I am the proud of owner of one of your basses. I bought it from Steve Carriere who bought it from Brian Gingrich, so I guess it’s one of the first ones. I wanted to write a fan letter: this bass is amazing.

It is the fourth fretless I have owned. The first was a Fender p/j that I built out of parts--a nice bass which was stolen. The second was a custom made number made by a local luthier. The third was an Ernie Ball MusicMan Sterling. And now I have yours.

It’s the first fretless that I truly want to play and look forward to occasions when I can use it. As you might know, I am a free-lance and studio player and have always felt the need to have a fretless on hand.

But given a choice, I would always play a fretted bass. A lot of gigs that I play have a “jazz set” where we play standards for the first hour. The Wendler sounds wonderful there. I also have brought it to my regular worship gig at my synagogue and used it with an Israeli folk music band that I play with.

And of course I have used it on a jazz gig, only switching back to fretted for the funk tunes. Everyone who has heard it and seen it has made very favorable comments. It’s easy to play, looks good, and sounds wonderful.

What’s not to like?

I have been to a lot of NAMM shows and music stores and have played other basses that are trying for the same effect, but yours actually does it.

Others I have played: Rob Allen, Godin, Rick Turner, Azola, Viellete And many ABG’s from Taylor on down.

Feel free to quote me!

I like the simplicity of controls as well: I just plug in and play. I’m assuming there is a piezo hidden somewhere under the other pickup and they are mixed together in a permanent setting. Maybe there isn’t, but however you did it, you did it right.

I wish you much success in your instrument building and hope to meet you some day. Kansas is one state I have never been in.

Best wishes,

--Jeremy Cohen, Berkeley, California
jeremy@jps.net