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WOW Eshenbaugh basses

M

mike phillips

Nov 16, 2005
3,017
15
under a palm tree sippin pepsi
#1
was at a music store today and in walks a fella with three basses, all beauties. well, the fella turned out to be none other than Mark Eshenbaugh. the basses went from 34-38 inch scale. the woods the fit and finish are second to none. the necks feel like they were made for my fat stubby fingered hand. heres the best part THEY SOUND FANTASTIC. in talkin with Mr. Mark he is a man who cares about his product and listens to customer input. he even gave thought to the opinions of my 14 year old left handed daughter. by the way there is no additional charge for left handed and fretless orders. my only regret is my finances wont allow me to purchase one of these top shelf basses. but if your in the market for a well built, great soundin bass from a man that cares look him up. here is his sight Link Removed
 
#2
I had the pleasure of meeting Mark at the Atlanta Bass Gallery about a year ago and I played a really nice fretted 5 string he had with him. I had already seen a 7 string bass he built that was incredible and extremely light in weight at a jazz open mic and that was a great sounding instrument. Mark apprenticed with Carl Thompson. His work is nothing short of first class and I think he is one of the soon to be well known American builders. Right now his work is an incredible value because he is just getting started.
 
#4
mike phillips said:
if i remember right i believe he said his basses weigh about 7 lbs. quality stuff.
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Well, you and me might just be the only ones paying attention to this maker, Mike. Anyway, to keep the buzz up, at seven pounds, that would be lighter than my Ritters by about 2 lbs. I had considered these light at 9.5 and 9 lbs.

I think if I were interested in 7 strings, I would definitely be checking Mark out to build it. Perhaps in the future some time. That 7 string I saw had the most gorgeous maple top you can imagine and the neck and body were practically the same dimension from front to back and the body was super thin. It did balance well in spite of this too.
 
#6
not my loss!



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#8
i met mark at a music store. he happened to have three of his basses with him. all quality, well thought out basses. the balence is beautifull no neck dive. i am a 4 string player and let me tell you, the neck is absolute perfection. it feels so good in your hands. the tone is killer. try as many eshenbaugh basses as you can. you will be glad you did.
 
#10
Mark's been cranking them out for a little bit. I had one that was tremendous and felt great.

But he has produced some basses with some issues in the past (two i know of), which he has probably rememdied now or so, but its a hard thing to get over for anyone in the world of boutique basses. One might have been minor, the other not so minor.

that said, I find his designs fresh and killer.
 

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