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July/August 2003
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| Product Review by Trent Salter | |
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| Tacoma CB10C Thunderchief Bass | |
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The product for this month's review isTacoma Guitars' CB10C Thunderchief
acoustic bass At first glance, you¹ll notice several interesting details to this bass. The sitka spruce top is clean and uncluttered, with a single paisley offset sound hole. The solid maple bridge plate is asymmetrical and placed diagonally to maximize sustain and balance bass and treble response. The upper bridge material is rosewood. The body seems huge, at 4.75 inches deep, but the resonance and tone the CB10C produces are nothing short of awesome. The back of the body is solid mahogany, with formed mahogany sides. The one piece mahogany neck sits tightly in the body joint and is secured by a UV polymer glue and two flanged allen head set screws. The fingerboard is rosewood and the fret work seems nicely finished. The bass is topped off with black hardware. The test unit came unbound with a light satin finish. All in all, a striking piece. The electronics installed in our Thunderchief are the Tacoma E3
preamp system from L. R. Baggs. The controls reside along the top
side of the bass and include volume, bass, mid and treble EQ section,
and a phase push button. The pickup is a ribbon transducer element
that leads the flex in the top. The preamp is a class A discrete
FET voiced for Tacoma's guitars and basses. The 9 v. battery is
stored in a canvas bag with a Velcro closer inside the body cavity.
It is easily accessed through the sound hole. We tested the bass
through an SWR Bass 350 feeding an Eden 410, with the head EQ section
set flat. There¹s an old wisdom that indicates if a bass sounds
good unamplified, itíll sound good amplified. I haven't found
that to always be the case with acoustic basses, but the transparency
and dynamic range of the Baggs system complements this bass admirably.
I don't have information on the am Playing the Thunderchief is a treat. For an acoustic bass, it is remarkably easy to play. I must admit that I'm partial to electric basses, primarily because I find them easier to play, and I'm lazy. However, I was able to play this bass for extended periods without fatigue or the inherent fret buzz from sloppy, tired fingering. The Tacoma intonates evenly up and down the neck. If there are any dead spots, I can't find them. String to string dynamics are very close, no doubt owing to the bridge construction and internal "VS bracing", a Tacoma design. The bass came with D'Addario strings of a med-light gauge. Whether playing with a pick or fingers, the strings intonate quickly and responsively. One of the most amazing "playability" qualities I find with this bass is the amount of sustain, even at low, unamplified volumes.
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Tacoma Guitars is a high end acoustic guitar design and production
facility based in Tacoma, Washington.
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of cut and boost provided by the EQ, but estimate it to be in the
neighborhood of 6db cut and 9db boost. With all EQ set flat, I could
tell virtually no difference between the amplified and unamplified
signal. The Baggs system seemed to lose none of the resonance or
rich overtones of the bass. My personal favorite curve is to boost
the low and high slightly, while cutting the mid approximately halfway
between flat and full cut and add some volume. At these settings
the bass cut through very well with great low end definition, and
surprisingly, none of the muddy low end annoyance common in many
amplified acoustic bass systems.
In
summary, the Thunderchief we reviewed was the CB10C ($1099.00) with
the Tacoma E3 preamp designed by L. R. Baggs ($1349). Prices are
MSRP. The Thunderchief model is also available as a 5 string, fretted
or fretless. These instruments are well manufactured with excellent
materials. They play well and sound absolutely great. In my opinion,
they are a lot of bass for the money.Return
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