ESP Standard Series Phoenix II B Electric Bass Review

Howdy!

Today we are looking at the ESP Standard Series Phoenix II B bass guitar, which is their take on the Gibson Thunderbird. There were sold from 2009 through 2012 with little success in the US market, though their cheaper LTD version seems to still be doing pretty well. I recently had the chance to pick up a few of these for short money, and cold not resist, as they are really wonderful instruments.

For starters, this is a real live ESP bass, not an LTD model that was made by craftsmen in Japan, not by little kids in some third world country. And every ESP bass (or guitar) I’ve had has been a great player with no cosmetic or functional flaws.

And the Phoenix is no exception: this is a super smooth-playing neck-through bass, and the build quality is first rate. The neck is spot on, with perfect fretwork, and a great action is attainable with a minimum of fussing around. The 2-tone burst finish (black was also available) is deep and gorgeous, though the white pick-guard is a bit too much of a visual contrast for me.

The body is mahogany, and with a modified reverse Thunderbird shape. As I said it is neck-through, and the 34-inch scale maple neck has a bound ebony fretboard. The neck has a thin-U profile with 21 extra-jumbo frets and a 40mm (1 9/16-inch) bone nut. I like the inlays, especially the ESP inlay at the 12th fret, which hearkens back to the ESP 400 models that really made a name for the company.

The hardware is excellent, with a custom high-mass bridge and large-base cloverleaf tuners. Like I said, the white pickguard does not do much for me, but it is a quality multi-ply piece.

The electronics are first-rate, as ESP sourced a pair of EMG 35DC ceramic magnet pickups that are powered by a single 9-volt battery that is hidden by the coolest battery box design that I have ever seen. The wiring and joints are very neat, and the cavity is nicely coated. The controls are two volume pots and a master tone control.

The bass plays wonderfully and sound amazing, and can everything from jazz to blues to rock to metal which only minor adjustments of the knobs and your playing style. It balances much better on a strap than any Gibson I have ever played, which might be due to the 10.5 pounds of fine hardwoods they crammed into this package.

These basses shipped in a black ESP deluxe tolex hardshell case, which is to be expected at this price point. And that price is probably what killed this bass in our market. As you may know, the dollar was really weak around the time these were being built, and ESP needed a lot more dollars to make the same amount of Yen. The list price for the ESP Phoenix II bass was a nut-shrinking $2750, with a street price of $1900. That was Sadowsky Metro series money, so you can see why ESP had a lot of trouble moving these.

Anyway, they are great basses that are as rare as hen’s teeth, so if you see one make sure you get a chance to try it out. You might just like what you hear!

Mahalo!

2008 Spector NS-2JA-R Bass Review

Greetings!

Today we are looking at a pretty cool Spector NS-2JA-R, a 25th anniversary re-issue of the 1983 Spector NS-2JA. This is one of only 83 of these basses that were finished in glossy black. Only 83, because this is a re-issue of the 1983 model (clever). They made 83 each in glossy white and natural, so there were only a total of 249 built in the Czech Republic. To be honest I have only seen black ones up for sale, so the other colors must have been more popular.

Pretty much, this instrument ends up being a bolt-on neck version of the Spector Euro series basses. This is a 34-inch scale bass with 24 frets, and seven years later the frets are still level. There are simple dot inlays on the rosewood fretboard, and check out that kicking brass nut! The tuners are first-rate chromed Schaller machines.

The maple body is carved into the traditional Spector contoured shape with a oddly erotic upper horn. There is a chrome-plated Leo Quan Badass bridge, which has always been a favorite of mine. The body is loaded with a pair of active EMG pickups, which are wired with EMG BT active tone controls (2 volume and 2 tone). The lower cutaway goes pretty far into the neck joint, so there is good access to the upper frets.

This bass is a real winner. The neck is very thin and fast, and the tone is super punchy with tons of mids. There is plenty of sustain too, if that is what you are looking for. Another bit of good news is that this bass is relatively light, despite its maple body, coming in at 8 pounds, 9 ounces.

These basses had a list price of $2099 when they came out (no bag or case included!), and a street price of $1575. They did not sell very well, and today gently used ones sell for around $800. You could certainly do a lot worse for your money!

Mahalo!

