As a working musician with a perpetually limited budget, I am always on the hunt for bargains. I had been hearing for some time about Rondo Music (www.rondomusic.com) SX and Douglas brand basses on the Talk Bass internet forum (www.talkbass.com)-especially the P-Bass, Tele-Bass, and J-Bass copies. I am once again working as a bassist, so I was looking for an inexpensive axe that would be good enough out of the box to start working, but also a good platform for modifications.
As those of you following the blog know, I get a
great deal of satisfaction from modifying budget gear to be usable
for a working musician. If you do not believe that budget gear can
ever be modified to work just as well as gear that is professional
grade right off the shelf, then this blog is not for you. My
experiences are unlikely to change your mind.
I
surfed on over to http://www.rondomusic.com/bassguitars4.html to
look at four string basses, and settled on the Ursa 1-which is a
P-Bass copy with a Maple neck and fingerboard. http://www.rondomusic.com/ursabkmn.html.
The price of $115.00 for a P-Bass clone with an alder body including
a gig bag and instructional DVD made me think there was absolutely no
way I could lose. Ground shipping to Chattanooga added another $17.28
which brought the total to $132.28. Rondo takes PayPal, which makes
ordering a snap.
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| SX VTG Series Ursa 1 Bass |
Upon
arrival of the bass, I was struck by the clean, classic P-Bass look.
The paint on the body was surprisingly good, with no runs or obvious
flaws. The neck was straight with a vintage tone finish and the action not bad for a "new
out of box" imported bass. The frets were par for the course -they'll need a little touching up with a file. With
any new instrument, you should plan on having a professional set up
done with your preferred strings.
Upon initial inspection, I have to say that the headstock look on
these basses is industrial strength ugly IMHO. Perhaps it can be cut to a more pleasing shape. That's definitely a modification I'm going to consider.
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| The hideous SX headstoc |
The tuners are your typical open gear imported bass tuners. They do the job adequately. I will probably replace these with some vintage style tuners. The nut was the standard plastic variety. It will definitely need to be replaced for maximum tuning stability. The bridge appears to be adequate. As expected, I had to do some subtle intonation adjustments.
Upon plugging this bass in, I was absolutely stunned. This thing sounds exactly like a P-Bass is supposed to sound. It has a sweet tone and the balance between the strings is surprisingly good. The noise level is exactly what you would expect from an unshielded single coil bass guitar. I will very likely put a set of flat wound strings on to complete the vintage tone and flavor of this instrument.
At a price that is nearly 40% below the price of the cheapest Squier P-Bass, I am impressed. The body wood is the best thing about this bass. It is genuine alder. The electronics are decent for this type of bass, but I will probably upgrade them. I think modifications to the tuners, nut, electronics and bridge would result in a supremely excellent sounding instrument for a shockingly small amount of cash. Having the frets properly dressed and a professional setup is also a good idea for the best action and playability. Upon completion of these mods, you will have an instrument that plays and sounds on par with instruments costing twice what you will have invested.
If you are considering an inexpensive bass for a beginner or an axe that is a good starting point to modify-you might want to give an SX bass a shot. I can't believe the amount of tonal bang for the buck this bass offers.
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