Applause P-Bass Copy

I bought this bass brand new in '89, it was my first bass. I think it was made in Korea, not sure. Its a 4 string P-bass copy(not an exact copy)black with a black pickguard, thin C-shape 34" scale maple neck, maple fretboard with 20 frets & black fret dots. It has a single passive spit coil pickup, 1 vol, 1 tone, & a massive bridge. Im not quite sure what kind of wood it is made of but, a chip by the neck pocket kinda looks like a plywood. The tuners are the old elephant ear type. It didnt come with a case, thats when I found out its not an exact copy. We tried every Fender case in the store and none fit. I had to by a Gibson case for $75. The headstock doesnt look like a P-bass either. Its shaped kinda like a Yamaha Atitude or Lakland.

I play gospel so it fit very well. I played through an old 1976 Peavey TNT 100 with a 15" BlackWidow & no effects, didnt really know how to use em then. Now I play through a Peavey TNT 130 with a 15" BlackWidow & an old Peavey CS-200 with an old Peavey 115 cab & the only effect I have is an Alesis 3630 compressor. The sound is chunky at 1/4 - 3/8 turn on the tone knob. At half to full theres alot of brightness. I keep it in the 1/4 - 3/8 range. Play directly over the end of the fretboard & its real woody sounding. Ive never recorded with it, the pots got kinda scratchy. But after 20 years thats expected.

The fit & finish was fairly nice. I learned on an old jazz bass & the neck on this bass was good. Its fairly thin & didnt have any finish on it, which felt really silky. Now I take the finish off all my necks. the only thing that felt funny was the fingerboard didnt have any radius, it was flat. I got used to it though. They had the pickup screwed all the way down. I didnt like that so I raised it up pretty high & got alot more sound out of it.

I played this bass solely for 10 years before I bought another bass. My pastor was an evangelist, I traveled with her & in those 10 years that bass has been around the country. From humid Louisiana (home sweet home) to New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, .... its been just about everywhere & I have had to adjust the truss rod about once a year. And 20 years later its still playin. I have 2 Ibanez 5 strings (SR405TP & SR305DXMW) & I still pull this one out & jam on it, just to remind myself who I am. It is a reliable guitar & sometimes I do use it with out a back up. Before I bought the 305, my 405 went out & I couldnt find what was wrong. I played my old bass for about 8 mos with no backup. Come to find it was the brand new battery I just put in it.(kinda exploded)

This is where I had a little problem. Some time in the late nineties, it was still my main bass, my friend accidently kicked the cord while it was in the bass on the stand & broke the pickguard. I bought a Fender pickguard but it didnt fit. (not an exact copy) So I called Kaman music and they told me that they dont make parts for it anymore. They said might can have me one made but it would cost close to $100. I went to my uncle who is a carpenter & told him this & he gave me a piece of countertop formica, black & white speckled. I traced the old one it, cut it out with a router & razor knife, sanded the edges & perfect fit. Adds a little pizzaz to the look too.

I have been playing for 21 years & still play pretty much the same equipment, except now I have 2 Ibanez 5 strings & the same Peavey TNT 130. I chose this bass because I had my first gig in 2 days & all I had was $300 & I needed a bass. There was 3 white ones & 1 black one, so I chose the black one. If it were stolen I wouldnt try to find another one because there is too much other stuff out there. It would hurt though. Overall its been a good bass. Worth every penny.

Solid P-bass copy, prettysure made overseas somewhere. Single precision style split pick up, 1 Vol. 1 Tone. Regular scale hard maple neck and fingerboard, standard 20 regular frets. Large, old looking tuners, the grip wings are wobbly but tuners worked great. Wood unknown but medium weight. Came with hard case, pawn shop special.

Sound is very full and 'bassy' not a lot of variety but decent enough, a few flat spots. Going through an old Peavey 300W head with semi-parametric mid-shifter and a no name 2x15 cab, no effects. Plenty of bass for our heavier rock metal stuff. Resonates nice on the higher chord voicings (three-finger inversions up on the neck) without sounding too thin or guitar-like. That's about all I remember because it was my first bass back around '89 or so and I passed it on to a friend when I got my Aria.

Well, I bought it used at a pawn shop. I only adjusted the bridge a little to even the string height some, but it played so nice, and was built very straight. Best I remember, so long ago, this bass was comfortable enough all over the neck to where I played literally hours at a time. A few flat spots tone wise, but not too bad, especially at the price. The tuning pegs were fine but the wings on the keys were loose some and rattled.

My only bass at the time. Very plain, just the black finish, a little flat but not faded, and the maple neck, chrome/steel hardware. This bass went on for hours on end in solo practice, it went on the road, it jammed at partys with other bassists just picking it up and playing it, played our shows without backup, got leaned up against the wall or amp and fell a couple times, the usual stuff but always played just fine, never suffered any real damage, not even scrathes that I can remember, never a single problem, you literally just plugged it in and played.

Never dealt with them at all.

This was the right first bass, it practically played itself, I've been playing bass ever since and this one encouraged me. While it might seem like I've rated it high, I did try out a couple dozen other used ones at the time, all in the same $100-200 range, this one was the perfect choice, so I went back about an hour later and bought it. I prolly wouldn't just go buy another Applause now, because I have other basses now, but back in time I would buy this again.

Mid eighties, Korea, 22 frets, 4 string, P+J pickups, 2 tone control 1 volume. Passive electronics. P-bass body.

Well, it has the typical tone adjustment for a passive P-bass pickup it's either totally flat or totally bright. May as well have an on/off switch instead of a dial. However with some tweaking of the J pickup tone and full on P you can get a nice bright tone coming out which is perfect for, say, punk rock. Dial out some tone and it can get a little more of a hard rock sound, but I think it's fairly limited due to the lame/stock pickups. Slap some actives in it and I am guessing it would be awesome.

No idea from the factory, but I have owned this bass for over ten years and it's set up pretty well right now, has suffered from finish flaws, there is a bit of a pint warp/drip on the back of the necl near the body, and paint has chipped off the body from lots of use where it rubbed against humans. Wiring has gone out once but rewired and since than no problems. It is very easy to play, and well balacned, if a bit heavy.

This bass is tough! It will forever be the backup bass. It's a good slab of Korean wood. I think the finish is a little cheap, but otherwise no complaints.

I have been playing on and off for over 10 years, and also own a Hamer Blitz and Sarzo Washburn. If it were stolen, I would be a little unhappy about that. It's pretty rare and I'd probably replace with a Peavey T-40 or something of that nature. I think it's a similar kind of bass. It's very easy to play, very easy... Heavy, but when it's unplugged you can hear it sing very nicely. It has an inherently good feel and sound to it. If I were to put active electronics in it, it would probably outshine either of my other basses. But I do't since, I don't want it to be the best bass I have!!! I play it better than any other bass I have played. Funny to think I bought it for so little, and it is a practically unknown clone...

If it weren't for my love of pointy basses, this would do me fine forever. And when you consider the price... 70 bucks (in 1992 dollars), it's just plain stupidly good value. I'll doubt I will ever sell it. I was my first bass, and a fine player.