In the "What Have You Bought Guitar-Related In The Past 48 Hours?" thread I alluded to announcing something more substantial than a guitar cleaning cloth. Well, here it is, a limited edition Epiphone 20th Anniversary Jack Casady Signature Bass in Wine Red, with gig bag, strap, COA, and the works!
Fresh out of the box.
That's really nice, OS. i'd love to have a go on one of those!
If we'd known we were going to be the Beatles, we'd have tried harder.--George Harrison
DANG THAT IS GORGEOUS!!!!!!!!
The only time you really live fully is from thirty to sixty. The young are slaves to dreams; the old servants of regrets. Only the middle-aged have all their five senses in the keeping of their wits.
T. Roosevelt
what does the black knob by the pickguard do?
From Epiphone...Originally Posted by DanTheBluesMan
"The VariTone control lets you dial in the impedance of its active humbucking pickup from around 50 ohms to around 500 ohms, which seriously affects your sound. As you turn the Jack Casady Signature Bass's VariTone control, you shift its tone from even dynamics and full tone to a punchier response with a narrower sound and plenty of bite. This gives you an absolutely massive sonic palette to play with!"
Can't imagine how full and crisp that one must sound. Body and color are gorgeous but that head-stock... so classy and understated. Even the truss-rod cover is beautiful! Also love the trapezoids on that dark fret-board... what a head-turner.
Always loved that shape and wish they (Gibson) had continued it! Let 'er rip!
HPD beat me to it. I read that Jack just keeps it on the 50 setting most of the time.
From the Epiphone site:
The Jack Casady Signature bass features a JCB-1 low impedance, low output pickup and employs a three-position transformer to shape the frequency response. “They blow the old Gibsons to smithereens, even in the construction,” says Casady. “The workmanship that’s coming in on these instruments is just super.”
That beast is "ACTIVE" -- wheres the battery????
The only time you really live fully is from thirty to sixty. The young are slaves to dreams; the old servants of regrets. Only the middle-aged have all their five senses in the keeping of their wits.
T. Roosevelt
Where do you see it's "active?" I saw nowhere on Epiphone's site or anywhere else that the JC bass is active.
See high plainsdrifters post above. "dial in the impedance of its ACTIVE HUMBUCKING PICKUP"
From Epiphone...
"The VariTone control lets you dial in the impedance of its active humbucking pickup from around 50 ohms to around 500 ohms, which seriously affects your sound. As you turn the Jack Casady Signature Bass's VariTone control, you shift its tone from even dynamics and full tone to a punchier response with a narrower sound and plenty of bite. This gives you an absolutely massive sonic palette to play with!"
Can't imagine how full and crisp that one must sound. Body and color are gorgeous but that head-stock... so classy and understated. Even the truss-rod cover is beautiful! Also love the trapezoids on that dark fret-board... what a head-turner.
The only time you really live fully is from thirty to sixty. The young are slaves to dreams; the old servants of regrets. Only the middle-aged have all their five senses in the keeping of their wits.
T. Roosevelt
It does say that, doesn't it? Nice catch! That's what I get for not reading the manual!
I'm guessing the battery goes right into the pickup via the four phillips head screws on the front plate.
That wording is a little confusing...
"Jack spent a lot of energy working with a pickup designer from Epiphone putting together a new humbucker to reside in his signature model. Together they nailed down a passive pickup and control section that delivered tone so pure and natural it'll give you goose bumps. The pickup is a special low-impedance model (the JCB-1), which produces a bass sound high impedance pickups and active electronics can't match.
The controls -- a volume, tone, and versatile VariTone knob -- produce enough variation for any situation. The bass has a unique and high-quality transformer with a 3-way impedance selector which eliminates the need for active circuitry while giving the low-impedance signal from the pickup a boost. The pickup impedance selector (VariTone) allows for sounds from clear and clean with acoustic vibe to deep, round, and growling rock authority."
Hope I'm not overstepping my bounds here, OP.
Based on the comments above, I called Guitar Center and sent an email to Epiphone. The GC fellow did not believe it was an active pickup, and felt that perhaps it was a poor choice of wording on the part of a copywriter. And, according to Epiphone's site, and page on the bass,
The Ltd. Ed. Jack Casady Bass Outfit features Jack’s custom designed JCB-1 low impedance, low output pickup, which employs a three-position transformer to shape the frequency response. “I went to work on the pickup and it took almost two years to develop,” says Casady. Controls include a Master Volume, Master Tone with Black "Top Hats" knobs with metal inserts plus Epiphone’s custom 3-Position VariGain™ Switch for additional tone shaping (50, 250, and 500 ohms).
Which says absolutely nothing about it being an active pickup. In fact, the description almost defies it being one. If Epiphone replies and says otherwise, I'll just address it as being a passive pickup and a victim of hyper-enthusiasm on the part of the marketing folks.
Im guessing "hyper enthusiasm" is a good description..
I have a Gibson BLues Hawk --- Veritone switch as well as as Les Paul Recording guitar with the "decade" knob---- 11 "variations" --- if you open it up its a knob with a crapload of different capacitors -- giving the different "tones"
Im guessing the EPi is a similar switch with 3 cap options controlling the "output" of the pickup
kinda a bummer I love active basses :)
Ive always wanted one of th Cassidy GOLD TOP ones......gorgeous bass whatever is under the hood!!
The only time you really live fully is from thirty to sixty. The young are slaves to dreams; the old servants of regrets. Only the middle-aged have all their five senses in the keeping of their wits.
T. Roosevelt
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