Another pro that should be listed is the price. With Made in Mexico Fenders often costing over $1000 nowadays, to get something unique for only $900 feels like a steal provided the build quality is even halfway reasonable.
I got an Eastwood Magnum about two months ago, and I still have trouble putting it down. It's such a comfortable bass to play. Its plethora of tones also make it adept at any recording or performance situation; possibly the most versatile bass I've ever played.
The real one was used so heavily by Jah Wobble in solo and in Public Image LTD. I became a bassist because of its sound in the song "graveyard" from PIL
I love that Eastwood made one of these! I am a huge fan of Ovation instruments. With that being said, the original Magnums are not that much more expensive and they are AWESOME. I’d lean toward an original for about $500 more.
awesome! I'd love to see a lot more eastwood basses on your channel. They have some super cool looking stuff, like the surfcaster bass, black widow, MRG bass...
The Ross Valory bass, the Ovation he used for "Don't Stop Believin'' " for that cool deep tone. The only thing I would do to mod that would give it a different hi-mass bridge to complete the look of the Ovation original - Hipshot's hi-mass Rickenbacher 4001/4003 replacement, or one salvaged from Jackson's Jackenbacker bass would fit the ticket.
One cool thing about this bass is that it almost sounds like a short scale. It's got that really round, borderline "tubby" sound I associate with short scale basses. But it's a 34" scale. I'm guessing the tone has to do with the pickup placement and type.
I ordered one ( a lefty) and had to return it. The neck/bridge was so poorly misaligned that the strings did not pass over the bridge pickup poles, resulting in a significantly lower output on the G string than the rest of the strings. I hope they resolve this problem, as I would like to own one again, but they need to get their QC in order.
I had a Magnum 2. It had a very distinctive feel with a carbon fiber neck and massive bridge. It looks the part, but I wonder if it really feels/sounds it. The sound was very versatile: from Rick to T-Bird, to PBass. Oh, did I mention heavy? Did I mention heavy? Did I mention heavy? Like a Peavey T-40 designed by a rich kid on shrooms.
The original had a neck pickup that had a unique construction with one coil per string, and trimpots to balance them. I've made several pickups with that design and the result was a pickup with unparalelled clarity and force, each coil able to get a near perfect read on each string. That's the only thing that saved those ugly basses from immediate cancellation, nothing else sounds as good as an original Magnum bass. And Eastwood just dropped in a mudbucker because chrome. The one pickup that's guaranteed to get lost in any mix. Fail.
