Vintage Icon V4MTB Tony Butler Signature Bass
VINTAGE Icon V4MTB Tony Butler Signature Bass
Big Country bassist Tony Butler receives his own signature version of the Vintage V4 bass…
Words: Tim Slater
The Vintage V4 bass aims to appeal to fans of a certain universally popular American bass guitar. The added bonus is the signature of a respected bassist adorning the headstock. The signature belongs to Tony Butler, the bassist with 80s Anglo/Scots pop legends Big Country. Big Country’s rousing anthemic pop, richly infused with the distinctive guitar work of Bruce Watson and the late Stuart Adamson also owed a lot of its power to Tony Butler’s sympathetic yet driving bass lines. Butler’s primary instrument of choice was the CBS-era Fender Precision Bass and his new Vintage signature bass reflects his taste.
Body & Neck The V4 faithfully recreates the robust and functional feel of what is still probably the world’s most widely
recorded electric bass guitar. In this instance we find an Easter Poplar body mated with a bolt-on maple neck with a period-correct 20 fret maple fingerboard finished with distinctive black dot position markers. Visually this is a very striking
looking bass; the all black livery contrasting against the maple fingerboard’s vintage-style dark yellow tint really defines one of the CBs era’s better sartorial decisions and even Vintage’s necessarily non-committal headstock profile is bought into sharper definition by the bold black ‘Signature’ script. The neck’s comfortable C profile displays a forgiving and easy-playing feel that virtually molds itself to the player’s hand, whilst the width at the nut of approximately 430mm (1.69-inches) feels pretty much in line with a typical 70s-style P-Bass. At around
SHOULD I BUY ONE? You don’t necessarily need to be a Big Country fanatic to enjoy this bass, although if copying Tony Butler’s forceful style is your thing then the V4 certainly delivers. The sleek 70s vibe makes a refreshing change from the plethora of worn-in 50s and 60s clones out there and at this price you’d be hard pressed to find a justifiable reason not to give this fine bass a go.
THE GOOD BITS:
THE NOT SO GOOD BITS: Nothing to complain about: this bass is ace!
SRP: £299.00 Contact: JHS UK -
www.jhs.co.uk
7lbs in weight the V4 is just on the positive side of what we would describe as ‘solid’, you definitely know it’s there but it doesn’t risk permanent shoulder-ache!
Hardware & Sounds Wilkinson hardware proliferates and we have four ‘elephant ear’ tuners taking care of tuning whilst down at t’other end four heavy-duty brass bridge saddles recall a popular period modification that many manufacturers including Fender briefly adopted as a custom option. The passive Wilkinson WBP split coil pickup offers full hum cancelling and is controlled via a standard pair of rotary tone and volume pots capped with chunky knurled chrome plated knobs. Sonically, the V4 displays the
ubiquitous flexibility that has seen its progenitor literally set the standard for electric bass since the
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mid 1950s. For every multi-string, active and LED illuminated monstrosity that purports to represent the next ‘evolution’ there is still only one P-Bass. Flatwound or roundwound strings, pick or finger-style, plugged straight into the desk or through a towering amp stack, this immortal design always delivers. Admittedly, in isolation there is something a little
unsophisticated – crude even- about the V4’s raw muscular grind but in the context of a track or a live band mix nothing – and we state this unreservedly – occupies the low end with as much authority. The V4 delivers a fulsome, powerful sound that can be as subtle as a blunt instrument around the back of the head or else as gentle and dynamic as you like, it just depends on how hard you play and where you set the volume and tone controls: the bass takes care of the rest. PM
We love the CBS era vibe. 100% authentic tones.
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