What a stretch of musical eras these two cool basses cover ... and at easy prices, too.

AXL BADWATER / AJ-200-VS
WHAT THEY ARE: Electric basses in the Precision and ‘Violin’ style, respectively.
LUST FACTOR: Badwater’s distressed finish. The Violin’s basses smooth retro trappings.
REALITY CHECK: At those prices, no one can complain!
PRICE: RM798 / RM898
DISTRIBUTOR: THE GUITAR STORE (% 03-9133 2822 / 2300 2822 / 7710 5822)

Like Paul?: Getting that Beatles’ thing going is a cinch with the AXL ‘Violin’ bass.

THIS company is no newcomer in the field of musical instrument and amplifier manufacture; you may recall the AXL name appearing in guitar magazines as far back as two decades ago.

It’s only recently that AXL equipment, mostly made in China, has found a distributor in Malaysia. The prices are competitive, without skimping too much on quality; the finish, though, may be the last of your concerns if you’re eyeing one of the two basses reviewed this week.

We give you the AXL Badwater and AJ-200-VS electric basses.

As far apart ...

While the Badwater is a Precision bass at heart, what makes it stand out is the type of finish offered – it’s called “distressed”.

AXL offers “crackle” and standard distress finishes, and by any yardstick, these are admirable pieces of work in premature ageing. The review unit was done in brown, and looked as if it had been stained, dragged over sand and cement, and gouged with nails. Even the anodised hardware and pickguard have been suitably aged, while the controls crackle with a genuine vintage vibe!

You would pay many times more for a “distressed” finish from the big-name boys, and end up with something less realistically aged and thrashed than the Badwater!

Incidentally, the Badwater has an alder body, rosewood fretboard, 34-inch scale rock maple neck, and an EMG-designed split pickup, with the standard volume and tone controls.

My major grouse – the headstock, which looks like a mutation of different influences that suddenly gave up and stopped!

However, the AJ-200 bass is a very different kettle of fish. The photograph should let on that it is AXL’s version of the legendary bass made popular by one Paul McCartney – the Violin Bass, or as some call it, the Beatle Bass.

Distressed vibes: The AXL Badwater bass gets the ‘used’ treatment.

This one is a short-scale unit (30-1/4-inch), with the familiar, semi-hollow body shape, finished in flame maple. A hard maple neck and rosewood fretboard complete the organic template of the AJ-200, which is finished in vintage sunburst.

Dual humbuckers, fully adjustable floating bridge, sealed die-cast tuners (the mini type), and two volume knobs and a master tone control take care of the rest.

The AJ-200 looks pretty much like the real thing, and built quality is impressive; it’s a steal, whatever the price or tone!

Round or flat?

Both basses had a nice feel about their necks, even if they’re poles apart in style. The Badwater didn’t have too chunky a neck, and balanced well, played sitting or strapped on; the AJ-200’s neck is super fast and required minimal effort to navigate.

The Badwater sounds wicked alright, with a typical P-bass approach that AXL has taken a step further by giving the master tone more headroom.

This means you can go way down low for some well-defined, reggae-dripped tones with loads of meat … or you can open up the tone knob and move into crunchy or funk rock territory.

However, be careful with this knob - too much highs can assault the senses. Sure, it works if you want to plug the bass into an overdrive or distortion pedal, but it can also jar on your band mates.

Limited, but effective - that’s my take on the Badwater’s tone. What was frustrating was the tuning machines, which were very stiff.

The AJ-200 showed all the trappings of the 1960s and if you’re into the early Beatles’ bass tone, you’ll find them here.

Cuts like a knife: Those marks on the Badwater’s top are part of the package.

Both the neck and bridge pickups possessed a tremendous amount of depth and expressiveness, and whatever the combination I tried – one or both pickups, or one fully opened with the other backed off, tone control in various positions – I was able to get that thuddy, bloomy tones you would expect of this bass.

The bridge pickup on its own was capable of some funky trickery; otherwise, you can lay down those classic pop lines or even standard jazz riffs without worry. The AJ-200 had these fully covered, and sounded organic enough to work in an acoustic set up.

The AJ-200 came strung with roundwound strings, which were decent enough, but the bass really hit the groove when I switched to flatwounds.

The right attitudes

Two very different basses then, mixing attitude and tone. The Badwater stays, “Look at me, I’m nasty and don’t give a damn, so whack me, thwack me, see how much damage you can do!”

The AJ-200, on the other hand, is much more polished in its outlook, and harks at a golden era when bassists worried more about making their notes sound right and musical, than attitude.

Give ‘em both a try, they’re loads of fun - different strokes for different folks.