Leaning In-pin?

[Alek]

Hi,

Recently I ordered a rather expensive Wan Bernadel, but I noticed when it got here that the inpin leans to the left slightly when you are looking at it from the back. Is this how they make them or is it broken?

Thanks,
Alek

[Nadav]

The end pin on my Wan Bernadel is straight.

[jfv]

Perhaps if you were more accurate in your description...

Is the pin bent, take it out and look... Or is the holder
offset?

When you buy from a luthier in a shop where you look at
your instrument before you buy with a person who can
actually tell what is and isnt a problem....

Bassists need luthiers, like you need a doctor sometime,
I suppose when you get sick you'd just look it up online
and order some discount drugs somewhere huh?

Well, enough of my ranting.

[.matthew e wengerd.]

Alek -

I think that nearly any way you slice it, it's not supposed to look like you're describing (I'm sure you've surmised the correct term is "endpin" at this point). It may or may not need service. I'm guessing you bought it from the same place you bought your bow (Sam Ash); they may be able to fix it if it is truly a problem, but check with your teacher first.

BTW - your profile lists you as teaching double bass; is this the case?

[accutone]

I have a Wan and had a similar problem. The hole for the pin in the bass was not drilled correctly and had to bore it a little larger so that the end pin (the ebony part) sunk into the bass all the way if that makes any sense. I had a number of other set-up issues with mine that you also may be experiencing. I took mine to a luthier here in Berkeley who is very good and he said he has worked on 2 others with similar sort of sloppy set-ups. He likes the instruments and like everyone else that I have spoken to said they are well made, but the set-ups which I assume are done in Arizona are not the greatest. So you should bring yours to a luthier and have it looked at. Mine needed the following which you might have looked at:
String spacing,(was too narrow) fingerboard needed a little work (too much scoop), saddle needed a little work, endpin hole had to be bored out and general set-up.
Once all this was done, it made a world of difference and the bass plays absolutely beautifully.

[Paul Warburton]

I guess i'm a freak about crooked end-pins, so I would have noticed it in the shop. It's so important to have all that stuff down there completely straight and flush!
This is the first post about the negative side of the Wan Bernadels i've seen. Most things are way up in the positive area.
Somebody owes somebody some $.

[accutone]

Like I said, I love the bass and am not bashing it by any means, but the set-up could have been better.

That said, and to be fair, I had one shipped and didn't bring it to a luthier until 6 months later after a teacher suggested I do so. I had only owned crappy old basses up to that point and even with the set-up as it was, the Wan played way better than anything I had owned. After I had the work done, the bass seemed much freer both in sound and feel and was easier to play.

I guess the lesson is that if you have any instrument shipped for a test drive, it is a good idea to take it to a luthier in your area immediately and have him look at it to see what adjustments might be necessary. So Alek, l suggest that you take it to a luthier and let him look the bass over top to bottom and see what adjustments he suggests.