Luthman Wave 4 Fretless

Lower drawn in France by Thierry Etienne handcrafted in Poland if my sources are correct.

Copied features of the site Luthman:
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pitch: 34''
Strings: 4, 5 and 6
handle: MV 5 rooms - Wenge & Maple
body: ovangkol, ash, mahogany, alder
table: see options
key: maple, rosewood, ebony fretless
buttons: wood
nut: ebony
Mechanical: Schaller black, chrome
Bridge: Custom Luthman black, chrome
microphones: 2 x JB Delano
Preamp: Glockenklang 2 bands
knobs: volume (push pull active / passive) + balance + + severe acute
Finishing: oiled, matte varnish
comes with soft case, tuning keys, certificate
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From there, it is in the craft and all customizations are possible. Mine is passive in ovankgol with ebony fingerboard. The ovangkol is a beautiful wood, with an intermediate color between rosewood and mahogany (which is very poorly made from my photos), and a beautiful veining.

On the advice of Thierry, I ordered a neck-through for better sustain in fretless. My pickups are Bartolini JB, settings are the three buttons on a classic Jazz Bass: volume of each pickup tone.









UTILIZATION

Everything is nice in this low: nice to look at, play standing as sitting. It gives an impression of density but not heavy, the neck is very thin and through the cutouts give easy access to acute.

The key is not false frets, I do not think it's nice and use the markings on the side are sufficient.

I would add for beginners who would hesitate to embark, with a little ear a fretless is quite accessible. It is both more comfortable to play (lower action softer game), more sensual, more singing, a fretted bass. Fingers learn fast enough to lock onto the correct intervals, at least in the bottom of the handle. Just playing in the treble remains difficult. But it is also what makes the charm of fretless playing. That said it's still in my opinion an instrument more suited to solo, jazz, blues, song, that big rock that spot.




SOUNDS

I will not make you the hit of "wow one branch and it is the sound Pasto" because there was Jaco Jaco, and the sound is also and above all in the fingers ... but c is still the first impression I got! I must say that I had a small Cort Action (fretted) and we did not play in the same court; Wave the first time on the same amp is still a shock.

I wanted a mellow, round, a little bass, and with the appropriate settings on the bass and the amp is perfect. But you can also play the more micro bridge to give grain or a lead sound a little packed with exclusive bridge and tone to zero.

Finally everything a fretless bass what is expected.

OVERALL OPINION

I use it for a little over a year. I found bass with Jaco Pastorius and to mark an anniversary round account type half-century, I wanted to offer me a beautiful fretless bass that I keep long. I went on a Jazz Bass U.S., but read on a forum that for the same price you could get in a Luthman bass luthier high quality and original. The idea of ​​having a unique, unusual or low, I liked. Luthman the prices are actually attractive, uncompromising quality: the entry level is simply less of finishing options. Then if you want a beautiful ebony table, kokobolo or other gasoline, anything is possible but it is not essential to make music. I prefer that my underwear go to a local luthier rather than multinational.

I took information from Thierry Etienne who listened to me with great patience (beginner, full of naive / idotes questions) and good advice without pushing the lavish spending, I stayed in the sober and reasonable ... The beautiful arrived a little before three months announced (and yes, making the application, each model is unique) and I really discovered what it the pleasure of playing bass.

I found out a little ridiculous when even for a beginner to afford such an instrument, as those people who pay a Leica camera to photograph the dog's ass twenty meters and backlight: but after all based on the prices of instruments traditional stringed or wind, or a real piano ... it's still very accessible and it is much more challenging and rewarding to play on a nice instrument to play and sounds good, and that we keep that on dung which flap flap and that inevitably will sell at a loss (there is however good bass cheaper to start, of course, here we are in the category of instruments for fun).

The finish is superb, but it's always difficult to describe. on the other hand if we Pigalle stores and look at the Asian industrial production comparable, even a non-expert eye sees immediately that we are not in the same range of instrument "but why you look at them like that, yours is much prettier. "

Brief. Since I caught the virus and acquired other basses, one fretted Jazzette Luthman, but this remains the preferred Wave, low blanket that looks lovingly at night before falling asleep and in the morning that we smile at Clock (when Honey is at home, she plays this role, but hey, I'm not going to tell you my whole life either).

Of course I would do this choice without hesitation.