Candice

Now Playing: Shapeshifter by Taken By Cars

Last May, I was able to snag a new bass guitar. I sold my Ibanez GSR 395 and used the money to by a new bass guitar. I sold my Ibanez 5 string bass guitar (named Fabiola) because I felt like I was not getting that "organic" sound that I'm looking for on the said bass guitar plus I really cannot go on plug-and-play mode with that bass guitar. It's either I use my Sansamp Tech 21 Bass Driver with it to get the tone I need or be lucky enough to play in a bar with a high end bass amplifier.

Originally, I was gunning for a Squier Deluxe Jazz Bass (black) with an active electronic input that was sold on philmusic.com. However, before I got the chance to make an arrangement with the guy selling the beauty, it was already sold to someone from Cavite.

After not being able to close the deal for the Squier Jazz Bass, I was on the look out to buy a new bass guitar and I saw an online post of a Peavey Patriot being sold. It was a killer and has a relic look into it. It was not really sought after in the forums so it bought me time to do a little research before closing the deal. It seems that this is Peavey's version of an Ernie Ball MusicMan. This is one of the phased-out models on Peavey's roster of bass guitars and if I'm not mistaken, its production year was around late or mid 80's. I loved the relic touch on it so I closed the deal and got the bass guitar for around 8,500 Php.

When I fist got a hold of it, the first thing that I noticed is the width of the neck which is made out of maple. It's a little thick compared to the bass guitars that I've held. It has an ash body with a natural finish. It had a few scratches with it that gave it that relic look. 21 frets that had a few smudges with it. It also had a black pickguard and chrome knobs and bridge. The nut was pretty decent although the sustain of the notes really weren't that good when I was testing it. Probably, it's been a while since it had a good set-up. The thing that caught my attention is the Super Ferrite bridge pick up. When I played the bass guitar, it had that "twangy", warm sound with a mid punch, nearly the same tone (or so I thought on my initial test) that you can hear on the bassline of the Jackson 5 classic ABC 123. I guess the tone of the bass can also be attributed to the specialized pick up Peavey used in this bass guitar. I felt that the tone knob was really not responding but really never made a difference as far as the sound of the Patriot is concerned but it's really not a big deal for me. I also love the look of the Peavey headstock. It's exactly what I was looking for so I closed the deal.

I was supposed to have it set-up by one of the luthiers in Manila but his shop was already closed when I arrived there so I ended up entrusting it to a guy referred by a friend. I requested this guy to restring the bass guitar with a Snarling Dogs gauge 45 string and set-up the entire thing including intonation, neck adjustment and electronic check up. When I got it, I was not really impressed with what he's done. It has a high action which made the tension from the machine heads all the way to the bridge a bit tight. Although I played a bass guitar with the same set-up, I'm more comfortable with a low action set-up which made the strings a bit free and loose. In fairness to him though there were no buzzes along the frets and he also mentioned that the potentiometer for the Tone needs replacement. The last touch was replacing the chrome Volume and Tone knobs with a black knob to hide it on top of the pickguard. Anyways, it was fair enough for me to test it.

I ran it through a few rehearsals in the studio and played it in Ten 02 with Traces of War. I was satisfied with its sound since it never lost that warm tone with a mid punch to it. In fact,it sounded so good (based on where I was on the stage)that there was no need for me to use my Sansamp Bass Driver. I also tried using this on rehearsal with Driver Under the Influence which is one of my project bands that plays indie-pop.

In all, this is my rating for my Peavey Patriot:

Cosmetics: 8/10

Electronics: 8/10

Sound Quality: 9/10

Features: 8/10

To sum it up, Candice is a great bang for the buck considering the price. I also love the relic look. For me, the only downside of this baby will be the width of the neck. I think I'll be playing with this gal for a long time.