An alternative Dingwall SP1 from Tagima ~ Predator 5-UQ $709.99

[stingray69]

 

[Yahboy]

Is the Rupture 5 not a new offering? I found a few videos on YT from about 3yrs ago featuring the Rupture model.

Gorgeous finish too, IMO.

That is $2k version.

 

[Yahboy]

Since I'm from Brazil and speak portuguese I decided to help you guys.

Tagima Predator - Scale is 34 / 35"
Tagima Rupture - Scale is 34 / 35.5"

I got the information from the video below and is said by Marcio Zaganin, Tagima's Luthier.

Thanks for the info.

Unlike 34-35.5 scale, the 34-35 scale are more friendly on string choice to me

Will consider this Predator . Just wish she has no neck dive issue due to those heavy machine head compare to Rupture

 

[AB Nate]

View attachment 7420539

Maybe the string spacing can be fine tune, look like an adjustable saddle lock there.

No. You back that locking screw off before adjusting your saddle height. There is no real side to side adjustment on these saddle pieces.

 

[urkel3000]

I'm not picky about brands or anything, but having "tagima predator" on your headstock is a tough sell for me

 

[stingray69]

I'm wondering what function the dual stacked knobs might serve on the Rupture 5 MDouble?

 

[darev]

Tagima Rupture 5 $2,198?

 

[GConforto]

Hey guys,

I managed to grab a used Handmade In Brazil Rupture 5 for cheap (something around 500 USD). I will post a first impression videos in a few days and full review later on.

What I can say right now is that it is incredibly confortable and playability is awesome. Extremely well built,lLooks aweseom and it screams METAL.

You can find a few pictures and a shorts on youtube!

Let me know if there is something you guys want to know about it.



In case video above doesn't play,

 

[56Fenix]

I just picked one of these up last week!

I ran into this bass mostly by accident while looking up 5 strings on ebay. At $700, its near the upper end of what I would pay for an instrument simply because I prefer to just build mine from cheap bodies, but I've been searching for an affordable multiscale for a hot minute and the seller sent me an offer for $630. After looking more into it, I couldn't NOT buy it. And I'm so glad I did. At $630, I am shocked at how nice this bass is, and its become my new flagship.

​

Specs:​

To answer a few questions from this thread, the online spec sheets are indeed kind of all over the place simply because this is a Brazilian company who are only just recently dipping their toes in the US market so I imagine translation leaves a bit to be desired.
- The body is fully okoume, not just the top, and its not two different woods (I'm unsure why it lists okume/maple online)
- Neck is roasted maple with bolivian rosewood fingerboard
- Scale length is 34" at G to 35.5" at B.
- String spacing is 17.5 mm
- It does have slight neck dive, as to be expected from any 35.5" 5 string, but its nothing close to the neck dive in my Thunderbird or Affinity Jaguar. You could easily counteract this with a grippy strap, counter-weight, or slightly lighter tuners
- Pickups are alnico V active with a passive switch
- Made in china
- It weighs just shy of 9lbs

Build Quality:​

I'll be honest, I usually don't have high expectations for these sorts of knock-off instruments from relatively unknown brands, especially when they're made in China. But my hot take is this; it feels nicer and higher quality than any MIM player series Fender I've ever tried.
- Fret ends make me want to cry with how beautiful they are. Perfectly rounded, no overhang, no sharpness. You literally couldn't make them any nicer
- Hardware is surprisingly good; tuners are smooth, incredibly precise, and hold true. I use a strobo tuner because I'm excessively anal about being in-tune and I can dial these tuners in more precisely than any of my other basses, up to and including the expensive aftermarket goto tuners I have on another bass.
- I was a bit worried about sustain with mono bridge pieces, but this thing sustains for days, just as well as the fender & hipshot high mass bridges I've dabbled with. I had originally planned to build a brass plate to both increase sustain and act as a counter-weight, but I don't really think I need to anymore.

Electronics:​

Figuring out the suite of knobs took me a good bit of time and Tagima themselves don't have any sort of diagram, so I threw one together. Please excuse my 5th grader handwriting.

All the pots are smooth and didn't have any audible or tactile scratching. All but the vol/tone have a 50% detent.

Internal wiring was about as neatly tucked together as you really can for an active system with a million wires. I will say though the solders are pretty solid and there are bits of electrical tape in various spots as an extra precaution to prevent any shorts. My only complaint is the shielding job is pretty poor, a very thin and hastily wiped paint job, so I will likely just end up shielding it myself.

