Mayones Jabba HF 5 Antique Brown

Mayones Jabba HF 5 — Hadrien Feraud Signature in Antique Brown

Hadrien Feraud’s Jabba

This is the Jabba HF 5 in Antique Brown from Mayones, out of Gdansk, Poland. It weighs 4.4 kg. Mayones has been hand-building instruments in Gdansk for decades, and the Jabba is basically their take on the J-bass.

However, it’s a model they only release together with players whose names mean something on the instrument. Above all, Hadrien Feraud’s signature edition is the one that defines the line.

A J-bass, quietly updated

On the wall it looks like a J, right? However, pick it up and you’ll notice everything that’s been quietly updated.

For example, there’s the contoured 6-screw heel, the 4+1 headstock and the slightly extended scale. In addition, you get the ramp between the pickups and noiseless humbuckers hiding inside J-pickup cases. In short, nothing about this bass is for show.

Body, Neck & Woods

Swamp Ash with a Spruce top

The body is profiled Swamp Ash with a Spruce top. After all, Swamp Ash is the classic American J-bass wood. Indeed, it’s light and resonant, with the scooped midrange and strong fundamental that give the J its air.

The Spruce top is the less obvious choice. In fact, you don’t see spruce on solidbodies very often, because it’s traditionally an acoustic tonewood.

On the Jabba it adds a touch of woody attack at the top end. Most importantly, it gives the bass its quietly aged look. For example, you can see the vertical grain through the satin Antique Brown finish, which I really like.

Maple neck and Pau Ferro board

The neck is one piece of hard rock maple with two graphite rods running through it. In my opinion, that’s the construction you want for a working 5-string. Furthermore, the graphite kills the seasonal shifts long maple necks are prone to. As a result, your relief stays consistent through climate changes.

The fingerboard is Pau Ferro, which sits between the snap of maple and the warmth of rosewood. In other words, it’s articulate and slightly punchy, without the bloom rosewood can add to the low end.

In addition, the twenty-four jumbo Ferd Wagner frets give you low friction for fingerstyle and full range for the upper register.

34.25″ scale for the low B

The scale is 34.25 inches, which is a quarter inch longer than standard. It’s not multiscale. However, that small extra reach makes a real difference to the tension and definition of the low B.

Together with the contoured 6-screw bolt-on heel and the 4+1 headstock, the B string gets a consistent feel and direct energy transfer. In fact, fingerstyle players notice that the moment they sit down with it.

Electronics, Sound & Feel

Delano twincoil humbuckers

The pickups are Delano JMVC 5 FE/M2 Jazzbass Twincoil Humbuckers. Moreover, they’re built in Germany by one of the best boutique pickup makers working today.

At first, they look like a pair of J pickups. However, each one is a side-by-side split humbucker, which means you get the clarity and bite of a J-bass with no single-coil hum.

The neck pickup gives you round, woody weight in the bottom end, whereas the bridge pickup snarls when you dig in. Meanwhile, the blend pot covers everything from the neck pickup soloed to the bridge pickup soloed.

Musashi Nitōryū preamp

Behind the pickups sits Mayones’ own Musashi Nitōryū 3-band preamp. In fact, it has a headphone amp and an aux input built in. Therefore you can plug in headphones and your phone and practise without an amp.

Because it runs on an internal power supply with a 9V backup, a flat supply doesn’t end your set. Moreover, the volume has a push-pull for active/passive. In addition, you’ve got a pure passive J-bass sound whenever you want one.

On top of that, the clear acrylic ramp between the pickups is one of those details you either need or don’t. In fact, if you play with one, you’ll know what it’s for right away.

What’s not to like?

This is Hadrien Feraud’s signature, and you can hear his priorities in the voicing. For instance, it’s fast and articulate, with a low end that holds together no matter how hard you push it.

For example, maybe you play a lot of single-note lines that need to cut through a dense mix. On the other hand, maybe you’ve outgrown a stock J but don’t want to leave the J-bass sound behind. For this reason, the Jabba HF is the bass those players have been quietly buying for the last decade.

Finally, it’s hand-built in Gdansk and voiced for one of the most demanding fingerstyle players alive. For me personally, it earns the signature on the headstock. So, what’s not to like?