Before I start, does anyone know what Jack Read is up to these days? I tried emailing him a while back, no answer, and his website has been down forever...
The bass came out pretty much flawless when I received it. Looked gorgeous, played smoothly and a tone to die for. However, over time it has turned out to be somewhat of a problem child. It looks like the woods Jack used hadn't been suffieciently dried at the time (two different luthiers have come to this same conclusion independently), so they are still in the process of doing that today. This results in a lot of wood warping/shrinking. At some point I wasn't able to set it up properly anymore without getting fret buzz, so I had it plek'd. (www.plek.com) It played very well again, but the luthier also noticed how much the wood had warped already - tiny gaps in between the top boards (bookmatched) etc. He filed down the edges of the frets too, that were sticking out the side of the fret board now. (I already had this done once in the past by Jack himself.) About a month later, the electronics in the bass crapped out on me. I took it back to the same luthier, and first thing he noticed was that the frets were already starting to stick out over the fret board again, i.e. the wood is still shrinking. I had to have the cavity cover fixed too not too long ago, as it wouldn't fit snug anymore (warped). It still looks and sounds incredibly nice, but this whole wood thing left a little aftertaste... And I live in Germany now, so I can't really just take it back to him.
I feel like I should say that Jack was an absolute pleasure to work with, and he really went that extra mile to make sure I get the exact instrument I had dreamed about. This post here is probably also the only review on a Read Custom bass you will ever see that is not 100% positive. This whole wood thing is just really disappointing, and somewhat surprising coming from a luthier of that caliber.
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The bass came out pretty much flawless when I received it. Looked gorgeous, played smoothly and a tone to die for. However, over time it has turned out to be somewhat of a problem child. It looks like the woods Jack used hadn't been suffieciently dried at the time (two different luthiers have come to this same conclusion independently), so they are still in the process of doing that today. This results in a lot of wood warping/shrinking. At some point I wasn't able to set it up properly anymore without getting fret buzz, so I had it plek'd. (www.plek.com) It played very well again, but the luthier also noticed how much the wood had warped already - tiny gaps in between the top boards (bookmatched) etc. He filed down the edges of the frets too, that were sticking out the side of the fret board now. (I already had this done once in the past by Jack himself.) About a month later, the electronics in the bass crapped out on me. I took it back to the same luthier, and first thing he noticed was that the frets were already starting to stick out over the fret board again, i.e. the wood is still shrinking. I had to have the cavity cover fixed too not too long ago, as it wouldn't fit snug anymore (warped). It still looks and sounds incredibly nice, but this whole wood thing left a little aftertaste... And I live in Germany now, so I can't really just take it back to him.
I feel like I should say that Jack was an absolute pleasure to work with, and he really went that extra mile to make sure I get the exact instrument I had dreamed about. This post here is probably also the only review on a Read Custom bass you will ever see that is not 100% positive. This whole wood thing is just really disappointing, and somewhat surprising coming from a luthier of that caliber.
Link Removed
