mudsprout

Never played either but looked into these a while ago. Judging by the body shape that looks like a B4 - the Element is rounder, more like the A series. From memory, some of the differences are: body construction (mahogany with an ash top on the Element vs all ash I think), fretboard material (roasted maple on the Element), preamp.

I’ve got an Extreme 4, had it for 5 years and absolutely love it. The neck in particular. Nice C profile, thin but not too thin, and the satin finish is ridiculously smooth. Fit and finish is great and set up was good out the box. It just feels so nice to play. If anything the sound is the weak point (not bad, not terribly exciting), but I mostly play alone through headphones so can’t weigh in too much there. 

Take the gushing with a pinch of salt as this was my ‘upgrade’ from a piece of junk and is my only bass. I did go and try out some potential swaps recently and far preferred mine to a Player Jazz, Mustang and Yamaha TRBX…nicer neck and the quality just felt better. Its actually annoying because I’ve kind of grown out of the fancy inlays but looks like I’m stuck with this thing forever!

28 minutes ago, whave said:

 

YAY great news, can't wait!!!

 

The relationship/signature is not really a factor for me (although I do like Davie and his slappp, I know a lot of people don't 😁), it's just his channel and his signature bass is how I discovered your brand in the first place a couple months ago, and has been drooling over your basses ever since then. So I guess he got you at least one prospect customer 😉 A shortscale Retrovibe Evo in green... again, just can't wait!

Mate, congrats on the dream come true 🙌 

13 hours ago, Chownybass said:

Yes we are. 

Awesome.

Looking forward to seeing what you do with those - assume different wood selection etc. Exciting times!

8 hours ago, Chownybass said:

Photo showing first UK built body ready for the top to go on.

 

The holes are the cable routing for battery cables and some weight saving chambering.

 

Fully Ash Body SWBs will now be an ash body with an ash top. So it'll look like one piece, but underneath you've got some stuff going on.

 

 

Looking good!

Slight tangent: are you going to continue the NT range? Not a lot of shorter scale 5’s out there, would be a shame for those to disappear.

11 hours ago, Fishfacefour said:

Well there's no rush if you're interested. I keep nearly changing my mind.

Haha cool I’ll give you a shout once I’ve built my in-cupboard multi stand and see if it’s still going!

If I can get my act together and figure out how to store this without getting rid of my 4 string, I’d be all over this! Just down the road in Edinburgh too…

11 hours ago, FDC484950 said:

Not a dig in any way, but to put this in perspective it’s a UK made bass that is cheaper than most smartphones. I do wonder about the economic motivations behind what people purchase sometimes. For example, I recently bought a new winter coat. It was £350! The last one I bought from the same brand 21 years ago was £250. I very nearly didn’t bother as it i thought it was very expensive. But on the other hand I’ve spent £3K on a bass which is just a hobby, and man maths has calculated it to be very good value for money and an essential purchase 🤩

Yep it’s totally justifiable and good value for a locally produced product (assuming decent quality…made in UK doesn’t automatically mean that, though in this case I’m sure it will). Just knee jerk reaction is that’s noticeably more than the expected 15% increase. Didn’t mean to sound whiny, I’ve already said I’d happily pay the premium to support the shift to local production.

Also most phones aren’t over £660, just the fancy ones! Good perspective though, phones are relatively short lived products yet we all accept it’s normal spending a couple hundred every few years on them. By that  standard even a £3k bass can be seen as good value 😆

8 hours ago, Chownybass said:

Currently we are struggling with a massive global shortage of shipping capacity. Every day it confirms more and more our decision to move the production here to our own country.

On that front - SWB samples already being made in the UK. Will put photos up on our facebook page. If there is interest I can post them here too. We're introducing a new bass to the SWB line. The SWB Deluxe.

CHB-1 / 2 samples will be coming pretty soon too.

 

Although not fixed or sure yet. Prices look something like the follow : 

Looking at the costs SWB-1 will go from £530 to £660 .
SWB Pro will go from £850 to £895 
SWB Deluxe be approximately £1195 

New CHB costs coming soon.

Ouch, £530 to £660 is some jump! Understand some of it is to get improvements in but mentally I’m going from rounding down to £500 to rounding up to £700 and it feels pretty significant. I’m sure it’ll still be great value though.

Please do put some pictures up when you’ve got them!

And as someone said earlier, 32” 5 string SWB would be epic.

Well done Chowny! What an inspiring move, all this shipping stuff round the world multiple times over has gotten ridiculous. We’ve only got one planet, etc. Really hope you do well out of this and can set an example to other companies and industries.

I’ve been thinking about getting a SWB for years, now its a definite and happy to pay the relatively small premium.

Sweet! The 4 string version was the first bass I ever saw (in a video) and thought damn, I want one of those.

Interesting 5 in a line headstock. Are the tuners closer together?

Mine was a really odd Shine active J-MM which I held on for about 12 years (many of which were gathering dust in the corner of my room), sold it to a colleague along with an old bike for £50 when I finally upgraded. Pretty sure it ended up in Cash Converters. Good riddance!

18 hours ago, Richard R said:

Welcome aboard 

Step away from the marketplace. 🤣🤣

Too late! Lots of fancy stuff there, it's slightly terrifying.

6 minutes ago, ezbass said:

An excuse to buy more gear? You’ve come to the right place (do I hear a distant mwah, ha, ha?). Medium and short scales are very de rigeur right now. Check out the short scale appreciation thread and the 32” thread for some inspiration.

Yes it's crazy the amount of shorties that keep popping up. Actually tried a Mustang PJ a while back and didn't like it - so in my head 32 is the magic number. Will totally go sift through that thread, cheers

24 minutes ago, SpondonBassed said:

Seriously though;  Promise yourself an upgrade as a reward for when you achieve a goal you have set for yourself.  Then you can say you have earned it.

Good advice! The problem is justifying the space any extra gear would take up given it's just a hobby. The guitars live in the bedroom (bass, acoustic guitar and my SO's electric which he never plays). I think that's the answer there actually, trade the guitar for a short scale... No one would ever notice.

Hi everyone, nice to meet you. Been lurking here for a while so thought I'd say hi 👋

I've been playing on and off for 18 years (gosh that makes me feel old), not got much to show for it, just play by myself normally through headphones after the kid's gone to bed...but just love playing bass! Got much more into it lately, picked up a theory book and everything.

I play a Schecter Omen Extreme, first bass I bought with my own money. Love it to bits and will probably never part with it, but am really intrigued by med scales. Need to think of an excuse to own 2 basses, maybe you guys can help 😆