Washburn Taurus T14 Bass Guitar

Body - Basswood
Neck - Maple, bolt-on
Fingerboard - Rosewood, 24 Frets, 34" scale
Inlays - dot inlays
Machines - black
Tuners - Die Cast
Bridge - adjustable, die cast, chrome
Pickups - 1*Washburn P Style (neck) 1*Washburn J Style (bridge)
Controls - 1*volume, 1*tone, 1*blend

All new for 2009, the Taurus bass guitar from Washburn is a modern low ender with new styling, decent pickups and great value for money on offer.
The Taurus bass has a small and compact headstock, Washburn are trying to keep weight to a minimum from the start here, a gloss black finish to the front, with the Washburn Taurus logo in white on the front.
T14 is dispayed on the small black truss rod cover. The rear is plain satin finished Maple, with the guitars serial number stamped on, and the 2 rows of Chrome die-cast Machine heads, the 2 on the bass side slightly higher to increase string tension.
The satin finished Maple neck is very slim, great for small hands, a D profile, and nut width is 42mm. The 24 fret Rosewood fingerboard is unbound, with white dot position markers, a good and slippery waxy feel, excellent shiney fretwork and is very easy to play.
Overall the gutiar is fairly light and feels quite small, for a bass anyway!
The neck is bolted to the Basswood body, joining at the 21st fret on both sides, the shallow cutaway on the treble side gives moderately good access to the upper register here. As supplied from the factory, action is good at about 4mm on the bass side, 3mm on the treble.
The body is smooth and curvy, not big at all for a bass guitar, a lot of weight has been saved here. The upper bout is long, helping to balance the guitar, with a strap button on the point. The lower bout in contrast is little more than a stump.
The Taurus T14 has 3 Chrome control knobs, a master volume, master tone and pickup blender, to go from the P style split coil at the neck or the J style at the bridge.
Sounds wise, the T14 is pretty good, is only got passive circuitry, but both pickups are responsive and have a good, clean tone. The J style bridge pickup is bright and chirpy, a good bit of twang, whereas the P style at the neck is darker with more depth and grunt. Something there for most musical styles, jazz, blues, rock and metal.
Great value for money, a good all round entry level bass guitar from a top quality brand.

From £149