pressio Bass Review Im n st ir F F A beauty, i r s Price: £2517 t built on the J I m n o p i template with r s e s s e a modern s r i p o n m I vibe t s r i F Hailing from Rio de Janeiro, D’Alegria use unique pickups and exotic materials to make FACTFILE custom basses and guitars that stand out from the crowd. Review by Gareth Morgan DEFENDER JB DELUXE Description: Solidbody bass. Handmade in Brazil Price: £2517.44 Build: Two-piece freijo body with pau marfim veneer. Bolt-on tauari neck with 24 medium- gauge nickel frets on a garapa fingerboard. Hipshot UltraLite tuners and Hipshot Type B D’Alegria bridge. Black hardware Electrics: Active with two Defender JB Deluxe Bass ToneChaser TC-HBP pickups and ToneChaser TC-3B preamp. Master Volume (pull for passive ’Alegria is a Brazilian company mode), Blend, Bass, Mid, Treble and Vintagizer controls and two founded in 2003 by Daniel Alegria mini toggle coil tap switches and Rodrigo Werneck. Alegria and D Left hander: Yes, to order Werneck produce high-quality, totally Finishes: Natural, sunburst or handmade basses and guitars; the pair metallic personally manufacture, test and quality Range Options: Defender JB control each instrument and use certified £1823.16, JB 5-string £1927.37, JB Deluxe 5-string £2621.65 non-endangered Brazilian woods, many Scale length: 864mm/34" of which are completely unfamiliar to Width of neck: European consumers. As always with Nut 38mm custom instruments, each template can 12th fret 54mm be personalised in terms of hardware, Depth of neck: First fret 20mm pickups, electronics and choice of timber. 12th fret 19mm We’ve managed to get ours hands on String spacing: the fully spec’d Defender JB Deluxe. While Nut 10mm D’Alegria uses the Jazz Bass as their Bridge 19.5mm starting point, they fall short of simply Action as supplied: 12th fret treble 2mm replicating the body shape: the fatter The elegant headstock is faced in The neck’s not maple, but a wood 12th fret bass 3mm upper horn and smoother, more obviously maple-alike pau marfim. Note the called tauari. Rear sunburst is a cool Weight: 3.95kg/8.7lb triangular lower brother with deeper unusual provision of a zero fret touch, as are the Hipshot UltraLites Contact: Woodview Enterprises cutaway modernises the concept nicely, 01236 824588 and allows easier access to the highest www.woodviewenterprises.com fret. There’s a high standard of D’Alegria use non-endangered Brazilian craftsmanship and quality on show: just woods, and each bass can be customised look at the superb evenness of the Defender’s bevelled edges. for pickups, electronics and timbers Two different South American woods make up the body: two pieces of freijo, a neck itself is about as slim and fast as mother of pearl position dots on its face wood from the lower Amazon region, you’re ever likely to find. It’s hewn from a and smaller black ones on the top edge. comprise the core, while the top veneer is single piece of tauari, also known as Down at the bottom end, the strings are pau marfim – a wood often used as a Brazilian oak, with a pau marfim veneer anchored by a Hipshot Type B bridge. substitute for maple. Flipping it over on a headstock with a contemporary The Defender is loaded with a pair of reveals the freijo’s striped grain pattern square profile with an arrowhead vibe. D’Alegria’s own handwound ToneChaser plus a forearm chamfer, an electronics Four black Hipshot UltraLite tuners work TC-HBP pickups inside cases made from housing cover and a handy quick-release in conjunction with a chrome string tree jatoba (also known as Brazilian cherry, battery compartment. below; the nut is bone and, unusually for although it’s completely unrelated to the To affix the 34" scale neck D’Alegria a bass, there’s a zero fret just in front to cherry tree). The pickups are hitched to a chooses the traditional four-bolt system aid setup and intonation. The fingerboard ToneChaser TC-3B preamp and a dizzying but eschews the usual housing plate. The is garapa (Brazilian ash) with white array of controls: the smaller black 88 August 08 – Guitar & Bass August 08 – Guitar & Bass 89 Bass Review THE COMPETITION knobs are a three-band EQ and the larger ones number Volume (pull for passive