EMG Pickups PJ Bass Set Review

Hello!

A few months back I got a smoking deal on an old Fender PJ bass because the electronics were on the fritz and it sounded terrible. So I did what any self-respecting bass hack would do – I grabbed an EMG PJ pickup set and stuffed those puppies in. It was as easy as pie, and I got exactly the results I expected. These are two things that do not happen very often for me!

EMG has been around since Rob Turner founded it in 1976 in Santa Rosa, California. This company has done a lot better than the metric system, which was launched in the US right around the same time. Though they started out making guitar pickups, bass pickups followed shortly thereafter, and have been a staple in the low-end world ever since. Besides making awesome replacement parts, many manufacturers install them as standard equipment – most notably Gibson, Steinberger and Spector.

The pickups have a ceramic magnets, and the kit comes with pots, wiring, a battery connector and pretty good instructions. Everything is prewired and quick-connect connectors are used, so no soldering is required. It was a super-easy installation, particularly as I already had a control cavity to stuff the battery into.

This active pickup set sounds like all of the other EMG pickup I have had in a bass before. They are high fidelity with more bass than a passive pickup and it is clear as a bell with no hum. But the disadvantage is that they sound like EMG pickups so it they are rather sterile without a lot of character or warmth, so you had better like the sound to start with. Fortunately, I do! These pickups cut through a loud mix like nobody’s business, and the bass will definitely be heard, with the advantage of a consistent tone and volume across all frequency ranges.

This EMG P-J set is not super cheap, with a list price of $209 and a street price of $159, but you will certainly save some money by being able to install them yourself. If you like the tone, or just need more power and clarity, give one a try. What could go wrong?

Mahalo!

EMG-P Bass Pickup Review

Howdy!

Well, I recently got a smoking deal on an old ESP P bass because the electronics were more dead than my dead mother. So I did what any self-respecting bass hack would do – I grabbed an EMG pickup and stuffed that bad boy in. It was as easy as pie, and I got exactly the results I expected. These are two things that do not happen very often for me!

EMG has been around since Rob Turner founded it in 1976 in Santa Rosa, California. This company has done a lot better than the metric system, which was launched in the US right around the same time. Though they started out making guitar pickups, bass pickups followed shortly thereafter, and have been a staple in the low-end world ever since. Besides making awesome replacement parts, many manufacturers install them as standard equipment – most notably Gibson, Steinberger and Spector.

The pickup itself has a ceramic magnet, and it is not wired in series (like passive pickups) so there is a lot more bottom end. The kit comes with pots, wiring, a battery connector and pretty good instructions. Everything is prewired and quick-connect connectors are used, so no soldering is required. It was a super-easy installation, particularly as I already had a control cavity to stuff the battery into.

This active pickup sounds like most every other EMG pickup I have had in a bass before. It is high fidelity with more bass than a passive pickup and it is clear as a bell with no hum. But the disadvantage is that is sounds like an EMG pickup so it is rather sterile without a lot of character or warmth, so you had better like the sound to start with. Fortunately, I do! These pickups cut through a loud mix like nobody’s business, and the bass will definitely be heard, with the advantage of a consistent tone an volume across all frequency ranges.

The EMG-P is not super cheap, with a list price of $129.99 and a street price of $95, but you will certainly save some money by being able to install it yourself. If you like the tone, or just need more power and clarity, give one a try. What could go wrong?

Mahalo!

ESP Standard Series Phoenix II B Electric Bass Review

Hi there!

Today we are looking at the ESP Standard Series Phoenix II B bass guitar, which is their take on the Gibson Thunderbird. There were sold from 2009 through 2012 with little success in the US market, though their cheaper LTD version seems to still be doing pretty well. I recently had the chance to pick up a few of these for short money, and cold not resist, as they are really wonderful instruments. Let’s see what we have here!

For starters, this is a real live ESP bass, not an LTD model that was made by craftsmen in Japan, not by little kids in some third world country. And every ESP bass (or guitar) I’ve had has been a great player with no cosmetic or functional flaws.

And the Phoenix is no exception: this is a super smooth-playing neck-through bass, and the build quality is first rate. The neck is spot on, with perfect fretwork, and a great action is attainable with a minimum of fussing around. The black finish (2-tone burst was also available) is deep and gorgeous, though the white pick-guard is a bit too much of a visual contrast for me.

