| Reviewer
| Charlie Wood
|
| Manufacturer
| Dean
|
| Model
| Edge Fretless 4-string
|
| Price
| List: $399 (I paid $300-a steal for the sound)
|
| |
|
| Neck Type
| laminated maple/mahogony
|
| Fingerboard
| rosewood fretless w/o lines (fret dots on neck top)
|
| Body Type
| laminated basswood, bolt-on
|
| Finish
| clear urethane (maybe polyester)
|
| Pickup(s)
| (2) EMG-HZ passive soapbar-type
|
| Controls
| volume, tone, pickup selector pot
|
| |
|
I purchased this bass without much too much vascillation after
noodling on it for about an hour in the store. First, it is a
beautiful looking bass. It has a lovely amber-burst "natural" finish
and a deep, yellow tone with rich auburn edges. The body is laminated,
but done so well, it is difficult to tell that it is not a single
piece--the wood grain is gorgeous. The neck is smooth and plays fairly
easily, although after an hour or so it gets a bit "sticky", as the
finish is a matte oiled type. The distinctive Dean head is laquered
black, as are the smooth and suprisingly precise Grover tuners. The
once Heavy Metal-like flying Dean logo has been replaced with a
tasteful script logo, which means I get to play it at jazz gigs
without raising eyebrows ;-). Initially, the action was very low, and
hence the neck buzzed quite a bit when I first played it, even for a
fretless. I raised the action and adjusted the truss rod in the store,
and the bass played wonderfully thereafter. It has a very bright tone,
which (was) due in part to the roundwound strings that were fitted on
it from the factory. I changed these out for flatwounds and the bass
now has a fabulous mellow tone. This bass has a fairly bright tone in
general...I find that I must keep my GK 700RB's low-end EQ sections up
higher and the mid and treble sections lowered to achieve the deeper,
Richter-scale-registering soundwaves I prefer. The wide ranging tone
control allows for very bright sounds and thumpy, deep tones such as
those from a P-bass. The unique pickup selector allows the two EMG
pickups to be active separately, together or varied between
togetherness and separateness (those are technical terms, BTW). I have
found that I can get a deep, distinctive sound from one pickup, and a
raging punchy sound from the other. Together, they sound very cool,
almost giving the bass a built-in phasing capability. I am extremely
impressed with the range of tones for such an inexpensive bass. I have
yet to discover all the possibilities!
I am, however, a little disappointed with the construction. While
sturdy, fairly lightweight and very well balanced, I did notice that
the beefy bridge had been set just a few millimeters off center to the
neck, so that the whole string set runs at a very slight angle (less
than 1 degree) to the longitudinal axis of the neck/body. This is only
noticeable at the bottom of the neck, where the low E string is just
slightly too close to the edge of the fingerboard. I didn't notice it
until a few days after I had bought it, when I was at home, staring
lovingly at it under rather discriminating lighting. It has not
affected my playing or the sound (or my new habit of staring lovingly
at it), but I consider it a major construction flaw that probably
could have been avoided by more careful construction and better QA at
the factory. Overall, this is a great, inexpensive bass perfect for a
first fretless.
| Construction
| 75% | 
|
| (see notes)
|
| Playability
| 95% |
|
| Appearance
| 95% |
|
| Sound
| 98% |
|
| Value
| 100% |
|
| Overall
| 93% |
|
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