LeftyBassist.com

By popular demand, here updated pictures and my opinions of the VB4!

The bottom line: I LOVE this bass. I can not imagine I will ever give this bass up for sale, unless I am absolutely destitute, or my brain undergoes some radical transformation and I no longer care for the jazz bass tone.

Let's talk cons, to get those out of the way. They all come back to the compromises required to make the headless system work.
1) My fingers hurt from tuning this thing. Some real finger strength is needed to turn these tuners. This is especially true of the D string tuner, for whatever reason.
2) It is difficult to get the ball of each string into the tuner claw.It was tough to get the balls of the previous strings out, and I had to use a tool to get the balls of the new strings to fully sit in the claw.
3) I am hesitant to put the following as a con because it wasn't a problem, but I could see how it could be because I took a guess and happened to get lucky. Further, by comparison, the headless design of the Steinbergers does not have this problem, so here goes: there is a certain window in which the string length must be cut. If you cut it too long, you can easily bury the tuners without getting the string up to pitch. If you cut too short, you can't screw down the end of the string and still get the ball into the tuner claw at the bridge. In this case, the string is wasted. This is in contrast to the Steinberger design where you can put the ball in the claw, then feed the entire string trough the adapter, pull it tight and clamp down, thereby giving the string the proper length. With this Zon, there is nowhere for the excess length to feed through, so it must be cut before clamping down. I took a guess and decided to cut the string at the end of the "headstock," such as it is. This turned out to work just fine.

Now let's get to the pros! The good stuff! Yeah!:
1) This thing sounds awesome. It sounds like a jazz bass. Of course, I wish it had more of the bullfrog sound, but I can never get enough of the bullfrog sound. No bass has ever given me more bullfrog than I like. But, this bass has has plenty of it. The small body does not have any negative effect on its low-end that I can tell.
2) It plays great. The neck is smooth. The edges feel great, It feels solid.
3) It is very well balanced. Thanks, Ned!
4) It is lightweight and comfortable.

I have been feening for a(nother) jazz bass for a while, and having one of this quality that is lightweight and portable with the stability and durability of a carbon-composite neck is just about everything that I could ask for in a bass. Not only that, I have redeemed my mistake of a few years ago. For years, I have been subscribing to eBay alerts for "Zon Sonus", as well as my Reverb feed. And I waited, patiently. I knew it would take time. And now, the time has come!

In the Southpaw Spotted thread, there was some questions about pot rotation. Well, here is something odd: the pots are all left-handed, except the pickup blend pot. Also, in the EQ section, the treble knob is closes to the bridge, with the bass knob closes to the neck. I would guess this is so Zon didn't have to make a different preamp board for the left-handed models. I can't remember if my G&L is like this or not.

There was earlier discussion about the pickups being "left-handed" pickups and and pot rotation. The only thing I can imagine a left-handed pickup being is having the wire leads come out the other side of the pickup so that they are closer to the routing hole. Having to route the pickup wires back across the pickup has been a problem for me, before. That is just an idea. I don't want to take the thing apart to find out.

Pictures!

Whole bass:



Body:


It has a nice, natural satin finish. My previous Zon had a gloss finish. I like the satin, better.

Neck, all nice and clean. There is no truss rod, so there aren't any relief adjustments. For good or ill, it is what it is.


All of the other carbon/composite instruments I have had all have a nice smooth fretboard. This fretboard has some grain to it, which made me think for a minute that the fretboard might be wood, but I don't think it is wood. It is extremely dark, and I can't find any line of demarcation where the the fretboard is a separate piece from the neck.




Headstock:

Congrats, heavy! Your pictures look way better than the listing; it's very nice!

Also, lol at "bullfrog tone."
I know exactly what you're talking about but have never heard it put that way

This is awesome, congrats!
Pics look way better than the ones from the Ebay listing.
Cheers!

Dude!! That’s fantastic- great pics, and like the group says, much better than the listing.

