Vector Electric Instruments Ltd. - prototype
Reviewer: John Kavanagh
Amplifier Used: Yorkville 80w or direct to PA
- Vintage: 1998
- Number of Strings: 4
- Double bass strings compatible
- Bowable: Yes
- Playable Seated: Yes
- Balance While Playing:
(8/10)
I have the first bass Tipney made, but since I live about an hour's drive away he has asked me to test some of his other instruments. The one I have is custom, with a small acoustic body and a low D extension. It has a Barbera bridge traansducer and a Beisele preamp/humbucker unit. His regular models are solid-body, and some of them are better than others, but he is very committed to making the customer happy, will consider almost any option, and on two occasions I know about has thrown away necks and rebuilt them because I or another player found something to criticise about the evenness of response. The Barbera pickup is worth the money, but I like having both - it gives a range of tones from the fretless bass guitar sound to a very good amplified double bass sound.
It's a beautiful instrument. It is the most consistent, practical, and reliable bass and bass sound that I have ever had. The neck is perfect (Graphite composite fingerboard on a neck and body of tonewoods.) I could only get a sound I liked better with a very good acoustic through a very expensive mike, and only then under those too-rare ideal conditions. It never ever feeds back. In other words, for half the price of my car I got a bass that can only be compared to a system that would cost more than my house.
His cellos are also very good - maybe even better than the basses.
Text copyright © John Kavanagh.
