They had some COVID and customs related delays. I called last Friday and they got their basses in. Should be getting it at the end of the week hopefully. Yeah I didn’t know about their track record until recently but I’m gonna stay optimistic! I’ll for sure put down my thoughts when I finally get it.
I got the bass last night and it's interesting that's for sure. There are some definite pros and cons.
The neck is awesome. I'm used to fender 4 spacing/shape and gloss finishes but this thing felt natural to play immediately. The rosewood fingerboard looks unusual and kind of looks like fake wood but it could be the way they sanded it. Regardless it feel and plays great.
It took a bit to setup comfortably but it's good now. This is also my first 5 string so to it took me longer to get the feel right. The truss rod adjustment wheel at the bottom made adjustments super easy. Bridge isn't bad either as it was easy to adjust and I have no complaints here.
The Fishman setup is sick. It has a ton of variety between the 3 voices and single coil tap. I think I'm going to add a third one in the middle position so I can get a full pickup spectrum. I play mostly electronic, funk, rock, and metal but you can play any sort of style on this thing. EQ is great too it's more clear and neutral versus any other preamp I've played. The control cavity also has a good deal of space which is great for me as I want to add a killswitch, third pickup separate voice switch, and battery pack potentially.
There is some quality control issues. The big one is the fingerboard has a tiny crack near one of the inlays. Looks like they sealed it with glue or epoxy. It doesn't effect playability but this is not something you would expect from a brand new instrument. The truss rod adjustment wheel looks rusted. One of the inlays in the upper registers is kinda dirty and that dirt is glued in. Not a huge deal but there are some wood shavings in the electronics cavity. It is a bit neck heavy with the body being a bit too light for the neck. It's not extreme but it's there.
It was also supposed to include a deluxe gigbag but they forgot that or perhaps they shipped it separately. I was supposed to receive an email on shipping but they rushed it out so I was pleasantly surprised when It came in. I'm going to call shortly about the gig bag and fingerboard crack as they are just opening.
Overall this is very fun to play and the fishman pickups are a huge plus. For this price however there should not be the level of quality control there is. I honestly wouldn't mention the other stuff if there wasn't that small crack in the fingerboard but that is pretty bad. I'll keep this bass for a while as I do like how it plays. Still haven't decided if I can make it a forever bass with mods but we'll see.
