Following the 2014 debut of the Rithimic bass, Cort and Jeff Berlin have once again put their heads together for the Rithimic V.
They didn’t just slap an extra string on it, either. The specific intent here is a passive five-string with lighter strings and a slimmer neck to help make the switch from a four- to a five-string bass a little easier.
While it’s a friendly player, if provoked, it’ll fight back! The body is a 1 ¾” thick chunk of alder with a walnut top. The soapbar pickups are custom made specifically for this bass by Barolini.
Straight out of the box, the bass came set up well with super-low action and wearing stock DR DDT .40-.120 gauge strings. The lack of a truss rod cover and the Babicz FCH5 bridge allow you to breeze through any fine-tuning adjustments you might want. Up top, to keep things balanced and in tune, there's a set of Hipshot Ultralight tuners.
Unplugged, this bass feels and sounds like a cannon in your lap! Plugged in, the hot pickups and factory setup offer a fat tone without having to work too hard. The controls are Volume, Blend and Tone. While it’s a little heavier than my Fender go-tos, the right strap will keep the Rithimic comfortable and balanced enough to play it the whole night.
Clip 1: Here are both pickups on with the Tone all the way up. I tried to cover all the fretboard real estate, even up to that high E on the 21st fret.
Clip 2: For the funksters, here’s just the bridge pickup with some chorus’d-out chord work on top.
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Clip 3: Berlin is working on a Jack Bruce tribute album, so why not hear how the bass sounds with just the neck pickup with the tone rolled back and some flatwound strings?
You can't believe everything you read on the Internet, but Billy Voight is a gear reviewer, bassist and guitarist from Pennsylvania. He has Hartke bass amps and Walden acoustic guitars to thank for supplying some of the finest gear on his musical journey. Need Billy's help in creating noise for your next project? Drop him a line at thisguyonbass@gmail.com.
