I'll cut to the chase and just tell y'all that I LOVE this bass.
I've fiddled around with it A LOT since I got it, and was finally able to gig with it last weekend. I also took a few minutes this morning and recorded a little ditty so you guys can get a quick and dirty representation of what she sounds like.
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN!!!There was a HINT of front end compression added to limit peaks, but that's it... and it was about half of what I've had to use for other basses. All controls on the bass were set completely FLAT... the midrange switch was set to the bottom position... I'm not sure what that means though.
Here's the short and sweet...
Firstly, I'm not sure why these basses were ever called "plastic-y sounding" but those people are certainly misinfomed. I've heard several Modulus basses that were very sterile, but this bass sounds VERY earthy to me.
The bottom line is that it is by all accounts the perfect representation of what a hi-end jazz bass should be. It has all the throat of my Mike Lull M5V, but it is more compressed in the lows and mids, and has a much more open and airy top... much less brittle than most jazz basses I've heard.
It's not "vintage"... but it's not supposed to be. It's a very hi-fi representation of a Jazz bass, and it is EXACTLY what I was looking for.
The Mike Lull M5V has the updated vintage sound down... it's like 60% modern, 40% vintage. The Zon is more like 90% modern, 10% vintage.
Anyway, the courtship is still in full effect, and I'm certainly still in the honeymoon stages, but... so far, this one is a keeper through and through. I'm still getting used to it, honestly... but I can only think that the more I get used to it, the more I'll fall in love.