on August 31, 2022
After a lot of work the bass is great, but,.,.
I'm a long term guitar player and wanted to pick up the bass. I bought the Glarry over the Monoprice and a few others based on reviews that gave it glowing scores for frets, finish and playability. While I was overall impressed with the instrument (with the obligatory caveat "at this price"), I was very disappointed in the fingerboard and frets. First off, the fingerboard had no finish whatsoever on it - no sanding sealer, no poly, varnish, o ...
After a lot of work the bass is great, but,.,.
I'm a long term guitar player and wanted to pick up the bass. I bought the Glarry over the Monoprice and a few others based on reviews that gave it glowing scores for frets, finish and playability. While I was overall impressed with the instrument (with the obligatory caveat "at this price"), I was very disappointed in the fingerboard and frets. First off, the fingerboard had no finish whatsoever on it - no sanding sealer, no poly, varnish, oil etc. It was just raw wood that had not been finish sanded - there was wood "fuss" everywhere. I'm also a very long term woodworker with a full shop in my garage and work with maple a lot, and this was raw wood. The fret board soak mineral spirits right up. That was not true for the neck which has an "OK" finish. Worse, the fret ends, while not having any sprout, looked like they had been ground down with an 80 grit sanding wheel - they were extremely rough and overall poorly finished (see photos). The fret leveling was so bad the guitar was virtually unplayable. Seven frets had to be leveled and 3 of those a very significant amount. There was also some sort of brownish gunk near the ends of a number of frets that I am assuming is some sort of glue or epoxy they used to seat the frets, but this is minor and just a cosmetic item that has no affect on playability.
Fortunately, I am fairly experienced in guitar set up. I've set up and worked on frets, etc. on over 20 guitars in my own collection, several band mates and friends and two guitar instructors. I've also made two guitars, though I've never made a neck from scratch. Of all those guitars, this one was by far the most poorly finished fret board and frets of any I have ever seen, and that includes a Monoprice Tele and a very cheap Rocket Strat I used to create a collapsible guitar that would fit in carry in luggage. So, even by "cheap" guitars standards, this one was nothing less than horrible. And that 80 grit grinder wheel they took to the frets? well they also ground away some of the fingerboard leaving a nice increasing width bevel from the nut to the end of the fret board - see photo.
However, after about 5 hours of fret work with proper end and crowning files, fret erasers, gray pads, 800 grit wet/dry and 0000 SS wool, re-profiling the edges of the fret board to remove the bevel and and 8 coats of Tru Oil with a lot of between-coats sanding, the neck is near perfect and feels amazing. Then on to the formal set up. To my pleasant surprise, the intonation was nearly spot on, the string height was about perfect and the neck relief was just a tiny bit too much, but that is entirely my preference. The guitar with the Wilkinson PUPs actually sounds great. The electronics are, as expected, very tiny and low end, but they do not hinder the sound of the guitar. I will likely replace them with 250K/500K liners/audio taper CTS pots, but that my preferred set up and I've done similar to some of my guitars that cost 20 times what this guitar costs, so that is no reflection on the value of this guitar. The electronics do not "need" to be replaced.
Overall, now that I've put a lot of work into this bass, I really like it and it is [now] very playable. The overall finish is great and it fits in with all my other guitars hanging on hooks in my studio room.
I can't give the guitar a 5-star review because this guitar was far from playable or acceptable as it arrived and most people would not be able to correct the deficiencies necessary to make it playable. It's possible mine was an outlier that they threw together with a non-QC'd neck, but because the fingerboard was unfinished and just raw wood and the poor fret work that made this guitar unplayable, I can only give it a 3-start review.
I highly recommend anyone who buys this guitar to know how to check fret level and be aware you might have to finish the fingerboard yourself (an unfinished maple fingerboard will look horrible after a short while from grease, dirt and oils from your fingers). If you do not know how to do this or how to check it, I highly recommend you either buy another brand or have it checked by a professional because if you do not, you are very likely to get very frustrated at not being able to make it sound "correct" - you'll get a lot of fret buzz and may not be able to play some notes at all.
If you do know how to correct these types of deficiencies or know someone who can, I think this is an excellent base bass project instrument. Once properly finished, it is a very good value for the money. It's unfortunate that Glarry puts out guitars with the level of defects I saw in my copy.
If the photos load, they show the fret ends and bevel before being worked on, the guitar mid-"fixing" and the completed fret board profile and fret end finishing. The fret ends could have been better, but would have taken more time than the bass was worth - it is only a $120 bass.
Service Team:
Sorry for the inconvenience caused to you! We appreciate your support for Glarry. We have already reflected your question to our development department and quality control department. We would censor more rigidly on our products and improve their quality. Glarry
.png){kind=icon}
.png){kind=icon}
