I've always had a love/hate relationship with fretless basses and being left handed i have always had to buy what i could get my hands on. Had a 5 sting MM, a Rick Turner Elctroline, a jazz copy and a Schecter 6 string fretless. None of them have been right for me.
I had been looking at Jon Letts work for a while. I liked his style and he was local. I have massive respect for anyone who can build a bass from scratch and enjoy the process of planning custom basses so when i saw the offer for a 6 string handmade bass for £400 i had to go for it.
Throughout the process Jon has been awesome to deal with always open to ideas and very knowledgeable. The spec of the bass is:
6 string fretless single cut
Spalted Beech top
Mahogany body
Mahogany/ shedua neck
ebony fingerboard with no radius
ebony tone block, bridge, pickups, ramp (upcharge)
Looks
Well i went with a singlecut which i know not everyone like but i love! to me the bass as an influence from fodera and a bit of Carl Thompson. I love it but appreciate others will not.
Build quality
Build quality is great, very well finished. The neck join is quite Fodera like. Almost everything is hand made. The pickups, bridge and knobs all hand made. No issues at all. The finish is oil which helps with its open sound i think. Personally i like a heavier finish because i am clumsy but this feel natural. The bass is LIGHT! I dont have scales in the house but it is a lot lighter than my other 6 strings, I would guess 6-7 pounds.
Playability
The action is great but can still come down a bit more I am going to take the bass back to Jon who will do this but the bass is already amazingly easy to play. There is plently of Mwah. The bass balances great and because its so light its a pleasure to wear.
Sound
The bass sounds spot on I went with a passive setup and all my other main basses are active there is not the range of sounds that you would get from an active but plugged into my Sansamp this thing sings. The bass sounds great unplugged and very similar plugged in. Its a very woody natural tone, it doesn't sound forced or over processed like some fretless bass does.
Conclusion
All in i paid £475 for the bass as part of Jons summer build diary where Jon built 3 basses at cost price. I love the idea of supporting a local bass builder and i struggle to understand why anyone would buy an off the shelf bass when you could get something built for you. But each to their own. I guess the question is: is this bass worth £475? the answer is a yes without question. Would i pay full price for this bass (I am guessing at £900ish)? the answer is yes without question. I am planning a 5 string inspired by Matthew Garrisons/Janek Gwidalas Foderas next.
Check the web site out here: http://www.lettsbasses.co.uk/root/jlettsbassesmain.html
Any questions let me know.