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Wishbass Club

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#41
I don't want to rip on the guy, but let me point out the flaws that I see just from that picture.

1. The bridge is not centered, AT ALL.
2. The neck appears as if it's going like this: (
3. The B string doesn't appear to be on the fretboard 50% of the time
4. The strings appear to be closer at the bridge than at the nut
 
#42
Petary791 said:
1. The bridge is not centered, AT ALL.
Click to expand...

Wish's bridges are just a triangular-cut piece of Corian - no notches. Put it where you want it. My bass has the tiniest of dimples to mark where the bridge should go (longitudinally) to maintain proper scale / intonation if I ever were to pull all the strings off at once.

Not so much on this Hello Kitty / Carcass bass, but on several others, particularly with the front-mounted control plate, the bridges are usually offset to one side to keep out of the way of the plate. I suppose if it was a show-stopper, you could get a different bridge or a narrower one that ended up being symmetrical.

[edit: spelling]
 
#43
PeteH said:
Wish's bridges are just a triangular-cut piece of Corian - no notches. Put it where you want it. My bass has the tiniest of dimples to mark where the bridge should go (longitudinally) to maintain proper scale / intonation if I ever were to pull all the strings off at once.

Not so much on this Hello Kitty / Carcass bass, but on several others, particularly with the front-mounted control plate, the bridges are usually offset to one side to keep out of the way of the plate. I suppose if it was a show-stopper, you could get a different bridge or a narrower one that ended up being symmetrical.

[edit: spelling]
Click to expand...

I regress.

(or whatever they say)
 
#44
My newest Wishbass that I'm expecting in the mail this Friday. My favorite shape so far next to the Scarab. This will be my 8th Wishbass, although I sold two recently and am selling one more now. So my final tally will be five keepers: three Scarabs, one Lobe, and this pointed Peanut. All 4-string fretless.
 
#45
BassDudeSA said:
My newest Wishbass that I'm expecting in the mail this Friday. My favorite shape so far next to the Scarab. This will be my 8th Wishbass, although I sold two recently and am selling one more now. So my final tally will be five keepers: three Scarabs, one Lobe, and this pointed Peanut. All 4-string fretless.
Click to expand...

That's pretty cool, actually. If the bottom was just a bit more rounded off, I think we'd have a winner. :D
 
#46
PeteH said:


The brads as position markers are surprisingly accurate, not that I rely on them very much. The 'factory' ;) roundwounds have been replaced with flats, and the fingerboard is remarkably even. This thing mwahs like a dyslexic cat, and I couldn't be happier with the ability to get the tone I want by feel.

QUOTE]

You must have received a rare exception. This has been my one gripe with Wishbass. Every single one of mine have inaccurately placed position markers. Most not off by a little, but off by alot. I've had to use a thick black felt tip marker and make my own correctly placed dots on the side of the neck. It got me wondering just how he measured those markers out. Anyway, with my new dots in place everything is AOK.

I just ordered a couple Seymour Duncan Js to replace the EMG selects on two of my Scarabs. Compared to my active basses I have been getting very little volume out of these. Plus the EMGs were set very low in the body, further taking away from the output. I will have the Basslines installed at Mike Lull's shop where I'll have him set the pickups up higher in order to get even more gain.
Click to expand...
 
#48
BassDudeSA said:
PeteH said:


The brads as position markers are surprisingly accurate, not that I rely on them very much. The 'factory' ;) roundwounds have been replaced with flats, and the fingerboard is remarkably even. This thing mwahs like a dyslexic cat, and I couldn't be happier with the ability to get the tone I want by feel.

QUOTE]

You must have received a rare exception. This has been my one gripe with Wishbass. Every single one of mine have inaccurately placed position markers. Most not off by a little, but off by alot. I've had to use a thick black felt tip marker and make my own correctly placed dots on the side of the neck. It got me wondering just how he measured those markers out. Anyway, with my new dots in place everything is AOK.

I just ordered a couple Seymour Duncan Js to replace the EMG selects on two of my Scarabs. Compared to my active basses I have been getting very little volume out of these. Plus the EMGs were set very low in the body, further taking away from the output. I will have the Basslines installed at Mike Lull's shop where I'll have him set the pickups up higher in order to get even more gain.[/QUOTE]

my dots are spot on, too...a lot depends upon placing the bridge in the correct spot...it's floating remember
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
#51
Petary791 said:
I don't want to rip on the guy, but let me point out the flaws that I see just from that picture.

1. The bridge is not centered, AT ALL.
2. The neck appears as if it's going like this: (
3. The B string doesn't appear to be on the fretboard 50% of the time
4. The strings appear to be closer at the bridge than at the nut
Click to expand...
Sorry, but wrong on most counts. but thank you for playing!:D the bridge does float.
 
#52
bassplayer666 said:
everyone has there own opinion, and i respect that, and dont shove my opinions down their throats. imo, wish basses are ugly and look quite fragile, like they could fall apart at any minute.
Click to expand...
I have two. Each to his own on looks and style, but I'll tell you mine are rock solid construction. I use one every week, carry it in a gig bag and have had no problems at all.

BTW, some of his styles don't fit in standard carrying cases. the tuners pointing back are a problem for the standard HSC. But a good and cheap answer is a 'Cello gig bag. I got one on eBay for $20.00 and its more than big enough. I carry my "JB" model Wish in it, and its large enough that, with a divider of some kind, I could carry two basses.
 
