Bass Player Magazine Review - April 2004

Godlke Disciple

By Brian Fox

You might think that any body claiming to resemble the divine has a big head. In a way, you would be right: the Godlyke Disciple does have a large headstock. But don’t rush to pass judgment on the bass’s maker. Made by hand in Japan, the Disciple was designed by Godlyke president Kevin Bolembach to be a versatile instrument at a reasonable price.

At first glance, the Disciple reveals its influences. With a Jazz-style pickup in the neck position and a Music Man-style humbucker at the bridge position, the bass pays homage to two of bassdom’s most commonly worshipped instruments. The Disciple includes an 18-volt active electronics system equipped with bass, mid, and treble controls and a midrange notch filter. The Disciple’s unorthodox mid controls set it apart from the active-bass pack. The mid cut and boost is controlled via a control-cavity trim pot, while the body-located knob is a midrange notch filter, offering up to 20dB of cut at 850Hz. I would rather have the midrange cut and boost knob accessible on top: in the cavity, it’s a set-and-forget control that doesn’t do much good on the gig. A close look at the Disciple’s construction revealed excellent fretwork, a beautiful finish, high-quality hardware, and an unbudgeable six-bolt neck joint.

No Pacifist
The Disciple pack a punch: you may want to use your amp’s active input the Godlyke. When I played it through the passive input of an Eden WT800 head and Eden D-410XL 4x10 cab, the Disciple’s high output sent the Eden’s preamp into the clip zone. There also is a noticeable volume difference between the two pickups: Soloing the neck pickup reduces the output significantly. Some attenuation can be expected when switching to a single-coil from a humbucker, but it was too dramatic for my taste. (Godlyke responds: “New production models feature a custom-wound humbucking J-type pickup in the neck position. It greatly improves the balance between the neck and bridge pickups without adding noise.” With the pickups blended, though, I loved the warmth that the neck pickup added to the Disciple’s sound.

On a funk-rock rehearsal, playing through an Aguilar DB750 head and Aguilar GS112 1x12 cabinet, one staffer praised the Godlyke’s authoritative tone. After a few minutes of playing the Disciple through an SWR 2x10C combo, I was drawn to the sound of its bridge-position humbucker. The thing had more burp than a frat party. With the onboard bass and treble knobs at approximately 2 o’clock, the Godlyke had killer fingerstyle funk tone. Mixing in the neck pickup juiced up the Disciple’s low end. Plugged into out Demeter/Crest/Eden reference rig, the treble knob proved a bit hissy, but it wasn’t a problem with the Eden’s tweeter slightly rolled off.

The Disciple displayed a solid assortment of tones. I could get a sweet, growling aggressive sound with a pick, and the bass was comfortable and sounded fat and punchy when slapping. This Disciple seemed willing to follow me wherever I need to go. Despite a few minor irritants, the Godlyke is an instrument worthy of praise.