Mine !

[golem]

It's an FNA JazzMan 2004 LE. I needed
another fretted 4 like I need a hole in my
head ... oops ... maybe I do need a hole
in my head. Anyhoot I'z already WAAAYY
overstocked in really nice fretted 4s, and
I usually play FL .... but I've never heard
anything like this. It's boootyful ! And so
rich ! Rich, boootyful, and she sings ? I
just hadda have her ... it's in the rules.

Anybody know what kinda EQ-pre these
have ? There's no trim pots on the main
board like my old "std issue" JazzMan. I
can't find the maker's name on the main
board. One of the pots does show "MEC",
but are pots and main board always of a
matching brand ? There are switches on
the bass and mid knobs. Pulling the bass
knob splits the bridge PU and pulling the
mid knob is either a contour or a mids
center shift. Hard to tell.

There's very little solid info published on
this ax, so informed info is very welcome
[Flo ? Greg ?]. And, yes, I know no pix,
no ax. So here yugo. Pic is swiped from
the seller, but it's of my axtual ax before
it was sold to me:​

 

[Curtis]

Cool bass! Congratulations!

 

[TylerDurdenPSSC]

She's gorgeous Golem! Congrats!

 

[flipper_gv]

Congrats, beautiful

 

[TylerDurdenPSSC]

Congrats, beautiful

Well, now you're just firting with him in hopes to touch his new bass. :lol:

 

[nizzrooster]

Congrats bro! I hear lots of good about those.

 

[Goran]

Ahhh she's beautifulL!!

 

[JanVanHove]

Hmm...

No Piezo, frets... What came over you, my friend?

It's purrrdy, that's for sure...

 

[golem]

She's now been out on two gigs and her
ultra clear voice had me fussing with my
tuning all night, but she stays in tune. I
tried going a bit sharp and a bit flat on
the whole string set, figgering Ms Diva's
KB could well be off from A440. Nothing
fixed the weirdness in our sound.

Soooo, I applied the tuning meter to the
KB, and whhooooaaa ! Every octave has
the same pattern: C is about a 1/4 tone
flat, DE&F are about 10% flat .... crazy !
Hopefully, this particular KB will just die
soon ... but in the meantime, I'm forced
to commit a crime against the boootyful
tone of this ax: Chorus, to disguise the
uncureable tuning mismatch. No wonder
I'm so hooked on FL .... Ms D has a truly
endless supply of sorry assed KBs.

I have played fretted basses often enuf
over the years, over our 1000+ nites, to
bleeb Ms D's current KB is exceptionally
fuggedupp. But OTOH, maybe some of
the other KBs really were this bad, and
the problem was masked in two ways,
even when I played fretted:

1. For a few years I had an amp with an
onboard chorus.

2. No previous bass had the clarity of
this one.

#1 is innerressin cuz Ms D REALLY loved
that chorus amp. So, now I know why ?

#2 would be verrry real, cuz I've never
really like fretted sound before, and just
saw frets as a necessary evil, for nights
when it got too noisy to hear whether I
played FL in tune, leading me to choose
fretted basses of less-than-crystal tone.

Plus, if fretted is mainly for noisy nites
then the mismatch of a well-tuned bass
with a wacked out KB would be masked
somewhat by the noise.

I remember playing the Bongo alongside
a seriously miserable grand piano but we
also had our fiddle & guitar player on the
gig. A Bongo HH [$$] has a rather clean
tone, but the addition to the mix of our
fiddle & guitar guy would somewhat bury
the piano problem. And even though the
Bongo sings clean, it doesn't bring that
crystal clean ring of the JazzMan LE. It's
that 'something extra' that really makes
the KB problem huge.

Maybe Ms D will spill some Maneschevitz
on her keys. There's always that chance.
The sugar content will put this KB in the
dumpster for sure !
​

 

[golem]

Well, now you're just firting with him
in hopes to touch his new bass.
:lol:

Nah, Flipper's about 4 hrs north of here.

But if he ever wanders this far south for
a bass grope, he is welcome, but better
give advance notice. Regardless of how
much I dig any particular ax, I'll always
switch basses every week or few weeks
at a time. Gimme notice and I'll have
the requested bass on the gig.
​

 

[golem]

Hmm...

No Piezo, frets... What came over you, my friend?

It's purrrdy, that's for sure...

Like I said about a hole in my head ....

Now, this thing is basically a Vett, and
due to planetary alignments and major
sunspot activity, it cost me no more
than my $$ Vetts. Nice, but I know a
regular std issue FNA JazzMan is way
beyond my budget and a CS version is
waaaayyy beyond. Nevertheless, this
ax did spark a little CS dreaming. I'd
have the CS build a replica of the the
2004 LE with 4 differences:

1. Add the piezo bridge.
2. Forget the frets.
3. Angle the neck PU like a regular JM.
4. 35" scale.

For the life of me, I don't know why
the neck PU on the LE isn't angle like
a regualr JM ? Obviously they already
have the CNC code for the angle rout,
so why not use it here ? Jeeeezzzeus.

