Bravewood Guitars J-Bass

My bass is a 1964 Jazz Bass replica in yellowed Olympic white with a tortoise shell scratch plate, 7/10 distressing and voodoo JB60 pickups. It's body is made of select alder with a rosewood fretboard and has a vintage aged bridge and reverse tuners with a nitro-cellulose finish.

This is the best part. It sounds amazing. There are harmonics are all over the fingerboard.

I play in two bands at the moment; an experimental all bass outfit and a jazz group. This bass is so versatile and has impressed me so much that I'm now going to let all of my pre-EB Stingrays go.

This bass has an incredible well balanced and reactive sound played through my Ashdown ABM-EVO 500 head with 4x8 cab and amazing Jaco tones can be heard through my Roland Cube 100 (with Bass360 setting engaged).

Simply put, this is the finest playing and sounding Jazz I have ever had the pleasure of playing.

This bass was put together perfectly with no flaws at all and there was absolutely no buzz on the fingerboard with the action set-up being super low... just the way I like it.

Most importantly for me is the neck and John has done an incredible job here making it feel beautifully played in; just like it's been gigged day in day out for 40 years.

The incredible nitro-cellulose finish, ageing and workmanship is second to none and that doesn't come from me... that is what my well respected local luthier said when I showed him on the day I received it. He believed it was genuine (and he's worked on my genuine 1964 original Fender Jazz Bass). He had no idea... yet another testament to the genius of John Elliott.

I haven't had the bass for five minutes but it is built absolutely perfectly.

John has been amazing. From the first moment I mailed him through to delivery of the bass he's been incredible with sharing information, etc. When the bass arrived there is sheet of paper which goes into detail about how to look after your instrument, how best to store it, etc. which has been very interesting and made me rethink where I store my basses.

I own a genuine all original pre-CBS Fender Jazz Bass in sunburst and used it seven days a week for almost ten years when I caught someone red-handed trying to steal it from an event my band played. From that moment on I stopped using it for gigs and went through a LOT of Fender trying to replace it... an American Standard, a '62 reissue, an American Deluxe, etc., etc. but none of them felt or sounded right for me (even the NOS '64 reissue I bought).

This Bravewood Jazz is amazing and I don't really know what else to say about it... one things for sure, it puts a certain company's Custom Shop to shame. This is the best bass that I have ever laid my hands on... it's even better to play than my '64 Fender Jazz Bass. If it was lost I would be devastated and I would have to get another one. This bass plays itself it's so easy.

And here she is: http://www.bravewoodguitars.co.uk/64OlymJtype.html

Bravewood - http://www.bravewoodguitars.com - is John Elliot, who specialises in relic guitars and custom building. This bass is a used prototype, modelled on the ubiquitous Jazz bass, and features an ash body finished in clear lacquer, a five-piece laminated neck in maple with walnut stripes, 2 EMG Select J-bass pickups, 2 volume and one tone control (with knurled metal knobs) with no scratch plate. The headstock is John?s own 4-in-line design, rather smaller and more elegant that the traditional Fender shape. The fretboard is Honduras rosewood, tuners are Gotoh and it has a Schaller adjustable roller bridge and Dunlop straplocks. Hardware is black.

Unusually, it?s neither a bolt-on nor a neck-thro design: the neck is glued-in and extends a long way into the body. A neat feature common to other Bravewood designs is the recessed jack socket on bottom edge.

Unplugged, it?s very resonant. Plugged in, it?s got the expected characteristic J-bass punchiness, but without the mudiness than can afflict some J-basses, and with more overtones and far better sustain. It sounds rather airy and intimate, with a subtle, woody resonance. I wonder if this due to the set-neck construction? Given judicious adjustment of controls and amplifier settings, it is capable of producing a substantially wider spectrum of tonalities than is usual for a J-bass, ranging from warm and mellow to an aggressive buzz, twang and pop when slapping.

Anyone looking for the fat bellow or exaggerated pop of an active bass with humbuckers will be disappointed. A number of people who tried it were initially puzzled as to why I like it so much. But after a while, all were left seriously impressed by its playability, subtlety and responsiveness to variations in playing style. This is a very expressive instrument.

Considering this is a prototype, the fit and finish are impeccable. The instrument feels light, beautifully balanced and very comfortable, whether strapped on or played sitting. Intonation is spot on, the neck is dead straight and adjusted for minimal relief, the frets are well-dressed, and the action is set low. For comfort and stability, the neck is outstanding. It?s the nicest I?ve come across on a 4-string, which, coupled with a low action, makes for a very fast-playing bass.

John tells me his gigged this bass for several years. I can see why ? it?s the perfect gigging instrument. Light and comfortable, fast and easy to play, with simple controls a rock-solid feel. It stays in perfect tune, no matter how outrageously the strings are pulled. In fact, it hardly needs tuning from week to week. Although I would not gig seriously without a backup (paranoia!), I?m pretty confident the backup would never get taken out of its case.

John is an ace guy, who takes a great deal of care and pride in his work and will do anything to ensure total customer satisfaction.

I?ve been playing for more years than I care to count, with a long sojourn in between. Although I?m a neo-classic rock lead guitarist at heart, I initially took up bass as a hobby, having seen some of the extraordinary things our bass player could do (Dave Martin - where are you, man?). I progressed from EB3 and Fender copies to a Gibson EB3 to an Overwater (a 1980?s walnut neck-thro John Entwistle model) upgraded by Chris May in 2002 to humbuckers and 3-band active electronics.

Much as I like the Overwater and its huge range of sounds, it?s not a subtle instrument. I felt it had lost some of its individuality and character in the upgrade to active, so I started looking for a passive. I tried loads and loads and loads of new and used basses, without ever quite finding what I was looking for, at any price. I took a chance on the Bravewood, buying it blind on the web ? and I?m very glad I did. It just feels so alive, resonant and responsive. I prefer to alter tone by playing technique than by fiddling with knobs, and the Bravewood really lets me do this. It?s now my bass of choice.

If it were ever stolen, I would curse the thief to the ends of the universe ? and immediately contact John and beg him to make me another. It?s that good. Except I?d probably ask for different pickups (Bartolini?) and different wiring (master volume, pan, and master tone with push/pull switching for series/parallel). John tells me he would charge about 875 GBP (approx 1,400 USD) for a new one.

When you consider John?s prices and the fact that all his instruments are hand-made to the highest standards (if this bass is anything to go by), you simply cannot get better value for money.