2000s Whisnevsky Wishbass Doubleneck Fretless/Fretted Electric Bass Guitar

Overview: Wishnevsky's Wishbass instruments are strange, oddball beasts that never quite work correctly from the builder. I've seen enough of his work pass through the workshop (followed by my frustrations in trying to get them to play well for their owners) to know that the fellow has much more of an artist's temperament to building than he does a practical, instrument maker's mind. That said, after Ancel spent far too long overhauling this instrument, it's finally turned into an easy-playing, good-sounding, mind-distorting bass-machine with looks that are surreal enough to draw the eyes of any player that sees it.

Tone: The covered humbucking pickups have nice growl and snap to them but also provide a good, solid, low end. To my ears it sounds awfully modern and balanced in tone.

Feel: The necks are not really cut to one distinct profile and so blend a bit of C, D, and V shapes down their lengths. They're comfortable, though, and you can tell I can play nice and quickly on them in the demos. It's a little hard to see the side dots with the amount of tiny wormholes in the fretboard material (I mean, it looks great, though), so it takes a moment to orient yourself to where everything is.

Interesting features: I mean, what isn't interesting about this? Wishnevsky used uncompensated bone bridges when he made this initially but due to the orientation of the string-mounting holes, it meant that they never stayed in place when tuning-up. I changed this by installing screws as individual adjustable saddles and found the intonation points for each string. This simplified the design, made it sound better, and made it easier to use. In addition, it let me fit a ground wire around the base of the saddles so the instrument would finally be grounded as it should be.

Repairs included: Ancel planed both necks and then refretted the fretted neck with jumbo wire. He sanded the body a lot, fixed the nuts, and put a clearcoat over the whole thing. I then stepped-in and fit the "saddles" and wired it all up. We are both somewhat responsible for the filled/freshly-redrilled string-mount holes. Ancel put on the back control cavity cover. It's playing bang-on and ready to roll.

• Weight: 13 lbs 6 oz
• Scale length: 34" both necks
• Nut width: 1 5/8" both necks
• Neck shape: medium-bigger C/V hybrid shapes
• Board radius: 14" fretted neck 10" fretless
• Body width: 17"
• Body depth: 1 3/4"
• Body wood: walnut/maple/cherry/mahogany
• Bridge: screws as individual adjusters
• Fretboard: wormhole/bugbitten butternut perhaps
• Neck wood: walnut/maple/cherry
• Pickups: 2x humbucker
• Action height at 12th fret: 3/32" bass and hair-under 3/32" treble (quick)
• String gauges: real light -- 85w-36w low to high
• Truss rod: non-adjustable
• Neck relief: straight
• Fret style: jumbo

Condition notes: I mean, it is what it is -- an oddball and now a very playable oddball. There are nicks, dings, and scratches from time spent long in storage and disuse and general "workmanly" design elements all over the instrument. It was never sanded perfectly all over (Ancel improved it a lot, though) and never finished when it was made. I don't think there are any straight lines on it anywhere save the top of the fingerboards after Ancel planed them. The necks, while multi-ply, can't handle normal gauges. I would suggest 95w-35w extra light gauges as the max tension put on either of them. I currently have something like 85w-36w on both necks right now, made by downsizing the A-D-G of 110w-50w sets or similar and then adding a lighter G guitar string.

It comes with: Sorry, no case.

Consignor tag: AC