{"id":3636,"date":"2013-04-03T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-04-03T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/?p=3636"},"modified":"2017-03-30T13:43:06","modified_gmt":"2017-03-30T18:43:06","slug":"bass-of-the-week-supersonic-bass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/bass-of-the-week\/bass-of-the-week-supersonic-bass.html","title":{"rendered":"Bass of the Week: “Supersonic” Bass"},"content":{"rendered":"

See Geo’s business listing here<\/a><\/p>\n

Take a design, make it better; that’s exactly what reader Geo did with his custom build.<\/p>\n

Geo was originally inspired by the Fender Performer Bass<\/a>; a very short-lived mid-1980s design that was made in Japan which is quite the collectible these days (assuming you can even find one.)<\/p>\n

Geo’s “Supersonic” bass (not to be confused with Fender’s Super-Sonic electric guitar<\/a>) definitely has the appearance of being made by a big instrument-maker as it has a totally modernized look, yet still retains classic cues and at the same time ended up being a very good-looking, well-functioning, very-usable bass guitar.<\/p>\n

From Geo:<\/p>\n

\n

Here’s my recently completed custom designed\/built “Supersonic” Bass.  My inspiration was the MIJ ’85-’86 Fender Performer Bass designed by John Page. It was meant to be an elite Jazz Bass but timing was against its longevity w\/the advent of Fenders 80’s retro-rehashing. It also had a very un-Fender like very-thin 24 fret neck 
and pointy headstock.<\/p>\n

I loved the modern design but wasn’t keen on the thin neck or pointy headstock. Used ones were out of my price-range so I decided to build what I feel is a better version. I redesigned the (1 piece alder) body w\/a longer top-horn and made it string-thru w\/individual bridge units. The 24 fret (maple\/ebony) neck was made to my specs (’60 Jazz bass at the neck\/Parker Hornet at the butt) by luthier Dan Ransom here in SF. It has a (superior design) Gibson-style headstock (no string-tree needed-better tonality) and its shape\/design plays off the body curves as compared to the original spear-headed Performer. Gotoh tuners, custom brass\/water buffalo horn nut, Strat-jack, custom (painted-base) clear-acrylic pick-guard, nickel-chromed brass knob skirts, EMG-X J pu’s\/preamp (V\/V\/T), GHS Precision flats, Dunlop strap-locs.<\/p>\n

The mid-’60’s classic Firemist Gold Metallic finish was beautifully done by Pat Wilkins, Van Nuys CA. Looks amazing, is light and well balanced, plays like butter and (to me) sounds better than any Jazz bass regardless of vintage or price-tag.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"IMG_4732\"<\/p>\n

\"IMG_4733\"<\/p>\n

\"IMG_4735\"<\/p>\n

\"IMG_4748\"<\/p>\n

\"IMG_4744\"<\/p>\n

\"IMG_4752\"<\/p>\n

\"IMG_4756\"<\/p>\n

\"IMG_4759\"<\/p>\n

Is Geo’s Supersonic better than the original Fender Performer? Most players would agree that to be a yes – but do you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thanks for sending in your bass, Geo! Job well done!<\/p>\n

Want to submit your bass OR amp OR effects setup to be featured here? Send an email with a short story and photos to featureme@bestbassgear.com<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

See Geo’s business listing here Take a design, make it better; that’s exactly what reader Geo did with his custom build. Geo was originally inspired by the Fender Performer Bass; a very short-lived mid-1980s design that was made in Japan which is quite the collectible these days (assuming you can even find one.) Geo’s “Supersonic” … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":3638,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[19],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3636"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3636"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3636\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}