At the risk of violating the principle of not being a member of any club that would stoop so low as to accept me, Im finally getting around to posting a review of Clement 192 that I got back at the end of June. Folks here were definitely helpful in my ultimate decision to go with Tom, and I was not disappointed. It always takes me a while to acclimate to a new instrument, since in the beginning, I often find myself being more aware of the things it doesn't do that my previous #1 player did, rather than the things it does that my old one couldn't do. I hear a lot about the "honeymoon period" with new instruments, and I'm really the opposite - they have to grow on me. My current #1 guitar took at least a month for me to bond with it, for example, and now I have a really hard time playing anything else.
Here are the specs. The body wood is Spanish Cedar, the top is burled redwood, and the neck is black limba with wenge stringers. It is outfitted with EMG P series pickups, Hipshot Ultralite tuners and a custom Hipshot A Style bridge. Heres what she looks like (Tom's pics are better than any of mine):
You Clement owners know what I mean when I say that Tom's woodworking background definitely shows in his work. The pictures dont at all do it justice. What I was looking for was a 6 string that was as light as possible (with no neck dive), had 15 mm spacing at the bridge (I play with a pick, and thats the spacing Im used to), and I wanted a low B on a 34 scale that didnt differ much in tone from the other strings. And the weight is incredible he got it down to 7.75 lbs. Thats lighter than my Strat! I have been having fun handing it to people and telling them to be careful since it's really heavy, and watching their reactions! The neck carve is super comfy, it came set up really well, and the shape of the body (this is one of his ergo series) is really comfortable. At my first gig with it, my wife remarked that I looked way more comfortable playing it than my old bass.
Having lived with it for a while, tonally, the pickups seem a bit polite to me. I have Bartolini P style pickups in my other 6 string, and this one has EMG P series. They are very hi fi, but lack a bit of balls in the mids. At some point, I may talk to Tom about swapping them out, but for now, I have dragged out my trusty old Ashly SC-40 preamp for its EQ section, which helps get what Im looking for. There is a ton of low end (it always sounds better if you have more lows than you need and can cut some, as opposed to not having enough and having to boost), and the note definition is great. Between that and the playability, I find it a very articulate instrument. Going into the extreme upper register, past the 16th fret or so, the volume and sustain both drop off a bit. I probably have little business being up there anyway on a bass, and on my old bass, the access isn't good up there, so I rarely ventured up that far, but on this one, the access is so good that I'm tempted (there are 24 frets, so I'm going to use them!).
You guys also know that Tom was awesome to work with. The time from my first conversation with him to the delivery of the bass was only about 2 months, and that included him having to make new jigs to accommodate my weird spacing/neck width, and having to redo the body when my choice of bridge turned out not to be suitable (he ended up having Hipshot custom make me an A style with 15 mm spacing, which also took some time). Almost daily e-mail updates and pictures (often several a day) were the norm.
Here are a couple of clips from my first gig with it (this was on local TV, and I finally got a copy of the video to post). Warning for the Grateful Dead haters out there, this band play Dead songs (so youll probably hate us), and for the Grateful Dead fanatics out there, we dont really try to play them the way the Dead played them (so if youre expecting a Jerry clone on guitar, for example, you may hate us as well).
Decent close ups at 3:25, 4:39, 5:24, 5:55, 7:21
. Hopefully, sometime in the future my stable (if two basses can be called a stable 
