I've been interested in a multiscale fanned fret bass for quite sometime, I played a Dingwall Super J at a guitar show a few years ago and have been hooked since. I've gotten my hands on a few of the intermediate Ibanez offerings and always enjoyed playing on them, however never really cared much for them aesthetically. I wanted something a little more traditional in terms of the design, and a Dingwall is well outside of what I personally would consider spending on an instrument, so I was left with limited options.
Around Christmas time I read a thread where somebody ordered a knock-off of a custom, discontinued Rickenbacker off of an Aliexpress dealer by simply sending them a photo and some brief directions. I decided to go the same route; I used the builder on Halo Guitar's website to mock up my design because they have pretty much every body and headstock combination I could think of. Morally I was OK with this because all the features are pretty much borrowed from other manufacturers. Its a Jaguar body with a Fender-ish headstock.
I searched Aliexpress looking for a builder that had made a few fanned fret basses and found one that had a few nice looking Mayones imitations.
The seller responded quickly, he spoke OK English. I wasn't expecting perfection as far as the build quality or even matching my build sheet, but I felt confident that the important parts were understood as far the overall aesthetic, top-woods (I sent several reference photos) and scale length. I sent him specifications for Dingwall FD3s as far as the pick-up routes, and seller confirmed that the stock pick-ups were the same size. This was important to me because I wanted to drop in a quality replacement in the event I wasn't happy with the import pick-ups. I also asked to leave the headstock without any logo. I confirmed and placed my order in early February. $419 shipped. I knew from the get-go what sort of gamble I was taking in terms of quality, but the buyers protection of Aliexpress made me feel pretty confident about the process.
The seller gave me an estimated date of early April to expect my bass. This seemed way too soon to finish the product, I was a little concerned as to what I would be receiving. The second week of March I started pestering the seller about progress, to which he told me it would still be another 6 weeks or so. He sent me an in-progress photo.
I started pestering him again the 1st of this month, he informed me it would be another few weeks before he was finished. He sent me one finished photo last week and a shipping notification.
I was pleased with everything, except for the fact that the Halo logo had been included with the order. I was hoping to leave the headstock logoless to not cause any confusion and to prevent this from every being mistaken as a true Halo bass. I messaged the seller and he said he must have misunderstood and that there wasn't much he could do at this point since it had shipped.
It arrived today.
Here are my thoughts so far.
The Good: The bass looks just like the photo, it seems to be structurally sound, the neck is super straight and the truss rod has plenty of play. I brought my pedalboard from home and played a few minutes through my headphone rig, and it sounds good. I use a Sansamp BDDI, so honestly everything I put into that DI is going to sound like the Sansamp. It has a lot of high end bite that I can dial out with the pre-amp. The controls are balance, volume, bass and treble. I've never owned a multiscale bass, or even played one for more than 20 minutes straight, but it was effortless to adjust and I truly had a great time playing it; I did not want to set it down to go back to work. I was worried it would have neck dive, but it balances well.
The Bad: Some of the finishing is mediocre-It has some ugly looking glue marks, and clear coating on the edge of the fretboard is especially sloppy looking. I had asked that the control routing be done from the rear so that I could switch between a pearl and clear pickguard to show more of the finish, however all the routing is under the pickguard. It is heavy, although I'm not sure how heavy. I also have a 5 string Jazz and a 5 string Jaguar and this is noticeably the heaviest of the 3 instruments. I purchased a string retainer to add to the headstock. And the logo is just awful to me, as I was hoping to have it plain. I'm not going to return it, but I'm debating either trying to remove the logo or simply painting the headstock black.
For the money, I am extremely pleased with the bass. There is no mistaking this for a boutique custom shop instrument, its obviously not in the same conversation at the Super J that I played, but it does satisfy my itch for a multiscale bass and I am happy to have it!
Around Christmas time I read a thread where somebody ordered a knock-off of a custom, discontinued Rickenbacker off of an Aliexpress dealer by simply sending them a photo and some brief directions. I decided to go the same route; I used the builder on Halo Guitar's website to mock up my design because they have pretty much every body and headstock combination I could think of. Morally I was OK with this because all the features are pretty much borrowed from other manufacturers. Its a Jaguar body with a Fender-ish headstock.
I searched Aliexpress looking for a builder that had made a few fanned fret basses and found one that had a few nice looking Mayones imitations.
The seller responded quickly, he spoke OK English. I wasn't expecting perfection as far as the build quality or even matching my build sheet, but I felt confident that the important parts were understood as far the overall aesthetic, top-woods (I sent several reference photos) and scale length. I sent him specifications for Dingwall FD3s as far as the pick-up routes, and seller confirmed that the stock pick-ups were the same size. This was important to me because I wanted to drop in a quality replacement in the event I wasn't happy with the import pick-ups. I also asked to leave the headstock without any logo. I confirmed and placed my order in early February. $419 shipped. I knew from the get-go what sort of gamble I was taking in terms of quality, but the buyers protection of Aliexpress made me feel pretty confident about the process.
The seller gave me an estimated date of early April to expect my bass. This seemed way too soon to finish the product, I was a little concerned as to what I would be receiving. The second week of March I started pestering the seller about progress, to which he told me it would still be another 6 weeks or so. He sent me an in-progress photo.
I started pestering him again the 1st of this month, he informed me it would be another few weeks before he was finished. He sent me one finished photo last week and a shipping notification.
I was pleased with everything, except for the fact that the Halo logo had been included with the order. I was hoping to leave the headstock logoless to not cause any confusion and to prevent this from every being mistaken as a true Halo bass. I messaged the seller and he said he must have misunderstood and that there wasn't much he could do at this point since it had shipped.
It arrived today.
Here are my thoughts so far.
The Good: The bass looks just like the photo, it seems to be structurally sound, the neck is super straight and the truss rod has plenty of play. I brought my pedalboard from home and played a few minutes through my headphone rig, and it sounds good. I use a Sansamp BDDI, so honestly everything I put into that DI is going to sound like the Sansamp. It has a lot of high end bite that I can dial out with the pre-amp. The controls are balance, volume, bass and treble. I've never owned a multiscale bass, or even played one for more than 20 minutes straight, but it was effortless to adjust and I truly had a great time playing it; I did not want to set it down to go back to work. I was worried it would have neck dive, but it balances well.
The Bad: Some of the finishing is mediocre-It has some ugly looking glue marks, and clear coating on the edge of the fretboard is especially sloppy looking. I had asked that the control routing be done from the rear so that I could switch between a pearl and clear pickguard to show more of the finish, however all the routing is under the pickguard. It is heavy, although I'm not sure how heavy. I also have a 5 string Jazz and a 5 string Jaguar and this is noticeably the heaviest of the 3 instruments. I purchased a string retainer to add to the headstock. And the logo is just awful to me, as I was hoping to have it plain. I'm not going to return it, but I'm debating either trying to remove the logo or simply painting the headstock black.
For the money, I am extremely pleased with the bass. There is no mistaking this for a boutique custom shop instrument, its obviously not in the same conversation at the Super J that I played, but it does satisfy my itch for a multiscale bass and I am happy to have it!
