ESP Vintage 4 Bass

Howdy!

Today we are looking at the ESP Vintage 4 bass guitar. The Vintage series was introduced in 2007, and has not been a very hot seller for the company.

I reviewed the Vintage Plus strat a few months ago and ground it about the overdone phony relic look. There is the same concern about the Vintage 4, but the appearance is the only major gripe I have as it is still a great bass.

For starters, this is a real live ESP bass, not an LTD model that was made by craftsmen in Japan, not by little kids in some third world country. And every ESP bass (or guitar) I’ve had has been a great player with no cosmetic or functional flaws.

And the Vintage 4 is no exception, this is a super smooth-playing bass, and the build quality is first rate. The neck is spot on, with perfect fretwork, and a great action right out of the back.

The body is alder, and has a traditional Precision Bass shape. As I said, it has a relic look, which some genius in the design department decided to cover in clear lacquer. It looks horrible.

The hardware is very good, with a Gotoh high-mass bridge and vintage-look tuners. ESP has carried over the trussrod adjustment at the base of the neck, with no cutout in the pickguard to access it. Again, pure genius.

The maple neck also gets the relic treatment, but it is very cozy. I like the ESP inlay at the 12th fret, which hearkens back to the ESP 400 models that inspired this bass.

The electronics are first-rate, as ESP sourced Seymour Duncan P and J pickups. The wiring and joints are very neat, and the cavity is nicely coated. The controls are two volume pots and a master tone control.

The Vintage 4’s electronics work well, too, but then again I have always been a sucker for PJ-equipped basses. I find it easy to get any tone from Motown thump to gnarly loud fingerstyle, and everything in between. This bass can do most anything you need from a 4-string bass, if you can get past the way it looks.

These basses ship in a black ESP deluxe tolex hardshell case, which is to be expected at this price. And that price is the final deal-killer for me.

As you may know, the dollar has been weak for a long time, and ESP needs a lot more dollars to make the same amount of Yen. The list price for the ESP Vintage 4 bass is a nut-shrinking $2499, and I did not see new ones for any less than $1499 online. That is Sadowsky Metro series money, so you can see why ESP is having some trouble moving these. There are a lot better values for your money at this price point if you want to buy something new.

Mahalo!