Music Man Joe Dart II - Flexible Funk Machine or Just A Gimmick? - LowEndLobster Review

Joe’s best sounding bass was the MIM Jazz with Seymour Duncan Antiquities in it he played before sponsorship by EBMM

Thank you for the honest review Lobster. Seems like a money-grab by Music-Man. I don't think the product justifies the price, although I have to admit I like the sound and looks.

This is the first video of yours I’ve ever seen, randomly got it recommended and I’m glad I watched! You seem like an absolute class act and a lovely guy and your review was both professional and thorough. I totally agree that the bass may be nice in terms of build quality and that it’s intentionally gimmicky but it kind of supercedes the joke level into downright disrespect towards the customer. Anyway, thanks for the review and have a lovely day 😊

Awesome review Lobster! I wanted one of these but I’m glad I saw your review. Not so much now! Thanks! 🎸

Love your energy! Don‘t care about low volume pickups… I find they usually have more dynamic range and special sauce to them. Great video!

Thanks for an honest review. Since the average “Joe” might order this online it’s nice to have a heads up. At this price point, it should be near flawless and have a zero regret, zero surprise factor. This appears to fall short. Let’s be honest… it’s a CNC made bass with anemic pickups and some sub-premium parts. And that non-routed rear cover plate is really sad.

So happy to see you back

The price of these for what you get is insane! I put an ash-bodied five string Jazz together with a 3-band preamp, coil tappable pickups, and tight string spacing, for less than a third of the UK price of the Joe Dart II. Save your money, build a parts bass and get one of these for much cheaper. EDIT: Also, what is that five string over your shoulder (not the Dingwall)?

Fun to see your review. I'm on a bass quest as I just started grooving in December. My mandolin led me to the bass. Never had I heard of Joe Dart until I started watching all the bass content on You Tube. Love his staccato type picking. Somehow I am kinda smitten with those odd knobs. Seems they pulled them off of some bedroom drawers. I'm really enjoying your channel and your style. With your bass collection...which 3 are your favorite to play? The ones you pick up the most? The ones you want to go to lunch with? I give you 5 claws!

Very helpful review. Thanks!

Sweet Playing Maestro Lobster!!! Welcome back!!!

Thanks for the review 🦞, and great to see you back on the tube! That’s a nice piece of ash, and the neck looks wonderful. It’s a shame the electronics are a bit lacking, especially with a premium price. But I’m sure the whole run of 100 will sell out.

Looks and sounds killer, can't wait to see the fearless Flyers live in Paris next month... great review, thanks. :)))

Good to see you back on track! If I may do a request: could you do a top 5 best neck vid?

Good to see you back, Mighty Sir. ♥️🎸🎸❤️❤️🙂

As always a fantastic review. Thank you Sir. : )

Welcome back!!

It's hilarious how you become mortal when you play with pick! LOL. I love how you are not afraid to be critical of a company you obviously love and a bass that is so lauded everywhere else. That's why I watch! Bass on!

I got a NOS Caprice bass in February of 2020 (just in time for all those gigs!) and can confirm that the output is lower than I expect. However, I think that's why we have gain knobs on our amplifiers... back when I was playing live and using a Squier VI, I fought extensively with the fact that it was SO much quieter than any of the 4-string basses I played alongside it. It meant we had to do our setlists as blocks of "what can be played on which instrument." Initially, I got around it with a BYOC boost pedal, then I put hotter pickups in it that also made it sound more bassy anyway. For the Caprice, I eventually realized I don't care, and I'll either use a boost or just play it and not switch between instruments. Music Man themselves suggest an almost comically high pickup height, but since the magnetic pull of the pickups is so low, you don't seem to get much in they way of frequency wobble or intonation problems. I haven't done a lot of science on it, just noting during setup with the Peterson. Incidentally... the pickup poles on the Caprice's covers are misleading. If you pull the pups, you see standard fender-style double magnet rods on the bottom of the bobbins. I haven't tried to separate the guts from the covers to see if they are just inlays into the covers or if for some reason the pole pieces change from dual-small to single-huge inside the bobbin, but I thought that was fascinating, and I wonder how many of the other recent pickup designs are similarly configured. I haven't had the pickup out of my short-scale Stingray, but I have pulled my Bongo's neck S and bridge H pickups and they appear to be thick magnets the whole way through. Not that it stops me from enjoying the Caprice. I brought it home because I thought it was the best-to-me sounding PJ I have ever heard, and I really like the feel and look. I wish I had found out about the line earlier so I could have tracked down the diamond blue/maple version, but the heritage tobacco is handsome and the body wood on my example is pretty.

Nicely done sir!