SteveBass reviews a Rogue LX200B Fretless bass. Budget Beast or Fancy Firewood ?
My first ever review : first impressions of this ultra affordable bass. Apologies for the voice/bass balance. I really needed to pay attention before hitting the ‘record’ button on my iPad
(Also, if I’d known you were listening I might have played better, or at least played a bit before making this Vid ! ).
#SteveBass #reviews #Rogue #LX200B #Fretless #bass #Budget #Beast #Fancy #Firewood
Originally posted by UCOQROpNqRe-FU1d1Pz2K_CQ at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NBdQx7UJMw
I’ve got the same bass. Only blue. Had to do some work on it as well. But the board is perfect. No sanding there. ????
There are a lot of really inexpensive instruments out there these days, though the end product seems hit or miss sometimes. I own this Rogue bass, and yes, it was cheap. ($100). First thing out of the box: it had a defective jack, and I could not plug a cable in until I swapped it out. Folks without parts and repair skills would have had to return it, or find someone to fix it before playing. My bass does not have the open-string buzz noise, but there is a slight curve at the body end which will make notes choke out after the 12th fret when action is set normally. The electronics were quite noisy, including a ground hum, grounding effect when the strings are touched, and there is a weird tone interchange between the two volume knobs, and a hum when at zero. There is a significant finish blemish right on the face beside the bridge (noticeable and ugly), and the lamination lines show through the lacquer. After changing the jack, I also changed the cheap and noisy but adequate pickups, re-wired the electronics, sanded the fingerboard, changed the bridge to a hi-mass, and set the intonation. The factory nut was cut wrong, resulting in the G string being indented about 1/4" from the front edge of the fretboard. The edge was so square that it was almost sharp. Quite uncomfortable, and I sanded the fretboard edges to round them off.
Summation: If you are already a reasonably accomplished bassist, this is a cheap way to find out if you like or want a fretless. That's why I bought it. You could put $300 and twenty hours of shop work into it like I did, and make an adequate hot rod bass. In the end, it is still "adequate", and still a cheap brand. It has it's attributes, and is well worth $100. Maybe even the $180 MSRP. But it will still be a Rogue (read: cheap) that I will always need to explain or "apologize for" around competent musicians. It served me well, in that I discovered a love for fretless that enabled me to buy my Carvin LB20 without hesitation.
Do you think it would be worth putting in the EMG Geezer Butler PJ pickups from MF?
Nicely done review. I picked one up a few months ago. I locked your tip on lowering the nut.
Played one with tape wounds. Amazing
This is the best video about this bass on YT, unfortunately I have to say in my experience the bass is just firewood in my opinion!
So basically it’s a cheap piece of shit… Ty
I’d recognize that Florida accent anywhere
I got one for Xmas and I love it
The reference dots are positioned the same as a fretted bass. Of course, we put our fingers on the fret, not the dot, which is why they are off. Two solutions, remember to put your finger slightly behind the dot where the fret would be or tune to the "5th fret" on each string (tune E string to A with finger on the 2nd dot (representing the 5th fret). This means you cannot play open strings or they will be slightly out of tune. But I avoid open strings as much as possible anyway. I use my fretless for walking bass lines and originals I've written. No open strings anyway.
Steve bass with a bass????
With respect I'm more interested in the music than the instrument I have owned a fretless bass and enjoyed playing it but can't remember what happened to it Happy to meet you the other day!
I just got a Glarry with the identical problem. The nut was also super high and the truss rod appears to be stripped,
making me wonder if someone had tried to 'fix' this bass.
My solution? I am installing a homemade titanium zero fret at either 28" or 30" from the saddles, making this a short scale bass that uses long scale strings.
(I tried to return it but they refunded my money and told me to keep it, lol)
that buzz at the first fret is a total deal breaker
Where can I buy it?
Great video. Great explanation about everything
Very nice. I picked one of these fretless basses up the other day because they are a very good deal and enjoy tinkering with instruments, with an eye toward making modifications and doing more advancing work in the future, but don't feel skilled enough to start messing with my primary guitar or bass beyond basic maintenance. I had very good luck with a Rogue 5 string a few weeks ago and sort of impulse bought the fretless. Both were 100 usd sealed and delivered (the pokey bit didn't rip through actually, in NY for those wondering on the shipping).
They form sort of a flawed duo as I got them both in white. Thanks for the tips on problem with the fretless as I just got this one and haven't looked it over heavily; I think my neck may have less issues as I can't replicate that buzzing (yet!). For 200 usd total you could do a lot worse – two hobby horse instruments. I do recommend the fretted 5 string a bit more heavily. For a first bass though, I'd want better quality control, especially as a gift. The fret-markers are also indeed useless for the fretless – I've gone by ear for the testing – I'm interested in alternative divisions of the octave – which drew me toward one of these. Thanks for the review!
Thank you all for watching this !
Hello friends, just a reminder that if you press the 'helmet' image in that circle to the left, you will be able to see my music videos too !
Great Steve! One comment. A voice mic would help a lot in terms of clarity & quality. The Apogee ClipMic might be the ticket.