D’Mark Alpha 5 Bass Guitar

Alpha

This Alpha’s body, alone, features four primary lumbers: the turquoise/blue-stained wings that comprise most of the top of the bass are of a wood called pioppo; from the Populus family, which includes what we most often call poplar in English (although there are several different varieties of both pioppo and poplar). The center block is hard rock maple in the front, but Brazilian premium cedar in the rear. And making up the largest portion of the body by volume, Brazilian mahogany was chosen for all but the veneered tops of the body wings. The 34” scale through-neck is of a somewhat more familiar composition, employing maple for the 22” radiused fretboard and sides of the neck, with a thick piece of purpleheart laminated into the center. Large and colorful abalone blocks adorn the maple board between its 24 jumbo frets.

The Alpha’s pickups and preamp are proprietary affairs; the inline, hum-canceling pickups are wound in-house and feature what D’Mark calls IGA (individual gain adjustment) technology. Marcos individually adjusts the gain of each pole piece to ensure uniformity across all strings. Despite the coils being encased in a soapbar-type shell, these pickups really nail a traditional Jazz Bass tone. The volume/volume configured, D’Mark-designed 3-band preamp provides control over treble, bass, and mid, with a 2-way mid frequency selection that centers the control at either 540 or 930 Hz. Passive operation is switchable via a mini toggle. The Alpha’s preamp cavity is impressively clean and displays a point-to-point wiring scheme (with exposed electronic components) reminiscent of older, handmade amplifiers and effects. Very nicely done!

In hand, this bass sounds and feels like a much more modern – yet familiar – Fender® Jazz Bass. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that if I had my eyes closed while someone else was playing this D’Mark and we weren’t comparing it back-to-back with a Fender Jazz, I’d almost certainly be sure that I was hearing a J-bass of some variety. However, to the Alpha’s benefit, its closed and larger shell pickup covers facilitate using the pickups as ramps or for leverage while double thumping and multi-popping, and remove the annoying potential for string-to-pole contact. The neck, despite being dressed in the same glossy finish as the rest of the body, didn’t seem to slow my left hand down any, and has a pleasant, middle-of-the-road kind of profile; not super-thin front-to-back, but not chunky, and without obtrusive shoulders.

Nitpicking points on this bass are few, but include some notable fret sprout higher up on the neck – and of course, this can be caused by environmental changes and may not have been evident to the builder upon completion in the much more humid environs of Brazil – as well as a couple of (completely superficial) less than perfect carved joints between neck and body, exhibiting some irregularity in blending between two contrasting timbers. For me, those two factors combined position the D’Mark Alpha in the Silver Medal category of handmade, custom basses (can you tell I’ve been mainlining the Olympics?), which is still exceptional company to find oneself surrounded with. And given the extraordinarily advantageous US Dollar to Brazilian Real exchange rate right now, the value for US buyers is definitely high.

Omega

If you’re looking for an exotic, neck-through, custom made take on the familiar Jazz Bass tone, but with a completely different compositional spin and feel for under $3,000, D’Mark’s Alpha should be high up on your list to explore further.