MTD Michael Tobias Beast 4 Reviews 5

Daddy's Junky Music Store. Used but like new and tagged so cheap [$200] that I just *had* to play it.

Its got a Bartolini JJ passive with a single tone knob that really has a wide range of tones [unlike some 2-knob tone controls on many basses that seem to do little or nothing]. It's light weight but with kick-butt JJ low end, and then you start blending in shimmering higher end that most JJs can't find anywhere on any knobs. The neck is not too fat, with a 24 fret scale and real zero fret. The fret board is wenge, which may explain some of the butt-kicking. I was able to set a decently low action with no problems. The neck itself features MTD Tobias's assymetrical profile, thicker behind the bass side, thinner behind the treble. Mine is a pearlescent white that looks great with the black strap, PUPs and hardware.

It has two volume knobs while I'd rather it had a fader. It has a bit of single-coil noise when the pickup gains are set more than slightly different from each other [but quieter than many other JJs].

Being light, it doesn't give that immediate "rock-solid" feel, but as time passes you realize it's a really well-built bass. MTD sends the wood to Prague and then finished bodies and seperate finished necks are recieved in NY and assembled by Mr. Tobias. Hardware and electrics are also installed at MTD.

A light weight kickbutt JJ with all 24 frets and no shortcomings. This is a FIVE. Fender [CBS] is asleep at the wheel this time.

Golem rated this unit 5 on 2003-01-16.

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