Bass GAS Strikes Again!!!

[r_a_smith3530]

Well, I guess I've got it bad. Either that, or this was just too good a deal to pass up on. Anyway, one of my local guitar shops just recently acquired a bass which made me salivate. I've been looking at it for a couple of weeks and finally took it down to play and check out. Man, it is a dream, absolutely wonderful. It sounds fantatstic. Of course, I knew it just had to be waaay out of my price range. Well, I finally got up the courage to ask, and found that although it's not cheap, it is priced much lower than I had imagined. So, I plunked down a deposit, and will be paying for it on time.

Yes, I know, you want to know what it is. Well, it is called a ZON Sonus 4. My bass hero, Mel Schacher plays one, and it is through him that I originally heard of them. When originally introduced, they were dubbed "the jazz bass for the Nineties." This one has a dark, I believe Walnut, face, and is loaded with Bartolini pickups and ZON's active circuitry.

ZON Sonus 4

The centerpiece of this bass is its neck. The neck itself is a composite, based on carbon fiber, with wood and other materials combined to get just the right flavor. The fingerboard itself is made of something ZON calls phenowood, which helps give the bass a warm tone. Of all the electrics I've ever played, this is the closest thing I've heard to an upright bass. It is actually uncanny!

More on ZON's neck construction

With a price tag that more than rivals a Fender American Jazz, it's going to be a little while before it actually gets to come home with me, but I have been assured that I can come and play it any time I want.

Anyway, it looks similar to the bass below, although the coloring of the top is a little different because of the wood.

Attachment 910 Attachment 911

[warren0728]

wow rob....i don't know much about basses but that is one sweet looking guitar and definately seems to be top-notch!

congrats...

ww

[marnold***]

Man, oh Manischewitz, that's a nice looking bass. Everything, the body shape, color, grain, all very top notch.

[Robert****]

Oh sweety baby bass! I bet that one sounds killer and plays like butta!

Be a man, take her home.

[Tone2TheBone]

Active electros and beauty to boot. Suh-weeeet. *thumbs up* Be sure to take pics when you get it home.

[oldguy]

Active electros and beauty to boot. Suh-weeeet. *thumbs up* Be sure to take pics when you get it home.

Absolutely, we need pics! And a short hands on review!
I for one would be interested to know what you think of the neck and fretboard after you've played it more and get used to it, Rob.
The one in the pic you posted looks very nice. Does yours have the electronics described in the sonus 4 info? It looked like it has an extra knob, perhaps.

[Tim]

Nice looking base guitar Smitty. It must be one heck of a good deal. Never admit to having uncontrollable GAS.

[r_a_smith3530]

Answers, answers! Well, for starters, I believe that it is a 1993, based on its serial number. It has two Bart pickups and two stacked controls. One set are the separate volume controls for the pickups. The other set are the treble and bass bleed/boost controls. The pickups are custom made by Bartolini for ZON, and the voicings are fabulous.

The neck feels faster than my guitar teacher's Modulus Quantum. I got a chance to A-B my Sonus against an Alembic, going through a Fender Bassman 100 combo amp, and the Alembic sounded dead next to the ZON. At least that was the opinion of a couple people in the store. I also matched it up against an old '70s S.D. Curlee, and again, the Sonus sounded head and shoulders above. Playability in this instance wasn't even close.

I am amazed at the variation of tones that I can get out of this bass. On the lead pickup, with the treble boost all the way up, you'd almost think I was playing a baritone guitar. On the neck pickup, with the tone controls opposite, this beast flat thumps, but with incredible clarity. I don't know whether the pickups were Joe Zon's design or Bartolini's, but combined with the Polyfusion circuitry, they are the most badass thing I've ever played, and remember, I've got active Bart's in my Fender (w/Bartolini circuitry). With emphasis on the neck pickup (turned almost full, bridge less than 1/4) and bass boost (treble just slightly boosted), I get a sound out of it that is damned near upright-like. It is the closest I have heard to the sound that upright players like Christian McBride and Ray Brown get out of their instruments.

I've played it through a Roland Bass Cube 100, the above mentioned Fender, a Hartke A70, a Crate BX100, and my own Ampeg BA115 (I brought it down tonight). It sounded great through all of these amps.

Needless to say, I'm hyped!

[r_a_smith3530]

I for one would be interested to know what you think of the neck and fretboard after you've played it more and get used to it, Rob.

