NS Design WAV5 and WAV4 RADIUS Repair

[LenMinNJ]

I recently bought a used NS Design WAV5 Radius bass guitar from Guitar Center. I paid a total of $640 for it, including shipping and tax.

This bass was built in Indonesia in 2016. I've been playing very high quality basses for many years. In comparison to them, this low cost WAV5 Radius has been somewhat of a let-down.

It has a few features that I really like. I like the idea of having a humbucker and a piezo pickup. I like the way it uses standard strings instead of the bothersome double-ball strings on the old Steinbergers. I like the way the radiused body feels, and I like the shape of the neck. It balances very nicely.

It's also pretty light weight: 7.4 pounds. In contrast, my Warwick Thumb NT5 weighs 11 pounds. Big difference!

My main complaint is with the electronics/pickups. And then I feel that the overall workmanship is not as good as it could be.

The single passive EMG humbucker pickup hums. The hum gets louder and quieter as I move the bass around. In some positions, the hum is pretty much gone. But in others, it's very noticeable.

Tracking down the cause, I think it's humming because the control cavity itself isn't shielded well enough.

The control cavity cover plate has a foil backing. That's good. It's got a very low resistance so it will probably do a good job shielding, as long as it makes a good connection to the electronics ground.

The cavity itself is painted with conductive paint over the body's wood. The paint is not very conductive. Measured across roughly a quarter-inch, I measured between 50 and 100 Ohms. Across an inch it measured over 200 Ohms. This is not good.

I expect that the hum could be reduced by shielding the cavity with copper foil and grounding the cover to it.

Another notable problem is that if I attack the strings even a little hard, I hear a lot of distortion from both the humbucker and the piezo.

The workmanship on the exterior of the bass is pretty nice. My WAV5 has the matte black finish and it looks fine. All of the hardware is very good quality. But the workmanship inside the control cavity is very rough. And the control cavity cover feels cheap.

I've been in touch with NS Design, and I may send it back to them to have a look.

I'll update this post when I have news.

 

[LenMinNJ]

I've been in touch with NS Design.

My bass was built in 2016 so it's out of warranty. To have NS Design repair it, I'd have to ship it to them, pay them $50 an hour for tech services, pay for any replacement parts that are necessary, and then have them ship it back to me.

It seems to need two things: a new buffer/pre-amp board and to be shielded properly. With shipping, the repairs would probably cost me around $200.

Since I'm an engineer, I've decided to do the repairs myself.

I might have bought a new replacement buffer/pre-amp board from NS Design, but they don't sell them. And after the failure, I don't have much confidence in that board.

I ordered a roll of 2-inch copper tape on eBay for $13, an EMG BQC System 3-band/4-hole pre-amp for $161, and an EMG PB3 piezo pickup buffer for $29. I bought the BQC System from Best Bass Gear (bestbassgear.com) - as a new customer they gave me a 10% discount from the usual price of $179. Since EMG's retail dealers didn't carry it, I bought the PB3 directly from EMG. Total cost for materials was $203. My labor will be free.

The EMG pre-amp has a fine reputation, and according to the tech support folks at EMG, it will work fine with the passive EMG pickup in my WAV5 RADIUS. It will also work fine with the bridge piezo pickup if I add a PB3 buffer between the pickup and the BQC pre-amp.

I had also considered the Aguilar OBP-3sk/pp pre-amp. At $149, it was slightly less expensive than the EMG pre-amp, but by itself didn't have all the pieces I needed for the repair. So I went with the EMG BQC System.

I'll post updates as the repairs progress.

By the way, the folks at NS Design told me that due to quality problems, they no longer buy their low-cost instruments from the Indonesian company that was making their WAV4 and WAV5 RADIUS basses.

 

[Gilmourisgod]

The copper shielding should help, the conductive paint is overpriced and underperforming IMO. I used it on some inaccessible wiring routes that would otherwise be impossible to get to, but if I can get to an area, it gets copper. Looks like Ned found out the hard way that farming stuff out to Indonesia is not always the best idea. I have an original 86’ XP-2, the build quality was impeccable. I never had any problem finding double ball strings in the gauges I wanted, but I get that the Market Speaks. I’d love to try an NS of any stripe, but they are Unobtanium in my area.

 

[jdc866]

I've been in touch with NS Design.

My bass was built in 2016 so it's out of warranty. To have NS Design repair it, I'd have to ship it to them, pay them $50 an hour for tech services, pay for any replacement parts that are necessary, and then have them ship it back to me.

It seems to need two things: a new buffer/pre-amp board and to be shielded properly. With shipping, the repairs would probably cost me around $200.

Since I'm an engineer, I've decided to do the repairs myself.

I might have bought a new replacement buffer/pre-amp board from NS Design, but they don't sell them. And after the failure, I don't have much confidence in that board.

I ordered a roll of 2-inch copper tape on eBay for $13, an EMG BQC System 3-band/4-hole pre-amp for $161, and an EMG PB3 piezo pickup buffer for $29. I bought the BQC System from Best Bass Gear (bestbassgear.com) - as a new customer they gave me a 10% discount from the usual price of $179. Since EMG's retail dealers didn't carry it, I bought the PB3 directly from EMG. Total cost for materials was $203. My labor will be free.

The EMG pre-amp has a fine reputation, and according to the tech support folks at EMG, it will work fine with the passive EMG pickup in my WAV5 RADIUS. It will also work fine with the bridge piezo pickup if I add a PB3 buffer between the pickup and the BQC pre-amp.

