shen 3/4 willow

[Vincent Maiolo]

i'm interested in purchasing a shen willow 3/4. i believe this is the model 200 (spruce top and willow back). does anyone have any experience or opinion on the quality of this instrument or shen basses in general. i play primarily pizz. i'm currently playing a new standard cleveland laminated bit finding it a little too big. will the shen be a comparable in sound and construction. thanks.

[stan haskins]

I like mine alot, for what it is. It's only two years old, but very playable and gets a good sound. It can't compare to basses in the $10,000 range, but in my opinion, compares very well with any basses under $6000. The Willow back is a fairly soft wood, which I think takes away from the projection a bit (the more expensive maple roundback version I played clearly put out more sound). It speaks very quickly under the bow, though, and the sound quality is very good. Alot of bang for the buck.

There are more details in this thread (http://www.smithbassforums.com/showthread.php?t=147)

Make sure you get it from someone who'll set it up well.

By the way, I just read you're talking about playing pizz (jazz?). I really only play bowed, I'm not sure if this will be any improvement on a Cleveland. Those are good jazz basses. Have you tried tweaking the setup or changing strings?

FWIW, In one of the sections I play with, there's a latin jazz player who uses a Cleveland. It's a good bass. I'm not sure the Willow would be much of an "upgrade" for a jazz player: I beiieve my willow gets more sound under the bow, but I think that's about the setup. The shape of the Willow makes it more playable in the upper register, though - it doesn't have that very wide shoulder the Cleveland has.

[Vincent Maiolo]

Thanks Stan. I appreciate the info. Was not aware of the difference between willow and maple.