# NBD: Brice Defiant 53437 RB Bubinga



## bostjan (Feb 10, 2017)

I saw these were on sale, and I had been curious about them for a long time, so I made a quick decision to buy it.







Let me first say that the service from Rondo was top notch. I wanted the plain one, but they were out of stock, yet still showing on the website. I was notified immediately, and we settled on the bubinga one instead. I only wanted the natural one in case I decided some day to stain the body myself.

I wanted a case with it; again, the Rondo site showed black cases in stock, but they were actually out of them. I was upgraded to snakeskin at no additional charge.






The bass arrived the next day. I don't know how UPS managed to do that, since the instrument had to go a couple hours in the opposite direction to get to a sortation facility... anyway, I was impressed with how quickly Rondo dealt with everything and how on-the-ball their service department is.






Aesthetically, the bass certainly has a different look than pretty much all other basses, appearing more like a guitar with a bass neck, in spirit. The top is a very very thin veneer. There is a tiny spot near the neck joint on the low B side where the top is sanded through just a little. It isn't visible from more than a foot away, but it attests to how thin the top is. Also, the pickup bobbins have a bumpy texture to them, which is kind of neat. 






The fretwork on this thing is perfect, as far as I can tell in a few hours - no pokey ends or any weird gaps or dents in the frets and tangs. 






I did notice that the walnut strips in the neck were glued end to end with another pair of strips, but it's near the bridge side of the body, so I guess that's okay (they must have been unable to find walnut strips long enough). The glue joint is pretty easily visible. To be honest, if it was an inch closer to the heel, I would have probably pointed it out to Rondo, but as it is, I don't expect it to ever become an issue.

Last night I played the bass for a while, first unplugged, then plugged in. In standard tuning (B0 E1 A1 D2 G2), unplugged, the bass sounds great. Something felt a little off to me, at first, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. Plugged in, I was impressed with the tone on the higher strings, but the low B didn't quite have the tightness I expected. I had to roll off a little volume (the pot is really stiff, though) on the controls and the tone shaped up a lot better, so I guess the pickups were just too much for my little amp and the low B must've been overdriving the input buffer.

Tuning down to drop A, I had some more serious concerns about the tone, but a lot of it was remedied by resetting all of the settings on my amp and dialing the amp in from scratch.

The more I played, the more comfortable I felt with it, but then I picked up my Dingwall NG-2 for comparison and it all dawned on me very quickly.

So, this bass, without trying to make any comparison with my Dingwall, is a great bass for the money. 

Now, the comparison...

So, I only compared it with my Dingwall NG-2 and my Dean Edge 6F.

The Dean probably wins the price per value category. The electronics and pickups are pretty decent (but I just now noticed how low output it is, even full volume, I had to turn the gain up from 11:00 to 3:00 to get the same level), the bass is ergonomic and lightweight, and feels very nice to play. The bridge is not great, showing signs of rust after years of abuse on the road, and I've had to replace a few other cheaper components to keep this thing in service.
The Dingwall just blows everything away, if you take price out of the equation. Here are some details why: 1. The upper horn is quite long, which not only balances the weight out, but brings the far end of the fretboard much closer to the player. Even though this puts the bridge further away, it's a much more ergonomic design than the Brice. 2. The Dingwall pickups and Darkglass electronics sound super tight and clear, and offer a very wide variety of tones. The plugged in tone of the Dingwall is night and day different from the other two basses. I knew my Dingwall was in a totally different league from my Dean when I first picked it up, but that snappy tone just sounds expensive and good. 3. I've played around with tuning low, and the Dingwall handles it without much thought put into it.

And, in contrast with those, the Brice: 
The tone is punchier, but not really as snappy or as oomphy as the other two. Think if you made a scale of punchiness with a Hofner Beatle Bass at 1 and a P-Bass at 10, this guy is around a 12 or 12.5. The tone knob be damned, though: you hear the tone change, but the basic character of it is always the same (I think the pickups are missing the "shine and sparkle" that I want my tone knob to tame). The bridge pickup, IMO, doesn't have any ass in it, and the neck pickup has so little attack, but the full on two-pickup in series combo sounds pretty darn good. The low B sounds really tight unplugged, and drop A works really well the same way, but the pickups do seem to start losing definition dealing with the low A, to my ears. I think maybe swapping one of the pickups or both might totally change this. The pickups are definitely hot hot hot, so you have to be careful with your gain structure and volume knob. I'd say that I can certainly get a wider range of tones from my Dean, but neither the Dean nor the Dingwall can match this thing's mid-frequency punch.

