Product: AXL Player Deluxe Jazz Bass
Price Paid: 100 (#)
Submitted
11/26/2004
at
01:18pm
by
Dave Bond
Features
:
9
Made in China, not sure when, 22 frets, 4 string model in a sunburst finish. Has two volumes (one for each p/u) and a tone. EMG designed pickups. Maple neck, nice a shallow, just how a jazz bass should be. Kluson-Style Machine Heads, very nice. Basically, everything a jazz bass should have.
Sound
:
8
The sound you can get out of these EMG designed pickups is great. For the #100 asking price, the sound is worthy of a much pricer instrument. By using the volume balance and tone control you can get a good range of sounds, from a low grow to a nice bright ring, which i like. I haven't gigged it yet, but probably will. I'm confident the bass would handle to rigors of gigging.
Action, Fit, & Finish
:
9
When i got it out of the box i expected to have to set it up myself, but i was pleasently surprised. The action was perfect with no fret buzz, and everything seemed fine. All it needed was a quick tune up. I checked it over for flaws and could n't find any. The neck alignment was spot on, no sharp frets, controls nice and solid. Even came with a set of quality fender strings on it. Overall, the action and finish is excellent, much better than i expected for #100.
Reliability/Durability
:
7
As i mentioned before, this bass is very solid and would probably survive gigging. The controls have a very solid feel to them which i like. Not sure about how the finish would last. The strap buttons are fine, much better than on my other guitars. I wouldn't recommend gigging it without a backup, but if you had two, then you would be sorted. As it is only #100, you have to expect cost cutting somewhere.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Never dealt with AXL and i don't know too much about them either.
Overall Rating
:
9
I have been playing guitar for 3 years, but this is my first bass guitar. If it were lost or stolen i would get another straight away, especially for the price. The things i love about it is the quality it shows, the fact the pickups are EMG designed, and the fact that it was by far the cheapest bass i could find on the net. My only minor complaint is that the headstock and neck are quite heavy, and this makes the headstock dive towards the floor if you don't support it. Its only a small problem that could be solved with a better strap then the cheap one i use. I would recommend this bass to anyone looking for a good first bass or a backup bass.
