Kiwi

Wilkes produced half and half basses back in the late seventies. Fretless was above the 9th fret I think.

Steinberger made a prototype bass with the same system - possibly under license. The bass was for sale on Ebay over a decade ago. It worked off the idea that the frets would rotate in place and the fretless mode the frets were flat. It's a fantastic idea apart from one slight hitch, the action in fretless mode is quite high. Fretless mode could include a zero fret I guess but lowering the bridge saddles would be a bit trickier.

If only it was that simple. The risk was assumed and as much research and caution was exercised as possible. The first instrument was flawed but easily salvagable. Warwick manufacture their Rock bass line in China so good quality is possible with the right QC and training. I have a company starting that exports the best of Chinese products overseas. I was kind of hoping these guys would be part of that, but no.

I wasn't aware of it before moving but there are some companies here in China that will do a one off custom instrument for the same price as a beginner level instrument sells for in the UK. Having said that, the choices of wood are limited to maybe 6 species (ash, alder, maple, mahogany, ebony and rosewood) and the quality of pickups can't be trusted totally. But they'll do pretty much anything you ask for within those constraints and you're free to replace whatever you don't like in terms of hardware or electronics with stuff you do. One week in April, my wife and I were thinking about business ideas and she suggested I look into setting up my own bass brand using a Chinese based supplier. I told her that the biggest issue with doing that was quality control, that there were loads of youtube videos out there about people who had ordered instruments through Alibaba or Aliexpress and encountered mixed results. Often there were issues with the quality of finish, the electronics and workmanship. But I did a bit of digging around anyway and found a company that, after contacting a sales rep, claimed to offer pretty decent results - Shenzhen Grand Technology Co., Ltd. HQ in Shenzhen, near Hong Kong. After talking to the sales rep online, I decided to commission a couple of samples (one through neck bass, one maple based archtop) just to see what the workmanship was like. I put down a deposit and was told to wait around 40 days for delivery. Around forty days later, the instruments weren't ready, apparently due to COVID. Although lockdown in China lifted months before, I agreed to another wait. Eventually the guitar was ready, I received photos prior to delivery and instantly spotted issues with glue bleed from the body edge binding into the wood...why they had to use black glue is beyond me but...whatever. By that point there was nothing that could be done short of restarting another build. I took delivery of the guitar and sure enough, the usual issues were there, the neck joint had been finished twice and there were drips in the poly that hasn't been flatted out. Nothing that a bit of flatting down with 400, 800 and 1200 grit wet n dry couldn't sort and I had a polishing kit for my drill already with me for final buffing. The frets hadn't been dressed and while they seemed to be installed securely, the crowns were fairly inconsistent but nothing a decent levelling and crowning couldn't sort. I had StewMac radiussed sanding blocks, fret crowning files and 250 grit silicon carbide sandpaper for that, too. The pickup had also been mounted too far from the strings as well, adjustment would leave holes in the side of the fingerboard but hmmm it was a sample so I had no plans to sell. Apart from that, the woodwork was pretty good and overall, the guitar had a nice supple feel to the strings that reminded me of a PRS SE I'd played in Hong Kong a couple of years before. A rough diamond of sorts, although more Django in sound than George Benson even with flats on. Time passed and after some reminders, they sent through a photo of the bass neck being put together and I immediately spotted that they hadn't used maple and mahogany in the 5 piece laminate, as had been agreed. The engineer had put together a 3 piece laminate of just maple - which made me wonder what the guy building the instrument was using for reference. So they had to start again, meaning the countdown to delivery had to be restarted. Time rolled on until mid July when they sent me through pictures of the bass after it had been finished in black. It looked OK, nothing jumped out at me as a glaring error. So I paid the rest of the outstanding balance and was told to expect delivery in 10 days. Ten days came and went, I was told they wanted to do some extra checks for quality and I'd be really pleased with the bass. Another ten days came and went, they said they wanted to do some last minute tweaking before it was shipped. I grew a bit suspicious at that point and asked them what had gone wrong. But they reassured me everything was fine and I'd be impressed with the quality. Eventually I was told the bass was ready to be shipped and it would take 3 days to arrive. The courier actually delayed things by another two days due to flooding but the bass was delivered from their factory in northern China. What was promised was something close (but not identical in body shape) to this but basically the same construction - alder wings (no maple cap), 3x maple, 2x mahogany laminated through body neck, ebony fingerboard: What I received was this. As you can probably imagine, my first reaction was WTF is that red thing? It's a kill switch, came the reply. It was in the reference photo they claimed - they sent me a photo with the "button" circled. That's not a button, I pointed out. That's a control knob for the piezo pickup in the bridge. I asked why they had drilled a massive hole for it in the bass since sending photos through