molan

[quote name='BigRedX' post='166595' date='Mar 30 2008, 10:11 PM']That's a cool looking bass. Never really noticed that before as I've always been distracted by the Hyperbass... Bartolini pups? and what pre-amop?[/quote] Manring often uses his custom bass "Vinny" live and the VB4 is based on this - here's a mag review I found with some info about it - Apologies for the length but I thought I might as well leave the review alone & not edit!: For well over the past two decades, Zon Guitars has been building some of the finest handcrafted basses on the market. Now, Zon has added the VB series to its already high-tech arsenal. Based upon bass virtuoso and Zon endorsing artist, Michael Manring's headless bass, nicknamed Vinny, Zon has introduced an innovatively designed bass which is portable enough to take anywhere and even store in an airplane overhead. Construction: The VB bass line features a body comprised of two pieces of select swamp ash, a favorite body wood used in bass building. The prototype which we tested had a really beautiful wood grain texture to it, highlighted by its natural "flat" finish. True to all Zon basses, the VB line has a composite (graphite) neck. Composite necks are extremely rigid and stiff and unaffected by even large variations in temperature and humidity. There is no need for a truss rod. Due to the density of the composite material, every note on the fingerboard was consistently even in sustain and volume. Having played instruments with composite necks for over the last decade and being accustomed to that "high-end" sound, I was a little skeptical about playing an instrument with a phenowood fingerboard. But my skepticism quickly vanished after only a few minutes with the VB4. If you are one of those players that thinks composite necks tend to lack in character or warmth, you must give this phenowood fingerboard a test drive. Phenowood is essentially compressed wood which is impregnated with a phenolic resin and what you get with phenowood is a fingerboard that feels and looks similar to ebony but is much more stable. It adds a certain character to the tone of the instrument which it wouldn't have with just a phenolic fingerboard. With a phenowood fingerboard on a composite neck, you get the best of both worlds: the clarity, definition, and punch of a composite neck and the added personality of an ebony fingerboard. The neck didn't move, and there were no dead spots anywhere. Even after hours of rigorous testing with slapping, plucking, and tapping techniques, the bass remained perfectly intonated. The composite neck is joined to the swamp ash body through a set-in design which allows the player easy access all the way up to the 24th fret. This superbly crafted design provides a smooth, neck-through body feel but yields a tonal characteristic closer to that of a bolt-on neck. The new hand polished "flat" finish that Zon is using on these basses has to been seen to be fully appreciated. This "flat" finish is simply amazing. It feels great, and it looks even better. As hard as I tried, the "flat" finish was overtly resistant to fingerprints or smudges. Also, the VB4 is not neck heavy due in large part to its headless design (no headstock tuning machines to add to the weight of the neck) and heavy-duty ABM bridge. In fact, the VB4 is one of the most well balanced basses I've ever strapped on. With the ABM bridge, you can still utilize your favorite set of strings, and string installation is a breeze. Simply detune the strings, release the strings with an allen wrench at the headpiece, thread the new strings through the headpiece, tighten the allen screws, tune up the bass, and then clip off the excess string length hanging from the headpiece. Electronics: At the heart of the VB line of basses are the brand new pickups from Bartolini. The "Classic Bass" (CB) series bass pickups are passive, custom wound designs which feature an extended and more resonant frequency range. The dual in-line hum cancelling coils provide clarity and punch across the entire range of the sound spectrum. The CB series pickups are fed into Bartolini's 3-band active electronics with two selectable mid center points (250/800) and powered by a 9-volt battery. The electronics of the VB bass tested flawlessly and proved to be ultra quiet even at very high decibel levels. They offered a wide range of tonal variablity, and the tone controls turned smoothly and evenly. There were no unwanted gaps in the tone as I dialed through the frequency spectrum. The control cavity housed one of the most neatly organized circuits I've ever seen. My only criticism with the entire bass, and be it a minor complaint that doesn't affect the playability or sound in any way, deals with the separate battery compartment. I would have liked to see Zon make this a pop-up battery compartment for easier access to the battery. Sound: You want thunderous slap tones? You got them. You looking for tight finger funk staccato sounds? They're here. You wanna rock? Take the pictures off the walls and crank it. This bass has plenty of output to give and then some. Vibrant harmonics and traditional voicings are here too. The VB4 sounded excellent tested through our SWR amplification system and even better when it was plugged directly into our recording device. Rank beginners to seasoned veterans will both enjoy the ease at which the VB4 played and its wide tonal range. This bass sounds as good as basses that cost twice as much. Specifications: 34" scale Swamp ash body with natural "flat" finish 24-fret composite neck with phenowood fingerboard ABM Bridge Chrome hardware Dual Bartolini custom wound CB series, linear coil pickups Bartolini 3-band active electronics with two selectable mid center points (250/800) Ultralite "custom cut" case

Saw Michael Manring playing one and wanted one for ages - spotted this one on EBay & snapped it up. The first pic shows the relative size against a more conventional bass. Really a delight to play and lots of tone options

My baby has been on tour with Jeff Beck! Custom stuff includes the "Randy" inlays and twin Lane Poors with active/passive option and a solo boost. That's Randy H-T in the first pic.

I've got one of these: Bought on a whim at a guitar show once - vaguely relates to my favourite kind of basses. Quite modern, has custom Seymour Duncan pickups, reasonably flash finish & some clever switching options

Thanks for this Mike, I have a couple of shallow units currently sitting in a heavier full size metal & ply rack case and had my eyes on something smaller & lighter. This looks just perfect!

[quote name='ped' post='163922' date='Mar 26 2008, 05:03 PM']The most laughable shop I have been in (excluding London's Bass Cellar which I don't even regard as a shop) was Rudy's in NYC. I went up to the bass area and could not have been treated with more contempt if I had gone up to the bloke behind the counter and laid a turn on his forehead. I made a point of taking down lots of bases and playing really badly and annoyingly on them, hitting things with my rucksack that I would otherwise have taken off, and pointed at several basses and loudly exclaimed 'WOW IS THAT A SADOWZKEY'(sic) really loudly when it was blatently something else so that I could watch the bloke grunt to himself with self important ego-amusement. It was really quite enjoyable. I went next door and got chatting to a really nice guy in another music shop (Manny's?) who said he was completely with me. I told him what I did and he went right off to do the same!! ped[/quote] I was in Manny's in December and had a wonderful "Wayne's World - may I help you" experience. Vaguely wandering around not looking at anything in particular & the staff left me alone (which was fine as I wasn't looking for help). I spotted an interesting looking guitar and went to touch it at which point an assistant appeared at the speed of light and thrust himself between me and the guitar. He was quite friendly but asked how "serious" I was about buying one. I asked why it was so important and he casually pointed out that the Gretsch 6120 I was looking at was the recently released Brian Setzer model that retailed at about $25,000. . . . . . . . . . . Interesting footnote is that he said he could offer it for less than the sticker price and when I got home and looked it up over here it was about £17,000 in the UK - should have bought one on my credit card, smuggled it back & sold it for a tidy profit