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Wishbass Club

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Anyone know when wish modded his headstock design. My older ones looked like hollowed out 2x4s now they are sleak and somewhat contoured. I dig em.

My first Wishbass has the bigger headstock, the newer one is smaller. (the serial numbers are listed under my name above) I like the look of the newer one, but its a little tougher to restring, not at all impossible, just tedious.
 
Ahh, the reason behind the statement "The seller ended this listing early because the item is no longer available for sale."

Yeah, I wondered where that Hyper went to.

check out my new Amboyna knobs... seller on ebay makes all sorts of wood knobs. I bought matching one's for my other two wishes (spalted maple, and burl maple).

Amboyna
Ambrosia
Close enough, eh?

amboyna.jpg
 
I dropped my Bubinga/Walnut Nemo model off at a trusted local shop this week to get a couple of buzzy spots planed/levelled out of the fingerboard. This isn't something I wanted to take on myself, as I'd probably trash the Ipe fingerboard.

I bought this bass second-hand, so I really didn't have the relationship with Wish to send it back to him for a repair, but we'll see how it goes. Since this is my first Wishbass, I don't know if everybody's action is as stupid-low as mine (which I really like), so I told the guy that I didn't want them to mess with the nut/bridge heights, if at all avoidable. The bass just sings in all the other spots.

Anyhow, he was writing up the ticket, and I'm reading upside-down as he's going along, and he writes, 'buzzes at 2, 3 on D and G. No truss rod.'

OK, sounds right.

Then he writes 'plane fingerboard?'

OK, I'm cool with that.

Then he writes 'cook neck?'

AAAAAUGH! :eek: :confused:

I dearly hope it doesn't come to that! At least they're supposed to call me before anything .... drastic. :-)
 
I think that was just a note to himself meaning that because there is no truss rod, if the neck is not straight he would have to heat and clamp it to get it straight. Not major. I think he will get it with when he planes the board though. I did.

And yes mine are stupid low as well.

Good luck.
 
The action on my fretted Wishbass is very low, came that way. The neck is perfectly straight so there's no problem. The action is lower than my Rickenbacker.

The fretted bass came with fairly high action, more than I wanted, so I've been slowly filing down the bridge. The lower I get it the more 'mwah' I have in the sound. (plucking placement has a bigger effect on that however).
 
Wenge top/back, purpleheart/walnut/maple neck, bubinga fretboard, fretlines, vol/tone dual pot. There is no amount of perfection in this thing; glue is poking out of the seams, the neck contour isn't uniform all the way down (hands tools probly), the lines get quite sloppy the higher they are. But the tone is excellent even unplugged, except for the buzzing. I thought I would replace the p/up with maybe a Carvin stacked HB, but there is absolutely no removing the current unit!
I actually asked him about a wooden cover back in June when I was getting my ideas together, and he said no!
I ordered my JB in the end June; got a Completion email early Nov., showing no lines, no dual pot; received another completion email and received the bass in late Dec. Six friggin months
If I get another one from him, it will have less-exotic woods, no lines, a KA soapbar, hopefully not glued into the body, and I might supply a metal bridge; There is no way of ground the wiring to the strings! And no shielding. And his wiring skills don't seem to be up to par; I've removed everything removable to start finishing and the black wire broke off from the jack.
I asked for a neck only of purpleheart. I got layers cuz "I put stringers in all my basses." What gets me is that when I was figuring a price with him, I asked what it would cost to have the three African woods for the stringers, and he kept saying plus $100; so I left out the exotic woods and thought I would get a plainly purple neck all the way through the instrument. And the completion emails show walnut and maple stringers. Grr. And I don't get the deal with the center body line. It's just a thin piece of maple that adds alot of glue. Wood vibrates, glue doesn't. How am I to know he does that to everything he touches? Grr.
I sound mad. I'm more like this:
:eyebrow:
 
I thought I would replace the p/up with maybe a Carvin stacked HB, but there is absolutely no removing the current unit!
I actually asked him about a wooden cover back in June when I was getting my ideas together, and he said no!
I ordered my JB in the end June; got a Completion email early Nov., showing no lines, no dual pot; received another completion email and received the bass in late Dec. Six friggin months

Wow! Six months! Yeah, I think I would be pretty pissed too. Sorry to hear about that. Something I've considered before - if you did request imported woods for the instrument, he may have not had them in stock, and had to wait for them to come in. I also noticed when dealing with him that unless you ask him direct questions, he doesn't offer up much info. If he didn't have the wood in stock, he may have not said anything. If there's any truth to him finishing a bass every day, that means he must have a lot of them around his shop in all sorts of stages, and I would imagine that things could EASILY get lost in the shuffle.

I have to admit, on my recent build I kept after him - asking him if he was getting close to send some pics. At one point it didn't seem like he had done much - and that was over a month after I paid him. Then he told me that mine had "gotten to the bottom of the pile". All in all, it took him about three months, which was fine with me. Only one month past his original two month estimate.

Another point I made was to ask him what wood he had in stock to build it with. Originally, I wanted the same Burl Maple top as I have on my Lobe, but he said he wouldn't have any dry for about a year. I might bug him again in a few months to see if he has more for another.

Perhaps he has come around on the wood control plates. I would think that it would be just as easy to manufacture one in wood as it would be to make them in brushed aluminium.
 
So after reading all of this, my question is, do these basses actually sound good or are they just for looks? And those of you that say they sound good, what type of music do you play?

well, I like them for their looks, their playability, their sound (well, I like my custom with the Kent Armstrong pick up better than my other two wishbasses). Are they as nice as other, higher end custom basses? No.

But for the price, they are pretty freakin' cool.

I'm not playing bass in any band right now so I really can't speak to that. I suppose that if I were to use one of these in a band situation, you could use them for a bunch of different styles of music.
 
So after reading all of this, my question is, do these basses actually sound good or are they just for looks? And those of you that say they sound good, what type of music do you play?

I play in a cover tune rock band, from mellow tunes all the way up to heavy metal, but mostly dancable stuff. I would play my Wishbasses more in my band, but the only problem I have had is that the output is not that high on any of them. Granted I am used to active basses, but my passive Fenders are louder as well. I could turn my amp up to compensate, but I hate messing around with the volume controls during a set and I don't use volume pedals. But other than that, yeah they sound great. No problems with tone at all. I've never tried a fretted Wishbass, but you really can't ask for much more in a fretless than you get in a Wish as far as I'm concerned, at least for the price.

But for anyone wondering about these oddities, yeah, they are not for everybody, but they are the real deal. Wishbasses are not novelties, they are really nice basses for those are are suited for them.
 
but the only problem I have had is that the output is not that high on any of them.

Yep, this is the only real issue iv come across as well. Even though i have a kent armstrong in mine, which Wish describes as "hot", i don't really think so. don't get me wrong though it sounds great and its dead silent, it just needs alittle more umph! I plan on putting one of these in there.



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Hey,

Well Gubna I talked to Wish yesterday again about my control plates. He argued that pure wood plates would not be stable or solid enough and would crack. He wants to try veneering an aluminum back with my specified wood samples. I told him to try it and if I didn't like em he will replace them with the "weaker" wood ones.

As for the staying after him, aloof builder he is...My only thought is that he has become busier than he ever thought he would be. When I got my first Lobe #269 it only took him a month and I had pics of the bass done just not lacquered yet. I guess that is why I started floating around the classifieds looking for these already done.

As for the hum(grounding)...all I had to do for both of mine was put a thin piece of sheet metal under my pickups and in the cavity for my pots to butt up against. I am noise free.

Good luck all.
 
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