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Has anyone heard of Zvetano Basses?


binky_bass
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Thanks for that Tony. The problem with lines on a fretless is that you are playing with your eyes and not your ears, and we have here a demonstration of this issue as most of the notes he's playing are out of tune... Lines are there to help, but you have to learn to play in tune and hear your note sharply in tune. That said, I don't like the overall sound of the instrument and the 5 ways rotary switch is really useless as there's a tone control.

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There is no shortage of capable woodworkers these days, that's for sure. The Zvetano basses look decent enough, although a search through Google images shows a clear evolution of the builds - I bet I could accurately discern the chronology of the instruments just by looking at some of the finer details and more intricate craft involved in some of them. 

One of the problems with using a sound clip to sell a fretless bass is that you had better be able to play it. Even a really good fretless sounds bad if the player is sharp and flat. FWIW, I think lines are a great guide but they need to be used in tandem with learned ears to play in tune. Although I think the proportion of players I hear on unlined boards with bad intonation is higher than on lined boards, particularly during position shifts. The savants like Alain Caron who can blaze with 100% accuracy all day long on an unlined board are few and far between. 

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What put me off making a firm offer is exactly as Fiatcoupe432 says. The build looks good, but the luthier used cheap Chinese hardware and electronics to finish the build, this always makes me ask the question 'What else did they cheap out on?', so for me, with it being a largely unknown builder, I had to pass. I still love the look of the bass, but who knows what you might see once it's in hand and close up. 

Chris, you're absolutely right with the evolution of the design over time... I have to say this bass in question by far looks like the best this luthier has built (incidentally another red flag!)

Zvetano could be amazing basses, but for me, too much of a potential costly risk to find out! 

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