D'Mark Basses?

[benjifaith]

Recently looking for a 5 string and stumbled across D'Mark basses. 
These basses are unbelievably beautiful but they seem very small and set to South America. 
I can't find anyone who plays these basses from the UK or English speaking videos. 

Wondering if anyone has any experience with these basses and how they play? is the company a good one? as everything on their site is in Spanish

[TheGreek]

I had a look at the site: https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=pt&u=https://www.dmarkguitars.com/&prev=search&pto=aue

Unfortunately I couldn't get into the Gallery so have no idea (other than the 3 single cut basses) what they build.

[Ameribass]

They looked impressive to me as well and after watching a couple of videos in Portuguese and hearing the instruments I decided to buy one here in the States. I returned it the very next day.

My impression is that the cheap route was taken on these basses where possible. Some of the things that came along with the instrument were not genuine.The guitar strap that it comes with is not leather but some cheap faux leather thing. The strap locks are schaler knock offs. The tuning machines had the goto logo but I now have my doubts if those are legit as well the logo looked off. The bridge looks a little on the cheap side.

While the soft case had a plush furry interior on the whole it looks like a cheap bag. I didn't inspect it too much as I was focused mostly on the bass so this comment is purely a visual opinion of it. Maybe despite its appearance it would last a while / provide adequate protection.

Disappointingly my instrument came with blemishes that any other manufacturer would have mentioned but we're missing from all of the product shots.

The electronics were okay nothing fancy and maybe a bit lacking. One of the pots had a drastic change in a very small amount of space while the rest of the its movement didn't seem to do too much.

The big thing for me was that I expected the low B to sound consistent with the other strings but it seemed weaker and sounded as if it wasn't from the same instrument.

The batteries of which there are two float in the back cavity between a circuit board and two pots. There's nothing keeping them in place, they're free to move around in there though yes, their are kept in more or less the same place by the electronics around them. For the money spent you would think they would at least wrap it in some non-conductive material so they wouldn't bang against the things, right? Maybe this is a minor point.... (But minor points tend to add up)

It was very easy to play and arrived with low action. Slap style playing on it was very easy to do. The neck was pretty thick compared to the basses I usually play. The instrument was a single cut and playing in the upper registers wasn't too hard to do.

The fret work look to be done by hand, I don't think there's any plekking going on here. Not necessarily a bad thing but there are many basses in the exact same price range that are plekked even from small manufacturers. 

But all of the little blemishes and inconsistencies on it just didn't sit right with me for the amount that I paid for it. For the money it should have been perfect. A friend of mine pointed out that you could spend $1,000 on a schecter and have all genuine electronics, pickups and strap locks. And that's 1/3 of the cost of these dmark bases. And because schecters are mass produced you know that they would be absolutely perfect.

The seller told me that there would naturally be imperfections because these instruments are handmade but I disagree with him. I think that if a luthier is worth his salt he would not accept the blems that were on my instrument. Rather you wouldn't be able to tell that it was handmade; it would be just as perfect as any mass-produced instrument. I have seen hand built instruments that didn't have the issues that mine had.

Again, even though it played well it had a bunch of cosmetic issues and a midling electronics package that just didn't sit right with me so I sent it back.

They might be great instruments for a lot of people. Again the one that I had was very playable. I come from playing $5,000 instruments that have their own unique sound and so maybe, just maybe I have high standards? Unrealistic expectations perhaps?  But I don't really think so in this case.

Edited January 15, 2021 by Ameribass

[benjifaith]

Wow......

Thank you for that as yeah they're expensive to gamble on haha 

Did you get a refund all ok?
thats unreal haha 

do you have any recommendations for that price range 5 strings?