog]

I'm glad it arrived in good shape. I knew you would find something positive in it!

It is a nice looking, well crafted bass.

[Dave W]

Interesting...I never even thought about the Sklar in connection with this one. But the mandolin frets can't be a coincidence, since that's so far from what Gibson has normally used in the last 25 years or so.

Put some Super Slinkies on it and then tell us what you think.

[Chris P.]

Great story, Herr Hornung! Must be true.

[uwe]

Well, the Primavera now has buffed (mandolin) frets, an adjusted bridge and truss rod, a new battery, some lem oil on the ebony board and a new set of Elixir roundwound coated strings which I thought with their mellow sound would fit the Bartolini TCT active electronics well as these tend to a little on the sharp side.

It's - as could be expected from the looks - not a rocker's bass. The tone is assertive in a well-behaved/understated manner, no frequency jumps at you, no frequency seems to be missing,  very even across the fretboard, bass, mids and treble equally represented in a very transparent, three-dimensional way. A maho or alder body would blur more both as regards treble and mids, a maple bite more in the treble department, a zebra wood body sound denser and deader. Primavera sounds a bit like (heavy) ash, very contoured, present and focused. A serious-minded wood -  But in a jazzy outfit where you want every note to be heard, yet never get in the way of the other instruments, it could work wonders.

The relatively thick neck, the coated strings and the lack of abrasion from the mandolin frets make for a very smooth playing feel, you slip from low to high registers like nothing with a lack of fret noise that makes other basses sound outright sloppy.

Uwe 

[Chris P.]

Sounds nice. I'm curious, though, how it'll sound with good round wounds. Do you have an idea?

[uwe]

But Elixir goretex coated roundwounds are good roundwounds, mein Herr!  Just not as metallic bright at the beginning of their lifespan (they sound like 2 week old reg rounds) and much longerlasting without sound deterioration.

Diese jungen Leute ... 

Uwe

[Chris P.]

Entschuldigung, Herr Hornung. My post looks like a sarcastic attack on Elixir, but I was just misreading your post. I thought you said flatwounds....
I've never tried Elixirs, but I think I'll like 'm. I just use the cheap Fender 7250s (the only bass strings at my local shop..) or normal d'Addarios, which I prefer. As long as it's nickel...

[Barklessdog]

Does it sound substantially different from other Bart Equipped Les Paul Flat Tops that you own?

I agree with your assessment -  Neither great, nor terrible, but I doubt is going to end up being your "go to bass".

[uwe]

A bass as un-rock'n'roll looking as this one, would never end up my main bass no matter what the sound as long as I still pretend to be a rocker! The Primavera sounds less sharp in the highs and more focused in the lows than a maho/maple top LP DeLuxe with similar active setup would. More transparent mids too.

Uwe