MSRP: $500 (I was able to haggle mine down to $405 including Louisiana State, Lafayette Parish and Lafayette City taxes).


Pros:

• Neck-through construction
  


• Outstanding action across all 24 frets
  


• Nice combination of body/neck woods
  


• Electronics easily interchangeable with higher quality products
  


• CHEAP!

Cons:

• Ghetto pickups and electronics
  


• Serial number stickered onto headstock

Review:

LAWRDY! A bass review on a guitar site? Well, folks, you never know when you might find yourself filling in on the four string or helping a buddy, relative, or even the spawn of your own loins pick one out. Better to have the info than not, right?

I have never been much of a fan of Peavey's guitars and basses. While they are ruggedly constructed and more than fairly priced for what they are, I for some reason, have never felt comfortable with either the finish or shape of your average Peavey neck. There are some notable exceptions (such as the Cirrus and EVH signature guitars), but by and large, I ignore their guitars and basses in favor of used Fenders, higher end Dean basses or what ever else that seems cool may be kicking around the shop.

However, when you inadvertently find yourself staring at a brand new, $500 neck-through bass made with beautifully finished exotic woods, you forget the brand and take that beast for a test ride.

First thing I noticed upon picking it up is that for a small bodied bass, it's got some mass to it (8.5 lbs according to Peavey's web site). This is good. Once settled into my lap, the body was nicely sculpted, both pickups serve as comfortable thumb rests and the action is low and fast. The string spacing is identical to that of a Fender Jazz Bass both at the nut and the bridge, however it feels a bit narrower for some reason -- my guess is the neck shape. Regardless, all 24 frets are very easily accessable, it's quite cozy (especially for finger style playing) and I can see the neck being very agreeable to somebody with small hands. The only playing style I have trouble with on this bass is slapping -- specifically, popping the G and D strings. If I don't use this one regularly, it takes me a while to get used to the scoop in the lower bout again, but that's likely a malfunction of my own playing technique.

The unplugged tone of the bass is excellent; warm, clear and resonant with the ample sustain one would expect from a neck-through instrument -- single notes, chords, you name it. So far, all of the fixing of a versatile, punchy, kickass bass are there.

Once plugged in, a few of my issues with this bass start to emerge; first, the pickups take a lot of the highs out (easily eq'd out on the amplifier, but it's nice not to have to, especially if you use more than one bass), and for some reason one of the tone knobs had to be turned to about "9" because at "10" it was starting to trim out the trebles again. Some good news here, though: the control cavity is VERY spacious and the pickups are the exact dimensions of any EMG-40 pickup. Even in spite of this, it's very easy to get a variety of good tones out of the instrument. I've used it for a multitude of genres and styles including Rock, Funk, Jazz, Ska, Punk, Country and Metal; it does them all and it does them well. I've even played slide solos on it and had them come out well, even in spite of the low action.

For a complete listing of the specs, you'll want to check out Peavey's website.


Summary:

For a low budget, high performance bass guitar, you can't go wrong with the Grind NTBs. Out of the box, it kicks much more expensive Fender, Gibson, Epiphone, ESP and Ibanez basses squarely in the teeth and with a small investment in better pickups, this instrument becomes a true tone machine.