The body is mahogany, and with a modified reverse Thunderbird shape. As I said it is neck-through, and the 34-inch scale maple neck has a bound ebony fretboard. The neck has a thin-U profile with 21 extra-jumbo frets and a 40mm (1 9/16-inch) bone nut. I like the inlays, especially the ESP inlay at the 12th fret, which hearkens back to the ESP 400 models that really made a name for the company.

The hardware is excellent, with a custom high-mass bridge and large-base cloverleaf tuners. Like I said, the white pickguard does not do much for me, but it is a quality multi-ply piece.

The electronics are first-rate, as ESP sourced a pair of EMG 35DC ceramic magnet pickups that are powered by a single 9-volt battery that is hidden by the coolest battery box design that I have ever seen. The wiring and joints are very neat, and the cavity is nicely coated. The controls are two volume pots and a master tone control.

The bass plays wonderfully and sound amazing, and can everything from jazz to blues to rock to metal which only minor adjustments of the knobs and your playing style. It balances much better on a strap than any Gibson I have ever played, which might be due to the 11 pounds of fine hardwoods they crammed into this package.

These basses shipped in a black ESP deluxe tolex hardshell case, which is to be expected at this price point. And that price is probably what killed this bass in our market. As you may know, the dollar was really weak around the time these were being built, and ESP needed a lot more dollars to make the same amount of Yen. The list price for the ESP Phoenix II bass was a nut-shrinking $2750, with a street price of $1900. That was Sadowsky Metro series money, so you can see why ESP had a lot of trouble moving these.

Anyway, they are great basses that are as rare as hen’s teeth, so if you see one make sure you get a chance to try it out. You might just like what you hear!

Mahalo!

Ernie Ball Hybrid Slinky Bass Strings .045 to .105 Review

Hello!

I recently picked up an ESP Phoenix 4-string bass that was stone-cold gorgeous, but sounded deader than Sherriff Block despite its stout active EMG setup. I fussed with the control on the bass and the EQ on my amp, but nothing was making it sound like I knew it could. Though the strings on it looked shiny and good, they were an unknown factor and I hoped they might be the cause. So, I swapped on a new set of my go-to strings and voilá! It was as right as rain! These strings are the Ernie Ball Power Slinky bass string set, model number 2833.

If you have not been living in a cave for the past 50 years, you have heard of Ernie Ball strings. Mr. Ball was an innovator that came up with the idea of mass-marketing custom gauge strings and he built the business into one of the biggest string manufacturers in the word. That is what happens when you listen to your customers and give them what they need. His son and grandsons now run the company, and the strings are made right here in the US by people that earn a living wage. A few years ago I had the opportunity to tour the factory (near Palm Springs) and it is an impressive organization.

These long-scale Hybrid Slinky strings are right about the same as their regular Slinky set with the top two string just a bee’s dick smaller, measuring 0.045, 0.065, 0.085 and 0.105. Woot! They are roundwound with nickel-plated steel wrap around a tin-plated hex profile steel core. There is no coating or cobalt going on here, just straight-up strings. Ernie Ball strings still come in individual paper envelopes, but now they are sealed in airtight foil packets. I much prefer this packaging so I know I am going to get fresh strings. You never know how long strings have been sitting around at the store...

Anyway, for the ESP bass I eagerly tore open my new foil pack of Hybrid Slinkys, trimmed them to length and used my Ernie Ball Powerpeg string winder to cinch them up. They filled the nut slots perfectly, and after a bit of fussing with the truss rod I got the action to a reasonable height. After a bit of playing it was apparent that this was a good move as it played just fine with plenty of bite, and the lighter top strings gave me a bit more mobility while the larger bottom strings gave me all the thump I could ever need.

Ernie Ball Hybrid Slinky bass strings are very good, and they have always held up just fine for me – at least a month or two and sometimes more. It will not break the bank to see if you like them, as they are pretty reasonably priced. They have a list price of $35 and an Amazon price of $16.99, and if you catch a lucky break with a sale or coupon you can get them even cheaper at Guitar Center. How can you go wrong?

EMG-ZW Guitar Pickups Review

Sugoi!

