embellisher said:
No problem. If you want to mail a check, no more or less than 10 dollars, that would be fine. You could also Paypal but the paypal fees are getting up there.
Your input is very important - especially since you are gigging.
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Lets Buy A Wish Part II
- Thread starter coffee-sipper
- Start date
No problem. If you want to mail a check, no more or less than 10 dollars, that would be fine. You could also Paypal but the paypal fees are getting up there.
Your input is very important - especially since you are gigging.
For my official review I am going to reiterate what I said previously: sb69coupe has the Wish now.
When I put the order in for mine it will be
a model with just a 2 octave fret board
unfinished
no side markers (you'll see)
no pick up
no controls
string ferrules
possibly a truss rod (we will see how it holds up)
maple fret board
ash body
2 octave fret board (the 3 octave was way too long for me)
either his hyperbass or something one off. To be safe I would go with something he frequently builds. At these price points Wish can't afford to eat little mistakes like the big builders do, they become the character of the piece.
I am going to mount a pezio to accentuate that upright tone - I use an volume pedal so no need for that - as long as there is a rear routed control cavity to run the piezo through. The simpler the better - though I wish I got to try the tape wounds on the Wish - he was out and use half rounds or something.
Anyway, I really like the neck on this thing - huge and chunky just like an upright. The sound is fantastic. If you buy one get it in the raw version - you will avoid the things that some have complained about and maybe even save some cash too. Personally I'd use a tung oil finish to finish mine myself. The ash on the back of this is very nice and resonant and is probably my favorite wood for a bass. All in all I like the simplicity and ergonomics very much. For 200 dollars it far surpases my expectations of playability, sound and feel. I new what to expect finish wise. Also, I don't play fretless but I have done pretty well on this one. The only other fretless basses I liked were the Jaco relic and a 5 string Pedulla penta-buzz.
I'd like to see what the independant bridge looks like on this. I bet it changes the sound but the added adjustability and stability would be worth it - IMHO.
One more note: Wish said he was moving out of his shop and back into his home shop so he could be able to increase the quality of each bass (bottom line, I guess when you rent space you have a quota unwritten or not). When I place my order it'll be when he has settled back into his home shop.
Some of the items in Wish shop were excellent and very drool worthy. His apprentice was working on a Ric style bass that looked superbe! The bloodwood bass he now has on eBay is stunning and very well crafted. Remember how much this thing costs when you play it - for an American hand made custom bass with exotic woods for 200 dollars that sounds fantastic and plays great and isn't a cookie cutter bass! I'll take one and if you get it raw and do the final steps yourself, (the finish usually doubles the price of a bass) like I said earlier, you will have an absolute gem of an instrument.
When I put the order in for mine it will be
a model with just a 2 octave fret board
unfinished
no side markers (you'll see)
no pick up
no controls
string ferrules
possibly a truss rod (we will see how it holds up)
maple fret board
ash body
2 octave fret board (the 3 octave was way too long for me)
either his hyperbass or something one off. To be safe I would go with something he frequently builds. At these price points Wish can't afford to eat little mistakes like the big builders do, they become the character of the piece.
I am going to mount a pezio to accentuate that upright tone - I use an volume pedal so no need for that - as long as there is a rear routed control cavity to run the piezo through. The simpler the better - though I wish I got to try the tape wounds on the Wish - he was out and use half rounds or something.
Anyway, I really like the neck on this thing - huge and chunky just like an upright. The sound is fantastic. If you buy one get it in the raw version - you will avoid the things that some have complained about and maybe even save some cash too. Personally I'd use a tung oil finish to finish mine myself. The ash on the back of this is very nice and resonant and is probably my favorite wood for a bass. All in all I like the simplicity and ergonomics very much. For 200 dollars it far surpases my expectations of playability, sound and feel. I new what to expect finish wise. Also, I don't play fretless but I have done pretty well on this one. The only other fretless basses I liked were the Jaco relic and a 5 string Pedulla penta-buzz.
I'd like to see what the independant bridge looks like on this. I bet it changes the sound but the added adjustability and stability would be worth it - IMHO.
One more note: Wish said he was moving out of his shop and back into his home shop so he could be able to increase the quality of each bass (bottom line, I guess when you rent space you have a quota unwritten or not). When I place my order it'll be when he has settled back into his home shop.
