Comments about Dean Pace Bass 4-String Electric Upright:

Don't buy a Yugo and rate it as a BMW.
This is a Yugo. A nice shinny skinny Black Yugo.
I knew I was buying a Yugo. It meets all my Yugo expectations and more.

I own an old Kay. And a Furmus with flames.
When I play BASS specific I take one of my girls... Miss Kay (for the elegant gigs) and Lady Luck (the rowdy gal) for the others.

But for my acoustic duo they were too much to carry for the few songs I use the upright on. I mostly play guitar in the duo setting and bought the Dean Pace on a whim.

Ordered it Sunday. Arrived Wed. Took all of 10 min to set it up. Using it this weekend for 4 acoustic gigs. Guess I will call her Skinny Mini. Because she is.

Comes in a nice soft case with a bright red lining.

Out of the box.... the current production is a passive piezo and NO preamp. It does have a Volume control. (I suggest you use it all on or all off ...more on why below)

Action was good. I actually RAISED it just a bit.

No one else mentions this in any review I could find, but it does have a nice set of light gauge Flat Wound Stings. (I only play flat wounds, even on any of my 12 Spector 5 string basses I use in other settings). I do know a little about flat wounds. If you buy this bass and complain about the tone, read below... the strings are probably not the issue. ...they are light. So the biggest thing I noticed was the feel is not upright-ish exactly. That is not especially a bad thing. After all, it is a unique instrument and probably should have a unique feel and texture.

Bridge is easy to adjust. And solid. (Buy a set of metric allen wrenches to use on all your gear).

I sanded off that awful slick finish on the neck and marked all the fret positions like a good rock-a-billy player would. .. it is a 6 in radius. in English that means the finger board ( not a fret board..it is fretless :) is curved a litte more than a Jazz but less than a 57 Kay upright..and is wider than a normal bass but not as wide as my uprights. it is not just a fretless on a stick. someone somewhere in a small garage actually did a great job of design, in my opinion.

I have played bass and guitar for 40 years and have never used a BOW except on my fiddle. I must have read 5 million reviews making the fact that you can not bow it sound like the end of the world. I got an question...if you play upright bass with a bow, why would buy this bass at musician's friend anyway... Especially a Dean Pace. geezzz ... Read my first line. It is a Yugo. A nice shinny Yugo. And priced like one.
but for grins and giggles i played it with my bow.
(sounded just like the fog horn on into the mystic)

The stand is... unique. Once you get the hang of it... I adjusted it a tad lower and got the angle right..... ( however when you put it back in the nice little soft case, you have to take the stand apart, so mark your settings as you take it apart)
after a few minutes I could tilt and tip as I played... and for the few songs I do in the acoustic duo I would not need to "spin" skinny like I do Miss Kay or Lady Luck... it is somewhat like having a guitar on a Granny Stand.... when you walk up to her she is ready to go... so for the specific reason I bought the Dean Pace I am VERY pleased with the Bass, the Stand, the sound (more on that) and dealing with Musicians Friend.

Now.... let's talk sound.
Being an engineer... a Piezo has very high source impedance that produces a very low output voltage. (I design my own piezo pickups for my banjo. I know a little about them).

The old Fender tube amps (or most any legacy 12AX7 input stage) had 1 Meg impedance. So you could to a degree plug a Piezo into a Twin and have a somewhat matched source follower. However a Twin did not reproduce the subtle ambience of the acoustic (with no tweeter and limited low end etc)...

SO.. In the 80's Digi-Tech was one of ...if not the first to see the need for a FET preamp and built some killer units. In that day a LOT of acoustic instruments had no buffer amp or preamp on board... and running direct was just starting to take hold.

Then most manufactures started to put on board preamps and the market for High Impedance stomp box devices kinda went away.

but..... I again see LOT of Piezo pickups now with no pre amp on board. No law against it. Probably saves the manufacture a litte and they keep the price competitive.... but you instantly have an issue of a very high impedance (and very low voltage) attempting to feed a low impedance input and thin is what you get.

If you plug the Dean Pace into any bass amp with normal 10k source pre-amp impedance, it will most likely sound very thin..no bass..all treble..etc,,. (We can then discuss circuit Q and the capacitive reactance / source impedance load causing limited bandwidth) or you can just take my word for it. But using my Agilent network analyzer you can easily see the complex wave form anomalies and why...)

So use a pre amp that has at least a 1 Meg input. Up to 10 Meg would be nice too. And as short of and as good of quality as you can afford in a 1/4 cable…. to go from the bass out to the preamp in. From the preamp out to the board you are now buffered and most any run of the mill cable will do.

This will give the best source match to the piezo element, and give you the fullest signal at the 1st stage of the pre amp. Now you can adjust tone etc...

I might suggest you only use the on board volume control to turn it up full or off full. Anything in-between will have an impact on the sound... this is due to the changing of the source impendence and again the capacitive reactance and circuit Q come back into the mix. OR... you may find you use that adjustment as part of your tone for runs vs. fill.. Again the added loading of the wiper on the potentiometer lowering the source will be a factor. And maybe it will produce a sound you want. Yugo's had a distinctive muffler sound too.

