The confusion arises from the fact he hasn't updated his website for a very long time. His website states, for Deep 4/5's, "5-piece laminate neck of rock maple with ebony stringers." You will notice many of the early basses have maple necks and now they have walnut. I assume he has an almost inexhaustable supply of locally grown walnut. Some of the nicest mouse basses I have seen have walnut tops.
The fact is, and this is my opinion, while it appears these are custom basses, Rob has a production schedule and uses whatever materials meet his standards, which are very high. My ordering experience, which was different from others posted in this forum, consisted of being emailed 3 Deep body pix (see below) from which to choose. If I choose from the 3, the wait was 6 months, if I wanted something else, well, it wasn't 6 months.
Thankfully the middle one spoke to me and I choose that one. When I ordered my bass, I was expecting a maple neck, like the website says, but was told it was walnut. At first I was disappointed but after receiving the bass, I fell in love with the walnut/ebony and wouldn't have it any other way. The neck is straight and hard as a rock with an incredibly smooth finish. The strings stay in tune. I rarely have to tune the instrument.
I spoke and emailed with Rob at length about why I choose to buy a bass from him, my style of playing and where I wanted to go with my music. In the end I trusted Rob to provide me with an instrument to achieve my goals and he did. I constantly get compliments on the sound and look of the instrument, which is a Deep 5 with a high C.
By the way, the photo doesn't do the top justice. It has a 3 dimensional look to the grain and it looks like velvet, with a shifting sheen in stage lights. Definitely unique.
