CamdenRob

Anyone can criticise anyone else and offer advice etc You are also free to not take the blindest bit of notice of said advice...

The thing I like about all these master luthiers is that once you strip the marketing, brand heritage and glossy website pics away it essentially boils down to a bloke in a shed... Jens Ritter?... bloke in a shed, Paul Herman?... bloke in a shed, Fodera?... a few blokes in a slightly bigger shed.

[quote name='TheGreek' timestamp='1435481899' post='2809069'] Great idea though I think it may become genre specific with a bias to more popular styles of music - i.e. metal [/quote] Metal is popular? It certainly wasn't when I was at school...

I had another play on the PJ4 yesterday and even ignoring it being a deko I find it amazing that they can produce an instrument this good for the price. This is easily as good as any Squier I have played and whilst it isn't going to set the world alight it has a set of very useable tones. I could play this bass for the rest of my days and at full battle volume no-one would be able to tell it cost me £25... In truth I have no need for it, I am fortunate to have a couple of wonderful instruments that will last me a lifetime so I may well give this one away. There is nothing wrong with it at all (except for a minor dent in the back, plus it could do with some decent strings) I bought it out of curiosity and I am amazed how good it is. I wouldn't hesitate to recomend Harley Benton instruments, IMO this bass could go toe to toe with a bass costing five times as much.

[quote name='spiritchaser' timestamp='1435822209' post='2812647'] Wow Rob - that sixer looks so organic - Paul really has a very good eye for proportions and which dark/light patches of wood facings to use where. I remember my green MKI which looked like a scarabeus bug with its sycamore facings. Enjoy it! [/quote] Was lovely to meet Paul yesterday, he's such a passion for building the best instruments he can. We were talking about pricing in the future and it was obvious that compromise was not part of his vocabulary. He wanted every part of the instruments he makes to be faithful to the original design whilst using the best of materials for everything. So much goes into these, there was a guy chrome plating individual bridge saddles. Just the bridge looked like a work of art let alone everything else... I mentioned you when I dropped off the Shedua sixer and he said he'd set up basses for you in the past and would use the same strings, action etc. as the others you've had The only differences between the new sixer and the Shedua one are the tuners (Gotoh on the Shedua and Hipshot on the Ziricote) and the neck profile is slightly different (chunkier on the Ziricote and flatter on the Shedua) also the Shedua has a gloss finish on the back of the neck, the Ziricote is satin. They both weigh the same (11.2lb) and aside from a few scuffs on the body and some of the chrome plating flaking on the bridge on the Shedua (it is 20 years old) the basses are almost identical.

[quote name='Kev' timestamp='1435820422' post='2812627'] It's that like the exact same garden table as mine as well? Haha! [/quote] Mines a bit weathered... best get out there with the woodstain at the weekend me thinks

Thanks guys had a wonderful day yesterday giving it a workout. Back down to earth today and back to work...

Today is the day... My new Wal mk3 Six string with Ziricote facings has arrived after an 18 month wait. I set off this morning with a gigbag on my back like an excited child and headed to Wal HQ in Fetcham, Surrey. After a bit of a mission trying to find the place in a taxi, I rang Paul and discovered I was actually right outside Wal HQ is in a delightful courtyard of old farm buildings with a few other small businesses. I was greeted by the Wal dog Angus and almost as enthusiastically by Paul himself. I did take a few pictures but I've decided not to post them, I couldn't tell if Paul was saying I could take them because he's a nice guy or whether he was genuinely happy for me to post them so I'll err on the side of caution... also they we're pretty crap anyway as my photography skills are limited. The workshop is tiny and it surprised me just how small the operation is. It's just Paul and one other making every part of these basses (asides from the tuning pegs) onsite. They have a small area for storing woods and for bodies / necks etc to settle, they had about 30 odd necks in progress and 10 or so bodies. Paul told me that they only turn out Two or Three basses a month, I imagined that figure to be much higher. I was given a quick tour of the workshop, various machines and benches, they also have their own spray shop out back for the gloss, trans finishes etc. it's a very hands on environment and i imagine the setup hasn't changed much since the early days of the marque. I was also told very little has changed in the manufacture process and nothing in the design since the custom basses were first produced, which is testament to the fact Wal got their design right in the first place. Anyway enough of me waffling, here are a few pics. I've taken a leaf out of kev's book and taken them on the garden table... I'll stop short of doing a full review as this bass is off to Bass Guitar Magazine in a month or so's time for a full review and photoshoot.... which will look much better than my attempts! I will however record some sound samples when I get the time. To say I am happy with it is a massive understatement, It's the best instrument I have ever played and I feel very lucky. Only problem is after visiting HQ and Paul being such a great guy (even gave me a lift back to the station) I'm having dangerous thoughts of ordering a four string mk3...

