WAV4 Electric Upright Bass - Transparent Red Review

Meh...

I had high hopes for a piece of NS gear with the WAV4 EUB Bass. Boy was I let down... Don't waste your money. Taking the bass out of the packaging it felt lightweight and looks convenient enough to travel with. Plugged it in and right away I noticed the volume knob was sticky and the tone left me with an undesired feeling. I could not tell a difference in the arco and plucking… read more switch in which I tried both techniques in both settings. Some of the finishes look like an afterthought especially in the upper registers of the fingerboard. It performed okay but felt cheap... I could never really get comfortable with it even with it's low string action. I might have kept it if it was priced more reasonably for the quality I received...

---

Cancel Comment

Exceeded my expectations

I was contemplating buying yet another acoustic upright. But the features I wanted only start at about $3500 so I held off in hopes that an NS would be a satisfactory replacement. Upon receiving this instrument realize that this suits me well. It has a nice neck size and radius, normal string spacing and a very nice dotted fingerboard (made of "coform", a composite material,… read more not rosewood). It's not unattractive either. The controls are a volume pot, a tone/treble pot and a switch for either arco or pizzicato. The pickups are passive and sound very good with decent output. It bows well. The range of tones you can get from this thing are amazing (sounds awesome played pizzicato with a sub-harmonic-octave pedal or bowed with an envelope filter). You can play it loudly enough to shake the sheet-rock without feedback. While an actual acoustic bass certainly has advantages in tone over the NS when both are unamplified, gigs will likely need amplification and in that case, the acoustic advantage largely evaporates. Besides, with a decent linear amp/cab even at low volumes this instrument possesses all of the key character of an acoustic bass (to a great extent due to the 41.73" string scale -- the stock strings are very nice D'Addario's). One huge advantage is that this instrument is so much less fragile than an acoustic upright and is much easier to transport being easily carried with one hand with bow and provided tripod in the provided gig-bag while carrying the amp in the other hand. I like it.

---

Cancel Comment

Awesome Bass

I just unpacked this bass a couple of hours ago and I've been playing it for most of that time. This thing is much, much more than what I've read and heard about it. I had a vintage Gold Tone electric upright bass a few years ago and there's no comparison in weight, sound and ease of playing. The fit and finish is awesome and it was in tune when I took it out of the box. I have… read more a Fender USA precision bass, a Guild B140 acoustic bass and an Ibanez SRH500F fretless bass and this WAV 4 rounds out my collection to play anything from Bluegrass to Contemporary. I'm ready now. Plus, it sure beats hauling around a full size acoustic double bass.

---

Cancel Comment