----------------------------------------


I guess I'll address "certain other"
threads now, which live in the "CS"
subforum: Just above you will find a
good example of a PREDICTABLE
dream bass. I already own and play
the foundation of it, and I already
know what effect my CS alterations
will have, so I wouldn't need to ask
the collective wisdom here for any
help in guesstimating the result. I
bleeb that this is what CS is really
all about.

OTOH, my result would not have any
jaw dropping in-you-face originality.
I'd just be 'massaging' a known ax,
a pre-existing and in-play design. Of
course, if your ego requires that you
have a sooper unique bass with jaw
dropping in-you-face originality then
go for it .... but you'll hafta live with
whatever the result happen to sound
like. No matter matter how much you
seek advice and councel from all the
forum gurus, the number of variables
in a "from scratch" CS build are just
staggering .... AND they interact with
each other ... in very sooprizing ways.

Frinstintz, I am VERY [pleasantly]
sooprized at the sonic difference
between this FNA JM LE and the std
issue FNA JM I had several months
ago, yet the physical build difference
really only amounts to a 'massaging'
of the std issue version. Basic concept
is the same for both versions. Both
bear the model name "FNA JazzMan".


​

 

[EVOLVEBASS]

Man, koa is seriously sexy... seriously.

 

[Florin]

Look who's got an EFFFN'AYEEE!

Congratulations for your beautiful axe. I had the chance to play one myself, and I agree 100% with you, it is very "boutique" sounding. Warm and pleasant too...
The EQ should be SD, and that function is "Slap Contour" I guess it is a pre shape like mid scoop, low and treble boost.
We made 260 of those.
Cheers, Flo

 

[Grgzilla]

omg,it's gorgeous Golem.
I love the koa top & the inlays look superb.
I almost bought the one Carey Jordan owns,the price was a mate's rates & the only reason I passed was coz it was a 5er.Otherwise it would've been mine.This is the only Vette I lust over.
I bet it's a monster slapper.
Enjoy.You scored well my friend.Extremely well.

 

[flipper_gv]

Nah, Flipper's about 4 hrs north of here.

But if he ever wanders this far south for
a bass grope, he is welcome, but better
give advance notice. Regardless of how
much I dig any particular ax, I'll always
switch basses every week or few weeks
at a time. Gimme notice and I'll have
the requested bass on the gig.
​

ohohoh so I could have exclusive info about how many basses you own and who is Ms. Diva ? :d

 

[golem]

Quantitative data is not only restricted,
but unresearched, not accurately known.

Yeah, you can sit in and play with Ms D.

​

 

[golem]

Look who's got an EFFFN'AYEEE!

...... The EQ should be SD, and that function is
"Slap Contour" ...... We made 260 of those.
Cheers, Flo

Thanx Flo. Only 260 ? Mine is 04/11 !

I don't slap, but some of my fingerstyle is
pure madness ... I was getting to bleebing
that the magic pull knob was a contour, as
it behaves oddly depending on the various
other EQ & PU settings in play. Particularly
how pulling the knob can sometimes bring
a noticeable volume increase but at other
times quite a volume drop. Sometimes I'll
play mostly mids so natchurly any contour
that scoops the mids will drop the volume.

OTOH, if I've got the bass knob even just
a weenie bit above center, the bass boost
in the contour jacks up the overall volume.
No way that a simple mids-shift control is
gonna jerk the volume all around like this.


Hhhmmmnnn .... so it's an SD mini rig in
there, with MEC pots ? Ya know, suddenly
it occurs to me that I've had my SD EBMM
hot rod for 10 years, and yet it has NEVER
crossed my mind to try pulling on a knob!
Gotta check that out and who knows ....


Heyyyy ......EFFFN'AYEEE!
​

 

[Pedro]

Lovely bass! You'll need a warehouse soon the way you're going matey

 

[Callum]

EFFFN'AYEEE!!!

Congratulations golem its stunning!

 

[golem]

Having several gigs on it now, I'm thinking
that the voice has waaaay to much clarity
[sans chorus box] to play behind Ms Diva's
sorryassed KBs and that a round of neck
swapping might be in order.


Currently the pre-swap trio is:

2004 FNA LE fretted ebony FB.
2007 Vett $$ fretted wenge FB.
1999 FL Vett Bart JJ with WENGE neck [and ebony FB].

Considering this final result:

2004 FNA LE with FL WENGE neck [and ebony FB].
2007 Vett $$ fretted, with ebony FB [neck from 2004 LE].
1999 fretted Vett Bart JJ [newish neck from Vett $$].


--------------------------------------------------------------


If I do it, and really dig the FNA LE as FL, and also
dig the way the ebony FB affects the fretted $$, then
I might just call the whole swap around permament,
and sell off the resulting fretted Bart JJ bubinga Vett
that winds up with the fresh neck from the fretted $$.
I never dug fretted bubinga Vetts.

I realize I may hafta dowel and drill the necks, but as
long as the neck pockets all have a precise match up,
there's no reason why not to swap around. With the
FNA converted to FL, I get to play its clear voice with
no chorus for cover-up, cuz I can just use the FL to
match Ms D's wacko KB intonation.

​