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Matt Pulcinella Guitars Level 5
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Recommended By
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Average Price
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Average Rating
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100% of reviewers
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$1,699.00
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5.0
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Description:
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-Ash body (2-tone sunburst)
-Maple neck
-Birdseye Maple fretboard
-24 frets
-34" scale
-Nordstrand Big Singles (passive)
-Hipshot A-Style bridge (black)
-Hipshot Ultralite tuners (black)
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Author
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needmoney
Registered User
Registered: May 2004
Location: Brisbane, Australia
Posts: 3600
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Review Date: Sun August 3, 2008
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Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: $1,699.00
| Rating: 5
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Pros:
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Good design, light on the shoulder
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Cons:
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Some construction issues, longer wait time than quoted
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I was initially attracted to Matt's basses through his mission statement on his website, he seemed quite firm in his design and what it accomplished. The main selling points to me were the elongated upper horn which completely eradicates any chance of neck-dive, as well as the light factor. Matt sources very light wood which is great for me and my shoulder. His prices also seemed very reasonable. Now, onto the review in all it's detail...
The initial build-time was quoted at 3-4 months (at that time). It ended up taking a little over 5 months, which didn't worry me too much. Though the fact that I received barely any updates along the way (except for the few times I asked), was a little daunting. I guess everyone runs a business differently, but most builders are very informative on what's happening along the way. Not really the case here.
I received the bass in late July, packed in a nice Protec Contego case, with a bonus t-shirt (kudos). The bass looked great. The finish is a nice 2-tone sunburst, which was a 'free' upgrade from Matt (I'll get to the ' ' in a second). The neck is finished in satin which feels nice and smooth. Tuned it up, plugged it in, sounded great. The Nordstrands are awesome pickups. Strapped on, the bass felt exactly how I wanted (no neck-dive, and very light). Setup was average/good. Hipshot hardware is great as always.
Unfortunately there were some issues, and I feel I should disclose them all... First was the fact that the pickups were installed incorrectly. The bridge pickup was in the neck pickups spot, and vice versa, I spotted this since the pole-pieces didn't line up correctly with the strings. I informed Matt and he apologized for the installer (Tim Cloonan), stating it's happened before. Okay.
Next, there was a grounding problem, causing buzz when not touching the strings. The electronics were poorly installed with wires everywhere. The cavity was shielded but not properly connected. I immediately ripped it all out and rewired and shielded everything (and swapped the pickups), and now it's buzz free. Unfortunately, not everyone will have the ability to do this... I also informed Matt of this, but nothing this time.
Following the electronics issues, I went to set it up with a lower action to match my other basses, but encountered quite a few fret issues. To be clear, I don't play super-low, about 3mm on the B side, and 2mm on the G side. The neck was already adjusted quite straight which was good, though once I got the strings down where I wanted them, I got 4 or 5 choked notes across different areas of the neck, indicating high frets, as well as some buzz in different areas. As well as this, the frets are poorly seated, with 1-2mm gaps under almost every fret tang on the bass side. On the treble side, the fret ends are rounded quite excessively, which sometimes causes the string to slide off very easily, and on this same side, there is almost NO visible tang in the slot. And finally, the first twelve frets are jumbos, and the second twelve are standard size. Not really sure what this accomplishes, if anything.
I have to have the action 1-2mm higher than I want it until I can take it to a local tech to get fixed, which really bites.
The last issue I can spot (and this one scares me a bit), is there is very small, visible gaps between the fretboard and the neck, as if they weren't clamped properly. These gaps are REALLY small, but they shouldn't be there. Another thing to get my tech to look at.
Back to the 'free' upgrade. Matt offered to do the 2-tone burst for no extra (I originally spec'd it as natural finish), which I was cool with. The original quote was $1599. Initially, I paid the $500 deposit, which left a $1099 balance + $100 shipping costs*. For some reason unknown to me, the final balance was $1199 + $100...
*The shipping ended up being an extra $130 on top of that (so $230 in total), though Matt did split the $460 dollar cost of Fedex with me (which I guess I actually paid most of since the final balance was more than the initial quote).
So all in all, an aesthetically and ergonomically pleasing bass, that functionally has/had quite a few issues. Once I get it sorted I'm sure it will be great, though overall I'm disappointed. I would recommend it for the pros stated, but I personally wouldn't like to go through it all again, and probably won't. To be honest, if I wasn't on the other side of the world (Australia), I would most probably be asking for my money back, but alas, it's not worth the huge effort.
Live and learn.
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