tjon901 « One of Genes sig's »
Published on 08/21/11 at 04:38Gene Simmons is one of the most famous bass players around. He is the bassplayer and one of the frontmen for Kiss. He is known for his unique axe shaped basses. He also plays some more traditionally shaped basses. This is one of the more tradtional basses. The specs other than the shape are pretty much the same. With this bass you get a mahogany body. The neck is made from maple with a rosewood fretboard with 24 frets. The inlays on the neck are a cool diamond shape. The neck has a medium profile to it and has a 34 inch scale. The bass has a covered bridge which some people may not like. Up top you get 4 heavy duty tuners. The body is a pretty small double cut shape. It is painted black with a white pinstripe around the body to break it up. The controls are simple with 1 volume and 1 tone. The switch is a 3 way toggle.
UTILIZATION
This bass has an alright feel to it. The factory setup on the bass was garbage though. This bass was Indonesia so by the time it go here it had to travel half way around the world. We had to really crank on the truss rod to get the action down. The neck had way to much relief in it. Once setup you can get a decent action on the strings. The bridge cover means its kind of difficult to adjust the bridge but you can remove it. After major truss rod adjustment and some minor adjustments on the bridge the action can be pretty good. The body is pretty light. This means the bass likes to neck dive. You will need a good strap for this bass.
SOUNDS
The factory sound of this bass is not that good either just like the setup. The bridge pickup w the jazz pickup was way to high and gave a way too harsh sound. You can do a good bit to improve the sound by lowering both pickups a bit. Once you do that you can get a good typical bass sound. You can go from a really high end funk sound to a more traditional super low end sound. Having passive electronics and simple controls limits the amount of tone shaping you can do on this bass. But if you are looking for a simple bass to get the basic tones this can do it.
OVERALL OPINION
I figure most likely Gene Simmons fans will go for this bass. Otherwise there are better basses out there for the money. especially used. From the factory this bass played horribly and sounded just as bad. You need a major setup to get this bass in a playable condition. If you are able to do this you wont mind picking up a bass like this. If you are looking for a good out of box bass at a good price then you should look elsewhere.
UTILIZATION
This bass has an alright feel to it. The factory setup on the bass was garbage though. This bass was Indonesia so by the time it go here it had to travel half way around the world. We had to really crank on the truss rod to get the action down. The neck had way to much relief in it. Once setup you can get a decent action on the strings. The bridge cover means its kind of difficult to adjust the bridge but you can remove it. After major truss rod adjustment and some minor adjustments on the bridge the action can be pretty good. The body is pretty light. This means the bass likes to neck dive. You will need a good strap for this bass.
SOUNDS
The factory sound of this bass is not that good either just like the setup. The bridge pickup w the jazz pickup was way to high and gave a way too harsh sound. You can do a good bit to improve the sound by lowering both pickups a bit. Once you do that you can get a good typical bass sound. You can go from a really high end funk sound to a more traditional super low end sound. Having passive electronics and simple controls limits the amount of tone shaping you can do on this bass. But if you are looking for a simple bass to get the basic tones this can do it.
OVERALL OPINION
I figure most likely Gene Simmons fans will go for this bass. Otherwise there are better basses out there for the money. especially used. From the factory this bass played horribly and sounded just as bad. You need a major setup to get this bass in a playable condition. If you are able to do this you wont mind picking up a bass like this. If you are looking for a good out of box bass at a good price then you should look elsewhere.