wishbass?

[roargoar]

are wish basses any good? would you recommend them to anyone?

[Left Shoe]

no one on here has played one, yet this wont stop them from saying how bad they are :thumb:

[Led_Zeppelin678]

The people on TalkBass.com know more about this particular subject, but from what I've heard they're put together like absolute crap.

[Esp Griffyn]

From what I hear, they are atrocities.

[katana_manatee]

I've heard they are quite awful.

[skingle]

I havent played one, but I think they are so so ugly (not that that has anything to do with how good they are but still).

[NoOsH]

wishbass=ugly as f***!

[Mr. Pickle]

i hear they are actually pretty nice. i haven't played one, but i have a friend who has, or has claimed to.

[deemo]

i think that once wishbass has a famous endorser, such as les claypool, everyone will say how beautiful wish basses are, and how the running glue actually helps create amazing tone and that nails sticking out help improve sustain.

[EADG]

You can tell they are cheap just by looking at them, what does that tell you?

[Tryxx]

Playing Devil's Advocate.

While the general concensous is that they're quite bad: it's said that they sound fairly well, just the baseball size neck is almsot unbearable. Larger than Warwick, if you want a comparison.

[Wintermute]

The Technology department in my old school was filled every year with 16 year olds trying to make guitars and basses for their technology projects. They went crazy with them, making them in all kinds of weird shapes and designs. They were crude, poorly finished, and generally shoddy.

And every one of them looked higher quality than Wishbass.

[deemo]

apparently, if you sit down with the guy and tell him to not make his basses like he would any other bass, it should turn out alright. ask for a plain neck, no dots or lines and an adjustable bridge and you should have a somewhat decent bass if you pay some extra too.

[bottlerocket]

I've heard people say they're really really bad and put together crappily. I haven't played one, though. They look like crap, too.

-Gav

[WhoDidTheElf]

They had a review of one in bass player magazine. I will edit in the part. I'm going to have to type it -.-

Alright:



There are plenty of one-man bass shops, but none of them are like Whishbass. While most others build sparkling jewels that cost thounsands of dollars, Whishbass builds raw, earthy instruments for just a few hundered. Whishbass's renegade visonary, Steve Whishnevesky, is a former cabinetmaker on a mission to offer inexpnesive basses for ten percent the price of a typical boutique bass. How does he do it? By using a short-cut-laden design philosophy that reduces the amount of metal in the bass with the goal of better tone comming out of the instrument.

Whishnevsky's minimal metal use dovetails nicely with his goal of producing instruments cheaply and quickly. By leaving fretts, a metal bridge, and a trussrod (though they are available as opitions) Whishnevsky's eliminates those componts' installation time while maimizing the amount of wood in te bass, which he feels creats a lively, harmonicall rich instrument.

The core of Whishnevsky's design requires an open headstock, neck-through body, and passive eletronics. Whishnevsky claims that the multi-laminate piece is strong enough to forgo the need for a trussrod, while transmitting more vibration from the neck to the body than is possible with a bolt-on design. He claims that the open headstock design is stronger than the common paddle-style headstock and takes 20 minutes to complete, as oppsoted to hours. Finishing and setup details are other cost-saving areas. My test Whishbass Hyper's optional spray-on lacquer finish (the base price doesn't even include a finish) didn't reach the inner curves off the upper and lower horns and the inside of the headstock. The math is simple; less production time means lower consumer cost.

Despite it's unuasl shape, my test bass was actually one of Whish's more conventional designs. I was fond of the sweeping up horn and the hot-rodded look of the aluminum control-cavity cover. The body wings were shaped from ambrosia maple, a dramatically figured and knotted wood that gives off a fronttier vibe. Ambrosia maple is pocked with pinholes excavated by the Asian ambrosia beetle, which uses the tunnels to cultivate a fungus that it then eats. The pinhols were left open for a decorative touch, while a few cavitives in the knotes were leveled out with a wood filler. The test bass was lightweight and balanced well when strapped, but the headstock dove for the ground when I played sitting down. The Hyper's oblong shape makes balancing it againts a stand or amp difficult.

The neck has a thick, clubby shape. The strings anchore directly into the body wood to maximize the string-to-body contact. Indeed, the entire bass felt springy and lively when plucked. The fingerboard is made from jatobo, a dense tropical hardwood more comminly found in furniture. The long fingerboard and the deep cutaway allowed me to easily reach up to the 32nd position that's one high Eb! The fingerboard was attractive, but it wasn't evenly radiused, giving the bass a persitent buzz at the 4th and 5th positions on the top two strings. Since a frettless bass can require a more attentive setup than a fretted bass, the Hyper's fingerboard would have benefited from more sanding and leveling. The buzz was worsened when it rained and the resulting temperature and humidity changes gave the neck a backbow that made every not unplayable below the 7th position. A trussrod would have helped me dial in neck relief to make the bass playable again. In lieu of a trussrod, Whishnevsky recommended either shimming the bridge with a business card or swapping in a taller bridge which he would supply free of charge. Slipping a business card unger the bridge lessesend the buzz but didn't didn't eliminate it. I then removed the card and changed the stock light -gauge Dean markley's to medium-gauge Fenders. The increased string tension added relife but still didn't correct the problem. [Whisnevsky responds; "Since this is a warranty claim, I would pay for half the shipping and fix the problem."]

Aside from the finger boards buzzy spots, the Whishbass had a mellow, woody growl with notes that seemed to float off the fingerboard and swell in the air. Upper-register lines bloomed with sweet warmth. The Hyper had a J-pickup's midrange burp and initial punch with a long, singing sustain that invited vibrato. I didin't miss having a tone knob. I could get a brighter sound by plucking near the bridge and a warmer sound by plucking at the end of the fingerboard.

While the Whishbass Hyper lacks the kind of attention to detail one expects from a boutique builder, it's the product of an individual vision that I can't help being attracted to. It's almost like a piece of folk art. The Whishbass is not technically perfect, and this bass's fingerboard could use professional attention. Still, the Hyper has a rustic, soulful vibe and organic tone. It might take a little effort to refine the Wishbass's rough edges, but can you think of another way to get a custom-made bass for 400$?

There...That took for ever

Excuse the typos.

[lbanks]

I've got two. Very organic sound, but sort of a 1 trick pony. If you want one for 3rd or 4th bass or if you have luthier skill to correct the faults, go for it. They definetly qualify as Folk Art.

[TheBassStylee]

no one on here has played one, yet this wont stop them from saying how bad they are :thumb:
lols, you called it :)
they are ugly tho

> mike

[labgnat]

I enjoy my wish bass

[irishslappop]

I LoL at wishbasses

[Munky_Jam]

I've got two. Very organic sound, but sort of a 1 trick pony. If you want one for 3rd or 4th bass or if you have luthier skill to correct the faults, go for it. They definetly qualify as Folk Art.
I'd like to see pictures and details and specs, make a thread. Not because i don't believe you i do actually but i like the concept of these basses even if there aren't many that do here.

[Naveed Afzal]

I want to play one, because i want them to be soemthing i like over something ****ty likie everyone says.

[Sammy_L_D]

Brutal...

Seriously.

[British Beef]

i think that once wishbass has a famous endorser, such as les claypool, everyone will say how beautiful wish basses are, and how the running glue actually helps create amazing tone and that nails sticking out help improve sustain.

Or the warm sound of the neck falling off....