Product: Zerberus-Guitars Red-Shark
Price Paid: 499 (EUR)
Submitted
09/25/2002
at
03:59pm
by
Konstantinos Kostis
Email: die at bassbacke<dot>de
Features
:
8
The Zerberus Red-Shark was made in 2002 in Korea using German design and specs featuring 24 frets and four strings. It has a solid top, active P and J pickups, passive electronics (two volume knobs and two high cuts - I do not kid you). Make and model of the pickups is unknown to me. It would be nice to be able to access the battery more easily (without tools) but it's quite OK. Finish is (transparent) metallic red, so the wood shines through. Body style is close to a Spector NS-94 but less round, that is it's a rather small body and very small head (smaller than the Korean Spector head). Don't know the material used for the body. All 24 frets can be played. The whole bass is very light weight but well balanced. Tuners look like Gotoh. Neck is bolt on, 34" scale with jumbo frets and almost feels the same as my Korean Spector NS-94. Looks like the fret board's rosewood. Accessories included were tools for setting up the bass and a (simple) cable.
Sound
:
9
The Zerberus Red-Shark plays easy and offers a great sound variety despite the passive electronics due to active pickups. It handles slap&pop very well, but also finger style and plecs. Sounds nice in a (hard) rock band but also with pop or folk music. I'm using a compressor but I do that with all my basses. The instrument is very low noise. The overall sound is rich, has high without sounding too metallic. It can be used for both studio and live. It would prefer active sound controls, though (two way would be enough) and a volume/balance instead of two volume knobs.
Action, Fit, & Finish
:
10
The bass was setup properly. I adjusted the action and setup a little to fit my personal taste. I suggest most people would not have minded keeping it the way it was. Pickups were adjusted OK. I did not touch them. I could not detect any flaws.
Reliability/Durability
:
10
Though the body and head look a bit small and may be even fragile it's a very sturdy bass which easily withstands live playing. Hardware looks pretty long lasting. Strap buttons look rock solid. I can easily depend on this bass. I have have only adjusted Neck/truss once to fit my personal taste, didn't need any adjustments since. I would use it on a gig without a backup but I always use backups in case a string breaks to save time.
Customer Support
:
10
The owner of Zerberus Frank Scheucher is very friendly, helpful and open for suggestions. I met him when I picked up the instrument. It's rather new and didn't require any service so far. Warranty is European standard (two years) I think.
Overall Rating
:
9
I play bass since 1987. I own basses from Warwick, Sandberg, Spector and Yamahas but I used to own and play other brands as well. If my Zerberus Red-Shark was stolen I would try to get one again but it may not be easy since this is a limited edition. Maybe some other Zerberus, then. I love the small size and light weight, ease of play and basic sound, however, I wish it had active sound controls. This would really make it near perfect. It's fun to play and look at in any case.
Zerberus web site is http://www.zerberus-guitars.de/