- Tested the voltage on the battery and it was fresh and fully charged, has its own little compartment with some foam as well
- Input jack feels snug and secure and is wrapped with electrical tape
- Semi-related but as an obsessive tinkerer, I really enjoy that the electronics cavity goes fully through the body and can be accessed both from behind and from the front under the pickguard

Tone:​

I will start by saying that I'm god awful at trying to verbally articulate tone and I'm not even really going to try because everyone's descriptions just end up sounding like the same corporate speak. Instead, I will give two anecdotes;
1. I have never liked active electronics, probably an unpopular opinion, but I've often found they're just far too "neutral" and lack any sort of character that passive pickups have. I have tried everything from $400 to $4,000 active pickup systems and felt pretty milquetoast about all of them. This one, though... I really like. It responds extremely well to shaping, and I feel like you can actually get noticeable differences in tone just from the preamp alone.
2. While fiddling around, I had this plugged into my little fender rumble 25 practice amp with a flat EQ, volume at 25%. I jacked up the bass & low-mid EQ and the floors & windows shook. Bonkers. This thing is POWERFUL.

Closing Thoughts:​

This is a real hidden gem, and I feel like I've stumbled into the next "popular knockoff" before its gained popularity. Precision style body, multiscale, an actual 5 string split pickup on an instrument that doesn't cost a grand? I couldn't ask for more.

The only things I dislike about this bass are purely just personal preference; I'm not a fan of sunburst, I'm REALLY not a fan of red turtle pickguards, and I'm admittedly a fender shill who finds these knock-off style headstocks to be really cheap looking and ugly (though admittedly I know thats not really Tagima's fault that fender is so sue-happy about their headstock copyright). These are all things that can more or less be easily changed, though. Whats important is the "bones" are good.

Suprisingly, I haven't been able to find this model for sale anywhere online outside of Tagima's own website and the one ebay listing I had found. I have to imagine there are retailers around that offer them, but as far as reverb and ebay are concerned, this was the only one I could find both for sale and previously sold. That being said, if you are able to find one and are looking for a nice p-bass style multiscale, you really can't go wrong with this. It's not quite an SP1 knockoff because the scale length goes in the opposite direction of a dingwall (standard to XL, instead of dingwall's med to XL scale) but I personally much prefer this configuration.

I probably missed some things but let me know if any has any questions or wants me to take any additional measurements or tests. I do a metric buttload of amateur luthering and can test and measure just about anything.

 

[stingray69]

I just picked one of these up last week!

View attachment 7492866

I ran into this bass mostly by accident while looking up 5 strings on ebay. At $700, its near the upper end of what I would pay for an instrument simply because I prefer to just build mine from cheap bodies, but I've been searching for an affordable multiscale for a hot minute and the seller sent me an offer for $630. After looking more into it, I couldn't NOT buy it. And I'm so glad I did. At $630, I am shocked at how nice this bass is, and its become my new flagship.

​

Specs:​

To answer a few questions from this thread, the online spec sheets are indeed kind of all over the place simply because this is a Brazilian company who are only just recently dipping their toes in the US market so I imagine translation leaves a bit to be desired.
- The body is fully okoume, not just the top, and its not two different woods (I'm unsure why it lists okume/maple online)
- Neck is roasted maple with bolivian rosewood fingerboard
- Scale length is 34" at G to 35.5" at B
- String spacing is 17.5 mm
- It does have slight neck dive, as to be expected from any 35.5" 5 string, but its nothing close to the neck dive in my Thunderbird or Affinity Jaguar. You could easily counteract this with a grippy strap, counter-weight, or slightly lighter tuners
- Pickups are alnico V active with a passive switch
- Made in china
- It weighs just shy of 9lbs
View attachment 7492867

Build Quality:​

I'll be honest, I usually don't have high expectations for these sorts of knock-off instruments from relatively unknown brands, especially when they're made in China. But my hot take is this; it feels nicer and higher quality than any MIM player series Fender I've ever tried.
- Fret ends make me want to cry with how beautiful they are. Perfectly rounded, no overhang, no sharpness. You literally couldn't make them any nicer
- Hardware is surprisingly good; tuners are smooth, incredibly precise, and hold true. I use a strobo tuner because I'm excessively anal about being in-tune and I can dial these tuners in more precisely than any of my other basses, up to and including the expensive aftermarket goto tuners I have on another bass.
- I was a bit worried about sustain with mono bridge pieces, but this thing sustains for days, just as well as the fender & hipshot high mass bridges I've dabbled with. I had originally planned to build a brass plate to both increase sustain and act as a counter-weight, but I don't really think I need to anymore.