Some of the items in Wish shop were excellent and very drool worthy. His apprentice was working on a Ric style bass that looked superbe! The bloodwood bass he now has on eBay is stunning and very well crafted. Remember how much this thing costs when you play it - for an American hand made custom bass with exotic woods for 200 dollars that sounds fantastic and plays great and isn't a cookie cutter bass! I'll take one and if you get it raw and do the final steps yourself, (the finish usually doubles the price of a bass) like I said earlier, you will have an absolute gem of an instrument.
coffee-sipper said:
I bought an independent bridge system for my wish bass (a curly maple/purpleheart hyper style)...the bridge position sits too close to the through body holes, so I couldn't mount the bridge pieces the way I wanted. What I did instead, and I think I like better, is take the chrome saddle blocks out of the slides and just place them under each string and let the string tension hold them. I can adjust each strings intonation and height and I haven't drilled any holes AND it looks pretty good, too (much nicer than the corian bridge).
As far as tone, well It hasn't changed at all...which is a big plus!
Next step is to get a P-bass wiring kit and chrome knobs (I want a tone control). I have my electronics cover plate on the rear, it looks alot better this way. Like I promised before, I'll take pics of it and post them when I'm finished.
So I was next on the list, and I picked up the Wishbass from coffee-sipper on Friday afternoon. I noodled around with the bass on Friday evening using my practice amp, and then took it to rehearsal Saturday night and played it through my rig. I'm going to be brutally honest here in my review, but I hope I won't skew anyone elses opinion before they get a chance to review it themselves.
Let's start with first impressions. Everything you've heard about Wish build quality is right on the money. There are runs in the brushed on finish, glue all around the edges of the fingerboard, 80 grit sanding scratches visible in the body wood, rough and uneven edges on the headstock and pickup hole. and the thru-body string holes are not evenly spaced from the butt end of the body. The fret markers are brad nails that are unevenly spaced on the side of the neck, some are in the side of the fingerboard, others fully in the neck wood. The pencil line markings are still on the fingerboard to mark where he installed the nails. The cavity cover is a rough cut piece of unfinished sheet metal.
So, now on to how it feels to play it. The neck is very thick, like an upright. There is some buzz in the neck, and sighting down it shows that there is a hump around the 15th fret on the E string side, and then a bit of a bow around the 9th fret on the same side. The G string side was fairly straight along the entire length. It's somewhat playable and has an acceptable feel overall, given the lack of consistency. The back of the neck is somewhat uneven along the length, not a real uniform taper or shape along the back from nut to heel. The deep cutaway is very cool, and access to the highest octave is unreal.
Now, time to plug it in. Lots of hum. Either there is a bad ground or there's some other grounding issue. With my Hartke 2000 head and VX115 cabinet, I could not get a decent bottom end with this bass. I think it's due to the pickup being immediately next to the "bridge", rather than a bit further away to get a fatter tone. It could also be due to the bass having half-rounds installed rather than flatwounds. It was difficult to get an acceptable tone, and I couldn't use it on any of the normal tunes that I usually play fretless on during rehearsal. Playing up and down the neck, it becomes obvious that the intonation is waaaaaaay out of kilter. At the 15th fret, the fret markers are about a half step higher up the neck than where the correct note is "fretted".
So in summary: poor build quality, poor tone, lots of hum, out of intonation, etc. Not so sure that it's worth $200, at least not to me.
Let's start with first impressions. Everything you've heard about Wish build quality is right on the money. There are runs in the brushed on finish, glue all around the edges of the fingerboard, 80 grit sanding scratches visible in the body wood, rough and uneven edges on the headstock and pickup hole. and the thru-body string holes are not evenly spaced from the butt end of the body. The fret markers are brad nails that are unevenly spaced on the side of the neck, some are in the side of the fingerboard, others fully in the neck wood. The pencil line markings are still on the fingerboard to mark where he installed the nails. The cavity cover is a rough cut piece of unfinished sheet metal.
So, now on to how it feels to play it. The neck is very thick, like an upright. There is some buzz in the neck, and sighting down it shows that there is a hump around the 15th fret on the E string side, and then a bit of a bow around the 9th fret on the same side. The G string side was fairly straight along the entire length. It's somewhat playable and has an acceptable feel overall, given the lack of consistency. The back of the neck is somewhat uneven along the length, not a real uniform taper or shape along the back from nut to heel. The deep cutaway is very cool, and access to the highest octave is unreal.