for approval (below). And anyway, the button was non latching so to be used as a kill switch it was necessary to keep a finger on it. So yeah...it kills the playing because you can't use your hand to pluck the strings. But things got more interesting still. The three band eq. was actually two band, one of the controls (mids) was a 'Producer Knob'. The active passive switch didn't work either, it worked like a kill switch when passive mode was engaged. So someone didn't bother to install the electronics properly and check they worked. But the biggest surprise was the neck. The nut width was 48mm but the string spacing at the nut was 37mm which is normally found on basses with a 45mm nut width. So it meant there were 2mm gaps at the edge of the fingerboard to overcome when reaching for a string. Pretty awkward you'd think, but oh no there was more. The neck was 25mm thick at the third fret. Let's put that into perspective, the necks on all my other basses are somewhere between 19 and 21 mm thick. By comparison, those extra couple of mm made the neck feel like a telegraph pole. Possibly even fatter than a 51 p-bass and goodness knows they're big enough. The total amount of extra wood in the neck also gave the bass serious headstock dive. Because the bass was through neck construction, it would not be straight forward for anyone to put right. To get the fingerboard edges to come in by 2mm each side would mean either sawing the wings off so the whole neck could be presented to a belt sander in one pass, or belt sanding as far as possible up the neck joint and then using coarse sandpaper and a sanding beam to get the edges of the fingerboard around the upper 7 or so frets to come into line with the rest of the fingerboard by hand sanding. To address the big red button either a new lower wing or, at the least, a laminated top on the lower alder wing (ideally maple) is needed. So at the moment, I've claimed that they haven't kept their promise on what the would deliver and asked for a full refund. They've admitted fault but countered that if they did anything else on the bass, they'd lose money and offered $30 compensation which I've rejected. The matter has now escalated to their management, as if they're going to change their mind. We did pay via Alipay on the understanding there would be some back up if things went pear shaped - a bit like Paypal. My wife said that we could claim 50% of the cost back. But after we took a supplier of cabinetry and a double glazed sliding door for our new apartment to disputes, my wife discovered Alipay seem to be favouring the seller in disputes and don't want to be involved with matters of quality. We are still going to try Alipay but their disputes process seems about as reliable as a Chinese musical instrument manufacturer. The reasons why things ended up like this seem to be down to a basic lack of skill and experience on the part of the 'engineer' who made the instrument and constant pressure at the factory to maintain production volume. Short cuts, possibly even mistakes were made in the rush to get the bass out the door even after all those delays. And the factory is insisting they don't take a loss on it despite these mistakes, despite clear failures in their Quality Control. The factory claims to have quality control procedures in place, they even claimed to have run the bass past the member of a famous Chinese band 'Beyond' for checks before shipping as well as other people in the factory. I pointed out that there was a massive, useless red button that had been missed during all these QC checks and consultations. How could they demonstrate QC was working when a glaring deviation had suddenly appeared on the bass between approval and delivery? It was later revealed that the QC with the band member from Beyond wasn't actually in person so it seems doubtful that they saw the instrument. It would be a mistake, in my opinion, to trust the QC control assurances of this manufacturer or their quality control. The engineer working on my instrument was not trained properly and the General Manager doesn't appear to be very interested in customer service or reputation, just short term profits. It's a stark contrast to overseas companies. Even when you consider all the shared experiences of ordering Chinese made instruments on youtube, they're actually a load more positive than my experience. The main issues were fretwork, electronics and finish. Those owners on youtube didn't discover any big, red surprises on delivery. This is inspite of me being in the same country with access to the same legal system. At the moment, I 'think' I'm still in negotiation with them although it appears I'm being ghosted. The best solution would be for them to fix the neck and hole for the red button in the lower wing. This is what any company outside China would do. I've told them they don't need to refinish the bass, I'll do that after I've completed reshaping the body further and making sure the surface is properly sanded and prepared for finishing. I'll also have an opportunity to make it a bit less Yamaha looking. In the meantime, the bass has been relegated to the guest room wardrobe until I'm in a position to do something about fixing it - either by finding someone who can do the work or by getting access to a wood workshop with a band saw, belt sander and clamps. And, no, I'm not going to be exploring any more business ideas. Paying for other people's mistakes is too expensive.

I think the biggest thing I didn't expect when starting out was the level of precision needed. It's literally fractions of a millimetre when it comes to glue joins or neck joints. I remember Jon teaching me how to do a neck pocket and tolerances had to be so close that light couldn't get in! It took me a combination of patience (on good days) and a stubborn refusal to accept anything less than near perfect (on bad days).

