I would like a custom electric 4 string bass built

[Freekmagnet]

Just reading through this, I’d buy the Dingwall. Sounds like what you really want is a Dingwall that looks like a Jackson. Jacksons are easy enough to find, and the hockey-stick headstock isn’t a feature that will make or break an instrument. Once you get the Dingwall in your hands, you’ll forget about the headstock.

Decades ago, I had an Ibanez PJ on to which I’d slapped a Modulus neck. That bass got stolen. I had enough scratch to buy a StingRay. Initially, I was bummed ‘cuz I thought I was in love with that carbon fiber neck. In the end, I totally forgot about it and I ended up loving the StingRay way more than I loved the Modulus.

 

[VolverseLoco]

Just reading through this, I’d buy the Dingwall. Sounds like what you really want is a Dingwall that looks like a Jackson. Jacksons are easy enough to find, and the hockey-stick headstock isn’t a feature that will make or break an instrument. Once you get the Dingwall in your hands, you’ll forget about the headstock.

Decades ago, I had an Ibanez PJ on to which I’d slapped a Modulus neck. That bass got stolen. I had enough scratch to buy a StingRay. Initially, I was bummed ‘cuz I thought I was in love with that carbon fiber neck. In the end, I totally forgot about it and I ended up loving the StingRay way more than I loved the Modulus.

How did you know? I would like to have the Dingwall. After all, it is definitely of high quality craftsmanship. I really like the light maple neck and I want to play the fan fret and play it well. I like the sound of the Dingwall, as much as one can judge by Youtube, and I have yet to hear anyone complain of its play ability and craftsmanship. I believe wholeheartedly I would get over the Jackson neck obsession I currently have once playing the Dingwall. Two years ago I might have justified not buying it because I had only been playing for 2 years then, but that excuse is not more, being 4 years now.


Id like to hear from a few guys here what they think about the Chinese neck they are making me. It was more or less, let me have those guys make me a neck and Ill just have to see what the final product is once it arrives, whenever that may be.

 

[dwizum]

Budget imported necks are fine. They often have frustrating niggles (bad fretwork seems common) but it's a miracle of modern engineering (combined with a ironically fierce sense of capitalism that leans heavily on paying your employees as little as possible) that they're able to do as good as they can for as cheap as they can.

Re-reading this thread I'm starting to get the feeling that there's a bit of a negative vibe towards your dream of having a custom bass made to your exact spec. I hope that's not the vibe you're picking up, because that would be a shame. If you want a specific bass that doesn't exist in the real world, and you are able to go in with eyes wide open, by all means do it. Don't try to talk yourself into settling for something off the shelf if it's not exactly what you want. A big part of the reason why I got in to building was that I felt like I wanted MY exact bass, not a design that a factory decided they could sell a lot of. It's incredibly fulfilling and satisfying to be able to indulge yourself on things like having the headstock shape you want, or the multiscale neck you want, or the inlays you want, etc.

Just: know what you're getting in to - you can't really compare a (cheap) hobbyist builder to a "real" indie pro luthier to an overseas "custom shop" bass to a domestic custom shop bass. They are each very much their own animal - each legitimate in it's own place, with different price ranges, levels of flexibility, options, communication style, delivery timeline, post-delivery support, and so on. So - do your research and make the decision that's right for you. But if you really have such a concrete idea of what you want, then don't settle for something that's not it.

 

[Killing Floor]

Anyway, like I said, good luck. If you can swing it you should get exactly what you want. Someone will make it.

 

[VolverseLoco]

Budget imported necks are fine. They often have frustrating niggles (bad fretwork seems common) but it's a miracle of modern engineering (combined with a ironically fierce sense of capitalism that leans heavily on paying your employees as little as possible) that they're able to do as good as they can for as cheap as they can.

Re-reading this thread I'm starting to get the feeling that there's a bit of a negative vibe towards your dream of having a custom bass made to your exact spec. I hope that's not the vibe you're picking up, because that would be a shame. If you want a specific bass that doesn't exist in the real world, and you are able to go in with eyes wide open, by all means do it. Don't try to talk yourself into settling for something off the shelf if it's not exactly what you want. A big part of the reason why I got in to building was that I felt like I wanted MY exact bass, not a design that a factory decided they could sell a lot of. It's incredibly fulfilling and satisfying to be able to indulge yourself on things like having the headstock shape you want, or the multiscale neck you want, or the inlays you want, etc.

Just: know what you're getting in to - you can't really compare a (cheap) hobbyist builder to a "real" indie pro luthier to an overseas "custom shop" bass to a domestic custom shop bass. They are each very much their own animal - each legitimate in it's own place, with different price ranges, levels of flexibility, options, communication style, delivery timeline, post-delivery support, and so on. So - do your research and make the decision that's right for you. But if you really have such a concrete idea of what you want, then don't settle for something that's not it.

Yeah, I'm all over the road here now..I know. I have to take a step back and balance reality with visions and dreams, balance the present situations and the future finances, all the while being fair and true to myself..I get it...

 

[Chicory Blue]

Consider what @Chicory Blue experimented with back a few years - blurs won't bother you anymore if you give it a try for a while.

Ha! Oh man, 2017 me was a weirdo. I still think about those few weeks, though, and about how I should totally do it again. Music is so much more fun when it’s basically your only viable choice of entertainment, and there’s something pleasantly spiritual and connected about carrying on blind, minus the part where you begin to hear your roommates shaking their heads in disappointment at your life choices.