Check above for what I had to say about the neck in general. As for the fretboard oldguy, the closest that I can think of in the conventional wood-necked guitar world, was the Ebony fretboard on my old '83 G&L S-500 guitar. This one feels much more solid than either rosewood or maple, and in fact, more solid than ebony as well.

This bass sustains forever, and I believe that the construction of the neck has quite a bit to do with that. BTW, it is a bolt neck, but even that veers from standard construction methods. It has allen head cap screws with sleeves around them. I've never seen a wood screw like this, so I am going to assume that there are threaded anchors of some sort molded into the neck.

[oldguy]

Thanks, Rob.
The reason I asked about the neck was the Switch Innovo guitar I own.
It is entirely composite. The fretboard is called "ebonite", and is very dense, hard, and slick. The guitar is heavy, the sound is bright, and the sustain rings on and on. I had never owned a composite before, and even made jokes about it being "my cheap plastic guitar", but the longer I played it the more I liked it.
When I saw "phenowood" , I thought "phenolic". Ebonite is a carbon fiber material.
I don't know anyone else who has a guitar that's composite, as a matter of fact, most people shun them somewhat, as I used to.
So when I saw your bass post, I was curious. It sounds as if composite material may be a good alternative when quality woods aren't available for both guitars and basses. Thank you again for the information.
The Switch is cast in one piece, body and neck made in one big mold.
Glad to hear you love that bass!

[r_a_smith3530]

Thanks, Rob.
The reason I asked about the neck was the Switch Innovo guitar I own.
It is entirely composite. The fretboard is called "ebonite", and is very dense, hard, and slick. The guitar is heavy, the sound is bright, and the sustain rings on and on. I had never owned a composite before, and even made jokes about it being "my cheap plastic guitar", but the longer I played it the more I liked it.
When I saw "phenowood" , I thought "phenolic". Ebonite is a carbon fiber material.
I don't know anyone else who has a guitar that's composite, as a matter of fact, most people shun them somewhat, as I used to.
So when I saw your bass post, I was curious. It sounds as if composite material may be a good alternative when quality woods aren't available for both guitars and basses. Thank you again for the information.
The Switch is cast in one piece, body and neck made in one big mold.
Glad to hear you love that bass!

Yeah, it's interesting, the neck itself and the fingerboard both appear to be composites of sorts, but they are each made differently. The neck is mostly carbon fiber, with wood added for "flavor," whereas the fingerboard is primarily birch, impregnated with a phenolic resin.

Some years back, when I got rid of my first electric (a boat anchor '70s LP Custom), I went looking for its replacement. I ended up checking out guitars at Flynn's, a guitar store in Evanston, IL. I found 2 that I liked. Each had a strength that pulled me to it. On one, a really sweet looking Seafoam Green strat copy, the neck was smooth as silk, and played like a dream. The other, a Tobacco Burst guitar that looked like a distorted strat, had this sound which just grabbed something deep inside me. I went back and forth between the two guitars. One of the guys in the store joked that I was going to end up with the one I didn't wear out. In the end, the Burst beat out the Seafoam, but by the narrowest of margins. The deciding factor was something that a friend of mine, a traditionalist folkie (at the time), had said. He'd told me, at some point, that guitars are made of wood. The Seafoam Green Modulus went back on the rack, and the '83 G&L S-500 came home. That guitar and I would stay together until right about this time last year, when I finally decided to part with it for the Mahogany G&L bass that replaced it.

Needless to say, I've gotten past that "wood thing." My bass teacher's Modulus is quite a beautiful instrument, and if I were going to buy a serious acoustic guitar these days, I would have to think very carefully about these composite-bodied acoustic instruments that I saw in one store. For that matter, check out Garrison acoustic guitars, with their composite bracing. I've played one or two, and they are quite nice.

Unlike your Switch, my ZON is the lightest solid-bodied bass I've owned. I'd have to put it somewhere in the neighborhood of 6-7lbs which is quite light for a bass. If you check out the ZON site, they tell you why they didn't just go ahead and make the entire instrument out of composites, but chose to use wood for the bodies.

And yes, I want to go by and play it every day. I can't wait till it's home!

[r_a_smith3530]

Well, we're at the end of the line as far as payments go, and the ZON should be coming home sometime this week! I can't wait.....