Hellzero

Played one of a friend last week and it's a really good bass. I usually don't like neck pickups on Jazz Basses, but on this one it sounded simply terrific. In fact I played all of the rehearsal only with this neck pickup, using the detent tone to vary the sound to suit the music (fusion and a bit of pop). The bridge pickup is very good, but too conventional. A player's bass for sure. About the neck, I preferred it to the typical Nothing in the Hand Jazz Bass usual neck. 😉

Still have this :

Traded a bass with Sylvain. Even with some stubborn courier unable to read a correctly labelled address, he managed to get it delivered sound and safe as I couldn't do it as the recipient. The parcel was very well made and the bass was as described. You can deal in total confidence with Sylvain, he'll be in touch all the time. Another great credit to BassChat. 👍

Headless basses tend to have better low B's, better intonation and better string to string balance, just because of the construction as @BigRedX mentioned.

Not that much, it's pretty impressive how it interacts with the wood. So one pass at a time, drying (quite fast) and seeing if it suits your needs.

Of course, as it's only acting on the wood tannins. I've done this on some repairs of my, urm, 400 years old oak wooden floor and then waxed it : you can't tell the difference.

Try on the back of the heel first.

Yes, wipe it with ammonia (don't breathe too much of it) in several passes until you get the desire ageing. This is used to age clear woods for centuries.

Ammonia. Oldest trick ever.

Another important part is the power of your amp. Don't expect to hear your low B if you don't have at least 500 Watts and a cabinet designed to reproduce these lower frequencies. In studio or on records, you'll hear it, for sure, but on your 30 Watts Ashup, I'm not even sure you'll hear anything... Ask Anthony Jackson what he's using live and you'll understand. By the way, the scale length is not THE solution, ask Ken Smith as he sticked to 34 inches scale and his basses have a very good tight low B.

Funny, as I already wrote, it's like asking what kind of fuel you put in your Bugatti Veyron, because my Ford Fiesta has no power when I put the pedal to the metal. 😮

Kenneth Lawrence is not that young anymore, so he's taking his time and has nothing to prove. 😉

My (soon for sale) Modulus Graphite Quantum 6 EMG from 1990 :

1. It's bolt-on without screws. 2. The non screws placement is a superb anti-lutherie concept.

Buy a Leduc or an MTD : you'll hear the fundamental of each and every note. LeFay, Aries, Capelli, F-Bass and some others are very good too, but not to the point of hearing the fundamental of your low B. The type and gauge of string helps a bit, but if your bass has a dire low B unplugged, don't expect much when plugged. An electric bass is before all an acoustic instrument, so when it comes to acoustics, better listen to what a luthier has to say, and certainly not a manufacturer. But, you can check everything that has been mentioned before, it will improve a tiny bit your low B as well as other strings. Sometimes, you can get lucky and have a real good low B on a cheap Chinese bass, sometimes.

And here are the top ten of heaviest ones, which is not the same : https://www.wood-database.com/wood-articles/top-ten-heaviest-woods/

Using the Janka hardness system, here is the top ten of hardest woods : https://www.wood-database.com/wood-articles/top-ten-hardest-woods/ I had a fretless De Gier with a Dalbergia Melanoxylon fingerboard and it was indeed so hard that round wound strings didn't mark it, and it's not the hardest one, but the darkest one. And I don't trust Monkeypedia about any scientific subject or ... not.

Ammonia is aging woods (with just a wet passing) and it's been used for centuries in this purpose. Never heard of vinegar doing this, but you learn everyday.

The good old D'Addario EXL170 or EXL165 as I hate stainless steel strings, harsh to the ears and fingers, especially the Warwick Red which are just graters and certainly not greater. Best strings to my ears are the Fodera nickel, very close to the D'Addario EXL with a finer and softer winding, soft touch, flexible string, homogeneous sound. Okay, they are expensive but they last longer than the D'Addario EXL. Never liked the Elixir or coated strings, except the DR Black Beauties as they have a way more classic tone and feeling (but still that slight plastic touch).

Never seen this one before, but the one I was mentioning is the the sunburst one. This one looks to have an ebony fingrboard and looks like a luthier bass. Biréli Lagrène will sound exactly the same even with the worst bass on earth. Seen him a lot and he's always impressive being it on guitar or (fretless) bass.