Sunday, September 20, 2009
The Active Hybrid/Crossover
One of the most informed and informative sites of the web is the FDP Site (Fender Discussion Page). The FDP hosts a set of forums to "discuss all things related to Fender: guitars, basses, amps, etc." I read it daily and sometimes post to interesting threads. A couple of years back, a member posted a request for some MP3's that had available for download, but were no longer there. I contacted him and offered to send him copies, and a friendship started.
We kept in touch on and off, and one day, he posted a note about having just bought a Fender "Big Blocks" 'P'. I had seen them advertised and thought that they looked like a very cool bass, but they were fairly pricey. I emailed him and asked him what he thought of it, and he replied that it was pretty good, played well and sounded alright. He liked the idea that it was active and lastly mentioned that he'd got a pretty good deal on it since it had a slight "blemish". I replied that if he ever got tired of it, would he please contact me first as I was interested in getting one. He said that he would...
A couple of months later, he sent an email asking me if I was still interested in it. I told him I was, and he said that if I would like to buy it, he would ask only what he had paid for it, and whatever shipping costs would be to get it to me. I immediately jumped at the deal, and he packed it up and sent it off. He also included the SKB (molded-plastic hard-shell) case.
This is my first and only active bass. The finish is a nice deep black and the fit is way above average: it is indeed very nicely put together. The design could be considered to be a real "dog's breakfast": the body and neck are essentially 'Precision'; the single pickup is a double 'Jazz' type; the fret markers are taken from the 70s Jazz era(that I like so much); lastly, the control plate is of the kind found on the very early 50s Precision basses.
The electronics of the bass allow me to not only cut, but also add bass and treble to the sound. (According to the specs, the "center frequencies" are set at 40Hz and 6.2 kHz.) You can get some great sounds out of it, and I really like that I can dial in what I need quickly, without having to step back to the amp. The action is very nice right out of the box; I really didn't have to do anything to get it to a point where I was comfortable with it. This is one that I like to take to "first-time" gigs (ones where I'm not really sure what tones will be required), and it does get a lot of duty when I rehearse at home. Definitely a keeper, so don't ask....
We kept in touch on and off, and one day, he posted a note about having just bought a Fender "Big Blocks" 'P'. I had seen them advertised and thought that they looked like a very cool bass, but they were fairly pricey. I emailed him and asked him what he thought of it, and he replied that it was pretty good, played well and sounded alright. He liked the idea that it was active and lastly mentioned that he'd got a pretty good deal on it since it had a slight "blemish". I replied that if he ever got tired of it, would he please contact me first as I was interested in getting one. He said that he would...
A couple of months later, he sent an email asking me if I was still interested in it. I told him I was, and he said that if I would like to buy it, he would ask only what he had paid for it, and whatever shipping costs would be to get it to me. I immediately jumped at the deal, and he packed it up and sent it off. He also included the SKB (molded-plastic hard-shell) case.
This is my first and only active bass. The finish is a nice deep black and the fit is way above average: it is indeed very nicely put together. The design could be considered to be a real "dog's breakfast": the body and neck are essentially 'Precision'; the single pickup is a double 'Jazz' type; the fret markers are taken from the 70s Jazz era(that I like so much); lastly, the control plate is of the kind found on the very early 50s Precision basses.
The electronics of the bass allow me to not only cut, but also add bass and treble to the sound. (According to the specs, the "center frequencies" are set at 40Hz and 6.2 kHz.) You can get some great sounds out of it, and I really like that I can dial in what I need quickly, without having to step back to the amp. The action is very nice right out of the box; I really didn't have to do anything to get it to a point where I was comfortable with it. This is one that I like to take to "first-time" gigs (ones where I'm not really sure what tones will be required), and it does get a lot of duty when I rehearse at home. Definitely a keeper, so don't ask....
