D'Angelico ABG
Posted: May 31st, 2018, 7:32 pm
Just got this in yesterday (5-30-18).
D'Angelico Premier Mott Acoustic Bass
Solid spruce top, laminated rosewood sides & back. Mahogany neck, rosewood fingerboard. About $500. Made in China.
Extremely impressed. Super nice gloss finish, intricate headstock details, and a weird, tiny metal hood ornament thing at the very top of the headstock. Block inlays which are really dope on an acoustic. They fit nicely with some of the art deco-y details. Beautiful rosewood on the sides & back.
Fishman preamp, which sounds great so far. 3 band EQ with a phase switch, notch, and brilliance knobs. Volume of course. Sounds like a lot of acoustic preamps, but that's fine. Plenty of tonal options I suppose.
And I have to waste 30 seconds mentioning this, because someone allllways asks:
As with any ABG, no, it won't truly hold its own volume-wise in a room with other acoustic instruments jamming. Forget it. Need an upright for that. Oh, and no you can't cop an upright tone on this either. Need an upright for that too.
The frets are level, smooth and buzz free. The fretwork overall is as good as can be. No harsh ends or anything.
Playability is fast & comfortable. I don't know much about neck profiles and such but the overall feel of it is that of a 50's Precision (from my limited experience with one real one and one reissue). Chunky as hell but no less manageable than a thinner neck. Very comfy to me.
Was it playable out of the box? Sure, if you absolutely had to play a gig right then and there.
But on the other hand, nah. Not really.
Like most affordable imports, there isn't a lot of attention paid to final setup tweaks and such. The action was sky high, but I don't think the truss rod had barely been turned, so there was a considerable bow. But the neck itself is true, so some truss adjustment did the trick. It's bone straight now. Truss rod turned smoothly. Also, the bridge saddle was a little high, so I had a buddy of mine who is a repairman knock it down a little. Cost less than $20. Whatever.
The strings were D'Addario phosphor bronze (at least that's what the color coded ball ends led me to believe). They were super funky, but I usually change strings on a new instrument anyway so I don't care. I went out and grabbed a new set of the same strings and solved that.
The only other negative thing I can say is that there's no case. Like, not only did it not come with one (probably makes sense at this price point), but there doesn't seem to be one even made for it.
I just ordered a Gator gig bag for acoustic basses instead.
So anyway, I didn't really plan to babble and make a review out of this. Here are a couple pix.
D'Angelico Premier Mott Acoustic Bass
Solid spruce top, laminated rosewood sides & back. Mahogany neck, rosewood fingerboard. About $500. Made in China.
Extremely impressed. Super nice gloss finish, intricate headstock details, and a weird, tiny metal hood ornament thing at the very top of the headstock. Block inlays which are really dope on an acoustic. They fit nicely with some of the art deco-y details. Beautiful rosewood on the sides & back.
Fishman preamp, which sounds great so far. 3 band EQ with a phase switch, notch, and brilliance knobs. Volume of course. Sounds like a lot of acoustic preamps, but that's fine. Plenty of tonal options I suppose.
And I have to waste 30 seconds mentioning this, because someone allllways asks:
As with any ABG, no, it won't truly hold its own volume-wise in a room with other acoustic instruments jamming. Forget it. Need an upright for that. Oh, and no you can't cop an upright tone on this either. Need an upright for that too.
The frets are level, smooth and buzz free. The fretwork overall is as good as can be. No harsh ends or anything.
Playability is fast & comfortable. I don't know much about neck profiles and such but the overall feel of it is that of a 50's Precision (from my limited experience with one real one and one reissue). Chunky as hell but no less manageable than a thinner neck. Very comfy to me.
Was it playable out of the box? Sure, if you absolutely had to play a gig right then and there.
But on the other hand, nah. Not really.
Like most affordable imports, there isn't a lot of attention paid to final setup tweaks and such. The action was sky high, but I don't think the truss rod had barely been turned, so there was a considerable bow. But the neck itself is true, so some truss adjustment did the trick. It's bone straight now. Truss rod turned smoothly. Also, the bridge saddle was a little high, so I had a buddy of mine who is a repairman knock it down a little. Cost less than $20. Whatever.
The strings were D'Addario phosphor bronze (at least that's what the color coded ball ends led me to believe). They were super funky, but I usually change strings on a new instrument anyway so I don't care. I went out and grabbed a new set of the same strings and solved that.
The only other negative thing I can say is that there's no case. Like, not only did it not come with one (probably makes sense at this price point), but there doesn't seem to be one even made for it.
I just ordered a Gator gig bag for acoustic basses instead.So anyway, I didn't really plan to babble and make a review out of this. Here are a couple pix.
I like! That’s like super eloquent and stuff.