A good list! I'd add a drum sander and belt sander for dressing and sizing lumber before it's glued up. It's a significant expense but saves a whole load of ball ache if planing skills aren't up to snuff. Also an oscillating sander if you want to make smooth curves on body and neck templates, as well as prepping bodies and necks for finishing. Also radiussed sanding blocks for fingerboard and fret dressing and a sanding beam for evening narrow surfaces like the edge of fingerboards. Finally, a bench drill makes drilling control knob holes square to the face of a slab body a lot easier than a hand drill. But a hand drill is still hard to beat for putting in that channel from the pickups to the control cavity on rear routed instruments. A cheaper option might be to get friendly with a luthier and reach an arrangement where you can borrow their machinery for maybe a morning or two every weekend in exchange for free labour (especially hand sanding or rough shaping). There are also companies that will custom make necks complete with frets installed so that could save a load of ball ache, unless you happen to like the challenge of overcoming ballache that is...

I had a Trace V8, a Mesa 400+ and a Strategy 400 power amp (which I ran with a Trace MP11) as well as the Burmans. The V8 was swapped for the Hexavalve. Ped had a V4 combo.

I don't follow the logic.

At 34kg loved by chiropractors and at between 1400-1700 quid, hated by bank managers and spouses

Ironically, the gig I did with the Burman was for that Northholt/Ruislip London motown band we were both in! I had a Mesa 400+ too at one point and it remains my favourite valve amp of all time - they're built like tanks as well. It must have been pretty cold that night. The satisfaction from an ability to shift such huge volumes of air. It inspires a sense of power.

I don't gig with them but have a Trace Hexavalve and a couple of 130w Burman Pro4000HD heads. I did a gig once with one of the Burmans and I didn't need to put the car heater on during the drive home. That sucker was still glowing. Haven't gigged with the hexavalve yet but it's probably going to replace my Shuttles once I get the last piece of the signal chain in place.

Position is part of the recipe but not all of it, pickup design can play a big part as well. I went through a stage where I was A/B testing all sorts of basses from Alembic to Warwick with single pickups in the stingray position. Very few were convincing because they didn't have a parallel wired humbucker for those fat lows and coarse highs and the baxendall eq helps dial in the right amount of oomph when the bass is boosted. It all works together.

According to Rob G, it's a through neck Series 1. I have one identical but in FPPR.

I want one of these sooooo badly. They sound gorgeous and I'm a big Gunnarsson fan.

The alternative brand they run, Mensinger offers set and through neck. The Pike Monolith for example https://www.mensingerguitars.com/en/mensinger/basses/pike-monolith

Marusczyk do custom work for very reasonable outlay. Their frog model could probably be done in a single pickup configuration - even headless if you wanted. https://www.public-peace.de/maruszczyk-instruments/mi-bass/frog

Am waiting for a copy of a well known Yamaha 5 string bass to be delivered in the next week or so. Was about 300 quid. Also have purchased a Line 6 M5 pedal instead of an Eventide H9 and saved quite a bit of dosh. Wanting to splash out on another Joyo JF14 American Sound or a California Sound perhaps for less than twenty quid. I'll get a Morningstar MC6 at some point and then that'll be it for the forseeable unless I luck into enough dosh that I can splurge on a PRS. But my guitar playing sucks so much that I'm struggling to justify it beyond the Yammie MSG I already have (which is a fine guitar BTW). I have a few pedals to sell BTW but getting shot of them in China is a PITA due to the language barrier and that everything is so regulated in regards to signing up - almost like a bank account application even for minor things.

Just a quick update: The repaired Freeze pedal from Mimmotronics finally arrived. It works as it should - so I can recommend Mimmo as reputable and trust worthy. Next thing, when I can find the time, is to get back to exploring and developing some Freemason type arp patches on the C4. And trying (again) to sort out the mess of patch cables...it seems that no matter how methodical and careful I am with soldering and getting the right lengths of cable, there is ALWAYS one cable that misbehaves...and the more I shift the other pedals around, because I can't find a replacement of the right length, the more tangled they become. And now I've run out of L shaped 1/4" jacks as well. And I've found a cheaper alternative to the Eventide H9 harmoniser, the Line 6 ME5, both have multi effects options and MIDI capability. Lots of compact format ME pedals lack the MIDI connection for some reason. The Line 6 only does 1 effect at a time though but it's OK there are effects options within the C4 as well so I can use the ME5 for tempo locked delays and maybe chorus while the C4 does phasing and pitch shift.

Aaron Armstrong could probably help with a replacement set of pickups not too far away from the Smith spec.

I read the title and hate you already. Just joking. Welcome. It's been near non stop monsooning where I am, complete with thunderstorms and the mosquitoes have been extremely aggressive. Normally we'd be hitting 38 degrees C by now and melting.