Electronics:​

Figuring out the suite of knobs took me a good bit of time and Tagima themselves don't have any sort of diagram, so I threw one together. Please excuse my 5th grader handwriting.
View attachment 7492875
All the pots are smooth and didn't have any audible or tactile scratching. All but the vol/tone have a 50% detent.

Internal wiring was about as neatly tucked together as you really can for an active system with a million wires. I will say though the solders are pretty solid and there are bits of electrical tape in various spots as an extra precaution to prevent any shorts. My only complaint is the shielding job is pretty poor, a very thin and hastily wiped paint job, so I will likely just end up shielding it myself.
View attachment 7492882
- Tested the voltage on the battery and it was fresh and fully charged, has its own little compartment with some foam as well
- Input jack feels snug and secure and is wrapped with electrical tape
- Semi-related but as an obsessive tinkerer, I really enjoy that the electronics cavity goes fully through the body and can be accessed both from behind and from the front under the pickguard

Tone:​

I will start by saying that I'm god awful at trying to verbally articulate tone and I'm not even really going to try because everyone's descriptions just end up sounding like the same corporate speak. Instead, I will give two anecdotes;
1. I have never liked active electronics, probably an unpopular opinion, but I've often found they're just far too "neutral" and lack any sort of character that passive pickups have. I have tried everything from $400 to $4,000 active pickup systems and felt pretty milquetoast about all of them. This one, though... I really like. It responds extremely well to shaping, and I feel like you can actually get noticeable differences in tone just from the preamp alone.
2. While fiddling around, I had this plugged into my little fender rumble 25 practice amp with a flat EQ, volume at 25%. I jacked up the bass & low-mid EQ and the floors & windows shook. Bonkers. This thing is POWERFUL.

Closing Thoughts:​

This is a real hidden gem, and I feel like I've stumbled into the next "popular knockoff" before its gained popularity. Precision style body, multiscale, an actual 5 string split pickup on an instrument that doesn't cost a grand? I couldn't ask for more.

The only things I dislike about this bass are purely just personal preference; I'm not a fan of sunburst, I'm REALLY not a fan of red turtle pickguards, and I'm admittedly a fender shill who finds these knock-off style headstocks to be really cheap looking and ugly (though admittedly I know thats not really Tagima's fault that fender is so sue-happy about their headstock copyright). These are all things that can more or less be easily changed, though. Whats important is the "bones" are good.

Suprisingly, I haven't been able to find this model for sale anywhere online outside of Tagima's own website and the one ebay listing I had found. I have to imagine there are retailers around that offer them, but as far as reverb and ebay are concerned, this was the only one I could find both for sale and previously sold. That being said, if you are able to find one and are looking for a nice p-bass style multiscale, you really can't go wrong with this. It's not quite an SP1 knockoff because the scale length goes in the opposite direction of a dingwall (standard to XL, instead of dingwall's med to standard scale) but I personally much prefer this configuration.

I probably missed some things but let me know if any has any questions or wants me to take any additional measurements or tests. I do a metric buttload of amateur luthering and can test and measure just about anything.

I've been keeping an eye out for one of these - I MUST have one. Haven't seen anything, anywhere yet. Congrats on the fortunate score!

Also, thank you VERY much for the detailed review - GREATLY appreciated!! Especially the control layout - I'd been trying forever to find out the functionality of all the controls. The weight is great for a 5-string too. The tone seems like it is awesome - I will eventually grab one of these up myself.

 

[56Fenix]

I've been keeping an eye out for one of these - I MUST have one. Haven't seen anything, anywhere yet. Congrats on the fortunate score!

Also, thank you VERY much for the detailed review - GREATLY appreciated!! Especially the control layout - I'd been trying forever to find out the functionality of all the controls. The weight is great for a 5-string too. The tone seems like it is awesome - I will eventually grab one of these up myself.

Glad I could help! I mod the crap out of everything I own and finding specs is always the biggest headache. Tagima's website lists a whole host of US-based retailers for their instruments, but I'm unsure how many of those could potentially have the Predator model with it being so new. If nothing else, I'm sure you can order one directly from their US website. I bought mine brand new from Butler Music so maybe they might get a few more in at some point.

