matt_kovarik's Reviews

It is a solid foundation for a beginner all the way to a pro if you don't mind loosening a few screws

The sub ray I got was a 5 string honeyburst and it looks beautiful. There are a few issues with mine as the nut is not flat and the strings pop out when played at full force but that was an easy fix by tying an elastic band behind the nut and I will likely attach a full string tree in the future. I went into this bass expecting to make some upgrades but I'm quite happy with it as is. I aspire to replace the pickup with a quad-coil Bartolini to enable me to have silent coil splitting capabilities between jazz config. as well as P and reverse P. The MusicMan Xtend DL52CBJD3 should fit the size of the routed hole perfectly but I'm not sure about how the tight string spacing will turn out if there are pole pieces underneath the pickup or if it is just a bar underneath. The origional bridge is not very stable as the saddles often move on their own within the span of a short jam session so the bridge action ends up all the way down by if I am playing hard, but if I find some replacement grub nuts that part may be an easy fix. The saddles also move freely from side to side and are very noisy and buzzy due to there being no guide rails and the cheap springs. The string spacing on this instrument is extremely tight and is a huge adjustment for slapping from my 4 string ltd viper 304, so the smallest bridge spacing I could find is the Hipshot 5 String A Style Bass Bridge at the smallest spacing offered by bestbassgear.com so it is still wider than the original bit if i remember correctly it is less than a couple millimeters off over all the strings or maybe even less than one if I look back at my notes, so it shouldn't really effect the functionality at all, although I am concerned about the old screw holes interfering with where the new screws need to be but I will update this review on that when I get around to doing the mods hopefully this summer. The body wood is very good on this bass which is the main reason I bought it. The body wood is Jabon or Kadamba (Neolamarickia Cadamba scientific name) which has a janka hardness slightly higher than alder at 600 lb/f so it is very durable but given the density and weight into factor it sounds closer to basswood or mahogany but just slightly evened out of a sound. The finish on the wood it seems to me is not stained but is a decal or lamination of some sort uppon close inspecton but until I cut underneath it I won't know for sure. There is also a stripe of unstained wood on the rosewood fretboard starting at the 12th fret but is not easily noticeable at a distance so I'm not too concerned about it. There is also a slight bit of fret sprout out of the box but that is an easy fix and is expected even on 1000 dollars plus high end guitars but it is still playable out of the box so its not a huge con. I have not yet figured out how to detach the knobs from their pots and they seem to be bolted to the pickguard itself so I will probably have the tech at Guitar Center replace those since new pots are necessary for the new pickup. Don't get me wrong, the foundation on this bass is fantastic on this bass and it has the potential to be much better than an Ernie ball MM given a few mods, and they seem to have designed it for good quality irreplaceable parts and cheap replaceable parts which is what I love. If you are a beginner or pro who wants a bass that will grow as you grow than this is the way to go!