Where's the Stentor? In Alistair's shop? Can I come to the trial too? I've played a few Stentors.
Ken: Malcolm, our longest serving and most respected luthier (greater Wellingrton area), talked to me personally of a Stentor that he was really impressed with (I was on his premises getting some work done on my Christopher at the time) - it belongs to the deputy principal of the NZSO (she'd bought it as a 'road bass') and he'd set it up.
Alistair (a guy who runs a local string shop in Wellington and who has been in the business for about 30 years) has imported quite a few Stentors over the last few years. He often asks me to test basses he gets in, so I've played a few Stentors.
In my opinion Christophers and Stentors are pretty comparable and it would depend on the individual bass as to which is 'better'.
Alistair did tell me that he felt the last few Chinese basses he'd brought in (I didn't see these ones and I don't know if they were Stentors or not) weren't really up to scratch and he thought they were trying to cut costs, now that their reputation had been cemented - evidently one had a plastic nut!
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