Fame Baphomet IV

Before giving more details on the Mayones Jabba Custom I'd first have to go through some features of the Fame Baphomet. First of, it's a great bass guitar. Yes it is. Ovangkol body, mahogany 5 piece neck, palisander fretboard, sculpted body, or carved or how do you name such feature. 6 bolt neck attachment. It's not very heavy, I'd say average weight for gigs up to 2 hours. If your band has enough punch to last for two ours that is. When testing the Fame in the store, it was compared with a Fender 60's Classic Vibe (around 700 euro), an Ibanez ATK 300 (around 500 euro), a Warwick Rockbass Corvette (700 euro) and maybe one more brand I've forgotten about. Anyway, each of those guitars were... well...ok. Until I grabbed the Baphomet and played it. OK with capitals first, very much fantastic after that and 'I think I know which bass is coming home with me tonight'. Someone had to ask me gently to step away from the amp after more than an hour, as more customers wanted to test a guitar that day. Fame claims their guitars are handmade. I'm not 100% convinced they are but I've never seen a guitar this good for only, say 630 euro. Compared to the Warwicks, the first one to have the same construction quality was a Corvette $$ that could be owned for 1500 euro. Some difference. The Fame uses active MEC pickups. That doesn't mean it sounds as deep and woody as a Warwick. But it sounds good, wide tone range possible with the active/ passive push/ pull, the two band eq section and a very accurate working high/ low tone knob.

I've been playing this bass for almost two years now and haven't missed the Ibanez SR1500 for a second. The Ibby had the faster neck, the wenge fretboard (great) and it just was easy to get along with. But it was heavy, 5,6kg heavy f.e., and although it had a P/J set up, there was no way you could get a characteristic sound out of it. I bought it second hand (model year 1990) in 2004 or 2005 for 620 euro. They were once a premium model for Ibanez and the little information I could find stated that they were sold for 1700 to 1900 euro (something like that as the euro was only an idea in progression) in 1990. Made in Japan which means something, or at least I thought so. Anyway, the Fame instantly replaced the Japanese soundgear I had played for at least 5 years. So the Ibby stayed in its case although it came out every couple of weeks, to compare to the Baphomet or just to look at the nice woods.

Baphomet time: 24 frets without dead spots up to the highest note. No fret buzz unless you play pick or use fingers on the bridge pickup. Especially when using the pick there is some buzz, for sure with my low-action settings but the buzz never comes through the amp and speakers (Ashdown ABM EVO II/ ABM 410 and Markbass CMD 121P with NY121 extension). The bass is well balanced, no neckdive and the sculpted body fits just right. I usually play fingerstyle (jazzy) but in a band setting, a pick is used. In that case the style is dirty rock or even post-rock and post-metal. The tone is perfect, a growling deep drive that is always present, very clear highs and even some nice mids to push through the Marshall or Fender walls of sound. This bass doesn't sound muddy or undefined. It is a bass that begs for detail. Using only the neck pickup might give a 'Fender' sound but never boomy, never somewhere in the mix. It could very well be that a Fender is the standard, I just want something different. Using only the bridge pickup, you get that trumpet-like sound, jazzy mids, dry lows. No, it's not a Ken Smith Burner. It's just nice. My preference in this case is using both pickups with slightly more 'bridge' when playing fingerstyle or more 'neck' with the plectrum. Sometimes with the band, it's only the neck pickup that's used. Enough for now. I'm still happy with this Polish gear, are parts of it made in China or Korea? No idea but they must have been using the best luthiers then. Is the bass falling apart after two years of heavy use? Not at all, not one gripe. Oh yes, there is one, when scratching the body, the surface is easily damaged and a lighter color comes through. One big plus is that you almost never have to tune the guitar, it keeps its correct tuning very long, even with humidity changes. Would I change the name if I could? Hell yeah, come on, Fame Baphomet, only Germans can think of such a name. And yes, they did. The Musicstore in Cologne is the only importer and seller of Fame gear. If I understood correctly, it was one of the MS coworkers who invented the name of the guitars and basses. Maybe he's also responsible for the invention of another great name: Fame Forum. Really, are you serious????? Forum, what kinda name is that for an otherwise superb guitar? And one more note to the Musicstore, please correct your data for all Fame basses, the print catalogue and the website show info that isn't very reliable.