Now, time to plug it in. Lots of hum. Either there is a bad ground or there's some other grounding issue. With my Hartke 2000 head and VX115 cabinet, I could not get a decent bottom end with this bass. I think it's due to the pickup being immediately next to the "bridge", rather than a bit further away to get a fatter tone. It could also be due to the bass having half-rounds installed rather than flatwounds. It was difficult to get an acceptable tone, and I couldn't use it on any of the normal tunes that I usually play fretless on during rehearsal. Playing up and down the neck, it becomes obvious that the intonation is waaaaaaay out of kilter. At the 15th fret, the fret markers are about a half step higher up the neck than where the correct note is "fretted".
So in summary: poor build quality, poor tone, lots of hum, out of intonation, etc. Not so sure that it's worth $200, at least not to me.
heath_the_great said:i really like that wish...so....is it making a trip down under?
I have a very nice wishbass here in Australia, unfortunately for you to try it out, it is clean out here in Port Hedland, WA. (I'm not even THINKING about packing it off to NSW, so don't ask...
) You may be better off flying to LA to try one (I know which direction I'd rather fly...
)
sb69coupe said:
Cool, Thanks for the in-depth review. I'm curious (beyond all the well documented build issues) at how this bass handles all of the travel considering it's construction. As for the hum, it just crossed my mind that with the string-thru holes as they are (bare wood) and the corian bridge, that there is no way to ground the strings. I know a LONG time ago I had a bass where the ground wire from the bridge broke it's solder point and it had some hum issues (which was the only way I knew). I wonder if that could be the problem. I'll post a question in the luthier's section asking about the effects of grounding (or not) the strings and see what they have to say about that.
sb69coupe, Has there been any discussion as to where the bass is going next. I haven't gotten a route from CoffeeSipper yet so I'm not sure if it's been all hammered out yet, but I'd like to get an idea of around when it'll be coming my way.
LajoieT said:
My wishbass is dead quiet. There are no hum issues at all. If there were, I guess the only rectification would be to install metal string ferrules and connect these to ground.
But, like I said, I am not experiencing any issues of the sort. However, I too, am curious as to what the luthiers say about grounding the bridge.
LajoieT said:
After sb69coupe the bass will go to Jammadave in VA then to FL then the 4 TBers in TX.
which direction? WA..PilbaraBass said:I have a very nice wishbass here in Australia, unfortunately for you to try it out, it is clean out here in Port Hedland, WA. (I'm not even THINKING about packing it off to NSW, so don't ask...
You may be better off flying to LA to try one (I know which direction I'd rather fly...
...ROAD TRIP!jammadave said:
The Wish is going to Jammadave next.
Don't forget to get a picture of you with the bass to upload or send the picture to me and I'll upload it.
Link Removed
ohhhh i wish i wish i got to try that wish...seriously..i love the body shape..and that headstock
ohhhh i wish i wish i got to try that wish...seriously..i love the body shape..and that headstock
heath_the_great said:
When I saw my picture in your post I was a little worried I was going to flamed for the shirt! Good thing the Volvo station wagon isn't in the picture then I would have looked like a complete nerd - actually... the Harley is in the shop and my leather chaps are being cleaned, yeah... that's right.
heh heh heh..i couldnt do that..my uncle has the same style shirtscoffee-sipper said:
only he's an XXXXXXL 
......hey..i drive a Daihatsu Charade
.....and for some reason to a few people on here its a bad thing, i have a few guitar center/ibanez t-shirts ....but yeah..my space bass and ford mustang are in the shop and my bootsy attire is getting dry cleaned 
The pic of Sipper with the wish makes it look teeny!
I'm waiting patiently for the 69coupe review and the Wish's arrival.... Listen, I'm changing heads yet again now that I have this new amazing Schroeder cab, so if it comes to me in the span of time that I have no head, I'll truck it up to a music store to wang on it for review =0) But hopefully that wont be a long span, maybe a few days.
edit: Duhhhh, the review is above, I realize I'd read it already - maybe I thought it was the coffee-sipper's review or something. So I'm just waiting for it to grace/darken my doorstep.
I'm waiting patiently for the 69coupe review and the Wish's arrival.... Listen, I'm changing heads yet again now that I have this new amazing Schroeder cab, so if it comes to me in the span of time that I have no head, I'll truck it up to a music store to wang on it for review =0) But hopefully that wont be a long span, maybe a few days.
edit: Duhhhh, the review is above, I realize I'd read it already - maybe I thought it was the coffee-sipper's review or something. So I'm just waiting for it to grace/darken my doorstep.