I have a Digi-tech FET pedal from 82. It works nice. I also bought a Behringer ADI21 for my banjo when I first built my piezo bridge pickups. I find it makes a GREAT Dean Pace preamp. It has very high source impendence and tons of tone shaping. Most Bass Preamps do not have 1 Meg or higher inputs and you need (must have) that to get good sound from this type un-buffered piezo. just read the spec's on the preamp you buy ...

The entire contraption fits into its little case and it is easy to carry. with room for my preamp, cords, extra junk and even a Yugo hood ornament if you wanted. and if you Drive it in a BMW to the gig even better i guess.

I give it high marks. Got a great deal, arrived on time, has a cool factor, does what it said it will do and it is a keeper.

Comments about Dean Pace Bass 4-String Electric Upright:

This instrument is both great fun and easy to use. Having played bass guitar for many years I was looking for an entry level instrument as an introduction to playing upright, and this has "fit the bill" perfectly. Although I know this instrument is somewhat of a compromise and in many ways is not the same as an acoustic upright in sound and feel, I would still thoroughly recommend it for those who want to start playing upright. As a final comment I would also like to say that I have used this bass in live performances and have found that it is well suited to gig work,

Comments about Dean Pace Bass 4-String Electric Upright:

Musicians Friend is helping the New, Old, Professional, and all musicians with their products & service.
Basic single control volume knob, EASY. Like other's said, you control the real sound with the amplifier, and that seems to work well with the strings that came on it. It is a good upright bass (stick as I call it) to get the feel positioning of an EUB. I found the neck buzz is controlled with the Amp and also with finger positioning of both hands.
Being a level 4 instrument, I expected junk. Didn't get it! It had some minor issues that were quickly fixed. Now for me togive it justice with practice, practice, practice.
I got lucky with this deal!! I've bought some level 4's and got what I expected, (used parts) this one wasn't one of those.

Comments about Dean Pace Bass 4-String Electric Upright:

This is simply a cheap fret less turned on its side. Many commenters talk about a seamless transition from regular to upright, but this is because there is no transition. The fretboard is flat so it cannot be bowed like a standup and it sounds like an electric fret less bass.

Comments about Dean Pace Bass 4-String Electric Upright:

Outstanding
What a wonderful way to make the transition from bass guitar to upright bass. Received it in the afternoon and took it to a gig that night. Everyone was so impressed with the instrument and the easy playability. I was so happy when the audience flocked around me on break wondering how I had gone from bass to upright bass overnight. I played it through my Bose and it sounded fantastic. The note dots on the side of the neck take all the guess work out of playing this instrument.I was an overnight success with mine wish everyone else the same.

Comments about Dean Pace Bass 4-String Electric Upright:

This will be your chance to learn upright bass. Buy flatwound strings,get a decent eq.unit,practice ,practice, practice. This is not an acoustic upright bass.You will have to find your own SOUND. Experiment,listen to Paul Chambers. Learn some of his licks and you shouldn't have any problems. For the money...it's great! Caution: it will take a little time to get adjusted to the sound for it doesn't have a tone knob. The Roland cube 100 bass amp works great with it.

Comments about Dean Pace Bass 4-String Electric Upright:

I used to own one of these basses; what a disappointment! It seemed to go to hell in a hand-basket within a few weeks of purchase. The electronics never worked correctly; I either had no sound or the bass made these awful buzzing sounds. I took the bass to a luthier who previously had no problems fixing the wiring in either my Rickenbacker of my 1973 Fender Jazz. After playing around with the Dean Pace for the better part of two months, he tried to contact the folks at Dean and received no support. I also tried to contact Dean and never received a reply. I will advise in the strongest possible terms against buying this bass, or any bass from Dean for that matter. I finally gave up on that junky Dean-Pace and sold it for pennies on the dollar and good riddance!

Comments about Dean Pace Bass 4-String Electric Upright:

I brought this bass because portability versus a regular upright. The bass has very good action as far as playability however does fall short of the true upright sound. Never the less with the Digi Tech BP 200 Bass Modeling Processor gives this Bass endless sound configuration. Another plus is the staff at Musicians Friend is very knowledgeable on the products they carry.

Comments about Dean Pace Bass 4-String Electric Upright:

This thing is no more than a fretless electric bass turned sideways, def. no fill of an upright bass with the flat neck and bridge. Playing upright for 6 years now i wanted a electric to carry around for jazz gigs. My main problem with this this bass is the flat neck and bridge , no curve to the strings so you CAN'T use a bow.

Comments about Dean Pace Bass 4-String Electric Upright:

If you're looking for a way to introduce an upright sound to your musicmaking, this is a very affordable way to do so. I am primarily a keyboard player, but I love playing various types of fretless basses. This one is very satisfying to play, and I've played gigs with it, as has a more committed, full-time bass player who borrowed mine for a while. Don't leave a guitar cord plugged in, it'll run down the 9V battery -- that's the only thing I had to figure out the hard way. No problems after 3 years plus.