Tonka « A remarkable instrument »
Published on 06/08/12 at 07:08Made in Korea, bolt on neck, 22 frets, wide enough, rosewood fingerboard, large mechanical JB styles ...
Ash body and beautiful maple top ... Two humbucking Seymour Duncan home: a typed MusicMan bridge (with a nice potato) and a typed JB neck (a bit feeble for my taste), active electronics, eq 3bande (very good) + a switch digging mediums (bof)
An instrument rather massive (we feel at the end of the concert), pretty well done, apart from the saddle plastoc ... :-(
Vintage look but rather its modern, strong personality.
UTILIZATION
Very good handle ... provided to appreciate the wide sleeves. Touch is typed rather Fender, it is far from the world of modern fabric at Warwick.
Once the strings replaced by .040/125, bass lends itself to all the fantasies (slap, tapping, chords ...).
A bit heavy as I mentioned (but it is also a guarantee of good vibrations in the body), but very enjoyable to play.
With all the knobs at halfway (and volume donf of course), it rings immediately, with a basic sound midway between JB and MM ...
SOUNDS
Wide range of sounds, the MM in a little less twangy, to JB under amphets. One can even feel a little more sound roots with the neck pickup or the sound of approaching accuracy.
The active circuitry is in good taste and knows how to forget, the sound is quite modern without being a caricature, but can easily flirt with more vintage sound.
Note the mysterious switch medium, not easy to tame ... To "on", he digs the midrange, the midrange knob permetant dice when sweeping the cutoff frequencies, which immediately puts his fingers in a variety of sounds. I am not very convinced by the result ...
The instrument has a strong personality (not a copy more or less consistent), but it may however, with its own identity, revisiting the sounds that have made the history of the bass ...
Note that I play live sound via a multi-effect-preamp (Zoom B9.1ut) and I use that as my old Carlsbro personal return .. But I had the opportunity to try the fine on an old Ampeg SVT studio snooze, and it made him squarely.
I play in a more rock style, but with a rather bold, a bit like John Myung, to give an idea (unfortunately not as good as him, but it will come) ... and I like to occasionally sound more rock, more dry or venture to slap or chord playing. In short this low, with both identity strong enough, and versatility, is well suited to my style of play
OVERALL OPINION
I use it for a year (concerts, balls, home studio ...).
It is one of these affordable instruments but who stand up to very honorable way to much more expensive instruments (MM, U.S. Fender, Warwick Sandberg ...). Nice sound, good looks, nice finish, easy and fun to play ...
It has become my main instrument (although my old "The Jack Honher Custom V" is never far away, call it superstition d ela) ...
And this choice I would do without hesitation. Albeit with a little over budget, I would try the adventure of a happy Warmoth custom (with almost the same config), or a Sandberg, for example. But if they can not afford these little jewels, the GB5 Cort Custom remains a value more than safe.
Ash body and beautiful maple top ... Two humbucking Seymour Duncan home: a typed MusicMan bridge (with a nice potato) and a typed JB neck (a bit feeble for my taste), active electronics, eq 3bande (very good) + a switch digging mediums (bof)
An instrument rather massive (we feel at the end of the concert), pretty well done, apart from the saddle plastoc ... :-(
Vintage look but rather its modern, strong personality.
UTILIZATION
Very good handle ... provided to appreciate the wide sleeves. Touch is typed rather Fender, it is far from the world of modern fabric at Warwick.
Once the strings replaced by .040/125, bass lends itself to all the fantasies (slap, tapping, chords ...).
A bit heavy as I mentioned (but it is also a guarantee of good vibrations in the body), but very enjoyable to play.
With all the knobs at halfway (and volume donf of course), it rings immediately, with a basic sound midway between JB and MM ...
SOUNDS
Wide range of sounds, the MM in a little less twangy, to JB under amphets. One can even feel a little more sound roots with the neck pickup or the sound of approaching accuracy.
The active circuitry is in good taste and knows how to forget, the sound is quite modern without being a caricature, but can easily flirt with more vintage sound.
Note the mysterious switch medium, not easy to tame ... To "on", he digs the midrange, the midrange knob permetant dice when sweeping the cutoff frequencies, which immediately puts his fingers in a variety of sounds. I am not very convinced by the result ...
The instrument has a strong personality (not a copy more or less consistent), but it may however, with its own identity, revisiting the sounds that have made the history of the bass ...
Note that I play live sound via a multi-effect-preamp (Zoom B9.1ut) and I use that as my old Carlsbro personal return .. But I had the opportunity to try the fine on an old Ampeg SVT studio snooze, and it made him squarely.
I play in a more rock style, but with a rather bold, a bit like John Myung, to give an idea (unfortunately not as good as him, but it will come) ... and I like to occasionally sound more rock, more dry or venture to slap or chord playing. In short this low, with both identity strong enough, and versatility, is well suited to my style of play
OVERALL OPINION
I use it for a year (concerts, balls, home studio ...).
It is one of these affordable instruments but who stand up to very honorable way to much more expensive instruments (MM, U.S. Fender, Warwick Sandberg ...). Nice sound, good looks, nice finish, easy and fun to play ...
It has become my main instrument (although my old "The Jack Honher Custom V" is never far away, call it superstition d ela) ...
And this choice I would do without hesitation. Albeit with a little over budget, I would try the adventure of a happy Warmoth custom (with almost the same config), or a Sandberg, for example. But if they can not afford these little jewels, the GB5 Cort Custom remains a value more than safe.