Do you any of you own this bass or have tried it out? If you have any reasons why I shouldn't get it feel free to tell me.
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Douglas WOB 826 Fretless
- Thread starter mkfanforever58
- Start date
I don't have a fretless, but I do have a WOB826. It is my favorite active 6er. If you've been around a while you may have seen that for 4 and 5 stringers that I like, I get a fretted and a fretless. I'm not really good enough at fretless to get a 6er (though I did get a Brice Z6 fretless, because it was at a price I could not resist) but I feel a WOB826 fretless is a good choice.
I actually ordered a fretless one last night. I've been wanting to dabble in fretless for a while, and the string spacing on this one is manageable for me. I can't adjust to 16.5mm ones but I can do 17.5 and 19mm all day. The online reviews for this bass are very few and far between but my research told me that you can expect minimal issues that would be solved with a full setup and adjustment. All things I can do. At $212 shipped, you can't pass it up if the quality is reasonable. The worst thing I've read is that the strings are trash from the factory. I'd prefer a 35" scale length, but I'll do with 34" for the price. Now I've just got to find some balanced tension strings for it to keep it around 40 lbs per string for our tuning (C# standard, C#F#BEA). And then to decide if I want to make my C# the 5th or 6th string.
I plan on doing a full review once I get it to help people with making the decision on this bass. I thought about building a Warmoth fretless, but the pickups alone would be nearly $200. I'd rather buy a whole bass for 200 and then decide if I want to upgrade it.
The clips I found online sound awesome. I've been super impressed even with a Direct Input straight from the bass to PC and no amp. (this is all from youtube searches)
I plan on doing a full review once I get it to help people with making the decision on this bass. I thought about building a Warmoth fretless, but the pickups alone would be nearly $200. I'd rather buy a whole bass for 200 and then decide if I want to upgrade it.
The clips I found online sound awesome. I've been super impressed even with a Direct Input straight from the bass to PC and no amp. (this is all from youtube searches)
Came in today. I'm pretty impressed with it. Only a couple of little nicks on it. The body has a satin finish so it's pretty glossy, something I wasn't expecting. Overall quality on first inspection is a solid 8/10. I plugged it in real quick and tuned it to B standard, and tinkered around with it a little. First impressions on playability is it's pretty playable. The string spacing feels great, the neck feels great. There's no finish on the back of the neck so it's a flat feel (no glossiness).
Sound, sounded cool, but my god people weren't lying when they said the strings they come with are trash. These are the worst strings I've ever put my fingers on. I already had some GHS Ultra light .125s to put on it, so after messing with it for a bit I swapped the strings and tuned it to C# Standard. I haven't had a chance to really dig in and check the intonation, but the bow of the neck feels pretty good and won't need too much adjustment. There's 2 truss rods in it, so I'll have to spend a little extra time with it. I normally use Kalium balanced tension strings for our tuning since C# is a weird balance, and .125 is a little high for a C# (I usually run .118 for the top to keep 40 lbs of tension).
Overall, I'd buy this again in a heartbeat. I could of bought a fretless neck for more than the price of this whole bass. When I get a chance I'll try to do some recordings with it. I'm super busy with work, but I'll see what I can do.
But if you're in the market for a cheap fretless, this is a better bang for the buck than my Ibanez BTBs.
Sound, sounded cool, but my god people weren't lying when they said the strings they come with are trash. These are the worst strings I've ever put my fingers on. I already had some GHS Ultra light .125s to put on it, so after messing with it for a bit I swapped the strings and tuned it to C# Standard. I haven't had a chance to really dig in and check the intonation, but the bow of the neck feels pretty good and won't need too much adjustment. There's 2 truss rods in it, so I'll have to spend a little extra time with it. I normally use Kalium balanced tension strings for our tuning since C# is a weird balance, and .125 is a little high for a C# (I usually run .118 for the top to keep 40 lbs of tension).
Overall, I'd buy this again in a heartbeat. I could of bought a fretless neck for more than the price of this whole bass. When I get a chance I'll try to do some recordings with it. I'm super busy with work, but I'll see what I can do.
But if you're in the market for a cheap fretless, this is a better bang for the buck than my Ibanez BTBs.
Worked some long hours today. Finally got to plug it into my computer and just tinker with it. Still getting used to the finger placement. I think I may need to tweak the intonation, as it's got the fretted note being dead center of the dots. I've adjusted to it but just need to make sure I'm in the right place for my left hand.
I still can't believe this whole bass was only $212 shipped. It's seriously a pretty good instrument for wanting to tinker with fretless. It really tests my muscle memory, but I really dig the tone so far. Even just plugged into my Presonus DAW with no effects or amp it has that great *mwah* tone. I can't wait till I can tweak my eq to get it to punch through the mix.
This is the only real imperfection I can find in the bass, other than the small scratch on the pickup cover *yankyank*
I still can't believe this whole bass was only $212 shipped. It's seriously a pretty good instrument for wanting to tinker with fretless. It really tests my muscle memory, but I really dig the tone so far. Even just plugged into my Presonus DAW with no effects or amp it has that great *mwah* tone. I can't wait till I can tweak my eq to get it to punch through the mix.
This is the only real imperfection I can find in the bass, other than the small scratch on the pickup cover *yankyank*
I have the fretted Sculptor 5. Apart from the weird pre controls and the mismatched body wood colors it kicks ass. I paid $135 for mine on sale, what's not to like?
Congrats!
Actually, SOME bass mfrs put the side dots at the fret locations... this might be one.
Actually, SOME bass mfrs put the side dots at the fret locations... this might be one.
...This is the only real imperfection I can find in the bass, other than the small scratch on the pickup cover *yankyank*
That and the strings are incorrectly wound on the tuners...
I had that bass in 2009, was pretty nice. I see they upgraded the preamp, changed the headstock shape, and switched to chrome hardware...overall the same...
It had some horrible neck-dive, but I dealt with it. I loved the wide and flat neck, but I found out that I'm not that into 6-strings...
That and the strings are incorrectly wound on the tuners...
I had that bass in 2009, was pretty nice. I see they upgraded the preamp, changed the headstock shape, and switched to chrome hardware...overall the same...
It had some horrible neck-dive, but I dealt with it. I loved the wide and flat neck, but I found out that I'm not that into 6-strings...
After playing on it for a while last night, it does have some pretty heavy neck dive. The neck on mine feels good. I don't really need a 6 string, I really don't need that high D string (C#F#BEAD). I use the A occasionally on my 5 strings for my band, but I really don't need it. Kind of throws me off at times, especially when I don't have any fret lines for reference.
I'm debating on updating the electronics on it. It's not too bad for a cheap active setup though.
Here's some vids I did today with the Douglas. First is a faster one, 2nd has cleans with heavy, 3rd is a song I usually play with a pick. I usually try to blend the bass in with mix but for bass playthrus I boost it a little. So of course it accents all my slop. Lol. Hopefully you can get an idea of tones from it. I didn't use many effects. Mainly just swapped back and forth between the pickup selection to get different sounds.
