NBD - local pickup

[Shibiwan]

Picked up this beauty off a local Craigslist ad a couple weeks ago. US Masters Design EPiN4 (i = import, Korean made), through neck design, active electronics, plays beautifully. I've been wanting to pick up bass guitar for a while - struggling with slap bass technique though.  ;D

[rnolan]

Nice Bass  .  I struggle with slap also, when I don't think about it I seem to be able to slap ok (not brilliantly), but as soon as I "try" it doesn't work out so well, I think I'm worried it'll hurt 

[Peter H. Boer]

Nice bass 

Slap is soooo overrated. C:-)

[Harley Hexxe]

Looks like a nice bass

    Looks comfortable to play. Funny though, made in Korea, but called "US Masters." I wonder what they are implying? 

Harley 8)

[Harley Hexxe]

Nice bass 

Slap is soooo overrated. C:-)

+1

[Shibiwan]

Looks like a nice bass

    Looks comfortable to play. Funny though, made in Korea, but called "US Masters." I wonder what they are implying? 

Harley 8)

Thanks. It's pretty lightweight, really well balanced and has a great tone.

I had wondered the same thing about the origin of the guitar and researched it pretty extensively.

US Masters was a small guitar manufacturer based in Wisconsin. They made a line of semi custom guitars there (i.e. made in the USA true to their name), but somewhere in 2008/2009, they started an affordable import range with the EPiN and EPiB models, calling then the US Masters Design range. These imports were initially made in Korea and around 2013 onwards, they moved the manufacturing lines to China. They did continue to build US Masters guitars and basses in Wisconsin alongside the imports in their custom shop.

The company eventually went under and the business was sold in 2015 or thereabouts... don't know what happened after that. Their used guitars and basses have a good reputation for quality but don't do well in the used market.



Interestingly enough, there's a delusional chap on Reverb that has the same exact bass listed for $2000 more than what I paid for it.   

[Harley Hexxe]

Don't feel bad.

    I have a few Korean made Fender Showmaster guitars made around 2000-2004, and I see a few of these going for ridiculous prices. These guitars were only around $600 USD new, but they were barely worth that. While the body and neck construction were very good, the hardware and electronics they came with were junk.

     Certainly not worth even close to $2000. Mine are beater guitars that I'll play out with and leave my USA Fenders at home.

Harley 8)

[Shibiwan]

...the hardware and electronics they came with were junk.

The hardware and electronics are pretty good. Wilkinson hardware throughout and US Masters custom pickups with nice sounding active electronics shared with their USA-made models.

[Harley Hexxe]

That's a lot better quality hardware than the junk Fender sprung for. I guess they didn't want to risk the Korean manufacture showing up the USA guitars.

The pickups on the other hand that they came with were Seymour Duncans, but they were rewound to the point that they were thin and wimpy sounding. I know Duncan can make some killer sounding pickups, but the ones that were stock in those guitars, just made you not want to play it. I have DiMarzio Air Buckers in those now. Much better

Harley 8)