Product Reviews6 String TL Electric Guitar Acrylic Body Maple Fretboard SS Pickups Fixed Bridge

Ersatz "Dan Armstrong" Bass

Well, the pickguard does say "DAN ARMSTRONG" though it's Chinese in origin, and, like most acrylic bodied guitars or basses, this a a HEAVY instrument, I'd estimate about 9 or 10 pounds so if you purchase this for gigging, be sure to get a wide and padded strap. The construction is excellent, on a par with anything Korean or Indonesian, the tuners are solid, the pots work well, and there are no tool marks anywhere from manufacturing. There are a full 24 frets and edges of the frets are just a tiny bit sharp but not so as to cause any cuts. The truss rod adjusts from the headstock and this included a gig bag and 2 Allen keys, 1 for the truss rod and 1 for bridge adjustment and you'll likely need to at least adjust the truss rod: my bass had a slight back bow but tweaking it about 5/8ths of a turn corrected the problem.
As for tone and sound, this is more trebly than deep' this NOT a bass to use if you seek an old school Jamerson type P Bass tone. It has a sharp, edgy tone that similar to but not the same as a Rick. (Let me note here that I have too many basses, Fender, Rick, Peavey, Ibanez and others so this is my subjective opinion.) I play my amp with flat settings to keep from fiddling and diddling with the settings a lot and, I suppose, that I could get a deeper tone with the amp if I wanted but I like to keep the settings flat to see what the instrument itself can do. Additionally, I do not play slap but I suspect that might be an ideal idiom for this bass. Let me mention that, with a heavy body and its construction, this has great sustain. I'm pretty much old school as my repertoire of songs I know ended with the demise of disco and my last gig was 42 years ago, but I enjoy my basses and I treat myself to something new, like this one, on occasion. This is an enjoyable bass, solid and HEAVY, and not the real McCoy but it is an enjoyable bass. I bought this 5 or 6 months ago and I've noticed the current run of these basses don't have "DAN ARMSTRONG" anymore so I can only surmise that there was legal action to cause this. But, then again, this costs just a fraction of the real thing.Read full review...

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