Monaco Bass gig report!

[RJoseph133]

Last night my band played a set in between the regular sets of one of our "competitor" bands...very friendly competition, I hasten to add.

I wanted to use the occasion to give the new Monaco Bass a trial by fire in a live band situation. We play a very broad variety of pop & rock music, so I figured that it would have its opportunity to "cut it" or not. The report?

Very, very nice bass. I swapped the strings that were OEM on the bass (D'Addarios, I think) with my regular Rotosounds earlier in the day, adjusted the action, and we were off! The bass is nice and light, and balances very well. I tend to jump and move around quite a bit, so all that is for the positive. It sounds great, too. I run through a GK RB800 and a Hartke 15" Speaker cab, as well as a line through the board. I backed off the tone control just a bit and off the rhythm pickup, while keeping the treble pickup full on. Our guitar player uses his rhythm pickup for just about everything (he plays an Explorer and a Heritage LP) so he has a pertty thick sound, plus we have a keyboard player...the Monaco cuts right through.

All in all, in a live situation I thought it sounded a lot more like an old Jazz Bass than an old Gibson EB bass, which was what I thought it sounded like when playing it around the house. Next Friday, it will get used for a full night; I'll give you all more details then.

It certainly got attention, almost as much as one of my 12 string basses does. There were a few "Wow...I never knew you could buy a Les Paul bass..." comments, but there were quite a few comments about "that new Hamer," especially from the other band members who knew gee-tars.

What didn't I like about it? Not very much, but I am going to change a few things, at least to address my personal quirks. The chicken head knobs look extremely cool, but I tended to knock into them a bit much when I was moving around. So off they will go, and regular old black knobbies will replace them. And another little quirk I had was the exposed polepieces of the Duncans; my fingertips really felt them, believe it or not. I will replace the Duncan chrome covers with smooth top chrome covers (no holes) that I've had in the parts drawer for some time...I think that they're old Gibson covers.

I heartily approve of the beast...it will be a regular. Jol, Frank, etc...excellent job!

[cmatthes]

Thanks, RJ!!! I've been waiting to see a review. I keep reminding myself that I just got my ultimate bass and really don't need one of those. I just did it again...

Cool, and glad you like it! I agree that it is a smokin' bass all around.

[bbobb24]

Thanks for the review. I'll be looking into one of those soon, I hope.