Posted this in the other Pushic thread earlier, but here is the review. Please keep in mind that these are first impressions as I've only had the bass a couple of weeks:
Positives:
- The bass is visually beautiful. The wood selection was superb (walnut body, cocobolo top and matching headstock, kingwood fingerboard, neck laminations include maple, purpleheart, and cocobolo). The headstock cocobolo topcap is simply stunning, and the kingwood fingerboard is probably the nicest piece of wood I could imagine period.
- Nice gold hardware - although I stuck with his "generic" hardware selections, I am impressed with the way everything "works" together.
- Outstanding electronics. I have Bartolini soapbars with the fantastic 3-way Bart EQ (selectable mid controls at 250, 500, and 800 hz), seperate coil/tap selectors for each pickup, and push/pull active/passive switch on the volume pot. The bass is quiet and very, very versatile with all these choices.
- The bass sounds characteristically like a fretless bass - very buttery and "woody" for a basic sound. Putting the pickups both into series and boosting the lows and high mids will get a nice rock, growly tone as well. All in all it's a very well-intonated, exceptionally "sounding" instrument.
- The weight and balance of the bass are great - even with the wood choices, the bass is lighter than my G&L L2K - I'm guessing it's right at 10 lbs. Balance is perfect and the bass is very comfortable on the strap.
- The neck is both a positive and a negative. It's a player's neck...assymetrical in design in that the curvature is larger on the bass side and thinner on the treble side. Well done, but it will take some getting used to (sorry for the grammar there). It does play very easily and quickly in any case.
- I love the oil finish - nice to the touch and a definite "players" finish...the paste wax final finish should have been more complete and "ample"; however, this is something I can renew easily.
- Dave's communication and response time are both excellent - more on this later.
Negatives:
- The bass took 14 months to complete (the site advertised 32-34 weeks when I ordered the bass). This is not completely Dave's fault as he had several things happen in his life during the past year. No harm, no foul - but prospective buyers should know this.
- Given that it took this long - and this has been said by several people here - the fit and finish are not what they should be, even at his price point. There are four distinct places (near the nut, on the fingerboard, on the neck, and on the horns) where the wood was not sanded/steel-wool'd enough and the bass is noticeably rough (even through the oil/paste wax finish). The fingerboard has two noticeable faults - one spot looks like glue or something got spread onto the wood and then the wax finish was applied over it - pretty permanent. The sides of the fingerboard/neck are not completely straight - Dave does not use routers but does this by hand and feel; however, it took me no time to notice it when sliding my hand up and down the neck/fingerboard. There are unfinished sanding marks on the side of the fingerboard (bass side - right by the nut) The "ramp" down of the neck/fingerboard into the body on the front has a pretty big error in the execution/joining to the cocobolo topcap.
- Concerning the fingerboard...the upper edge is angled too far "in" toward the center of the neck....more than just beveled. Doesn't affect playability at all, but not quite right.
- The strap button on the upper horn was attached directly to the very end of the horn so that the button "bottom" does not sit flush against the wood...this is a very puzzling decision to me, but perhaps it's for the best given the angle of the button through the strap. It is, at least, very solidly attached.
- Here's another puzzling "other" - the B string is not as defined and tight as I expected it to be from ALL DP's reviews (even from those instruments with problems, all users seem to remark on his very strong B string). I did send him strings - a brand new Optima 24K gold 5 string set. He remarked that the B string wasn't as defined and/or "tight" as he is used to, and this might very well be a function of the strings...more to follow in about a year when I may change the strings out. At this point, after spending 60+ bucks on a string set, I'm going to wait a while and see how the bass "settles" in before changing strings. It's definitely a usable B string with a nice low end sound - as this is my first 5 string, my expectations might be unrealistic.
I will mitigate some of my negatives by saying that Dave has offered to work/fix all of them. I have decided to wait until I'm physically living on the Eastern side of the U.S. - I'll just carry the bass to him in a few years if I feel there's really a need. Some of the fine finishing stuff I've mentioned I'll take care of myself as I've worked quite a bit with wood during my life as well.
Hope this makes sense,
Jay
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