Sister site Bass Guitar Review checks out the Isolator bass from Josh Parkin Guitars. Take a listen to what Ben and Ryan discovered. JPG will be exhibiting both guitars and basses at The UK Electric Guitar Show – April 2022 in Liverpool.
Conceived and born in lockdown, the Isolator is the newest addition to the JPG range of semi-custom instruments and is a “session player’s dream with the most tweakable tone on the market” claim JPG. Check out what Ryan & Ben thought when Bass Guitar Review headed to the studio.
JPG Say – Overview
A beautifully sleek body with a carved top that really catches the light on stage and makes for both stunning looks and exceptional comfort. The neck extension allows for what I call a heel-less bolt-on where the neck profile continues all the way up to the body without any annoying protruding heel to get in the way.
While this bass looks and plays amazingly, it’s what’s going on with the electrics that really separates it from the rest.
The Isolator pickups and preamp are inspired by the great boutique British basses of the 70’s (you know the ones I’m talking about), though I should be very clear, these are by no means a clone of those products, they are simply inspired by and developed forward from there.
The preamps have been custom made by John East of East Tone UK. Like the original “dual filter” preamps, the Isolator Pre offers an independent EQ for each pickup, but instead of being a simple low-pass filter, the Isolator boast Semi-Parametric EQ’s with a frequency range from 75Hz-3kHz @ -/+12DB. This allows you to perfectly shape the tone of each pickup before the two signals are blended with the Blend/Volume stack. After Blending the signal passes through a third Semi-Parametric EQ, this time in the higher range of 800Hz-8kHz allowing you to dial in or out whatever highs you like. In short this means you can achieve the most delicate and pretty clean-tones all the way through to the thickest and pumping tones all from the simple control layout on your bass.
Driving your awesome pre is a pair of custom humbuckers available as either a regular Dual-Coil humbucker, or full Multi-Coils. A multi-coil pickup has a pair of individual hum-cancelling coils per string. Yes that means 16 coils per bass. What this gives you is a beautifully flat response with incredible amounts of detail. A wonderfully flat pallet to start your tone-shaping journey. A flat response is never possible with any other type of humbucker due to the necessity to connect the coils in either Series or Parallel.
In addition to the exceptional electrics, you can expect the full JPG treatment, with every single part and material being the very best available. Hipshot Bridge and Tuners, Hand-selected tone-woods, an incredibly thin finish for the best tone. The Isolator Bass can be configured to fit your budget and needs, starting from £2,550.
Specifications
Model – The Isolator
Body Wood – Flamed English Sycamore
Neck Wood – Claro Walnut w Hard Maple Stipes
Fingerboard Wood – Flamed Hard Maple
Inlays – Black Pearl Slashes
Scale Length – 34″
Truss Rod – Dual Action
Fingerboard Radius – 12″
Neck Profile – JPG Medium Asymmetric
Pickups – Isolator Multi-Coil x2 with matching F-Sycamore covers
Preamp – Isolator Custom Pre by John East (18v)
Bridge – Hipshot A-style Aluminium – Chrome
Tuners – Hipshot UltraLite 1/2″ – Chrome
Neck Finish – Open Grain Ultra-thin Matte Nitrocellulose
Body Finish – Flat Super-thin Trans-Black Burst Matte Nitrocellulose
Case – Hiscox Hardcase
Price – £3,450
For further information on the Isolator please click the link below.
