New (to me) P Style Bass: Brandoni

[Edward]

 

You know how you accidentally buy something on eBay when you didn't really think about it, but then you're really pleased when it arrives....? Yeah. That. Score a great deal on this. It was a custom job built by Brandoni of West London (www.brandoniguitars.com) - best known for their EKO guitars (they bought out a factory in Italy some years back, full of huge surplus stocks of original sixties bodies, necks, et cetera). They don't really make much noise about their Fender types, but they can be truly outstanding. Primarily a guitar player, I've had a coupel of basses lying around for some years, always enjoyed playing bass (never gigged it). I'm not much cop - I do a passable Dee Dee Ramone / early Paul Simonon (Mick Jones if you believe the legend!) / Michael Bradley....  - but hey, it's fun, so. Refined my tastes some time ago in terms of instrument - the P Bass is the beast for me. I put in  a low bid on this one, and was thinking of replacing the neck with a maple boarded example (surprisingly hard to find for a lefty here in the UK). When it arrived, though, oh my... it's just too nice to do that. (Plus the burst / rosewood is a nice match for my old American Standard Strat, 1994 model). I'll be keeping this as is.

 

Spec is:

Brandoni-branded MIJ Alder body and Rosewood-board Maple neck. Original owner added the following upgrades:

 

Genuine Fender Hi-Mass bridge

Genuine Fender '62 re-issue pickups

CTS 250 pots

WD Music 'vintage' Parchment scratchplate and thumb rest

 

My first experience of flatwounds too - I'm liking them very much, so far. Plays lovely. I've yet to have it plugged in as I don't have an amp here in the office, but this far all indications are good. To play, I'd put it at an equivalent quality to the CIJ and MIM bits I've handled. I was looking a couple of years ago at a US model, the new American Std but (ironically) turned it down as the rosewood-only spec was a dealbreaker for me. I think in future I'll definitely still chase a maple-necked P Bass of some sort - was eyeing the CIJ, but if I got a deal on a Brandoni I'd be tempted to go that way now. Maple neck, LPB body appeals... I'd also jump on a Squier CV 50s P if ever I had the option. It's a shame Fender don't do the MIM P Bass model as a lefty (onl the Jazz is an option there, for some reason), but hey ho.

 

Of my two existing basses, the Westone will definitely go. Lovely instrument (a rare lefty MkI version of the Thunder IA, built by Matsumoko circa 1983), but not my style and never gets played. My first bass, a Squier P Bass Special, is still around. Two minds on that one. Tempted to raid it for the bits to add to a P body and neck to build a regular P Bass type. Selling the body and neck alone are likely to raise as much as the complete instrument anyhow on the used market... Hmn.

 

 

 

 

[ThudMaker]

Did you know that is a left-handed bass? 

 

 

Just kidding. It's good looking. My MIJ instruments all play nicely. Enjoy!

[DeepEnd]

Congratulations. Happy New Bass Day.