I’ve had a few Les Paul guitars with the EMG Zakk Wylde pickups and they were monstrous instruments. The good news is that you do not have to spend 3 or 4 thousand bucks for a Gibson Zakk Wylde Custom Shop Les Paul to get them.

For those of you who do not know of Zakk Wylde, he is a guitar god who got his major break as Ozzy Osbourne’s guitarist. He later played with Pride and Glory and is now the frontman and lead guitarist for Black Label Society. He has been a longtime user of active EMG pickups, and they sell a set in his preferred configuration, which includes an EMG-85 at the bridge and an EMG-81 at the neck.

The EMG-85 has a bit more output than the neck pickup, and uses two Alnico magnet coils. This pickup has a heavy low end that is not mushy while maintaining a loud high end that does not sound brittle or shrill. This makes it the ultimate rhythm pickup that loves distortion and overdrive but can still sound good when played clean.

The EMG-81 is a high-output ceramic magnet pickup, and is perfect for playing lead and soloing. It still has a fat tone up top, and has great sustain with no added noise to the signal. Together with the EMG-85 you have the perfect combination for most any rock or metal gig.

When you buy the kit from EMG, it includes everything you will need to rewire a Les Paul. This include the pickups, pots, cable, screws, springs, battery connector and jack. And best of all, no soldering is required, as the cables all have Quik-connect terminals.

After I sold my Zakk Wylde Custom Shop Les Paul, I installed a set of these pickups into an old Aria Les Paul to see if I could get the same tone. The installation was easy, and the end results were impressive. I ended up with a guitar that sounded exactly the same for 1/5 of what I got for the Gibson.

You can pick up the EMG-ZW pickup set from online retailers for around $199. They are a great value, and it is worth spending the extra money for a quality product that you do not have to pay a pro to install.

Mahalo!

Spector Euro 4 LX Bass

Hi there! Ever since I saw my first Spector NS bass, I have thought they are the sexiest basses ever built.

The Spector Euro 4 LX shares the same contoured body shape as the NS, at a considerably lower price than the US-built Spectors. The Euro models are made in the Czech Republic. So, the Euro designation is not just a clever name. This model has been in production for almost 10 years.

Other features that it shares with the US model are the neck-through construction and the electronics package. The build quality is very good. I have played quite a few of these basses and have never found major issues with any of them.

The bass we are looking at today has a transparent blue finish over a figured maple top and alder body. There is a pretty large control cavity routed out of the back, which needs to be removed to access the battery..

This one has the 34-inch scale 3-piece rock maple neck (35-inch is available as an option). As I said before, it is neck-through, and the neck is graphite-reinforced. There are 24 frets on the rosewood fretboard (with mother of pearl inlays, no less). The fret work is adequate, but not quite up to the standards set by other basses in the price range. This one had to have the frets leveled and dressed. This one also came with a brass nut (1.64-inch), which kind of takes me back to the 70s. The fretboard is fairly flat with a 16-inch radius.

The hardware is first-rate. Euro models come with Schaller tuners (D-tuner optional), and a solid brass zinc alloy bridge. Schaller strap locks are included. The gold finish is standard, which is my only visual gripe about the bass. Gold hardware is played (like brown Louis Vuitton, IMO), and shows fingerprints and smudges like nothing else on the plant.

The electronics are where I think these basses really shine. All of the Spector Euro LX 4-string basses are outfitted with P-J EMG pickups, and a TonePump pre-amplifier. Controls are two volume pots as well as treble and bass pots. The treble and bass controls are boost-only, which would not be my first choice, as I would like the option to cut as well. The output is thunderous, with considerably more output than any of my Stingrays.

It plays well, and sounds very good. There is a lot more versatility than I would normally expect from the EMG pickups, which I have always considered to be a one-trick pony.

This one weighs in at 9 pounds, 10 ounces according to my scale. This is not bad for a neck-through bass. It balances nicely, and does not feel heavy on a strap.

Spector stands behind these basses and has a limited lifetime warranty for the original buyer. An odd thing is that these basses do not ship with a case, so you will have to buy one separately.

The list price for this bass is $2299, with a street price of $1899. You can usually find them in good used condition for around $800 to $900. You will be hard-pressed to find a better bass for the money.