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Had two wisdom teeth pulled today. One had to be drilled in half and hacked out in pieces. Senior consultant in department had to be called to assist. In the chair for over an hour - felt like days...

Got be honest and say I've had better days!

If there's a saving grace it's that I've only recently returned from holiday in the US and my body clock's still out of whack, so I was too spaced out to be fazed by it all. Also I returned toting my brand new Regenerate Axiom. When I return to being human again I'll report back, but first impressions are very encouraging - even in my semi-comatose state it just feels great to play.

I went through the same thing when I had my wisdom teeth removed. It sucks, I hope you feel better soon.

You got the Axiom! Congratulations. I've had that bass on my brain ever since I tried it, it is a phenomenal instrument. Yes, full review when you feel up to it.

i'd also like to hear your story of how you exported it, and what obstacles you might have overcome.

And a speedy recovery to you. I can sympathize, whilst a young teen I had to have braces and had to have 6 teeth yanked, as well as my 4 wisdom teeth when in my 20's.

Actually that's quite interesting in itself. I had to make an internal connecting flight to Chicago on a plane that I couldn't actually stand up in. On Rod's advice I unscrewed the neck, rolled it up into a towel and packed it all into the gig bag, which I folded over and taped down (thanks again Rod for that one) and hey presto - small instrument sir?, certainly sir, walk right this way sir, I'll show you to your seat... The bass was never out of my immediate reach at any time.

During the flight I decided to do it right - declare it at UK Customs and pay the taxes. However, when I got to the alley there was nobody at home - anywhere! Hung around for a couple of minutes - even poked my head in the office window - but no-one around so off I went. (I think it helped that the flight landed at nearly 11pm UK time so maybe they were on a tea break or something - I wouldn't recommend it as a general policy.)

HAHA - That was your good karma present from the Tax Gods!

I like to think so.

So... how do you like the Axiom?

I love it! (Guess I'd be disappointed if I didn't.) I will do a proper Harmony Central - style review in a day or two, but initial impressions are as follows:-

Materials, Build & Finish: Superb! If I had to pick something to highlight this I'd have to go for the feel of the neck - it has a silky soft sheen that I really like on any instrument. For all the class (and cost!) of some of my other basses, nothing else feels as good as this.

Playability: I use Thomastic Infields on a lot of my basses but some instruments just don't like 'em for some reason. I can really give the Axiom no higher praise in a short piece like this than to say that, with the T.I.'s it plays like a really good guitar - fast, clean, comfortable in a way you just know it shouldn't. I'm aware that the T.I.'s may be part of this, but they seem to me to suit this instrument absolutely perfectly. I'd be interested to hear your take on it Andrew, since you will most likely have used different strings on it when you played it.

Electrics: I need more time to properly assess this 'cos I'm still finding out what the preamp will do, but I do like the simplicity of the system. T & B are less extreme in their operation than on some other preamps. I like the way the passive bypass works as well - you have the choice of an old school passive bass complete with tone control if you want it.

Sound: In all honesty I don't really feel properly qualified to comment on this, as there's a lot of folks on this forum much better qualified to judge this than me, and I always hate having to use words to describe a sound anyway. That said, the thought that I keep coming back to is that it sounds like a really expensive Fender Jazz - all the basic elements of that famous sound are there, only better. If that sounds like faint praise it's not meant to. I just love it!

Can we see a picture of the bass?

Just go to Rod's website http://www.regenerateguitarworks.com

It's the first one you see - a honeyburst 'Jazz' shape.

I'm not sure what strings were on the bass when I played it, likely the ones on it when you got the bass. Rod, you recall what you strung the bass up with initially? They were rounds, and whatever they were they sounded good to me.

How do you like the zero fret? I was surprised by how much it makes the open notes sound consistent with fretted notes. The open E is really tight sounding in a good way. Chugging it with a pick sounded so punchy.

hey Andy - great to hear you're diggin' the new bass ... my wife is already missing that one. don't hesitate for even a second to drop me a note if I can be of assistance with anything on your bass

when Andrew gave this a test drive it was strung with Rotosound RS55LD's (pressurewound rounds) sized 45, 65, 85, 105 ... significantly different than the TI's you have on it now. Interesting enough, the overall sound didn't change as much from one string set to the other as I would have expected it to


the preamp has a 10db cut/boost for the active bass/treble compared to many others on the market that have 13db - 15db of impact. what I like about this is that you can max the preamp bass and/or treble and it still very musical (something I can't say for any other pre I've used) IIRC the bass frequency centerpoint is also at 50hz vs the more standard 40hz that is standard from most other manufacturers. the preamp is also very transparent, so bypassing it with the active tone controls set flat is almost inaudible (except maybe to Eric Johnson )

I also liked this unit because it's configured exactly how I configured/assembled the Aguilar OBP-1 pre's I used to use - with the passive tone control always in the circuit.


Frenchy-Lefty - more details on this build can also be found in the Regenerate forum here on LeftyBassist: viewtopic.php?f=19&t=945

all the best,

R

Yes I do like it. In fact one of the things I forgot to mention is how well balanced the overall sound is - remarkably consistent everywhere across all the strings. I'm looking forward to recording with it sometime soon - no particular projects on the go right now so I might need to invent a reason My PJB is basically a HiFi amp that's optimised for bass, so it has a very full range sound with little or no EQ needed - although there's plenty available. Makes it really easy to get pretty much any sound the Axiom will do - the research is ongoing but I've already found a couple of sounds I really like without needing to explore the active EQ more than the odd tweak. I'll document some stuff when I've played with it a bit more.

I'd be glad for some soundclips of it for here, if'n you want a reason.

That'll do nicely. Leave it with me for a few days and I'll see what I can come up with.

Great, thanks!