Italia Modulo Bass

My Modulo is a blue tolex covered one with a blue sparkle scratchplate. I brought it new this year 2009 on a whim cause I liked the retro look.It's full 34 scale,Precision style body (no wrist/forearm conture) with volume and tone knobs which control the 4 passive lipstick pickups set sideways inline with each string.
Not sure of the wood but it's good and solid and mid weighty.
The neck is jazz bass size at the nut and has a nice feel.
The tuners are supposed to be Gotoh do feel good quality. The bridge is a heavy duty Fender style by Wilkinson with a chrome metal bridge cover...how cool.

I have used Danelectros live and in the studio with excellent results lovely twangy growl and good bass response so I jumped at the chance to have a pickup on EACH string, I thought it would blow me away. Well it didn't!! I not sure what the other reviewers have been using but there was no piont in fitting a tone knob because it made no difference to the sound which was a reasonably pleasant bass honk. But thats it it never got any brighter or bassier and sounded nothing like the Danelectro lipsticks. Italia use 500k pots which should be used for humbuckers and make single coils sound brittle and trebley but that never happened ??
I thought about adding an EMG active EQ to it and still might as I've routed the body for it and fitted a jazz bass control plate using all four holes for pots as the jacksocket is flush mounted on the body alla strat style. I now have seperate volume and tone for the E and A strings and the D and G strings, what a difference being able to dial in more tone into either the top or bottom half of the bass. I also changed all four pots to 250k and now the bass is really low and hard hitting on the E and A without effecting the cutting D and G. I think it needs a kick though and a active EQ is still on the cards but I'm worried the pickups are just too weak.

Its a piece of art deco !!!! As I said mine is Blue Tolex with a blue sparkle scratchplate. There is a silver strip all round the body of the bass. As I started to do the work on the bass for the new pots and active EQ I realised why the silver strip is there, this bass is two basses cut in half down the middle like a sandwhich then screwed together again.The silver strip covers the joint. It seems a lot of work just to use the lipstick pickups. The strap buttons are huge but I changed them for straplocks which have to be drilled out to a bigger size if you use the original screw mountings (easy job). The tuners are excellent so is the bridge. My action was very good only needing tweeking to suit me and a little intonation adjustment.I love the little I's everywhere for Italia and the bridge cover just adds that finishing touch. Finally I fitted a Graphtec Tusq nut because I didn't like what looked like a plastic original.
Overall a lot of time and effort has gone into the design and the quality is superb.

I think this bass could be played live with no backup, it's well made and won't fall apart on you, as I said it's quiet weighty (all that chrome). I don't see any issues in this part.

Italia have a website and answered my questions quickly by e-mail, but I think I could have designed this bass better with more features that would have taken it from a qwuirky piece of art work to a serious bass with a unique image and sound that people would be queueing for.

I have been playing bass since 1989, I now play for a sixties Hammond garage band and image is important on stage as well as sound is paramount in the studio. The Modulo bass is 110% image on stage but only 50% sound in the studio. I probably wouldn't buy another one if it got stolen, although it would be nice to know someone else had a love of blue tolex like me. This really is a bass of two halves and you will either love it or hate it. They don't make the Tolex ones anymore and the production run was very limited I believe around 500 a collectors item for the future maybe but that could be said of all the Italia range. So if you want to be different have a look at the Italia range and if you like Tolex look at a secondhand Modulo. If anyone wants pictures of my upgraded one just e-mail me.

Lovely retro looking bass.It has a Black Leather Tolex finish which is something i've never seen before and also four lipstick pickups. Necks a great size, not too big or small. 2001 silver carved two piece jointed Agathis tone wood. Controls:
1 x Vol, 1 x Tone


Bridge:
Wilkinson WBBC

Machine heads:
Italia Die-Cast

Pickguard:
Italia Floating


Number of frets:
22

Fingerboard Radius:
304/12"

Neck profile:
Italia "C"

Scale length:
864MM/34"

Width at nut:
42.5MM/1680"

This bass gives out an amazing sound, delivers warm lows and crisp, bright highs. Sounds ground with roundwound strings. In the studio this bass is a pleasure to use and an even bigger pleasure to use on stage.

The finish is out of this world, a lot of care and attention has gone into this bass. When i bought it there was a bit of buzzing but i easily adjusted the action to stop that.

I've played this bass for over half a year now and had no problems whatsoever. I've played it at home and and rehearsals, but not yet on stage. All i can say right now is so far so good! The stap buttons are huge aswell so no problem with the strap coming off.

It's under 1 year warranty, but thats with the shop it was purchased from and not the company.

This is an amazing bass, i would say don't get put of by the agathis wood. This delivers crisper and brighter tones than a fender jazz mex and is a unique sounding and looking bass!

I have had mine for about 6 months. .

While not a fancy ax it does the trick great. Hangs well, plays well, sound good for what I am,,not a thumb and snap bass. I play wedding bands,,jazz etc
24 frets would be nice

I have had to raise the action a bit because I tend to pull hard,,,I play upright most of the time

so far so good...no matter what I am using I always bring a backup,,,paranoid...I have put strap locks on it..nothing has broken yet but I'm 48 and not into destruction. Haven't really had it long enough to bet my life on it.

I bought mine through tradehawk.com. As I havent had any problems I cant say about Italia directly. I had a bunch of questions before purchase and that responce was great. Took me a while to make up my mind

I have been playing for about 30 years, upright and electric. I tend tyo prefer upright in general so an overall opinion of all electrics is they make my shoulder hurt and wrist get sore..this one is not the best but not the worst. My fav was an old Washburn Bantem that I added an extra long horn to so it balanced better and was real light. It didn't have the big sound of the modulo though (got stolen)