The original listing shows $244 in shipping, although that may be because I live in Hawaii.... hope you didn't have to pay anywhere near that much... it sounds like a fantastic bass to own, and THE perfect travel bass, that can easily be placed in the overhead... Congrats!

That is the first thing that came to mind, so I am going to keep using it hoping that it will catch on so there is a universal term we can use and everyone will know exactly what it means, like "the Jaco sound."


No no no, I only paid like $40. I never saw any other shipping cost. I am in Ohio and the seller is just one state up, in Michigan.

And Exactly why it's a bitch living in Hawaii, and having to pay the heavy shipping costs, or having to convince someone to ship here in the first place! We get treated as if we're a 3rd-world country... with personal sales, I've usually been able to convince the seller to ship here (why should They care? They're still going to the Post Office...), but sometimes the challenge is getting them to ship through USPS... it's way cheaper for me, but sometimes it might be more convenient for them to go to UPS or FEDEX.

Right now, if I were to sell a bass, or buy one, the average shipping cost through USPS/Priority Mail is about $100-125... 5-7 years ago, it was between $40-75, depending in insurance... any bass I sell from this point on, I'm automatically losing $100 on... and here in Hawaii, there are very few lefties to sell to... Oh Well....

Bullfrog tone???? Never heard that one before. What's a good example of that?

Great post and info ! I always wondered about these.

If the head and bridge are by any chance Hipshot, BillW may have some insight on stringing. Perhaps it's an ABM though.

Awesome bass!!

Great pictures, amazing bass! Never heard it as a bullfrog tone, but it makes total sense. Congrats!

Hey, man! I'm sorry I didn't see your question when you first posted it. Here is my favorite example: https://youtu.be/JqTxhvwaSPk

I wish I had thought to look at this thread before I tried to re-string this bitch the other day. What a mess. I ended up ordering a string adapter, and that isn't exactly a perfect solution. I'm not even sure if there is a perfect solution. I may end up having to risk popping the E string every time I try to put a new set on. Ugh. Or it might take a couple hundred bucks in strings and a dozen attempts to figure out the trick.

Why no double ball strings?
On my Status basses I use Status Hotwire stainless steel double ball strings. I have used Elixir strings for years on all my basses, but these Hotwires came with my basses and I've come to like them a lot. I wish I had remembered to order a bunch of sets before Brexit, I'll need to pay import duties and Dutch VAT over the price and shipping costs now

Yeah, I have a lefty VB-4 with some custom touches (most notably 32" scale), and I agree with your comments... including specifically changing strings being more a pain than it needs to be. Oddly, I have a couple of other headless instruments and string changes on them is far easier.

Odd that your pickup selection knob is reversed... all of the knobs on mine are lefty. Mine does have an adjustable truss rod though, so they were likely built at different enough times that the electronics could conceivably be different as well.

It's called phenowood. Per the Zon website's FAQ:

"Is the fingerboard graphite, too?
No, the fingerboard is called phenowood, which is actually wood (usually birch) that has been impregnated with a phenolic resin. Layers of wood are compressed under heat and pressure, resulting in a material similar to ebony in hardness and appearance, yet it is much more stable."

I had thought of that, but there is no string retainer to keep the ball in place. I figured it would pop off the top of the headpiece. Also, the strings might not be long enough. But, I never did actually try it. I have a set of double-balls that I could try. I should give it a try! It wouldn't damage or wear the string.



Ah, okay! Thanks for the information!

So what you're saying to me is that you'd trade it to me for my righty converted to lefty Epiphone SG bass? I thought that's what I'm hearing. I could throw in a Bandmaster harmonica in C too, just for good cheer. Think it over. I know it'll be a hard decision. Take comfort in family and friends as you wrestle with the decision.

I have had this bass for over three years and I have just now discovered that the mid control has a push/pull switch.

I looked it up, and it selects the peak mid frequency between 800 hertz (pushed) and 250 hertz (pulled).

So, that’s a fun little discovery.

Three years.

Ha!