Reviewer: Michael Fore
e-mail: not publicly available
Date submitted: Dec. 11, 2002
Purchase Price: $675 "used"
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Sound & Tone
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Rating:
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7
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Comments:
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The vibe has a very warm sound even in the upper registers Although a little hollow at the low end. I love the overall tone when playing scales and glisaandos. The bars sound and "feel" best when I use an old pair of Musser M-7 mallets (or a new pair of Balter 12b's). The tuning sounds good in that I play with a lot of sample or loop based tracks and I don't hear any tuning/pitch conflicts although I do need
a harder mallet to cut through louder tracks. (contemporary jazz)
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Design & Construction
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Rating:
| 6
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Comments:
| The frame does tend to sway when playing & pedaling but the noticable noises tend to come from the damper system. This is my 2nd Jenco and the frame of the first squeaked even after lubrication. I'm rebuilding the vibe and replacing the felt with a vander plas silicon damper and greasing all joints. I'll also replace the flat bars with holes (that suspends the string that holds the bars) with threaded eye-bolts. (easier to align uniformly). The casters have held up well for an instrument 30-40 years old. The bars are graduated and clean-up nicely. The vibe is fairly portable but awkward to breakdown the legs/stand with only one-person. The motor is louder than I'd like for recording (even after a good cleaning) but luckily I have the much quieter motor from my first Jenco (now a spare parts set). Overall it's a sturdy set of vibes for a beginner like myself.
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Appearance
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Rating:
| 3
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Comments:
| Flaking duco (yellow mother of pearl finish) and chipped chrome but she's old (and all mine).
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Customer Support
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Overall Rating
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Rating:
| 7
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Comments:
| I'm very happy with the set as a learning/practice set. And I liked the history of the Jenco company (what little info I gleaned from old catalogs and message boards).
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