Got home today from a few days away and the pj4 was waiting for me... In the same delightful colour scheme as above. More tomorrow but two initial impressions are; 1) how on earth one small dent on the back makes this "unplayable" I don't know 2) at full price this would have been astonishing value... It really does sound pretty good! I'll do some audio samples when I get a chance. ... By God it's ugly though.

After looking at the options a could of years back I went with Wal... That's not to say I don't GAS for others but I'm happy with Wal

I've yet to find any insurance that actually covers the instrument when I need it covered. They all have so many exclusions the only time I would be covered is when I was actually on stage playing the bass... ... I need cover for when the bass is in a back stage room or left on stage when I go to the bar etc.

I wish someone would buy the banjo, that shiny doo dah and the mini thumb just to get them off the list... I find myself irrationally annoyed at them being there

The Gallery are currently putting a pair of new pickups in my skinny string and they charged £20... Well £20 for the pickups bit, I'm having some more stuff done to it so that price may have been part of a deal. But yes, being in Scotland that's pretty useless information...

Glockenklang do some stunners... If I traveled to gigs in a van, or even a car I'd have the BAC that's for sale in the marketplace.

Preferences? You mean you don't have BC open at all times and read everything that gets posted? ...I'm only joking you'd have to be really sad to do that...

A piece of black forrest gateau from the 70s is unlikely to have worn as well as these Shergolds

A band I helped out for a bit last year used to do this from time to time and added a fixed angle video. The girl that used to do it just brought a laptop, 16 channel mixer and a load of mics.... took about 20 mins to set up the whole deal and the same to pack away. Turned out OK. [media]http://youtu.be/QyTACfln6pQ[/media]

[quote name='bartelby' timestamp='1435296589' post='2807311'] Anyone get the Black Jazz during the night? [/quote] If I had seen it I would have bought it... then again I'm so excitable with these dekos at the moment as I have a thomann voucher I'll buy almost anything bass related that comes up except for anything ric related obviously...

Horray! Good deal that, great looking bass. I was reading on the Shergold site yesterday about their modulator guitars and basses with interchangable electronics modules pretty far out stuff.

There was a guy call jack? jim? john? or something back in the 70s who seems to be fairly well known for playing jazz on an electric bass... I think he pulled the frets out though.

I reckon that's somewhere between senisible and OCD.... I would ideally like to carry a back up of everything to gigs but in reality 90% of the work I do is in London and I need to travel to gigs on public transport so I have to keep my kit to the absolute minimum. Spare strings instead of a spare bass, spare fuses etc instead of a backup amp. However I will have some gigs coming up on guitar for the first time in the next few months and I reckon I could get a double gigbag and cary two easy enough as they are so much smaller and lighter.

That's shocking... I do feel sorry for retailers getting returns (as with the Traben) as it's not really their fault and they are left with an instrument which they have paid for that no-one wants to buy. Having said that, if i'd been sent a return I'd have done exactely what you did! It's not your fault and I suspect they were trying to fob the returned traben off on you... it's crap though.. NBDs are something we all look forward to and having them end up disapointing is no fun at all...

Who need a record deal when you can just do it all yourself

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1435150506' post='2805943'] Just remove the 's' from 'https' - Basschat's software doesn't like it, for some reason. [/quote] ah there we go working now... wonder how I've never noticed that before.

ah it seems to have worked for you... it's quite striking how few people seem to be walking around, so much of it is automated. Anyway sorry this is an NGD thread not a thread about Thomanns distribution...