I've been watching the Rondo site daily for months, hoping for a sale on fretless basses that weren't medium scale. I figured go for the 6-string if possible. Fortunately, this bass popped up on the site.
Link Removed
Bought it with a generic hardcase, so the bass doesn't fit exactly into it. I'll keep the cardboard pieces in it to hold it steady. I already pressed my luck having a cheap guitar delivered without a case.
Thankfully, the bass arrived fine. No damage. Nothing out of the ordinary. Amazingly, the bass was actually in tune: B E A D G C. The nut looks like crap though, but functional. My SX Furrian guitar's nut was a disaster.
The Flatwound strings are, for the most part, terrible. The low B and E string have weird kinks in them. The B is dead. I never encountered anything like it. It's great if I always wanted a muted low-B sound... I don't though.
Action is all over the place, but somehow I can get a mwah sound out of the G string. Intonation: terrible. Doesn't matter, those strings will change anyways and a proper set up.
The battery is actually good so it worked after I connected it up to my amp. While I know I'm changing the strings, it does sound good to my ear. Controls work fine. Knobs turn: tone changes correctly.
Fret-dots seem to be in the right place, no fretlines. Neck feels smooth, and easy to play. Doesn't feel so wide that it's stretching and killing my hand when I play. Only a tiny blemish on the fretboard that won't affect anything.
So while it's the excitement of a new instrument, it really is a joy to play right now even with the awful strings. On with the pictures to prove it:
Link Removed
Bought it with a generic hardcase, so the bass doesn't fit exactly into it. I'll keep the cardboard pieces in it to hold it steady. I already pressed my luck having a cheap guitar delivered without a case.
Thankfully, the bass arrived fine. No damage. Nothing out of the ordinary. Amazingly, the bass was actually in tune: B E A D G C. The nut looks like crap though, but functional. My SX Furrian guitar's nut was a disaster.
The Flatwound strings are, for the most part, terrible. The low B and E string have weird kinks in them. The B is dead. I never encountered anything like it. It's great if I always wanted a muted low-B sound... I don't though.
Action is all over the place, but somehow I can get a mwah sound out of the G string. Intonation: terrible. Doesn't matter, those strings will change anyways and a proper set up.
The battery is actually good so it worked after I connected it up to my amp. While I know I'm changing the strings, it does sound good to my ear. Controls work fine. Knobs turn: tone changes correctly.
Fret-dots seem to be in the right place, no fretlines. Neck feels smooth, and easy to play. Doesn't feel so wide that it's stretching and killing my hand when I play. Only a tiny blemish on the fretboard that won't affect anything.
So while it's the excitement of a new instrument, it really is a joy to play right now even with the awful strings. On with the pictures to prove it:
