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Wishbass Club

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Does anybody slap on there wish? I play some slap bass and love the sounds I get out of my 6 string wish when I slap. Should I put a finish on the end of the fingerboard to keep it from chipping? Would roundwounds damage an unfinished rosewood fingerboard?

What kinds of strings do you all use?

To restate my question from earlier that was ignored. What are peoples thoughts about putting a tremolo bridge on a fretted 4 string wish?

CK

On a converted rosewood fingerboard fretless bass I've got (an old aria pro II), the rosewood hasn't chipped. It's so soft a wood that I doubt it's likely to chip, but when I used roundwounds on it, and slapped a lot, they'd grind a groove into the rosewood the entire length of the string, and getting deeper higher up the neck.

As stated earlier the solution is to plane the fingerboard and start anew. Eventually you run out of fingerboard and need to epoxy it if you use the bass enough. My solution is to use flats instead of rounds, though I do like the sound of rounds on a fretless.

Slapping on a wish is a bit wonky due to the extra long scale length--the fingerboard gets in the way. If you wanted to have a wish suitable for slapping, I'd suggest having him put a shorter fingerboard of 24 frets or less on a custom order. I'd also have him route the pickup further away from the bridge than he usually does (personal preference), and have him drill a ground wire tunnel between the electronics cavity the trem bridge too (wish isn't concerned about grounding).

As for putting a trem/vibrato bridge on a wish, shouldn't be any different than putting one on any other bass. Wish's bodies are thick enough to accomodate it.
 
This thread has a pic of a finished bass with the metal strip.

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=116333

It's the fourth bass down and looks like a boutique job,
To my eye all you need in some metal, a file, some emery paper, a compass to draw the radius
some expoy glue to hold it on the body

That looks appealling. I might try that.

newfuture: I find slapping on my hyper 6 string easier to slap on then my Tobias fretless 6. I like the tighter string spacing and the pickup is far enough away from the end of the bridge that it doesn't get in the way. I think the fretboard is 26 frets in length.
wb2.jpg


I'm definitly going to be talking to him about the trem bass I want.

Thanks guys.
CK

Edit: I just talked with Mr. Wish and since I need to send the bass back to him for repair he can add a slap plate with no problem.
 
If it works then use it. All the srtings on mine sound great.

CK

I don't doubt it as I commented about the position of your strings relative to the coils/magnets of the pickup.

Can you post a sound clip? The Kent Armstrong equipped Wishes seem to have more tonal depth than the ones with J type pups. I have the same Kent Armstrong pickups on my 4 string Hoyt and love 'em.
 
I use DR lowrider rounds on mine, presently. I like them more than the Rotosound Flatwounds I had on it.

I sold my other two wishbasses. But originally, I had only purchased those to check the quality, etc, before I had him make me a custom.

like to see it? here it go...

wish53.jpg
wish52.jpg

wish512.jpg

wish513.jpg
wish6.jpg

amboyna.jpg


Wood make up is:
Purpleheart Fingerboard
Walnut, maple, and purple heart neck stringers
Ambrosia Maple Top
Walnut Back
I added Amboyna Knobs, and the bridge
eventually, I'd like to do a refinish on it.

and how it looked when I first got it:
wish5d.jpg
 
gubna - thats a nice looking one.

Looks like you sanded it down and finished it properly, and added a decent bridge. that all?

Looking at the wish basses makes me want to try making one myself, but I've got a complete lack of wood working skills. I mean, an utter, complete lack of them :)
 
Here are my two Wishbasses. Check-em out !! Thanks for the posts !!

Hey hornfixer...can you post a pic of the stand mounting scheme for the upright-esque bass? I've been playing 3stringpete's bass (similar body type) with its tail on a chair, very comfy as an upright. Was kicking around the idea of affixing something similar.
 
gubna - thats a nice looking one.

Looks like you sanded it down and finished it properly, and added a decent bridge. that all?

Looking at the wish basses makes me want to try making one myself, but I've got a complete lack of wood working skills. I mean, an utter, complete lack of them :)

nope, that's Wish's finish. I may eventually do one, when I feel like it. Otherwise, it works fine. But I have to say, it's probably the nicest one I've seen - shape-wise.
 
Hi all, I'm newbie to the forum, however I did lurk for a while and read your comments about Wishbasses prior to ordering mine!!

I ordered up a custom 8 string from Wish with the following specs;
JB Body in Wenge
Fretless
8 Strings in octaves
Rear plate
Truss rod
Wenge Fingerboard

I opted for no special finish as reading the posts here led me to believe that the bass would require some TLC once it arrived. There appears to be two firmly entrenched camps when it comes to Wishbasses, personally I loved the look of them from the first. And coming from Ireland the options for a (affordable) custom job are virtually zero. I decided to go with wish on the basis that the bass may need some work to fine tune it and I'm happy enough with that.

As for the bass - well I'm on my way to pay the customs / import duty and collect it, I'll let you all know how it goes.

Cost wise, the bass itself came in at $675, with an additional $120 for shipping. With sterling being so strong against the dollar this meant it was coming at at under £400. Add to this the £80 for customs/import tax and I'm still getting a custom built 8 string for under £500. I don't think that there is anywhere here in the UK/Ireland where I could hope to come close to this and still have such a distinctive conversation piece (just hope its also a cool bass!!!).

Anyone have any advice on how to best finish / protect the wood? - I have zero wood working skills. I'm not a fan of the finish favored by Warwick etc, I prefer a nice gloss along the lines of my SB1000. Any ideas what to use?

I'll post pics after collection and let you all see her.
 
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