#53
bassplayer666 said:
everyone has there own opinion, and i respect that, and dont shove my opinions down their throats. imo, wish basses are ugly and look quite fragile, like they could fall apart at any minute.
Click to expand...

I'll grant you the ugly, but fragile they ain't. It's hard to tell from all these photos, but once you get your hands on one, the first word that comes to mind is SOLID. The body on mine is over 2" thick, and it just FEELS like you could use it as a battle-axe to fend off the mob of fans, then wipe off the blood and finish the gig, to paraphrase the gent over on HarmCent.

Yeah, some of the designs look less like a traditional bass and more like a Klingon marital-aid, but they feel good when you play 'em.

[edit] I picked up a RoadRunner bag at GC which fits my 'Nemo' style just fine, even with the rear-facing tuner knobs.
 
#55
PilbaraBass said:
BassDudeSA said:
my dots are spot on, too...a lot depends upon placing the bridge in the correct spot...it's floating remember
Click to expand...

Do you have a pic of where your bridge is placed, or at least a measurement of how far it is placed from the string holes? I left my bridge in the same spot it was received which made the original position markers off by a mile. Just curious what (if any) setup you other Wish owners did with your basses after receiving them.
Click to expand...
 
#56
BassDudeSA said:
Do you have a pic of where your bridge is placed, or at least a measurement of how far it is placed from the string holes? I left my bridge in the same spot it was received which made the original position markers off by a mile. Just curious what (if any) setup you other Wish owners did with your basses after receiving them.
Click to expand...

You might try the position calculator at stewmac.com to determine correct location for the III / IV / V marks: http://www.stewmac.com/FretCalculator/

Rig it for 24 'frets' (or 36 for a Peanut) and 34" (or whatever) nominal scale length, and you'll get the distance from the nut to the hypothetical 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th, etc. 'frets'. You'll see the first octave on a 34" scale is exactly at 17", second octave at 25.5" (half-the-distance-to-the-goal-line = 17" + 8.5") , and so on. The real tweek classical purists would use different mathematical temperings, but hey, this is fretless bass we're talking about.

If indeed Wish's marks are way off from what you're currently using as scale, consider forgetting about a preconceived scale length and rescaling it to 'reality' by placing the bridge at 2x Wish's nut-to-octave-nailhead distance, and see if the rest of his markers suddenly come in to tune. From what I remember by reading some of his eBay ads, almost all of his basses are 34", and he doesn't have the proper measurements for certain less-common scalings when somebody asks for 35" or 37", etc to solve B-string buzz. I'm betting he uses a pre-marked template to lay out his nailheads.

Forget about the bridge-to-string-holes distance - something tells me that this may be less-than-consistent across various Wishes. Worry only about nut-to-bridge, and let us know how it goes!

Pete
(who learned about floating bridges the hard way back in my banjo days)
 
#57
I contacted Wish to see if he had any basses for sale, so he emails back yes and said one is $400, the other is $500. Well I like the $500 sculpted bass. I just didn't have the green, well he posts the same $500 bass on Ebay for BIN for $300! I would have bought it for $300, since I had that, but he wouldn't budge on the price of $500. I think he makes some good basses, but he lacks a "business" sense. Just my opinion.
 
#58
fretlesswonder - think about it this way: the additional $200 is 'insurance' - a guarantee that you (and only you) will get that bass before it goes up for sale/auction to the eBay world at large. If you want to hold off and take your chances, you can maybe snag a deal if you're lucky enough to jump in. I've seen some Wishies go very quickly on eBay (using the Completed Items search).
 
#59
PeteH said:
You might try the position calculator at stewmac.com to determine correct location for the III / IV / V marks: http://www.stewmac.com/FretCalculator/

Rig it for 24 'frets' (or 36 for a Peanut) and 34" (or whatever) nominal scale length, and you'll get the distance from the nut to the hypothetical 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th, etc. 'frets'. You'll see the first octave on a 34" scale is exactly at 17", second octave at 25.5" (half-the-distance-to-the-goal-line = 17" + 8.5") , and so on. The real tweek classical purists would use different mathematical temperings, but hey, this is fretless bass we're talking about.

If indeed Wish's marks are way off from what you're currently using as scale, consider forgetting about a preconceived scale length and rescaling it to 'reality' by placing the bridge at 2x Wish's nut-to-octave-nailhead distance, and see if the rest of his markers suddenly come in to tune. From what I remember by reading some of his eBay ads, almost all of his basses are 34", and he doesn't have the proper measurements for certain less-common scalings when somebody asks for 35" or 37", etc to solve B-string buzz. I'm betting he uses a pre-marked template to lay out his nailheads.

Forget about the bridge-to-string-holes distance - something tells me that this may be less-than-consistent across various Wishes. Worry only about nut-to-bridge, and let us know how it goes!

Pete
(who learned about floating bridges the hard way back in my banjo days)
Click to expand...


Hey, thanks for the info. I'll have to look into that at some point, but my system so far has worked. I just take the bass as is, tune it perfectly with a tuner, then on the E string I use the tuner to find the F,G,A,B,C#,octave note, etc. and then make a "dot" with a felt tip marker in the right place. I make a real heavy dot so that I'm sure to see that over Wish's nail markers. I imagine if I want to change this at a later date I'll have to lightly sand off my homemade dots. It may sound primitive, but it doesn't look too bad and it works for me now.

At least I can play it in tune now as unfortunately for fretless I rely on those markers/dots for placement. If I played fretless more often I may not need the visual reference, but fretless only gets about 10% of my playing time.
 
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