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Any Padalka owners here?

Regarding headstocks, perhaps... but I spoke with him about lefties....

I'm not surprised that he's looking to streamline his offerings. It used to be pretty much anything goes.

As you asked about owners, is there anything in particular you want to know? The only negative I can think of, which is nominal, is the point on the bass side of the body (above the bridge) is a point of contact for me when playing fingerstyle and less comfortable than the typical Fender elbow contour.

Same, I remember them being maybe $3k-ish? Although by the time I was aware of him, while still in Russia, the backlog was already pretty significant. I recall a number of people on Sevenstring.org having his guitars and I think there were a few bass owners as well.

My first was under $2K. The 5 string was significantly more but still a bargain relative to current prices. I was on Sevenstring.org as well.
 
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They play great. Came with very low action so I raised it a bit for my playing style. The single cut aspect is not an issue for me as I pretty much always center my thumb on the back of the neck. If one is used to wrapping their thumb around the neck then I imagine it would be an adjustment or deal breaker. They do feel quite tight - not in a bad way - given the single cut, multi-lam necks and graphite reinforcement strips in the neck. Construction is the best I've seen. I play the 4 string much more as the neck profile is perfect for me. I play the 5 less as it's got a U profile that's just a bit too chunky for my tastes. I've thought about having him reprofile it but it doesn't make sense with all the international shipping and his existing workload. I may move that one on at some point but still like having it around as art. I have gigged it and it sounds great (also kind of cool that with it having a 36 inch B, regular "long scale" DR string sets fit perfectly - just barely).

They are maybe smaller than they appear. Some stage pics for context:

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With Wojtek Pilichowski checking it out:

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The first set of pics on this thread are from 2017- I wonder who owns it now?
 
A few things perhaps worth knowing:

As with Jazz Basses, Thunderbirds and other offset body designs, they are not very stable on regular guitar stands. I use a Hercules stand for mine.

The finish on the ceruse ones (as both of mine are) is very thin. While sealed there's no heavy clearcoat. This gives an elegant look though if one gets a small ding or scratch there's not going to be the same ability to buff that out as with most gloss finishes (I had an F Bass with ceruse finish which had more traditional gloss clear coat over it - quite different).

He changed the finish to one that retains the matt/satin finish better. On my first one, contact points started to buff to gloss with use (I eventually polished the rest to keep it uniform - it looks good both ways - not so great with random shiny spots). The 5 string keeps the matt texture much better. I assume this is not a concern on his current builds.

I chose the Jescar evo gold frets and really like them. Not as hard as stainless but still show no wear. I like the look of them as well. Due to the fret color (and I had the copper strings but I switched those out on that bass), I opted for a brass nut and if I had it to do over, I'd go with graphite as I think it would better fit the aesthetics.

On the aesthetics, the headless designs really do fit, though if neckdive is a concern with a headstock, I don't experience that with mine at all.

Also on the aesthetics, like with Dingwall and Darkglass, these seem to largely appeal to djent, prog, metal players, etc but work great for any genre (the pics I posted were with blues great Malford Milligan and jazz great Ronnie Foster - no issues or sideways glances...)

The filled brass tube side dots on the 5 string look awesome but disappear on a dark stage for me if I'm not wearing glasses.

None of these are negatives IMO, just worth considering, and the positives are far greater.
 
So are the frets "gold colored" or are they a brass/bronze, like on Warwick basses?

Copper strings?

Frets are a gold colored copper/titanium alloy, harder than nickle but not as hard as stainless. Made by Jescar but I think no longer in production as Jescar can no longer get the alloy, which is a pity as I think they are excellent and should last like stainless. I don't know what's used on Warwicks.

Strings I had on it at first were the LaBella 'white' tapewounds. They make 3 versions, stainless, 'gold' - brass, I think - and copper outer windings and then clear nylon over that. I really like how they feel and how the copper version in particular sound and still have them on my fretless but, with the nylon, they are quite low output and I think that bass sounds better with 'stronger' strings.
Putting those on was my choice not Simon's so it doesn't say anything about him.