--^@

 

[Hopkins]

I would rather have the once in a lifetime thing, just need to save some more money. I should just sell my car, use the money from that to add to what I have. No need for the car, work from home forever now since this covid veeeerus is here. Girlfriend can shuttle me around if I ever get a bass playing gig out front of the men's room at Ceasers casino, right by the shoeshine guy.. Re shift my priority's. Part of me wants to plop down that $2200 for the Dingwall...and the other part wants to commission someone for $4500...my buddy just told me, you cant take the money with you, so he just bought a golf cart..priority's..

Something else to consider. If you buy the Dingwall, you will spend less money up front, and your bass will be worth more the day after purchase. The thing with a one off custom bass, it only hold it's value if someone else wants that exact bass.

 

[Hopkins]

I do not have a 'small budget', and I do not have an endless supply of money either, but I do have a 'budget', as most normal people do. A real capitol "C" custom build to go into the $4000+ perhaps range for what I wanted, I completely understand it now, it doesn't come as a 'shock', I know how much bass guitars cost, and it is still not out of my budget, but it is real close to it. I do have a problem with making up a bass design on a website for $2000.00, and not knowing what you are getting till 1.4 years, minimum, later. If I only take one great piece of advise here, it would be the one about being in constant contact with the "C" builder, and thats a little hard when the bass is over in China for 1.3 years. I think 6-8 months is a fair amount of wait time for a real company that builds basses. Heck, I sent my Jackson JS2 body out to get custom paint job, and I'm not talking about a solid color, I'm talking real artwork, to a guy in Kentucky last March. He is a well know, extremely regarded guitar painter, been talked so highly on TB here, and I'm still waiting. I know I will get perfection back from him. I sent crappy hand sketches and shaky micrometer readings of my Jackson JS3 regular pointy head stock bass neck to the Chinese last January, for them to make me the entire neck in reverse, and I am still waiting. I am patient, very patient. Even if the Chinese neck doesn't come out right, its more than the Fender/Jackson custom shop would do for me when I wrote them, and that was NOTHING.View attachment 3996698 View attachment 3996699

Fender/Jackson are very automated. It would make absolutely zero sense for them to do a custom one off from both a production stand point as well as a brand stand point. Their headstock shapes are their brand, a one off headstock shape with their name on it would harm their brand

 

[wraub]

Never say never...

Fender/Jackson are very automated. It would make absolutely zero sense for them to do a custom one off from both a production stand point as well as a brand stand point. Their headstock shapes are their brand, a one off headstock shape with their name on it would harm their brand

 

[VolverseLoco]

Fender/Jackson are very automated. It would make absolutely zero sense for them to do a custom one off from both a production stand point as well as a brand stand point. Their headstock shapes are their brand, a one off headstock shape with their name on it would harm their brand

Fender bought Jackson. I actually wrote the "Jackson Custom Shop" last Jan wanting a Jackson reverse head stock neck that they already made, meaning they have the tooling, the CNC coordinates, the manual sketches, whatever. Now weather they made this neck for a left handed bass, or some 80's metal head bass nut (like myself), I don't know, but they still made it, but sadly they couldn't make it for me. Now tell me why?

 

[VolverseLoco]

Something else to consider. If you buy the Dingwall, you will spend less money up front, and your bass will be worth more the day after purchase. The thing with a one off custom bass, it only hold it's value if someone else wants that exact bass.

Consider it done!

 

[TerribleTim68]

I mean, if it’s just about the Jackson reverse headstock, there’s Ebay vendors that sell those necks. Just saying.

 

[VolverseLoco]

I mean, if it’s just about the Jackson reverse headstock, there’s Ebay vendors that sell those necks. Just saying.

Well, it "was" all about the Jackson reverse head stock, it was all about it for well over 1 obsessive year now, and no, there isn't and hasn't been one single E-Bay vendor with that Jackson pointy reverse bass neck in that entire years time frame, believe me, I looked everyday , 10 times a day, it just doesn't exist. I bought a Fender Chinese jazz neck last year for something like $60, just to see what Id get. I had them make it in all satin with the white square inlays and a white binding. It took them a month to make it and another month for me to get it, and I got it and it is FANTASTIC, so all these people who complain about cheap Chinese necks, they didn't get it from the guy who made mine over there. So end of last Jan I gave the same Chinese people my crappy sketches and horrible micrometer readings of my regular Jackson neck, and told them to reverse it and they are doing that, like I mentioned with pictures in this thread. I challenge you (in a friendly way) to find me even one person, E-Bay, Chinese, Wish, Ali Baba, whatever, that makes a reverse pointy, or even reverse banana head stock bass neck for that matter. I'm not talking about that silly looking Fender reverse 'paddle' or the slim version of that paddle either. I am going to put my money on your failure to do so..lol (again, in a good way).. I am going to get over this whole reverse head stock thing, just give me time.. the Chinese still have their creation of mine, that one day,, one day I will get. Whether I do anything with it, that's another story, as the Fender one they made me, that is still in my closet.

 

[TerribleTim68]

You do realize that the Jackson headstock was literally cut from a Fender headstock, right? That’s how that shape came to be. Jackson, Charvelle, B.C. Rich, they all used Fender necks at first and then Fender sued them over the headstock shape. So they all took that Fender headstock and cut part of it off so it looked different and they couldn’t be sued. So just take your Fender neck sitting in the closet and cut the Jackson shape out of it.