I got this bass about a week ago and haven't had time to take some pictures yet, but I'll get on that ASAP. I have been thinking about what my “signature” bass would be for the last few months and this is about as close as anything could be. What I was looking for was a P/J pickup configuration, an Ash Jazz body and a maple P-bass neck. The other thing is I want to swap out the P pickup for a Novak Darkstar/Bisonic and wire it with a series parallel switch.
There was one major issue that I noticed when it arrived. The info on Rondo's website (which has since been corrected) said the nut width was 1-11/16” and when I got it, I measured the nut and it was actually Jazz width (1-1/2”). I emailed Rondo and was told that the info was wrong on their website, so I decided to keep it as is and order a P neck and see if I could just order a replacement neck with the correct width. The only P neck with a maple fretboard they have in stock is a lefty with the headstock that has what looks kinda like a hook on the end (which looks a lot better than the knife-looking heastock that's on all the new SX basses). This got me thinking - I was GASing for a bass with a reverse headstock, so I decided to pull the trigger on the lefty which I'll modify to be a reverse headstock. The neck will be arriving on Wednesday.
The intonation and the overall feel is awesome. The tuning machines are the clover style, but thicker. I would used those on any future bass I buy if I could. The bass is pretty heavy, which I actually like. The sustain is awesome. Everyone talks about the quality of wood on the SX basses, and it's true.
A couple electronics issues it had right out of the box. The first was that it has a pretty obvious grounding buzz, that is really bad with the Jazz pickup dimed. So I lowered the Jazz pickup as low as it would go which helped the buzz and made the balance between the pickups more to my liking. The second issue was that the pickups where out of phase, so I brought it to my guitar guy and he switched the hot and ground leads which fixed that problem. When he took the control cover off, we saw that the pots are really small, so eventually I'll swap those for some bigger ones and put a .047 uF cap. Another thing is the pickups aren't quite as hot as I like, but I can get over that.
I played the bass in church yesterday and tweaked my SansAmp VT a bit and got an amazing, super beefy sound from the bass. It sounded so good that I'm questioning putting a new pickup in. I mean the P pickup sounds amazing. The other thing I noticed is that I actually really like the feel of the neck as is. It has the really thick glossy finish on the neck and the fretboard and white neck binding. Overall, the neck played surprisingly well so I think I'll keep it around in case come across a loaded body that I want use it with down the road.
One other thing. I was thinking about taking the pickguard off (Jaco-style) when I put the new pickup in since there is no routing channel between the neck pickup and the controls. But when I took the pickguard off, I noticed that the 3 tone sunburst is 2 tone sunburst under the pickguard. So, the pickguard will stay.
That's about it. I will try to get pictures soon.
There was one major issue that I noticed when it arrived. The info on Rondo's website (which has since been corrected) said the nut width was 1-11/16” and when I got it, I measured the nut and it was actually Jazz width (1-1/2”). I emailed Rondo and was told that the info was wrong on their website, so I decided to keep it as is and order a P neck and see if I could just order a replacement neck with the correct width. The only P neck with a maple fretboard they have in stock is a lefty with the headstock that has what looks kinda like a hook on the end (which looks a lot better than the knife-looking heastock that's on all the new SX basses). This got me thinking - I was GASing for a bass with a reverse headstock, so I decided to pull the trigger on the lefty which I'll modify to be a reverse headstock. The neck will be arriving on Wednesday.
The intonation and the overall feel is awesome. The tuning machines are the clover style, but thicker. I would used those on any future bass I buy if I could. The bass is pretty heavy, which I actually like. The sustain is awesome. Everyone talks about the quality of wood on the SX basses, and it's true.
A couple electronics issues it had right out of the box. The first was that it has a pretty obvious grounding buzz, that is really bad with the Jazz pickup dimed. So I lowered the Jazz pickup as low as it would go which helped the buzz and made the balance between the pickups more to my liking. The second issue was that the pickups where out of phase, so I brought it to my guitar guy and he switched the hot and ground leads which fixed that problem. When he took the control cover off, we saw that the pots are really small, so eventually I'll swap those for some bigger ones and put a .047 uF cap. Another thing is the pickups aren't quite as hot as I like, but I can get over that.
I played the bass in church yesterday and tweaked my SansAmp VT a bit and got an amazing, super beefy sound from the bass. It sounded so good that I'm questioning putting a new pickup in. I mean the P pickup sounds amazing. The other thing I noticed is that I actually really like the feel of the neck as is. It has the really thick glossy finish on the neck and the fretboard and white neck binding. Overall, the neck played surprisingly well so I think I'll keep it around in case come across a loaded body that I want use it with down the road.
One other thing. I was thinking about taking the pickguard off (Jaco-style) when I put the new pickup in since there is no routing channel between the neck pickup and the controls. But when I took the pickguard off, I noticed that the 3 tone sunburst is 2 tone sunburst under the pickguard. So, the pickguard will stay.
That's about it. I will try to get pictures soon.
Just playin'. But funny related story. I've been playing bass for 20 years and the first time I played a Jazz bass was about a month ago. Dead serious. Aaaaaaannnnddd... I could not get it EQed right to save my life. It could have just been the room, or the amp maybe, but I could eek any mids out of that bass, no matter what I tried 
