Well, I took a chance and decided to buy a cheap 7-string bass from Taiwan on ebay.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230000524778&sspagename=ADME:L:RTQ:US:1
I had read some really bad things about the inlay work on his acoustic guitars (causing the body to crack), but nothing about his basses and these ones, without any body inlays, just looked higher quality than the others to me.
I got it today, and the first thing I'll say is that it came very well packed. It was just inside the gigbag in the box, but inside the gigbag it was wrapped in bubble wrap, and foam blocks were reinforcing the neck. Plus the gigbag itself looks very nice. There's zip-away shoulder straps, lots of pouches, and even a little padded headstock bag on the inside.
The inlay on the neck looks nice. There's definitely a bunch of filler aroud the edges but it's the same color as the wood so it's not real noticeable. The headstock is big and ugly
p ), but aside from that it looks great overal. Has some serious neck dive though. The body looks like Mahogany, with top and back laminates of something. Looks like a figured walnut, or rosewood maybe? I dunno. The auction isn't much help - "solid birdseye maple"? 
The top and back have a lot of little pinholes, just from the figure of the wood. The Singlecut Elrick I had was like that too. The finish isn't great (if there is one...), and it looks really dry overal. Looks ligher than the auction pictures. The construction itself seems ok.
It's tuned F#BEADGC, and the 'F#' string is actually just another B string. Same gauge. I don't know what the strings are, but eventually I'll probably get a 6-string DR Hi-Beam set and then add an F string to the top. I've got some nice 5-string sets around...maybe I'll try swapping those and see if it's better.
I spent about an hour setting it up. It has indivudual locking bridges which take a lot of time to deal with. The action was about as high up as it could get. The truss rod cover was screwed on super tight. I tightened the 2 truss rods a bit, and got the neck about flat (where I like it). Anyways, after all that, it plays pretty well. I still have to fine tune it a bit, but it's not bad.
Plugged in, it actually sounds great (aside from the F# string). Basic 5-control preamp. Bass, Mid, Hi, Balance, Volume. I haven't looked in the preamp cavity yet.
Later today I'll take some pictures of my own, and record some soundclips.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230000524778&sspagename=ADME:L:RTQ:US:1
I had read some really bad things about the inlay work on his acoustic guitars (causing the body to crack), but nothing about his basses and these ones, without any body inlays, just looked higher quality than the others to me.
I got it today, and the first thing I'll say is that it came very well packed. It was just inside the gigbag in the box, but inside the gigbag it was wrapped in bubble wrap, and foam blocks were reinforcing the neck. Plus the gigbag itself looks very nice. There's zip-away shoulder straps, lots of pouches, and even a little padded headstock bag on the inside.
The inlay on the neck looks nice. There's definitely a bunch of filler aroud the edges but it's the same color as the wood so it's not real noticeable. The headstock is big and ugly
p ), but aside from that it looks great overal. Has some serious neck dive though. The body looks like Mahogany, with top and back laminates of something. Looks like a figured walnut, or rosewood maybe? I dunno. The auction isn't much help - "solid birdseye maple"? The top and back have a lot of little pinholes, just from the figure of the wood. The Singlecut Elrick I had was like that too. The finish isn't great (if there is one...), and it looks really dry overal. Looks ligher than the auction pictures. The construction itself seems ok.
It's tuned F#BEADGC, and the 'F#' string is actually just another B string. Same gauge. I don't know what the strings are, but eventually I'll probably get a 6-string DR Hi-Beam set and then add an F string to the top. I've got some nice 5-string sets around...maybe I'll try swapping those and see if it's better.
I spent about an hour setting it up. It has indivudual locking bridges which take a lot of time to deal with. The action was about as high up as it could get. The truss rod cover was screwed on super tight. I tightened the 2 truss rods a bit, and got the neck about flat (where I like it). Anyways, after all that, it plays pretty well. I still have to fine tune it a bit, but it's not bad.
Plugged in, it actually sounds great (aside from the F# string). Basic 5-control preamp. Bass, Mid, Hi, Balance, Volume. I haven't looked in the preamp cavity yet.
Later today I'll take some pictures of my own, and record some soundclips.
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