Meta Guitars Pragma Bass

[HeadlessBassist]

Meta Guitars' Pragma Bass - lovely build materials and no doubt excellent quality, but a €5000 starting price and is anyone else reminded of a contemporary executioner's Axe..? It's lightweight too, at 6.6lbs.

 

Edited yesterday at 06:14 by HeadlessBassist

[lemmywinks]

Still boggles my mind that body shapes designed from the ground up for headless still have the tuners sticking out like that.

[RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE]

Yuk! That is one horrible overpriced bass imho .

[Cato]

I generally like the more avant-garde designs but I'm struggling a bit with that one.

 

 

[Bassassin]

18 minutes ago, Cato said:

I generally like the more avant-garde designs but I'm struggling a bit with that one.

 

 

 

Likewise. Upper bout looks like a huge, pointless expanse of unnecessary bulk. Looks like it could be shaped into something with a bit of coherence but that ain't it.

[SpondonBassed]

I suppose you can still pitch bend behind the nut but it doesn't look as easy as with a Status like bend well.  Short-sighted?

 

As previously pointed out, those tuners are just asking to be damaged.

 

Needs improvement.  Pass.

[SpondonBassed]

One thing that I do like is the use of rolling saddles.

 

It makes more sense to me than having rollers built into the nut on a conventionally strung bass.

[lemmywinks]

A surprising amount of expertly built basses which strive for individuality end up looking jarring and wonky, almost like the person who can craft a seriously high end instrument isn't neccessarily the same person who can come up with a visually appealing design.

 

Off the top of my head Shuker and Iceni can do both but a lot of luthiers would benefit from getting someone else in to design a body shape and cohesive theme.

[lemmywinks]

Would also have to see it on a strap, some basses which look pretty awful on a stand actually look good when being played. That's all that matters really.

[itu]

I understand the reason for the position of the tuners: the half position is closer to the player and therefore more ergonomic. I have been looking at many designs where the bridge is (nearly) in the middle of the bass (starting from Alembics) and half position is miles away. 

 

Brown Bass is most likely OK for Jokic, and Antetokoumpo (and Clarke), but my reach is shorter. Long gigs are a real pain with XLong scale and that low B somewhere in the Far East. 

 

The design of this particular bass is a bit cumbersome, like @Bassassin noted. Most likely only a study of the design, and something that people can talk about (an advertisement of the maker per se). After all this is a plain PJ bass. 

Edited yesterday at 15:14 by itu

[tauzero]

20 hours ago, itu said:

I understand the reason for the position of the tuners: the half position is closer to the player and therefore more ergonomic. I have been looking at many designs where the bridge is (nearly) in the middle of the bass (starting from Alembics) and half position is miles away. 

 

Cort and Ibanez both manage to protect their tuners - Cort by having a complete cutaway (also see Hohner and Sei), Ibanez by having a scoop out of the front of the bass. Neither of them put the 12th fret much further away than having the tuners dangling off the end.

 

The pickups seem strangely orientated - they don't match up with the increasing angles of the frets so if it was a parallel fret design, they'd be leaning over rather than across the strings. I know Warwick and Ritter both do leaning pickups (Thumb bridge, Ritter neck) but they lean the opposite way.

 

Their Veil bass at least has pickups that lean the right way, although the body shape should appeal to even fewer people as it's singlecut.

[itu]

Yes, I have seen basses which are ergonomic and the tuners are protected. That seems to be an easy solution to move the neck towards player and save some weight in the body end. (As said, upper bout is against this idea.) 

[Skybone]

Bizarrely, it reminds me of the Ovation Breadwinner (before anyone says anything, the pic is of the Eastwood Breadwinner, not the Ovation)