Product: Jolana Iris Bass
Price Paid: Euros 120 USED
Submitted
01/27/2009
at
07:52pm
by
Mr Stringer
Features
:
7
Made in Chechoslovakia from about 1970 to 1985. Dark red sunburst very thin Telecaster-style solid body with fake F-hole, maple neck, with rosewood-ish fingerboard, 20 frets, shortscale. Two single-coil blade-style passive pickups, volume, tone, chickenhead PU switch. Jolana specials: two strap buttons on the bottom makes the bass stand firmly on the floor when not played, and the upper strap button unscrews to reveal a little screwdriver -neat!
Sound
:
8
I??m playing it over a Fender Bassman combo (not mine) or a Hiwatt stack with a Marshall compressor stompbox and light nickel strings. It sounds surprisingly good + full for a bass from behind the iron curtain. Sound is singlecoilish bright, somewhere between Jazz- and P-bass. No hum or noise except for a crackly vol.pot. Decent sustain for a shortscale bolt-on. Bridge PU alone is a trifle too bright -piercing- for my taste, I mostly use both PUs. I use it for garage rock and punk, and it does the job really well.
Action, Fit, & Finish
:
8
Good action, not much to complain about. Neck rather thick, but not unpleasantly so -needed a bit of adjusting when I got it. Strings still start buzzing over the 14th fret or so, was of no issue to me - I play BASS.
Reliability/Durability
:
10
In spite of it's cheapo appearance, it's most surprisingly built like the proverbial tank. EVERYTHING on it is of the most solid construction, big and chunky and well thought-out, for instance the jack is held in a 3-mm-metal plate held by 4 screws so if clumsy me steps on the cable, the plug breaks, not the guitar. The finish isn't -the paint is put on rather thin, without much clearcoat. All hardware is chromed, and turns to rust quickly where in contact with sweaty hands. Other than that, it's of pretty good quality, tuners and bridge are well made.
I gig with it any time, it was made for just that. No backups. A real workhorse.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Jolana doesn't exist anymore. Anyway, everything on the Iris is easily fixable.
Overall Rating
:
8
I've been playing for about ten years now using mostly vintage shortscales, my other favorite is a Framus Atlantic hollowbody -too rare and fragile for the stage, unfortunately. If the Iris was stolen, I'd get another one, they can still be found easily on Ebay cheap. I like it's sturdiness and cheapo-cool looks. Compared to other basses in the price range, it definitely takes the cake, as long as you don't try anything fancy above the 12th fret.
