Italia Mondial Bass

This is a great bass! Just love the vintage look of it. The humbucking pickup is just what I was looking for. It sounds great!! Never use the Piezo, it is too bright for me. I am a bit troubled by the bridge: just wood, like on the Wandre from the early sixties I had, but it works well enough for me. I do had to adjust the bridge at the lowest level possible. I'm still not shure about the tuners. I have to detune the E string to low D in a few songs on stage, and I constantly have to check the tuning. I do it with every song!

I only use the humbucker, I need that low, a bit muddy sound. On my Roland Cube 60 it sometimes clips. That does not happen on my Galien Krueger. I have not used it in the Studio, but I can imagine that it works there too. As far as I noticed, it is very quiet.

I just readjusted the bridge to my personal needs. It works good enough for me.

Using this bass for three months now, I'm not sure if it will be durable, it looks o.k. The strap buttons are very big, and very solid; no accidently sliping away here!! I would never go to a gig with just one bass. Each and every room sounds different, last week I had to use my 83 precision bass, because the room did not do justice to the Italia.

This is the first bass that made people in the audience ask me what bass it was. I do use a lot of basses: 51 precision reissue, 68 precision, 83 Squier precision, 92 Jazz, Longhorn, Jack Casady. Each of them is important to me. The job asks for the right bass.

Features are great...Having the Humbucker and the Piezo give you the pure acoustic sound and the Deep sound with the Humbucker...My band (www.riversidebluesband.com) told me they would replace me with who ever bought the bass if I sold it It sounds that good!!Hey I better have a talk with these guys!!!

Using with a Carvin R600 and a matching Cabinet with 2 Eights a Horn and 1 -15 ....Wow what a sound..Crisp highs and deep lows....Like the piezo setting the best..Little secret there is an Eq adjustment under the battery..This will get rid of the sound of the strings if you use Round wound..Have not tried Flat but the Eq did the trick...Go to www.italiaguitars.com for the manual etc...

Use it live and get a lot of Looks!!!!

Bass came perfect..I am the second owner..

Only has a few weeks but seems solid so far

Never had to yet...

Been playing for over 30 years and love the bass and its sounds..It could be a little lighter..But hey cant have it all..I also have a mid 80's P Bass and play both..The Mondial has really rounded out the sound for the band..

This is a unique Bass, with a very intentional "retro" look to it.
These Korean-Made Basses break the sterotype of just that, the poorly made/set-up stuff. This was well put together!

It has one big mothuerluvin' "Humbucker" on it, as well as a piezo pickup under the bridge for acoustic bass sounds.

The Mondial has one input for Electric, and one input for Acoustic.
What I was really impressed with here is the flexibility of not only the individual sounds, but the fact that you can blend the two together for an awesome mix of tones!

Came shipped to me with Gotoh Tuners, which are staying in tune just fine.
It has what Italia call an "Acousti-Glas" body, which looks basically like plexiglass to me...But a nice glossy finish to it. Very eye-catching.
The sides of the bass appear to have rubber strips, which not only looks cool, but probably act as ?bumpers? for your finish if you happen to not look what you?re doing.

The Italia gig bag I received with it is very well padded with a generous sized pocket in it.
A well thought out package was shipped to me.

Soundwise, this is a match made in heaven for me...
I prefer the sounds of 60's "pop, and this bass nails it for me!
Because of the wonderful combination on Piezo and Humbucker, the tones are as Full, dark, bright, or warm as you choose to dial it in.
A great amount of variety in tones can be made with the Mondial.
Sounds great recorded, and I will be playing it out live this weekend for the first time, and am looking forward to it.

This bass came set-up wonderfully out of the box...
All intonation was great, no buzzing or deadspots anywhere on the neck. And it rode for 2-3 days on a UPS truck in 5 degree weather.
The only flaw I could find on the Bass was a few minute black specs that are under the plexiglass finish, so I cannot remove them.
But I'm over it. Everything else about the form, fit, and finish was excellent.

This bass should withstand live playing, as it is quite heavy and built like a tank, which is a bit unusual for a hollow-body bass.
The hardware is solid, the finish is probably actually a bonus in the the sense that the body is plexiglass, and wont chip or yellow with age like wood.
The strap buttons are VERY solid, and OVERSIZED!
These buttons are sooo big it would take Arnold to rip them off..
I like that.
Personally, I wouldn't use it soley for my gigs, only because my band does a variety of musical styles... (www.motorcitysaints.com)
This bass would probably be good to use at gigs without a back-up, but I am hesitant to "Slap Bass" on any hollowbody Bass, but that's just me.

Customer Support I have not dealt with yet.

I have been playing bass for 20 years now, and also play a 1980 Schecter P-Bass. These are two distinctly different beasts, and I will say that the Mondial is one of the best Hollowbody Basses I have ever played. I wished I had asked for flat-wounds for this Bass before it shipped, but that was my fault, not the fault of the seller.
I'm gonna put flats on this before I play out this week-end.

Overall-This bass is getting harder to find, and at this price, it shouldn't be too long before they are impossible to find.
A GREAT quality to price ratio in this winner!

This bass offers cool retro-styling, reminiscent of the old Supro guitars of the 50's. For fat, round tones there's a large humbucker at the neck position, with its own volume and tone control. For more crisply defined, but still round tones, there's an active piezo mounted in the wooden bridge, also with its own volume/bass/treble controls. Each pickup has its own output jack, allowing for separation to two amps or board channels. The bass also features a sliding thumb rest, adjustable between the bridge and neck pickup. To top things off, the bass also has some nice cosmetic appointments, such as large fret marker inlays, gotoh gears with pearlized keys, and a rubber "bumper strip" along the outer edge. A very nice bass for the money.

I typically play rock and ska/reggae bass, and this baby suits both just fine. The electronics are quiet, and the pickups sound awesome. The neck pickup produces some of the nicest round tones I have heard, while the active piezo in the bridge produces a more definied version of the same. It's a good bass for anyone that wants that vintage woody thump, similar to an old Hofner. I recommend using flatwounds (Thomastiks, for instance) on this bass to do it justice.

I bought this bass used, so I can't really comment on the factory setup. There were no visible flaws of any kind. The action is inherently higher on this bass, as it's meant for round, resonant tones, as opposed to percussive slap.

This bass feels very solid. I would definitely use it for live gigs. The finish is made of molded fiberglass, so there's no paint to chip. I imagine that it will hold up nicely.

Haven't had to deal with anyone.

Been playing for 23 years, and this bass ranks with the best of them.