Silvia Bluejay

Ha, good point. Will try that. Thanks.

If I understand correctly - from comparing with a fretted bass - the side dots on a fretless indicate exactly where to press your fingertip in order to obtain the corresponding note. That's as opposed to the dots on a fretted which are bang in the middle of the relevant fret. The two dots that indicate the octave appear to (more or less) be in the same place on both basses, and I need to press my fingertip between them in order to obtain the note. If the above is correct, then it appears I'm at least partly wrong in blaming myself for not getting the right intonation while playing. If I use a chromatic tuner and play each note correctly as marked, it reveals that nearly every note marked, on almost all strings, is sharp - in some cases waay too sharp, despite the open strings having been tuned to perfection. So my musical ear hasn't suddenly abandoned me, after all. My question - can I do what I would do on a fretted bass, and set the strings up correctly via the springs at the bridge? Or is there some trick I'm missing? Incidentally, since this is a new bass, it's probably advisable for me to wait a few weeks or so until it has 'acclimatised' to the UK and my neck of the woods and my flat. But I'm asking you infinitely helpful and patient folks in advance Thank you, as always.

LOL I promise I'll take some close-ups as soon as I manage to persuade the camera out of its sulk, so that we can all enjoy the sight of my new baby's fingerboard H, no worries, it's still a bargain, and I love it - although I'm still seemingly unable to play it (it's my first non-upright fretless and my intonation is all over the place!) . I'm pursuing the issue out of principle, mostly. Thomann haven't replied to my email with the photo attachment. That probably means I won't hear from them until Monday.

Will publish some as soon as my effing camera stops being temperamental - it's currently on the blink, and the other one I have is pretty sh*t and wouldn't do justice to the bass! I love taking macro photos of the nice bits of my new babies, but you need a decent lens...

Well, I guess you're right then, as the fingerboard is different from that of my fretted 5-stringer. It's darker and smoother, but I thought that might simply be due to a different piece of (the same type of) wood and different machinery being used. Looks cool, definitely

Thank you all for following this and being by my side! I hope Thomann will do the right thing. After all, it'd work out much cheaper for them to give me a partial refund or a voucher than to ship a new bass from Germany and collect the old one. Ou7shined, yes, correct, it's rosewood.

Thomann replied to my email this morning, requesting a photo of the scratch and also of the packaging. I only emailed them the photo I posted at the start of this thread, and confirmed to them that the packaging was fine inside and out - surely no point taking a pic of open boxes and ready-to-be-discarded plastic sleeves...? I'm waiting for further developments.

Heh.

I received a set of Thomastik flatwounds together with the bass (I ordered them alongside it). I meant to put them on the fretted 5, but I'll see; if Thomann give me a discount voucher I may buy another set. PS I am a light player.

I'm still trying to find my way around it! I'm so used to the double bass that I need to look at the fingerboard here - which I rarely do when I play the fretted 5-stringer. But I love it

It was very well packaged. so it must have happened in the warehouse. And yes, the bass is fine everywhere else, so the scratch must have been due to contact with some object rather than rough handling. I'll keep you all posted with their reply.

Golden doubloons, actually

Yup, it was, and I like it in every other way. As mentioned in that thread, it's very basic and the pots aren't exceedingly powerful, but it's fine for me just playing at home. Thomann are taking their time replying. If I can get a discount voucher or sumfin' out of them I'll probably go with that. But I do want some sort of compensation, even if it's a cheap guitar - after all, the money I gave them had no 'defects'

As the scratch is smaller than it looks in the photo, I think I can live with it, but I'm worried that the very presence of a scratch may mean that the bass has been handled roughly. While I wait for Thomann to get back to me, i will go through every possible check on the bass, and make sure it isn't damaged in any other way. Then I'll decide, depending on what options they offer me. Thanks, Dean.

LOL @ the 'mojo' Yes, the bigger groove can be felt with your fingertip. The other, lighter grooves are much less deep. I'm waiting to see what options Thomann offer me. Thank you guys for your replies so far.

I've emailed Thomann through my Customer Page. I thought I'd better do so immediately, so that they can't think I scratched it myself while playing it. Waiting to see what they reply.

I have just received my new fretless Rockbass from Thomann and found a scratch on it. The lighting in the photo makes it look worse than it is, but still... What would you wise BC folk advise me to do? Return it? Is there any way I can try and fix the scratch by myself (furniture polish or something else)? Thank you!

I wish I could help, but it's too late for me. The flesh is weak and the spirit was even weaker...

I get that, hence my question in the first place: since Warwick's lefty basses are usually in stock and ready to be shipped immediately from most retailers, that must mean the company manufactures enough of them regardless of the actual demand from the likes of you and me. There must be some redundancy built in the system, the cost of which appears to be borne by Warwick and not by us. On the other hand, I'm sure their lefty stock's ready availability and equal price has given them a big share of the left-handed market, and made the effort worthwhile.

The L/H version is around £200 more expensive than the R/H one, both for sale at Thomann. I guess that's fair enough, but I'm still wondering how Warwick are able to sell L/H models for exactly the same price as R/H ones. Well done to them, in any case.

Well, I'm not a luthier but I did fiddle with the nut height on my 5 - as well as fiddling with anything else I could adjust on it! - and succeded in making the bass feel slighlty easier to play for my tiny little hands. (Before you ask, intonation and the general sound are still fine despite the slight change in setup - I'm cautious enough not to make a mess when I touch my instruments).

[quote name='kerley' timestamp='1326211167' post='1493856'] I pretty much always lower the strings at nut as find most guitars and basses to be much higher than optimum. I have always wondered why anyone would actually want a high nut as a perfect nut clearly brings down string height and especially makes fretting at the first couple of frets a much better experience. [/quote] Exactly. I'm surprised how many basses don't have the hex socket screw system adopted by Warwick in the nut as well.

Ahhh, Robin, someone please save me (or lock me up without internet access or a credit card)! Thomann have also confirmed they DO have a left-handed version of the other baby I'm lusting after: [url="http://www.thomann.de/gb/ns_design_nxt_5_bass_lh_bs.htm"]http://www.thomann.de/gb/ns_design_nxt_5_bass_lh_bs.htm[/url] Bank account doesn't allow that though... yet.

This one: [url="http://www.thomann.de/gb/warwick_rb_corvette_basic_5fllh_bks.htm"]http://www.thomann.d...c_5fllh_bks.htm[/url] Should be all right. I've got a 4 in natural and a 5 in dark blue, so was missing a black one Ordered yesterday late afternoon, shipped this morning via DHL.

I just thought it was too good a deal to pass. I'm sure I'll be hooked on it as I've been on all the others so far!