I had also considered the Aguilar OBP-3sk/pp pre-amp. At $149, it was slightly less expensive than the EMG pre-amp, but by itself didn't have all the pieces I needed for the repair. So I went with the EMG BQC System.

I'll post updates as the repairs progress.

By the way, the folks at NS Design told me that due to quality problems, they no longer buy their low-cost instruments from the Indonesian company that was making their WAV4 and WAV5 RADIUS basses.

Did they mention if they’re still made in Indonesia? Looking at one on Reverb and it’s Indonesian...don’t want to jump on it if there’s a chance it’s got that low quality build.

Played their top end fretless 5...fell in love. But the Wav is in my price range...

 

[LenMinNJ]

As I understand what they told me, they've stopped making them in Indonesia because of the quality problems.

I've received the copper tape for the control cavity shielding, and expect to receive the EMG pre-amp/EQ over the next week or so.

Their Czech instruments are wonderful!

 

[jdc866]

As I understand what they told me, they've stopped making them in Indonesia because of the quality problems.

I've received the copper tape for the control cavity shielding, and expect to receive the EMG pre-amp/EQ over the next week or so.

Their Czech instruments are wonderful!

Yes I played the CR (I think) 5 fretless...loved it. Didn’t have $1,800 tho. Sad face.

 

[Jeff Scott]

Their Czech instruments are wonderful!

Yes, they are! Loved my CR4M.

 

[LenMinNJ]

The EMG PB4 piezo pickup buffer arrived.

I'm waiting for the EMG BQC-HZ system to arrive to get started with the repair/conversion.

 

[Spidey2112]

I recently picked up a WAV Radius 4, from another TB member... have not noticed any hum coming from the bass, in any position. Upon receipt of it, I checked it out pretty be well... maybe, it's hit and miss, like it is with a lot of manufacturers (no matter the country of origin). It's a '16, made in Indonesia, too.

"Another notable problem is that if I attack the strings even a little hard, I hear a lot of distortion from both the humbucker and the piezo."

How did you have the tone for each pickup adjusted?

I'll take it to rehearsal soon, and see if I notice anything there.

Good luck with the mods, though!

 

[LenMinNJ]

How did you have the tone for each pickup adjusted?

All tone positions unless I cut all the highs. If I hit it even a little hard, there's trebly distortion. No distortion with any of my other basses.

Enjoy your new WAV4 Radius!

 

[Gilmourisgod]

I seemed to remember reading that there were trim pots on the electronics for those basses so you could twiddle the piezo. Anything like that under the hood?

 

[LenMinNJ]

There's one trim pot for the piezo pickup gain. It doesn't have any effect on the distortion.

 

[sonojono]

I bought my WAV4 B-Stock from NS Design themselves a year ago also made from Indonesia and experienced no problems until recently the battery component stopped working and no sound was coming out of the bass. So I had shipped it back to NS Design under warranty (which btw is only 1 year. RIP) so I barely made it under the warranty by a week!!

Still waiting to hear from them on the report of my bass but overall experience with my WAV, I am in LOVE and will look into buying their higher end CR4 models from Czech.

 

[Zooberwerx]

Aside from the electronics issues, were there other shortcomings that need to be addressed? I see the Wav5's going for ~$800 shipped on Reverb and trying to decide if it's worth the risk.

Riis

 

[jdc866]

Aside from the electronics issues, were there other shortcomings that need to be addressed? I see the Wav5's going for ~$800 shipped on Reverb and trying to decide if it's worth the risk.

Riis

I opted to avoid it. I played a fretless CR and it was nice, but I’m not sure the WAV series is quite up to snuff.

Emailed them about it and they sent me a super long email that didn’t actually answer my question of whether they had manufacting issues in Indonesia. Just a long non-answer, so that sealed the deal for me.

 

[Turnaround]

The copper shielding should help, the conductive paint is overpriced and underperforming IMO.

It depends on the quality of the shielding paint and how well it was applied. I was a believer in copper foil until I found a quality shielding paint and now I never use copper foil. One of the things that convinced me was that NASA uses shielding paint in the mission critical electronics rather than copper foil.

I think the biggest single problem with what we encounter in production line basses is that many of them the paint is not well applied. It does require a few coats, but when it's done it is every bit as good as copper foil and it can be applied in areas where it is difficult to apply foil.

 

[Gilmourisgod]

@Turnaround
What are you using? I got one of the little micro-bottles of MG Supershield. It seems to work, but it dries so fast that it clumps up, and a second coat seems to partly dissolve the first.

 

[Turnaround]

@Turnaround
What are you using? I got one of the little micro-bottles of MG Supershield. It seems to work, but it dries so fast that it clumps up, and a second coat seems to partly dissolve the first.

I'm using MG Chemicals carbon shielding paint, I think it's called "Total Ground" in a spray. I found it easy to apply and usually do 3 coats. I tried their copper/silver paint at the insistence of a highly respected builder, but I could not detect any difference, except price. The copper/silver stuff was about 3 times more expensive.

 

[LenMinNJ]

Aside from the electronics issues, were there other shortcomings that need to be addressed?

Well, the workmanship inside the control cavity isn't very good, but you'll almost never see that.

Other than that and the electronics problem, it looks and plays fine. The hardware is very nicely made. The finish on the exterior is done well. It has an EMG humbucker pickup - nothing wrong with that.

 

[LenMinNJ]

Still waiting to hear from them on the report of my bass ...

Please let us know what they found.