Jay Haide Basses

[William Stephens]

Hi all

I wonder if anyone here has had any experience of Jay Haide basses.

I recently saw one of the standard finish Quenoil model ones in Martyn Bailey's workshop.

The qualitiy of the instrument looked outstanding for a chinese bass.

They go over here for about £4000-£5000. Most of the dealers that stock them claim they are equal in quality to western made instruments costing much more.

Does anyone here own one or has anyone played one?

Thanks

Will

[Eric Hochberg]

I just played one earlier in the week. Beautiful looking, it was the L'ancienne wide shouldered model with antique finishing. Sounded good but the setup on this was pretty poor (a ton of fingerboard scoop), at least for my style of playing, and it was tough to really put it through its paces. The shop was asking $6500. Maybe high for a new Chinese bass...but it was purty.

[Ken Smith]

Most of the dealers that stock them claim they are equal in quality to western made instruments costing much more. Thanks,Will

Well, I have seen several and owned two Shen basses that I could say the same thing about. I held on to my Shens for as long as I could and then sold them to local students of a friend of mine. These were as good as any western made bass of the same design in my opinion. The Chinese can make good basses. Not everything Asian is junk as we can see. We are talking about Humans from another Continent. Then, there is business and we have the grades of products by price point.

I have also heard good things about the Jay Haide basses but it puzzles me every time I see a Chinese bass with a western name attached to it. Imagine an Italian Bass with a Chinese name!:eek:

[Thomas Erickson]

I know of one here locally; like has been said, it looked quite nice and initially seemed to be a good instrument with potential, but after a year or so of use it had failed to "open up" and fulfill expectations, and it was sold off. I may be seeing a few more here in the near future; if so I'll post back here with photos and my impressions of them.

[Arnold Schnitzer]

I recently acquired a nicely antiqued Panormo model. The moisture content in the wood is disappointingly way too high for the Northeast, so I will be seasoning the bass for a while before I set it back up. The importer assured me that their shop in China is really careful about their wood drying, but methinks this is wishful thinking.

[Eric Hochberg]

Arnold, what do you mean by and how do you "season" the bass?

[Ken Smith]

Arnold, what do you mean by and how do you "season" the bass?

I think he means to acclimate it and dry it down to current local moisture content necessity. In drying wood, it only says that dry is kept in a dry area. Wood will continue to absorb moisture and release it like a sponge. Take some wood at 8% and put it a dame area and watch the surface moisture rise to 10% in a short time. In China, the have a wet/moist air climate from what I have seen with their exports. This is every brand. China is China. All they can do is dry it as dry as they can over there. When it reaches here it's no where near the moisture content we would use to make an instrument.

If you put the instrument in a fairly moist room here it will slowly dry out over time. If put in a dry area, it will dry too fast and crack. Necks can warp and twist as well including the scroll area. This is have seen where the head was twisted away slightly but noticeably away from the neck.

In making instruments at the prices of China, no way can they afford the time and expense to dry the wood down for 5-10 year minimum like we do here for fine instruments. If they do, it's in China's moist air. That doesn't help much once it gets here.

So, regardless of a Jay Haide, Jeckle and Hyde or Hide n Seek Chinese basses, local manufacturing moisture climate is what it is.

[Arnold Schnitzer]

Arnold, what do you mean by and how do you "season" the bass?Ken's thesis above is spot on. I'll add that most luthiers feel it's prudent to open up the seams to keep the plates from splitting as the wood dries out.

[Eric Hochberg]

So, regardless of a Jay Haide, Jeckle and Hyde or Hide n Seek Chinese basses, local manufacturing moisture climate is what it is.

:D Thanks for the responses.

[Thomas Erickson]

regardless of a Jay Haide, Jeckle and Hyde or Hide n Seek Chinese basses, local manufacturing moisture climate is what it is.

This should be a sticky.