New Bass Day! Wolf / KHL Walnut Thru-neck 6-String bass. Ace!

[VTypeV4]

So Christmas came early this year! I was asked a couple of months back by the Mrs' what I wanted for Christmas and half jokingly I said "I kinda fancy a 6-string as I haven't owned one for ten years".. It was suggested that I have a look at what was about and see if anything took my fancy but "don't go nuts"..

My last 6 string was sold along with a multitude of other gear to pay for both a 600 Suzuki and lessons to ride the thing legally. Sadly of all the gear i sold, the 6 string was one of a few regrets. It was a '90s Status Energy with soap-bar pickups, a maple bolt neck, rosewood fret board and a flamed maple top. The bass had been well used and had a few knocks plus the electrics weren't great but it played sublime. I do wish I still had it but it was sold to a chap in the USA so it's long gone.

Back to the present day and I decided to take a risk on a 'Wolf' brand six-string that appealed to my taste. I'd read a few threads on them over at Talkbass (there's not much here about them) particularly one more than a few pages long about a 7-string example. The neck-thru design is the first I've owned in 18 years of playing.

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It's a superbly constructed instrument, the satin finish is very smooth, fret edges are seamless, the machine heads are super smooth, routing where the pickups sit is tight, controls work smoothly and seem to be of good quality plus the individual bridges are perfectly spaced. String anchoring is done through the body with evenly spaced ferrules on the back At twice the price (It was £250) it would be more than acceptable in terms of attention to detail and quality.

The guitar plays well although I tweaked a few of the saddle heights to bring the action down just a touch - not that it was high, just that I like it really low - and now it's where I want it and still doesn't buzz or choke out. Intonation is near perfect straight out of the box. I've found the string spacing to be more 'Fender' than 'Warwick 5' - I haven't measured it but would suggest 17mm / 18mm by the pickups so I've tripped up on that a few times but time and familiarity (especially being a 6) will cure that I'm sure. The neck profile has a distinct flat spot in the middle that tapers towards the upper end of the neck rather like my old Status did - it's go the 'wide but thin thing' going on which makes it comfortable and seems to naturally put my hand flat in the correct position without having to force it. Last thing worthy of note regarding it's playing is it weighs a ton (becuase of the walnut?) but balances well on a strap.

The electronics are passive and as such basic with the four knobs offering a dual volume / dual tone confiig although I expect in the future, it would be easy enough to install an active tone circuit but I've no current plans to do that. The basic array of tones are as you'd expect from the pickup configuration - nothing overly flash or exceptional but it's a different enough from the Jazz and the Warwick to give it's own flavour. The output levels are healthy and directly comparable to my other basses.

It's early days (I haven't had it 12 hours yet) but I'm happy with the bass.. I'll take it to rehearsal on Monday and see how it goes.

[bazzbass]

HNBD !



that is some mighty nice woodwork

except it's either got 2 too many strings, or it's got too fat strings hehe

[Grahambythesea]

How is it for weight and balance? Do you know it's country of origin?

[Fisheth]

Been looking at one of these for a while, nice to hear someone has a good report about one!

[VTypeV4]

Bazztard: Cheers fella, the woods are lovely - they do a spalted maple verson too that I quite fancied and was torn between this and the walnut. The decision was made for me when the maple was no longer available but it's all good as I was 50/50 anyways..

Grahambythesea: It's very heavy, very heavy indeed but ergonomically it's good - it does neck dive very slightly but doesn't cause discomfort nor do you have to prop it up all the time. It's made in Korea by the KHL companywho make guitars under a few different brand names..

Fisheth: If the others are built as well as this one, you'll be very impressed. The chap on talkbass was also very pleased wiith his 7 string version although he eventually upgraded the pickups and put active electronics in it.

[kodiakblair]

VType
Congrats on the Wolf. gebass6 has been about the only fella talking about them but he sure likes his. He also has a method of using a belt along with his strap to combat the neck dive.

[VTypeV4]

I'll report back when I have a few more hours on it.. I managed to get about an hour in last night just gong through some Jamroquai stuff I'm very familiiar with but trying different positioning to get a logic shift in my brain when playing new songs in the future..

I do need a strap, a fat leather one like I have for the warwick will work nicely. It'll need to be fat to spread the load!