The only asterisk I'll add about my knob diagram is high-mid and low-mid might be swapped, I'm not 100% sure. I've always struggled to differentiate the two, but the rest are all correct.

 

[tekhna]

How's the intonation?

 

[stingray69]

Every month or so since these were announced, I check the usual outlets for any sign of them hitting the States, but so far - nothing.

So then I usually do the same on YouTube - slowly, clips are popping up. Here's a couple of the more recent Predator 5 clips that have cropped up in the last couple of months.

 

[Yahboy]

I just picked one of these up last week!

View attachment 7492866

I ran into this bass mostly by accident while looking up 5 strings on ebay. At $700, its near the upper end of what I would pay for an instrument simply because I prefer to just build mine from cheap bodies, but I've been searching for an affordable multiscale for a hot minute and the seller sent me an offer for $630. After looking more into it, I couldn't NOT buy it. And I'm so glad I did. At $630, I am shocked at how nice this bass is, and its become my new flagship.

​

Specs:​

To answer a few questions from this thread, the online spec sheets are indeed kind of all over the place simply because this is a Brazilian company who are only just recently dipping their toes in the US market so I imagine translation leaves a bit to be desired.
- The body is fully okoume, not just the top, and its not two different woods (I'm unsure why it lists okume/maple online)
- Neck is roasted maple with bolivian rosewood fingerboard
- Scale length is 34" at G to 35.5" at B.
- String spacing is 17.5 mm
- It does have slight neck dive, as to be expected from any 35.5" 5 string, but its nothing close to the neck dive in my Thunderbird or Affinity Jaguar. You could easily counteract this with a grippy strap, counter-weight, or slightly lighter tuners
- Pickups are alnico V active with a passive switch
- Made in china
- It weighs just shy of 9lbs
View attachment 7492867

Build Quality:​

I'll be honest, I usually don't have high expectations for these sorts of knock-off instruments from relatively unknown brands, especially when they're made in China. But my hot take is this; it feels nicer and higher quality than any MIM player series Fender I've ever tried.
- Fret ends make me want to cry with how beautiful they are. Perfectly rounded, no overhang, no sharpness. You literally couldn't make them any nicer
- Hardware is surprisingly good; tuners are smooth, incredibly precise, and hold true. I use a strobo tuner because I'm excessively anal about being in-tune and I can dial these tuners in more precisely than any of my other basses, up to and including the expensive aftermarket goto tuners I have on another bass.
- I was a bit worried about sustain with mono bridge pieces, but this thing sustains for days, just as well as the fender & hipshot high mass bridges I've dabbled with. I had originally planned to build a brass plate to both increase sustain and act as a counter-weight, but I don't really think I need to anymore.

Electronics:​

Figuring out the suite of knobs took me a good bit of time and Tagima themselves don't have any sort of diagram, so I threw one together. Please excuse my 5th grader handwriting.
View attachment 7492875
All the pots are smooth and didn't have any audible or tactile scratching. All but the vol/tone have a 50% detent.

Internal wiring was about as neatly tucked together as you really can for an active system with a million wires. I will say though the solders are pretty solid and there are bits of electrical tape in various spots as an extra precaution to prevent any shorts. My only complaint is the shielding job is pretty poor, a very thin and hastily wiped paint job, so I will likely just end up shielding it myself.
View attachment 7492882
- Tested the voltage on the battery and it was fresh and fully charged, has its own little compartment with some foam as well
- Input jack feels snug and secure and is wrapped with electrical tape
- Semi-related but as an obsessive tinkerer, I really enjoy that the electronics cavity goes fully through the body and can be accessed both from behind and from the front under the pickguard

Tone:​

I will start by saying that I'm god awful at trying to verbally articulate tone and I'm not even really going to try because everyone's descriptions just end up sounding like the same corporate speak. Instead, I will give two anecdotes;
1. I have never liked active electronics, probably an unpopular opinion, but I've often found they're just far too "neutral" and lack any sort of character that passive pickups have. I have tried everything from $400 to $4,000 active pickup systems and felt pretty milquetoast about all of them. This one, though... I really like. It responds extremely well to shaping, and I feel like you can actually get noticeable differences in tone just from the preamp alone.
2. While fiddling around, I had this plugged into my little fender rumble 25 practice amp with a flat EQ, volume at 25%. I jacked up the bass & low-mid EQ and the floors & windows shook. Bonkers. This thing is POWERFUL.

