# NGD! Stellah Guitars 6 string bass | Review (56k etc)



## Nautilus (May 27, 2012)

_I know there's next to no info on this particular outfit. Stellah guitars make super budget instruments using chinese parts and manufacturing...so I was taking a big chance buying this thing. It wasn't too much for me to lose, should it be __[FONT=&quot]unsalvageable[/FONT]__. For info, this bass was £120 (roughly 150) including shipping from Ireland to the UK.
_
1) It's difficult for me to truly gauge how this bass sits amongst others because I've never played a bass guitar in my life. Take from that what you will. I do work in a custom guitar shop and have owned a few guitars in my years of playing...so I have a pretty fair degree of knowledge otherwise.

2) It did require some work to get in what (I feel) is a good state. I'll elaborate below.

Out of the box:
Looks like a 5 piece body, one piece neck, double truss. All the individual saddles on the bridge appear to be machined from single blocks of whatever material they're actually made of. Very rough, open grain rosewood fretboard. Frets were rough and mucky. The finish was THICK. Particularly on the neck, over the sides of the fretboards it wasn't very consistent either. It meant that it was patchy and in some parts encroached over the frets, on to the fretboard itself. Most notably is that the neck cavity (it's a bolt-on) was cut a little wide for the neck. This means there's about 1mm clearance on both the left/right sides of the neck. It's still stable and doesn't wobble at all, but it hardly looks like a decent job (hey, you get what you pay for).

Adjustments I made:
Setup. Big time. 


Strings didn't sit in the nut very snug and there was major filing required particular for the lowest 2 strings. I used a standard Ernie Ball set for a 5 string bass, with a high .36 (I think) extra so I can't imagine I was using anything particularly thick.
Removed the finish entirely from the neck. This is kind of a personal preference, but after a cleanup with some sanding (eventually up to 2000 grit) there was no evidence of the bad varnish job. It's now just lemon oiled and natural.
Intonation+truss rod adjustments. No problem, standard stuff and didn't have issues there but it was in serious need of it.
Cleaned, dyed and oiled up the fretboard. Again, preference (I suppose) but the combination of the dye and lots of oil has certainly help smooth out the otherwise roughness
Frets all polished. Actually were nice and level after the work.


Gah, really sorry for the ramble. Pictures ahoy:































Thoughts:
I'm lucky enough to have some measurable experience in guitar construction. Given that I already had the tools for the job, the whole thing cost me all of about £20 for a set of new bass strings...and that was it. 

_Do I like this bass?_ HELL YES. Now everything's done it plays really well. It responds quite nicely, it has a pretty clear tonal character and sounds fantastic (at least through my rig! - Pod HD Pro-> KRK monitors). I'm very very impressed with the hardware, especially given the price. I can honestly say that after all the work this guitar could and, probably should have been sold for at least twice what I bought it for (and I got it new from the manufactuer).

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If I had to nag, the neck pokcet annoys me a little. I'd have preferred a little more definition on the top end, but that's probably the result of my newbie approach to playing the bass and may be sorted with some magic EQing. All in all, if you have the gusto to take some time getting these guitars up to scratch, you pretty much will never beat this thing on price. Awesome.


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## BucketheadRules (May 27, 2012)

D'oh! Some silly bugger built it the wrong way round!



Sorry fella, only kidding. That looks good, I see those on eBay and always wonder if they're worth a punt for those ridiculous prices, good to finally have someone clear up whether they're actually any good or not.

Any idea on the body wood?


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## Nautilus (May 27, 2012)

BucketheadRules said:


> D'oh! Some silly bugger built it the wrong way round!
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Yeah I forgot to mention it's a lefty! I'm going to hazard a guess and say some crappy cuts of maple for the body.

Don't buy these unless you're willing to put some work in to it. If you are, my experience would be- go for it


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## HaMMerHeD (May 27, 2012)

Looks like good choice for a first bass. I love cheap basses and that one looks super sharp for the cost.

I can tell you're a guitar player though. Next time you string it up, pay closer attention to the tuning machines. They aren't sperzel type, so they likely have holes in the middle of the post. You trim the string ends to length, somewhere about 3" past the tuner post, then insert the cut string end down the hole. You then bend the string over and wrap it around the post. Then you'll have a nice trim looking headstock with no visible string ends.

Like this:






You want to trim the string to length such that you can get at least 2 complete wraps around the post when tuned.


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