Phil Maneri’s
BASS
LAB
The ‘70s Jazz is an archetype at which many builders take aim at some point over their time building instruments. Some stay there, some move on. Either way, it’s a great exercise in exploring a time-proven design. This is a great take on that form for under $2,400. This bass features a swamp ash body that appears to be constructed with slick joinery. The ‘70s-style maple neck with maple fingerboard make this bass bright and snappy. Add bright, roundwound strings, and this thing is a zinger; think Marcus Miller.
This bass is loaded with a J-style passive setup, with some interesting mods. The tone caps are switchable (via internal dip switches), with loading options ranging from .01uF to .1uF. The bass ships with the .047uF value selected. These are subtle flavors of treble cut, depending on your preferences. The lower number caps mean the roll-off starts at a higher frequency. It can seem subtler in the more extreme settings of the tone pot. The interesting experiment for me was to switch the toggles with the tone control rolled all the way up. I noticed there was no perceptible change in the tone of things as I switched caps in and out with the tone all the way up. So, either it’s a no-load pot, or the cap loading makes little difference at the extreme settings.
Each volume pot can be changed from 250k ohm to 500k ohm, via dip switches on each pot. The second volume knob has a push/pull that makes the two coils a giant, spread-out humbucker. Kinda cool. There is also a “volume kit” or “treble bleed kit” option on both volume controls, which is also selectable via a dip switch. This kit option seeks to eliminate
the loss of high end when you roll down the volume (and the pickups interact with the volume pot and other wiring to form a kind of low-pass filter). If these options sound confusing or intimidating, you can simply ignore them, and, it’s a normal Jazz Bass, electronically. The switches are interesting to experiment with, but provide more subtle tone changes or shaping, overall, compared to active circuits. It’s still a great-sounding Jazz Bass.
Hardware choices are standard higher-end Hipshot offerings. Hard to not go there, these days; they are so good. The bridge is inset into the body and secured via machine screws into brass inserts. The Joinery of the fingerboard and neck is outstanding as is the mating of the back plates. The top laminate is also joined well, although in the arm cutaway area the top plate is sanded away revealing a less elegant body core. Subtle stylistic choice I might have reconsidered. The neck joint is fantastic; seems out of the way, and yet supportive.
The fret ends are not filed neatly. The end rounds are cut into by a rounding file. The joinery is so much better; I’d love to see this detail rise to the same level. The nut looks hand-made, which is preferred, but could also be cleaner in execution.
Aniline dyes locked in by a hand-rubbed true oil finish complete this instrument, and it’s very nicely done. The choices are beautiful and subtle. Good idea in a world where spraying has become an environmental manufacturing problem. The bass is very light, but remains balanced. I thought it might be short scale by the way it lays across playing positions, but it’s a very Fenderish 34”.
This bass sounds great. It has the classic ‘70s Jazz sound. It plays well. For the most part, it sets up where most might like it. The truss rod didn’t do much for a large portion of its travel, and it got pretty tight before flat. That’s not much room for wear, over time. One of its best features is how light it is. At 7.0 lbs, it’s a feather of a bass. Oddly, there is no neck dive, which is almost always present in such a light, full-scale bass. Well done! 
Overall, this is a great contender in its price range.
DNA Guitar Company
Accelerator Bass
CONFIGURATION
| Strings: | 4 |
| Style: | Double cutaway |
| Overall Length: | 44” |
| Body Dimension: | 19” long x 12” wide at lower bout |
| Body Contouring: | Moderate |
| Weight: | 7.0 lbs |
NECK
| Scale length: | 34” |
| Neck width at nut: | 1.502” |
| Neck width at 12th fret: | 2.218” |
| Neck width at joint: | 2.422” |
| Neck thickness at nut: | .974” |
| Neck thickness at 1st fret: | .833” |
| Neck thickness at 12th fret: | .994” |
| Neck thickness at joint: | 1.017” |
| String spacing at nut: | .404” |
| String spacing at saddle: | .752” |
| Fingerboard radius/Neck Shape: | 10 deg/V |
| Peghead break angle: | 10 deg |
| Bridge break angle: | 33 deg |
| Afterlength at nut: | 4 ¼” |
| Afterlength at saddle: | 2.1” (through body) |
| Attachment: | Bolt-on |
| Pocket gap: | 0 |
| Truss rod type/access: | Single-action / body adjust |
| Fret count: | 20 |
| Fretwire: | 90x45 |
ELECTRONICS
| Pickups: | Custom hand-wound Callahan |
| Pickup location(s) from 12th fret: | 10 ¼” and 14 ¼” |
| Electronics: | Santellan Sounds Elek-Trix |
| Controls: | Volume, volume, tone, with push/pull for coil tap options and internal dip switches for different capacitor values |
| Shielding: | Paint |
| Preamp circuit voltage: | Passive |
CONSTRUCTION
| Body Woods: | Swamp ash |
| Neck Woods: | 3-piece hard maple |
| Fingerboard: | Maple |
| Body Finish: | Water-based dye, with 12 coats of hand-rubbed oil, then 3 coats of wax |
| Neck Finish: | Hand-rubbed oil |
HARDWARE
| Strings: | Dean Markley Helix NPS roundwounds |
| Gauge: | .050, .070, .085, .105 |
| Attachment: | At bridge or through-body |
| Bridge/color: | Proprietary 5-point, in-set brass bridge / black and gold |
| Nut: | Bone |
| Tuners/color: | Hipshot / black and gold |
| Knobs/color: | Merlin 5 / black |
| Pickguard: | N/A |
| Control cavity cover: | Wood (stained to match body) |
GENERAL
| Company: | DNA Guitar Company www.dnaguitarcompany.com |
| County of origin: | USA |
| Warranty: | One Year |
| Price: | $2,350.00 |
| Options: | Many Custom options available |
| Accessories: | Cases and/or gig bags extra, upon request |
| Available colors: | huge range of custom colors available |
| Acquired from: | DNA Guitar Comapny |
| Dates: | Summer 2016 |
| Locals: | Ohio |
| Test gear: | Gallien-Kreuger MB Fusion 800, Mark Bass Traveler 102p |
TEST RESULTS
1-5 (unacceptable to impeccable)
In-hand
| Features: | 4 |
| Tonal Flexibility: | 3.5 |
| Ease of Use: | 3.5 |
| Aesthetics: | 4 |
| Ergonomics: | 4 |
| Tone: | 4 |
| Value: | 4 |
In-hand Score 3.86average
On-bench Score 4.18average
On-bench
| Overall construction | 4 |
| Wood choice | 5 |
| Materials choice | 5 |
| Joinery | 5 |
| Fretwork | 3 |
| Fit and Finish of adornments | 4 |
| Quality of finish work | 4 |
| Ease of repair | 4 |
| Potential range of setup | 3 |
| Balance on knee | 5 |
| Balance on strap | 5 |
| Overall electronic quality | 4 |
| Solder joints, wire runs | 5 |
| Clarity | 4 |
| Noise | 3 |
| Shielding | 4 |
| Quality for Price Range | 4 |
SONIC PROFILE:
Low: Fat, round and warm
Mids: Unique blend of warm and edgy
Highs: Clear and open
TONE-O-METER
A great-sounding P-bass, with a stronger presence in the low mids, aggressive midrange, great dynamics, and the ability to snarl at will. Bigger and more open with the NPS roundwounds; more focused and balanced with the Rotosound flatwoods.
