Review of my Ramirez Custom

Hey guys, just a very thorough review of my brand new Ramirez.

Here are the specs:

Singlecut
35" Scale
Ash neck
Walnut Body
Burl maple top
Wenge Fingerboard
Audere 3 Band Preamp
Q-tuner pickups
Set Neck construciton
5 String Tuned E-C
Hipshot De-tuner
Hipshot A Bridge

Okay, First of Wilser is an awesome guy and a great builder. I drove to his place yesterday to try it out and then drove back to NY to gig with it that night. With that being said, here we go:

My theme with this bass was clarity and accuracy. and it was absolutely dead on.

Sound: Piano-like clarity, thick full bottom and sparkling highs. It can shake the ground and then make dogs scramble. The audere is very flexible and can do so much. I tweaked it this morning and spent about an hour getting "my" sound out of it and it was just a matter of messing with the peaks and gains on the zmodes.

The pickups are very accurate. They don't let me get by playing sloppily, the force me to be on my game. I love it... I opted for an active passive switch. SAME SOUND in passive mode. And the controls are very Anthony Jacksonesqe which is a big turn-on. Other than that it sounds nothing less than amazing. It mixes well on stage and solos effortlestly.

Construction & Feel: The neck is a dream. It just flows. 90% of the little tweaks that i wanted i didn't even notice, it just happend. It allowed me to play and do my job. i have a zero fret with banjo frets on this one. I chose them to make the exact point where i hit the note very accurate and percise. and it worked. The body is solid and the strings are nice and taught. I have to get used to a 35, but i have large hands, i can manage. The Extender does it's job and is now set to a B, so i can play Carribean jazz projects version of Bemsha Swing. If you don't know, find out.

The finish is great. There are a couple of spotty parts but it is very even and appeasing to the eye, doesn't make the neck sticky either. The jack is solid and the knobs are VERY well place. I originally had a very specific request to have the knobs cascading at a certain angle, and it was too large for the cavity, but i asked for the same exact layout as anthony's ramirez and it's perfect. i can make all the changes i need in one sweep.

Customer Service: I am annoying. VERY annoying. I change things last minute, i ask for special things, and i wake you up early. Wilser had NO issue with any of this and i love him for it. He's an amazing person and very accomidating, he worked with me and made my dreams come true. He updates often and has a good sense of humor.

Overall, on a scale from 1 to bacon, this is a jesus christ. I have one of the first of a long line of basses to be prized and tresured over in the future. Fodera, Ken Smith and Sadowsky need to watch out because Wilser is on his game. Everyone needs a Ramirez.

I'll have clips from rehearsals and gigs soon so look out for it. Now do i look happy?

grace & groove said:

First off, f*cking beautiful. Good job Wilser, you get better and better...

Secondly, it is very nice to hear a review of the Q-tuners. How is slapping on them? I'd imagine their clearness would sort of take the body out of the sound... does the Audere help fix that?

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I have the action really low and i don't slap much. but slapping definatley has it's own character on q-tuners and i'll prolly be a love-hate thing. on the neck pickup it's an even amount of vintage and hi-fi in the slapping. There is roundness and body to the sound. There's also alot of attack and point to the notes. The chords are clear and very true. Meaning that the root is bassy, the extensions are ringy, and the mids of the chords are very well balanced. No one would fail ear training if this were recorded and used for examples.

Sterling_Bass said:

Bhuti, is there any chance you can show us a picture of the back of the bass?

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There are a ton of Wilser's site, but here's a quick one i took with my camera.

grace & groove said:

Here is another from the progress thread:

You can see how the transition block or whatever the f*ck you call it makes the set neck seem a little uneven.

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I like the imperfections in my bass. I consider them humanistic qualities. that's why i like all the voids and bark in my top and headstock veneer. I don't see the transition when i play and niether does anyone else. But for the improvement of wilser's builds, it could be something to mention.

grace & groove said:

Wilser always asks in the Luthier's Corner for us to point out anything at all because mostly every thread in there is one of his progress threads and everybody congratulating him on a job well done.

So, by his own desire, I pointed out the only slightest imperfection I could see from his pictures. I agree that it is character.

And rather than that insulting Wilser, I think it is more of a compliment. How much smaller a detail can I get when critiquing the bass? For that to be the only thing you can see shows that he really is an impressive luthier.

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That was all my opinion, nothing offensive. Just putting the "customer view" out there. Nothing more.