- Apr 20, 2009
- 2,620
- 4,666
- Disclosures
- Endorsements: your name could be here, Mr. Sadowsky!
I’ve seen a couple of transparent basses, like here
and started jonesing for an acrylic Precision-style bass. There are a couple of threads on Talkbass but none with anything that's currently available. A quick google search found this bass Shelly New Store Factory Custom White Acrylic Body 4 Strings Jazz Bass Precision P Electric Bass Guitars Musical Instrument Shop - Guitar - AliExpress on AliExpress and I figured the price was right, if it didn’t work out as a playable bass I could always hang it on the wall. There weren't any specs, I couldn’t even tell if it was short scale or long scale. So in mid-November 2022 I ordered one. Here's my experience so far:
Ordering: C
As I mentioned, there are no specifications other than it's 39 inches long, and an estimated delivery of mid-December (hah!). Shipping was another $110, but that seems pretty reasonable to carefully pack (HAH!) and ship from China to my door in Houston Heights.
Payment: A-
There were not a lot of payment options, I used PayPal, which would have been my preference. The price was $208 with $110 shipping. No tax or other costs.
Communications: B
They immediately responded with a message, email confirming the order, and stating that it would be 30-40 days but they had to indicate the status as shipped in order to “protect it available all the time”. The only way to communicate with the shop is through the AliExpress application, but when I did message them they responded quickly, bearing in mind the time difference. About a week after their 40 day estimate I messaged them and they hopped on it, sending me pictures of the build in-progress and asking for another week. They sent more pictures and a message as requested when it actually shipped about 10 days later.
Shipping and Tracking: B-
There’s no way to track international shipments once they hit customs, but this was shipped on January 6th and arrived at my door January 12th, pretty amazing!
Packing: F
See the pictures. This was just form-fitting Styrofoam with packing tape all around it. It is a miracle that it arrived in the condition it did. And I got little styrofoam pieces all over my house.
Received Condition: B-
The volume knob had come off, and was bouncing around in the bottom of the packing. I was concerned that it could have scratched up the acrylic but everything looked pristine. The pickups had also come out of the pickup covers. Everything else looked good.
Overall impressions: A
Wow! It looks even better than the pictures, the clarity of the body is amazing. But also, wow this is heavy. It exceeded the limit on my kitchen scale, it’s probably something like 14 ¼ to 14 ½ pounds. Heavy! Everything works but the output level is very low, I need to move the pickups back into the covers. It may need some foam in there to keep them up. It is a long-scale 34" bass, with 1 3/4" nut width. The neck is chunky but the setup is good, straight with a little relief, intonation is good, it buzzes a little across all frets so I need to raise the action slightly, but I think it's playable out of the box, which is pretty good for a $200 bass.
and started jonesing for an acrylic Precision-style bass. There are a couple of threads on Talkbass but none with anything that's currently available. A quick google search found this bass Shelly New Store Factory Custom White Acrylic Body 4 Strings Jazz Bass Precision P Electric Bass Guitars Musical Instrument Shop - Guitar - AliExpress on AliExpress and I figured the price was right, if it didn’t work out as a playable bass I could always hang it on the wall. There weren't any specs, I couldn’t even tell if it was short scale or long scale. So in mid-November 2022 I ordered one. Here's my experience so far:
Ordering: C
As I mentioned, there are no specifications other than it's 39 inches long, and an estimated delivery of mid-December (hah!). Shipping was another $110, but that seems pretty reasonable to carefully pack (HAH!) and ship from China to my door in Houston Heights.
Payment: A-
There were not a lot of payment options, I used PayPal, which would have been my preference. The price was $208 with $110 shipping. No tax or other costs.
Communications: B
They immediately responded with a message, email confirming the order, and stating that it would be 30-40 days but they had to indicate the status as shipped in order to “protect it available all the time”. The only way to communicate with the shop is through the AliExpress application, but when I did message them they responded quickly, bearing in mind the time difference. About a week after their 40 day estimate I messaged them and they hopped on it, sending me pictures of the build in-progress and asking for another week. They sent more pictures and a message as requested when it actually shipped about 10 days later.
Shipping and Tracking: B-
There’s no way to track international shipments once they hit customs, but this was shipped on January 6th and arrived at my door January 12th, pretty amazing!
Packing: F
See the pictures. This was just form-fitting Styrofoam with packing tape all around it. It is a miracle that it arrived in the condition it did. And I got little styrofoam pieces all over my house.
Received Condition: B-
The volume knob had come off, and was bouncing around in the bottom of the packing. I was concerned that it could have scratched up the acrylic but everything looked pristine. The pickups had also come out of the pickup covers. Everything else looked good.
Overall impressions: A
Wow! It looks even better than the pictures, the clarity of the body is amazing. But also, wow this is heavy. It exceeded the limit on my kitchen scale, it’s probably something like 14 ¼ to 14 ½ pounds. Heavy! Everything works but the output level is very low, I need to move the pickups back into the covers. It may need some foam in there to keep them up. It is a long-scale 34" bass, with 1 3/4" nut width. The neck is chunky but the setup is good, straight with a little relief, intonation is good, it buzzes a little across all frets so I need to raise the action slightly, but I think it's playable out of the box, which is pretty good for a $200 bass.