Closing Thoughts:​

This is a real hidden gem, and I feel like I've stumbled into the next "popular knockoff" before its gained popularity. Precision style body, multiscale, an actual 5 string split pickup on an instrument that doesn't cost a grand? I couldn't ask for more.

The only things I dislike about this bass are purely just personal preference; I'm not a fan of sunburst, I'm REALLY not a fan of red turtle pickguards, and I'm admittedly a fender shill who finds these knock-off style headstocks to be really cheap looking and ugly (though admittedly I know thats not really Tagima's fault that fender is so sue-happy about their headstock copyright). These are all things that can more or less be easily changed, though. Whats important is the "bones" are good.

Suprisingly, I haven't been able to find this model for sale anywhere online outside of Tagima's own website and the one ebay listing I had found. I have to imagine there are retailers around that offer them, but as far as reverb and ebay are concerned, this was the only one I could find both for sale and previously sold. That being said, if you are able to find one and are looking for a nice p-bass style multiscale, you really can't go wrong with this. It's not quite an SP1 knockoff because the scale length goes in the opposite direction of a dingwall (standard to XL, instead of dingwall's med to XL scale) but I personally much prefer this configuration.

I probably missed some things but let me know if any has any questions or wants me to take any additional measurements or tests. I do a metric buttload of amateur luthering and can test and measure just about anything.

Congrats ! Seem this bass are worth for the price tag , stock pickup sound and build quality.
Meanwhile , the stock onboard preamp control layout are what active bass player wish on active bass guitar price tag below $1K.

 

[stingray69]

Congrats ! Seem this bass are worth for the price tag , stock pickup sound and build quality.
Meanwhile , the stock onboard preamp control layout are what active bass player wish on active bass guitar price tag below $1K.

+1

It's pretty rare to see an onboard preamp with 2 sweepable mids +active/passive tone control these days, even at some higher price points.

Speaking of rare, really the whole instrument itself is practically a unicorn IMO. My main basses these days are active P/J's - and while one of my active PJ's does have a roasted neck, it has a 2-band EQ.

Having an active P/J w/roasted neck, fanned frets & a full feature set of 4-band EQ with active/passive/tone control is really unheard of. I'm unaware of anything else quite like it on the market. Clearly, there's a whole lot to like all in one package here.

 

[stingray69]

Glad I could help! I mod the crap out of everything I own and finding specs is always the biggest headache. Tagima's website lists a whole host of US-based retailers for their instruments, but I'm unsure how many of those could potentially have the Predator model with it being so new. If nothing else, I'm sure you can order one directly from their US website. I bought mine brand new from Butler Music so maybe they might get a few more in at some point.

The only asterisk I'll add about my knob diagram is high-mid and low-mid might be swapped, I'm not 100% sure. I've always struggled to differentiate the two, but the rest are all correct.

Quick question - I'm curious about the Tone knob (under the Volume knob) - is this strictly a passive tone control for when the bass is switched into passive mode?

Or does it have any effect on the tone when the bass is in active mode?

 

[56Fenix]

+1

It's pretty rare to see an onboard preamp with 2 sweepable mids +active/passive tone control these days, even at some higher price points.

Speaking of rare, really the whole instrument itself is practically a unicorn IMO. My main basses these days are active P/J's - and while one of my active PJ's does have a roasted neck, it has a 2-band EQ.

Having an active P/J w/roasted neck, fanned frets & a full feature set of 4-band EQ with active/passive/tone control is really unheard of. I'm unaware of anything else quite like it on the market. Clearly, there's a whole lot to like all in one package here.

Slight correction on my part; On Tagima's site, the preamp is listed as "TBEQ-3P", and the mid knob controls as "mid" and "mid frequency", so only a 3-band instead of a 4. The spec slip that came attached to the bass didn't specify this which is the reason for my confusion, so it's technically just a 3-band. Sorry for the mixup!

The best way I can describe the "mid-frequency" knob is kind of like a tone knob for only the mids, adding brightness or warmth. It's actually really cool and I like it a lot! I threw together a new diagram and will update my OP as well;

EDIT: Looks like I can't edit my OP, still new to this forum, hopefully this diagram isn't too far down for others to find!

Quick question - I'm curious about the Tone knob (under the Volume knob) - is this strictly a passive tone control for when the bass is switched into passive mode?

Or does it have any effect on the tone when the bass is in active mode?

It is master for both active and passive!

