Vaccaro Generator X Bass

Hear ye Hear Ye, All bassists of the world unite! The gods have brought forth a new gift. Out of shores of New Jersey arises in the year 2001 VACCARO. Sounds familiar? Well is should, it is the original owners the famed Kramer Company (now an adopted stepchild of Gibson, no affiliation what so ever). These are the geniuses who brought the world the aluminum V necked guitar and basses as well as introducing NS Spector, The Eddie Van Halen Baretta, the pacer, the Floyd rose tremolo and a up and coming luthier named Steinberger (who?s cute little award winning bass looks like a spin-off of the Kramer Duke series, my opinions are my own) to name a few of their great achievements in the music community. They have taken the old Aluminum V neck and refined it. Being and owner of a XKB myself, I had a hard time finding a bass I loved more in my 23 years of bass playing. Sure I Like the G&L, Musicman, the Modulus Graphites, Warwicks, and Pentullas but they cost an arm and a leg just to get the cheap versions. Dollar for dollar you get great quality right off the bat. The one thing that I hate about those companies (with the exception of Modulus Graphite) is that the necks are subject to warping. (Boy could I tell you a horror story concerning warping in my G&L) What they use to do was to put a couple of slabs of wood on an aluminum frame and bolt a body on to it. This resulted in a neck that you could smash a car with and still run to the studio for that session and have a perfect intonated neck. Now the drawback was that this neck weighted more that some guitars weighted in total. I hope you never have the experience of playing a metal neck guitar in 30-degree weather. Now I refer to the new method that they use to manufacture the neck as "the M&M theory" and I?m surprised that no one has ever thought of doing this before. An airplane grade aluminum "bone" runs the length of the neck from the heal to the V shaped headstock and a "shell" of wood encases the frame to provided the natural feel of a normal wooden neck. The result feels and weighs about the same. Now if you have any reserves about the look of the V then you should keep your eyes open for the next generation. To give you and idea of what to expect, look at the new Hartke basses. They are equipped with a version Vaccaro necks. It is my experience that when another great company incorporates you product into theirs, then you must be doing something right. You can?t tell the difference between the wood and the metal, can you? Now the model I play is the four string Generator X version (I am told a five string version is on the drawing board). The bolt on neck (the wood shell allows it to mount like a normal replacement neck that will accept any normal wood screw) sports 20 thin frets on a 34" scale. The fret board is ebonal (a sort of bowling ball like material which simulates ebony but not as heavy (it won?t split or crack, trust me it?s good, I have an original Kramer which is over 15 years old and I?ve NEVER had fret work done to it). The width at the nut is 42 mm thick and extends in a flat U type fashion to 63-mm heel, which gives the player the feel of a strat. I have small hands so I love the way it sits in my palm. It has sperzel tuners (a locking vise grip type which prevents string slippage). The body is fashioned like a fender mustang with a jazz pickup configuration. The model I have is equipped with Seymour Duncan active bassline pickups. The controls are two volumes and one tone. The color I have is black but I am told by the manufacturer that you can have your choice of any of 15 selections. It is also equipped with a schaller 2000 bridge that to me is a souped up Leo Quan Badass. The overall design is very simple and functional. The case is a normal hard shell type, but if you are a road musician I would replace it with a fight case.

I?m playing this sucker straight through a Hartke Combo with no effects. Boy this baby sounds awesome! It has a thick but bright piano tone to it. If I had to compare it to another bass I would say it sounds like a Modulus Graphite Quantum 4 with Stingray pickups. I can name three recordings that have this sound; Glide by the group Pleasure, Higher Ground by the Red Hot Chile Peppers or Big time (the little slap solo during the bridge) by Peter Gabriel. Yes I?m a Thumpasaurus Rex (slap) type bassist and I am totally sold on this sound. I don?t think I can get any better for the money. When I play with finger, the notes are tight and crisp sort of a Stanley Clark type sound. Now if you haven?t tried it yet then you should attempt hammer ons like Eddie Van Halen, you can actually get something useful out of this technique on this bass. It is very quiet when no notes are played. It can get all the tones you could from a fender jazz but being a stage bassist I hate one thing in particular and that is a lot of knobs that do the same thing. To me I prefer one master volume, one master balance, and one master tone knobs. When you are playing live you don?t have time to fiddle with things to get a cool tone. I don?t like the two volume knobs. I also wish that they would have put in a push / pull on / off switch on the volume (ever set you bass down and it falls and the bang is amplified?)

In conclusion I would say that Vaccaro took their time in designing this bass and if this is a sample of things to come you will start seeing a lot of guitarist and bassist using these instruments. It is ver rare that you get a tool off the shelf and is happening. Everyone from beginners to Pros will appreciate the product.

There is not a whole lot going on in this bass. I can see anything going wrong. With a metal reinforced neck, you can leave this baby outside for a whole year in New York weather and when you pick it up it should be as it was when you first left it. I?m convinced that the Kramer technology exists in the construction and I have decided that this is the only bass for me. I would feel comfortable having it as my main and only bass. The only problems I had with my original Kramer were 1. It was heavy as hell; it killed my hands in cold weather out side, and the battery issue I had when I changed the stock pickups with EMG?s. The Vaccaro Generator X addressed those issues and compromised them. I expect that when I?m an old and become a piece of furnisher, I?ll still have my Vaccaro right there next to me in full functioning condition. If I ever lost it I would climb the highest mountain and swim the deepest sea to replace it.

As for customer support these guys are fantastic. All of their guitars carry a limited lifetime warranty. That says a lot because my XKB out lived the original Kramer Company and is still going strong. I spoke to Vaccaro Sr. and Jr. personally and these guys will give you their undivided attention.
I often send emails with technical questions and they always respond ASAP with good sound advise. This is going to be a very significant guitar manufacturer in the century to come. Unfortunately this is a new company and you will have a hard time finding a model to pull off the shelf. I ordered mine right from the website www.vaccarguitars.com, I didn?t worry about the end result because I have a history with their craftsmanship and I?m totally satisfied. I was looking for a used Kramer to butcher when I came across the Vaccaro website by accident and was overjoyed that they revised a great product. Like I said before if you need to try before you buy, then play the Hartke version but it?s something about the shinny V that says "I play serious Bass and I got the tool to do it!"

I have been playing twenty years and I have encounter just about every aspect professional bassist can experiance. The only thing that could make me happier is if I could have Vaccaro make me a custom bass. I think that I expressed myself quite completely in my previous writings