Unique Features
We get precious few pieces of light colored Buckeye Burl like the one sported By this beautiful Emperor 5 Elite, but when we do, it always reminds us a lot of Chestnut. Between its 35" scale length and Ash body / Birdseye Maple FB, this bass offers a wonderfully tight, articulate low-end and a B-string that is flat out wonderful.
It was really cool to build this instrument alongside a virtually identical
Emperor 5 Deluxe. Although they are very similar sonically, to our ears the Elite had slightly more brightness and was a bit more compressed in the mids (likely owing to its Maple Tone Block). Our hunch is that in a gig situation they would sound nearly identical...