Awhile back I had this idea that I would put a piezo pickup in a Wishbass. I figured with the heavy resonance of the body, it'd be a great way to simulate an upright sound. I placed my order to have this Hyper custom built to my specs with no electronics in it at all and no cavities...and while it was on order, the opportunity came up to buy a Wishnevsky upright, and I jumped on it. So between the handmade "outsider artistry" of his upright, and a Fender Precision A/E I recently obtained, this bass is kind of redundant and doesn't see nearly the playing time it should. Now I need some cash to fund a new project so up for sale it goes.
Hyper made of very fancy walnut. Jatoba fingerboard, purpleheart and maple stringers. The electronics consist of an Artec endpin preamp and electric-acoustic bridge piezo. Strung with Fender tapewounds.
The typical out-of-the-box necessary finishing work has been done. It's been sanded as smooth as can be and stained with Tru-oil to a hard, shiny finish. This specimen doesn't suffer from any of the common Wishbass complaints...everything's pretty much symmetrical and there's almost no filler in the wood. I made a backplate by gluing a walnut veneer to thin sheet metal...it's not perfect but certainly does the job. I was able to match up the grain surprisingly nicely and it actually looks much better than it appears in these photos.
The only aspect of it that is currently less-than-perfect is that the bridge is a bit tall, so the action is higher than I personally would prefer. It's not unplayable by any means, but it may be the last part of the "project" that should be taken on. One could do a quick-and-easy router/dremel job and sink the bridge into the wood a tiny bit, or perhaps the bottom of the bridge could be removed to shorten it (I haven't tried this, just a theory).
In case you're the type who can't leave well enough alone (like me) and want to continue to tinker with it, I will throw in a bunch more walnut veneer, another piezo bridge pickup, and some random piezo-building parts. Will ship in a typical Fender gig bag and lots of bubble wrap.
Do I hear
$325 shipped?