How's the intonation?

Pretty dialed in, but its admittedly an extreme pain to adjust. Since the saddles aren't sprung, you have to manually move them back and forth, but to make matters worse the alan screw to tighten/loosen the saddle is underneath the string, so you have to loosen then re-tune the string to adjust the saddle position. Really stupid design, but I've seen these mono bridge pieces for sale as stand-alone items all over, so I doubt they are of Tagima's personal design. I was going to look into alternative designs some time down the road since I want to swap all the hardware to black at some point.

Having an active P/J w/roasted neck, fanned frets & a full feature set of 4-band EQ with active/passive/tone control is really unheard of. I'm unaware of anything else quite like it on the market. Clearly, there's a whole lot to like all in one package here.

My thoughts exactly! I had no idea how rare this thing was when I bought it, I'm real glad I decided to pull the trigger.

 

[stingray69]

Slight correction on my part; On Tagima's site, the preamp is listed as "TBEQ-3P", and the mid knob controls as "mid" and "mid frequency", so only a 3-band instead of a 4. The spec slip that came attached to the bass didn't specify this which is the reason for my confusion, so it's technically just a 3-band. Sorry for the mixup!
View attachment 7493724

The best way I can describe the "mid-frequency" knob is kind of like a tone knob for only the mids, adding brightness or warmth. It's actually really cool and I like it a lot! I threw together a new diagram and will update my OP as well;
View attachment 7493728
EDIT: Looks like I can't edit my OP, still new to this forum, hopefully this diagram isn't too far down for others to find!


It is master for both active and passive!


Pretty dialed in, but its admittedly an extreme pain to adjust. Since the saddles aren't sprung, you have to manually move them back and forth, but to make matters worse the alan screw to tighten/loosen the saddle is underneath the string, so you have to loosen then re-tune the string to adjust the saddle position. Really stupid design, but I've seen these mono bridge pieces for sale as stand-alone items all over, so I doubt they are of Tagima's personal design. I was going to look into alternative designs some time down the road since I want to swap all the hardware to black at some point.

View attachment 7493739


My thoughts exactly! I had no idea how rare this thing was when I bought it, I'm real glad I decided to pull the trigger.

Thanks for the updated info on the 3-band EQ w/sweepable mid center frequency. Also awesome to know that the Tone knob works in both active & passive modes!

 

[Akami]

I want to swap all the hardware to black at some point.

I think the bass looks great and classic with the chrome hardware but am also a a big fan of black hardware and think this bass will definitely benefit from the change.

Really want a four string version of your bass, especially if they were ever to get into the medium scale market.

 

[56Fenix]

Got to use this beast for the first time at band practice last night. Absolutely incredible. I was afraid it might be one of those cases where it sounds great at low volume on a practice amp but kinda meh in the full band mix, but not so. The amount of tone shaping I could do was buck wild.

I ended up just running a flat EQ on my amp and doing all my adjustments through the onboard preamp. I was able to get everything from a good bright metallic clang to probably the most booming bass tone I've ever heard. In fact, I had to be REALLY careful with that bass knob specifically because even a quarter turn caused the whole room to shake. Very fun, but I can't be drowning out the guitar!

Now that I've played around with that "mid-frequency" knob a bit more, I think its a "frequency selector" of sorts, like full clockwise and the volume knob on top controls high mids, full counter-clockwise and the volume knob on top controls low-mids. Again I'm still fairly new to active basses so maybe this would have been obvious to most lol.

This thing continues to impress. I ordered some new knobs made out of brass both for that nice heavy feel and because the tiny bit of added weight will likely be enough to counter the minimal neck dive. This is a bass thats going to get a LOT of use so I'm shelling out for the good stuff!

I think the bass looks great and classic with the chrome hardware but am also a a big fan of black hardware and think this bass will definitely benefit from the change.

Really want a four string version of your bass, especially if they were ever to get into the medium scale market.

I certainly respect the vintage aesthetic, its just not for me personally, especially on something as contemporary looking as this bass. I really like the stereotypical raw wood aesthetic so I'm thinking of maybe just sanding the finish down to the bare okoume and sealing that, maybe stain it to get it to match the roasted maple neck as close as I can. Either way, I have a bad habit of ripping apart my instruments too much so I told myself I need to have at least one working 5 string at any given time and currently my jazz bass is still on the workbench, so all things in due time!

4 string 30"-32" multiscale is actually a pretty neat idea!