Quote:
Originally Posted by Equin  |
I have worked on numerous Asian made basses, many of the build quality of these Cremona and Palantino's. I have also seen cleverly hidden major manufacturing defects on a Sunrise bass, a much 'better' quality bass in the Christopher price range and build quality category. I'm afraid this might be the 'tip of the iceberg' with these. I just reset a neck on a Sunrise Solana that had three major cracks, not visible until the neck was out, that required major work to correct. See the pic attached for an idea- thats the bottom of the neck, that sits in the bass' neck pocket. This is a $2,000 Chinese made bass, by the way. Click on the pic here, and it will enlarge..you'll see the three cracks clearly.
I have recently replaced an endblock on a store bought Cremona, bought by a student, marked way up over the internet typical price to something like a grand. The bass' endblock had cracked all the way through and in two places. Complete junk. The bass is now back in service, but for the cost of the bass and the repair, the client could have bought an Engelhardt, or a Christopher bass. They could've bought a nice bow and pickup, too. If you save another 7-800 bucks, and end up with about $1200. you might be able to find a used Engelhardt C-1, or if your lucky, an M-1 or S-1. These frequently have a student bow and some accesories for that price, like a pickup and bag. The Engelhardt bass is perfect for an electric player to get familiar with upright on. They are very well made, durable, and compare with older Kay basses. The necks aren't too 'clubby' either. Much of the Kay tooling is still used in the making of the modern Engelhardt's. The advantage as far as repairs go, is parts are readily available from Engelhardt, and they're an American company. The Chinese basses are sometimes so awful, it makes me cringe to look at shop dust trapped in the clear topcoat. Yes, I've seen that. Try sending a Chinese bass back under warranty...fuggedaboutit! MAJOR P.S. here, as of 4-22-08, the client that owns this bass has informed me that the very well known to the bass community bass specialty house that he purchased this Sunrise from, has been of little or no help in honoring a warranty/return on this bass. I wrote and submitted a letter to the seller confirming the defects, along with photographic evidence. They apparently didn't care. So, in summation... he bought this bass, used it normally and did nothing abusive to it at all, and had this nasty surprise. The moral is buy a good bass!...European if you can afford one. American Engelhardt if you can't. Maybe, you can take your chances with a Christopher, and hope it'll hold up long term.
If you're interested in a new QUALITY bass, see the above post, contact Steve Swan, ask about the Mathias Thoma basses... I saw a carved flatback one he graciously let a customer bring to me from Berkley, Ca., to Reno for evaluation some years ago. I was very impressed with it, and the client bought it on my recommendation. I think they make a hybrid and maybe even a full laminate one. Good luck!