With the upper horn strap pin in the usual place, my wrist did start to cramp up after about 2.5 hours of playing this bass. It feels totally different than the Dingwall (which darn near plays itself), but if you aren't in the first position, it doesn't seem to be too big of a deal.

The hardware on the Brice is good, from what I can tell so far. The neck was a tiny bit backbowed right out of the box, but after a quick adjustment of the truss rod, everything seemed to settle quite quickly.

If you want a good five string bass on the cheap, and you are going for a punchy tone, I'd say the Brice is the way to go. If you are wanting to tune super low, I don't know that this is the bass for you without replacing the pickups/electronics. Since I'm planning on getting this one converted to 19-EDO and tuning to drop A, I think I might have to replace at least one of the pickups (probably the bridge pickup), although I'm not sure what to go for.

If you have a Dingwall already and are looking for a backup, I don't know if this will be what you expect. Maybe I shouldn't offer an opinion until I've played a little more with it.

I recorded a few quick tracks last night of the Dingwall, the Brice, and the Dean. I hope to have time to mix them soon, so that I can share the results with you. Stay tuned.


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## LordCashew (Feb 10, 2017)

Thanks for the write-up. I've always been curious about these, but since I already have a couple of high-quality 35" basses I figured I'd be better off waiting until I could afford a Dingwall or a Quake. Your review seems to confirm my suspicions...

I know of at least one guy that got good results putting NG-2 electronics in one of these. But the NG-2 is better looking IMHO, and as you say, more ergonomic. Seems like it might be worth it to get the real deal and save some hassle unless money is a big obstacle.

Looking forward to the clips!


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## Action (Feb 10, 2017)

Nice score. Looks like they got the issues with the nut resolved, that one looks relatively clean and properly spaced compared to a few I've seen.

Appreciate the in-depth review and honest comparison both to something in the same league and above it. The pickups look really close to the strings and I wonder if backing them off would help some.


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## LordCashew (Feb 10, 2017)

Action's pickup height adjustment suggestion is a good one. If that fails, have you considered a different wiring for the pickups? From your description of the tone, it sounds like the coils of each pickup are wired in series, and fairly hot to boot. If you were to rewire with options for parallel and/or split (assuming they're four-conductor), that could clean and brighten things up quite a bit.


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## bostjan (Feb 10, 2017)

LordIronSpatula said:


> Action's pickup height adjustment suggestion is a good one. If that fails, have you considered a different wiring for the pickups? From your description of the tone, it sounds like the coils of each pickup are wired in series, and fairly hot to boot. If you were to rewire with options for parallel and/or split (assuming they're four-conductor), that could clean and brighten things up quite a bit.



I haven't looked at the wiring yet, but that's certainly worth a try. I think these pickups have a unique sort of sound, and having one or both of them in parallel might take advantage of that while solving some of my issues with them. If that doesn't work, I think I might give a go at making my own pickups, fail at that, then buy something halfway decent to drop in there.

I don't expect this guy to sound like my Dingwall, but I wouldn't mind the tone being a few steps closer to that level of clarity. I should have more to report back after the weekend.

Thanks so much for the ideas!


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## bostjan (Feb 10, 2017)

I checked the wiring, and the pickups are four conductor, which is good news. I think I might remove the tone pot and put in a series/parallel switch.

Here is the first comparison:

Link here

I just very quickly recorded the music from the Tree Trunk Stage in Wizards and Warriors (NES). The bass is tuned to drop G and the guitar is in standard. I wasn't going for professional recording here; I just wanted to show the difference between the two. These are both recorded direct without any preamp or effects, and the Darkglass on the Dingwall is switched off, although, honestly, it doesn't make a huge difference when it's switched on, but it does tighten up the lower frequencies and keeps them more even with the rest of the notes.