SADOWSKY mode), Blend, and Vintagizer. This latter MV4 control changes the capacitive load Hand-built quality from associated with the pickups, giving you a Sadowsky’s Japanese factory selection of starting points from bright RRP: £1395 and clean to a muddier retro sound. SANDBERG There’s also a three-position coil tap California PM switch for each pickup, down being An unbelievable price for a single-coil, centre being humbucking/ classy, mainly handbuilt bass from Germany parallel (giving more treble) and up being RRP: £999 humbucking/series (hum-cancelling). The important thing to remember is BLADE that if you like the D’Alegria design vibe, B2-RG Tetra Classic Bass Handbuilt in Japan, a cool, there are other options in terms of uncomplicated Jazz-style woods, electronics and hardware, all of update from the Swiss masters which you can check out on their website. RRP: £1089 SOUNDS Simply tweaking the Defender’s coil tap switches and the Vintagizer uncovers a myriad of options. Turn the Vintagizer towards the neck, and the D’Alegria sounds progressively darker and low-mid biased – great for blues and smooth The bridge is a Hipshot, while the straight-eighths rock grooves. The coil- pickups are D’Alegria’s very own taps give a plethora of further options: ToneChasers inside real wood covers flick both up for a earthy P-Bassisms, or leave them in the central position for a touch more zing. Our favourite setting is This is an exceptional instrument that with toggle switches down and the Vintagizer on the bridge notch, so we’re oozes class from every pore. Upwards of focusing on that setting from here. £2000 is a lot of money; it’s worth it The twin pickup/flat EQ tone is crisp and crunchy with excellent width and of harmonic life up top and a slight high- high mid bias of the twin option but clarity in lower registers. There’s plenty mid sheen which adds gloss to thinner without ruining the sound. There’s extra strings. The soloed neck pickup is rasp and clarity from the neck and The body is made of freijo, growling and earthy with a wicked snarl increased snap from the bridge pickup sometimes known as jennywood or bois de rose and open, natural highs; the bridge with the improvement in audible tonal pickup is equally pleasing, with plenty of detail on both being especially satisfying. burpy, high-mids for fingerstyle funk and Slappers amongst you may crave a little bags of width. more natural openness when popping the Cranking up Bass EQ is a joy on each G string, but this is a minor gripe. pickup setting, inducing a superb combination of silky sheen and clarity in VERDICT twin mode – perfect when you need a This is an exceptional instrument that well-defined tone with no interference oozes class from every pore. Upwards of from fixtures and fittings. It’s also fairly £2000 is a lot of money; in this case it’s seismic, as is the neck setting, but here worth it. Personally, I’d ditch the coil taps the acoustic qualities ignite a crushing and the Vintagizer and go for a purer JB, retro-rock sound. Doing the same with but personal choice is the beauty of a the bridge pickup dulls the nasal edge a custom bass – and D’Alegria make little, adding girth to the funky definition. fundamentally beautiful instruments. Boosting Middle on this setting is akin FINAL SCORE to spending 12 rounds with Joe Calzaghe, and smoother funk is easily found by Build Quality ...........................18/20 backing it off. Boosting Middle on the Playability ...............................19/20 remaining settings tightens up the overall Sound .....................................19/20 sound, accentuating the snarling Value for money .......................18/20 aggression and lending a pleasing Vibe ........................................18/20 edginess to the neck mode, with more TOTAL ................................... 92% harmonics but a slightly metallic cutting Good for... A wide variety of high-quality sounds edge on the twin setting that might just on any gig, anywhere be a boost too far. Treble EQ adds lustre Look elsewhere... For the strictly retro vibe or if to each pickup variation, bringing out the you simply can’t afford that second mortgage 90 August 08 – Guitar & Bass.