I have another one coming up, it's even sloppier (I was getting tired, blah blah excuses), but includes the Dean and is in standard tuning.

EDIT:

It took over an hour to upload, for some reason, but here's the other comparison:


Link


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## LordCashew (Feb 11, 2017)

Very informative recordings! Thanks for posting. 

I think they all sound good. Unsurprisingly, Dingwall wins for balance, clarity, and consistency. But the Dean has a really solid tone that sits well in a mix. Like it has a narrower sonic footprint, but it's in just the right space. Does it have EMGs?

The Brice actually sounds perfectly good IMO. Not as distinctive or interesting as the other two, but I imagine it would work just fine for most applications. Unfortunately, even thought the 37" scale is probably its main attraction, those low notes are where the Dingwall really outperforms it. Just goes to show that scale length is only part of the equation.


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## bostjan (Feb 11, 2017)

Thanks!

Yes, the Dean has EMGs. Good ear.

I did way more tracks than I had patience to upload, one for each wiring configuration... The most impressive thing about the Dingwall was that each setting sounds really different but still sounds really good. The Brice has a little bit of thinness in the bridge pickup, but otherwise everything sounds similar.

I need to find out which wire is from which coil so I can try them in parallel.


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## PBC (Feb 14, 2017)

Excellent thread Bostjan thanks for posting those clips. 

Would you update the thread if you decide to swap the pickups? Some erg basses use EMG HZs as pickups that would probably be my first choice if I were to swap, those or some Q-Tuners. It wouldn't rival the dingwall, and you are correct that the upper horn needs to probably be just over the 12th fret for the bass to rest comfortably. 

What strings are you using on the Brice?


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## Keel (Feb 14, 2017)

Have you done a 19EDO multiscale before? That will be interesting for sure.


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## bostjan (Feb 15, 2017)

PBC said:


> Excellent thread Bostjan thanks for posting those clips.
> 
> Would you update the thread if you decide to swap the pickups? Some erg basses use EMG HZs as pickups that would probably be my first choice if I were to swap, those or some Q-Tuners. It wouldn't rival the dingwall, and you are correct that the upper horn needs to probably be just over the 12th fret for the bass to rest comfortably.
> 
> What strings are you using on the Brice?



My Dean has EMG's. I'd be more apt to try q-tuners, or get some Dingwall pickups if the opportunity came up. For now, though, I'm going to play with the wiring a bit and see where that takes me. Oddly, I asked Rondo for a colour code chart of the Cephus pickup wires (N/S coils Hot/GND), because I wanted to wire the pickup coils in parallel, and they responded by telling me how to adjust the pickup height, and then told me to locate the green and white wires and solder those to a switch (without specifying which is which, unfortunately). Maybe someone here could help me out? If not, I'll see if I can find a magnet with poles labeled to help me out.



Keel said:


> Have you done a 19EDO multiscale before? That will be interesting for sure.



Nope. I'm not quite prepared to plunge into that myself, either, at the moment, but we'll see how it unfolds in the next couple of months.


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## LordCashew (Feb 15, 2017)

bostjan said:


> ...and then told me to locate the green and white wires and solder those to a switch (without specifying which is which, unfortunately).



If that's as specific as they were, that sounds like a split switch - too simple to be a series/parallel switch i think...

Here's how I've figured out pickup coil wiring when I couldn't get a diagram:

If you can see which two wires are connected now, that's the + lead of one coil and the - lead of the other if it is indeed wired in series. You already know whichever of the two remaining wires is grounded on a pot is another - lead, and the the one remaining wire is a known + lead.

From there, what I'd do is separate the two leads that were connected (you'll need to do this eventually anyway), but leave your known + and - leads as is. With the bass plugged in (quietly), try shorting each of them to ground, and tap on each coil of the pickup with a screwdriver to see which one comes on and when. When you get noise, you've found out which coil is wired to your known positive lead, which of your previously connected leads is its negative lead, and the rest by elimination.


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