Subway Guitars Gibson EB-2 copy

This is a review of a telecastercopy four-string bass that I bought from Fatdog at Subway Guitars, and not the Gibson EB-2 copy. I initially wanted what is known as "Dave's Bass," which is, again, an early P-Bass (telecaster) design. I wanted a simple, MM type soapbar with active electronics, and no traditional pickguard. I also wanted a slim, jazz bass width neck, and the gold Schaller hardware from an ebay mistake instead of typical Subway chrome junk. All was well until Fatdog took over the project and ruined everything.

After three months of waiting for Fatdog to get off his lazy ass and complete the project, I was presented with a poorly constructed mishmash that was not even close to what I ordered. The neck was a fat log that he sealed incorrectly (gotta love a sticky neck). The body, probably a once-nice Warmoth, was so poorly finished that there were bare spots where Fatdog completely missed brushing on a cheesy finish. I complained. I waited another month for the next attempt. I should have run when I had the chance.

After two more attempts at trying to get the damn thing right, I was so fed up and filled with utter contempt for Fatdog's complete lack of building skills, business sense, and anything approaching a clue that I took the best I could and ran. The bass I ended up with is utter garbage. The neck was probably at one time a nice Mighty Mite jazz neck until he hacked it into a rough approximation of the tele headstock. He didn't even sand the cuts properly

The best I could do with the monster from Subway was to take it apart and salvage the hardware and electronics. Face it, Fatdog creates garbage from garbage. The shop is filled to the rafters with nothing more than fire wood and hazardous materials masquerading as guitars. If you want the worst guitar or bass possible this is the brand for you.

Fatdog is a clueless, arrogant, slacker that is a nightmare to deal with. Try and catch him before lunch, as his ADHD medicine is still working. He couldn't finish the plastic cover for the electronics, and promised me up and down that he would send it to me. I'm still waiting.

Stay away from Subway! You will be very sorry if you don't!

I wanted to post an update to the review of the EB-2 copy I put in about a year ago. I've been playing it regularly ever since and it's actually worked very well. No further problems with the electronics, and the neck's been okay. It's still my only bass, and I play it in clubs or rehearsals at least three nights a week. Funnily enough, I've looked around at various other basses with the idea of buying a backup, and after a year and a half of playing this thing I don't actually like anything else (for under $1200, that is) nearly as much as the Subway. I still think it's better to buy a bass or guitar in person, rather than sight unseen through the mail, but I would buy from Fatdog again.

Like some other reviewers of Fatdog's products, I'm going to forgo the numerical rating system in favor of a detailed review. Because most of his inventory is cobbled together from spare and salvaged parts, Subway guitars and basses have certain...features (is that the right word?) that would be unacceptable in a mass-produced instrument, but, in this case, are the nature of the beast. Giving this instrument a low rating for fit and finish is kind of beside the point--of course it looks funky, it's a frankensteined mutant, after all. Therein also lies its charm, of course.

I called up Subway partially because I'm cheap, but mostly because was looking for a hollowbodied electric bass, which are hard to come by in most generic guitar stores. Since I play with a pick, I thought that a hollow design might help cut down on the unpleasant twang I often got when playing solidbodied instruments (more on this later). I spoke to Fatdog himself, who was brief but helpful, and he steered me towards a copy of a ES-335-style Gibson EB-2 for $310 (including shipping) and an assurance that I could send it back within 2 weeks for a full refund if I didn't like it. I sent off my check and received the bass about 2 weeks later, sans case (I didn't order one) but well-packed in what had once been the shipping box for a very expensive bicycle frame, making me feel extra cool. I didn't specify a finish color, so pulling the bright cherry-red beast from its box was a nice suprise--I think was expecting sunburst, for some reason. It's got a fully hollow plywood body of uncertain origin--from an old Hagstrom, perhaps?--a no-name bolt-on neck, good-quality tuners and bridge, an enormous neck-position single-coil pickup, a smaller bridge-position humbucker, two volume pots, two tone, and a 3-way switch. It came strung with roundwounds. So far, so good: rather strange-looking, but nice, and $100 cheaper than its closest rival, a re-issue Epiphone Rivoli.

I run this bass straight into a 100-watt Crate solid-state amp. Strung with roundwounds, it's certainly not twangy, but it also doesn't suggest the muffled thump of an upright, either. I think I was expecting a sort of dark, early Paul McCartney kind of sound--after all, he played a hollow bass with a pick, too--but instead I got more of a "My Generation" John Entwistle tone. Which is nice, if not exactly what I expected. Plenty of punch, and a lot of midrange snarl once the volume knob gets edged up--a very 1960's sound. Note that this only applies to the massive neck pickup: the bridge humbucker is pretty much useless, surprisingly thin and ploinky-sounding. Were I to buy a similar bass in the future I'd buy the single-pickup version; the bridge unit is just taking up space.

Ah, yes. Here's where it gets sticky. As I noted earlier, my bass was put together from recycled parts, and I do believe that in a previous life its body actually belonged to a guitar. At least, there's a huge gash where a guitar bridge would go, which has been none-too-carefully filled with a block of wood. Very minimal effort was made to make this block blend in with the rest of the body (it is somewhat reddish, though). There are numerous other holes and openings that have been obviously patched with wood putty. But, again, I expected this, so I'm not upset, and when you're onstage the damage really isn't visible to the audience. In fact, I've gotten several compliments on its beauty from non-musicians (actual bass players tend to look at it and sneer).

The action was a little on the high side, but I thought it could be corrected by a professional setup, so I kept the bass and let the two-week warranty period expire. This was a mistake. In fact, it needed a neck reset, which it got; a month later, the pickup selector switch died, leaving only the pathetic bridge pickup operational. Together these repairs ate up the $100 I had saved by not buying a Rivoli. Is this Fatdog's fault? Maybe, or perhaps it just got banged around during transit. I bring this up not to discourage anyone from buying a Subway, or in fact any guitar through the mail; but, if you're not familiar with repairs yourself, make sure you have a professional check the instrument out before the warranty expires! It's just like buying a used car.

I've been playing this bass at gigs and rehearsal for a year now, and since I had the neck and selector switch fixed it's been reliable. The hardware and strap buttons are solid and, allowing for the inherent fragility of a hollowbody, I feel comfortable playing this as my only bass. Of course, it won't survive much of a fall or too much rough treatment. For indestructability a solidbody is more desirable.

It's interesting to see the various responses from other reviewers in this category; some people think Fatdog's great, others have yet to receive their guitars after a six-month wait. There doesn't seem to be a correlation between customer service and the amount of money you spend with him, as far as I can tell, so I'm not sure what the deciding factor is. I didn't have any problems with him, though, so I'm perfectly happy with his support.

I bought this bass with a very specific purpose, which was to buy an electric that sounded as much like an acoustic upright as possible. If there's anyone else out there who's trying to do the same, I can tell you it's not really neccessary to buy a hollowbody. A few months ago I had the opportunity to compare an old Kay upright side-by-side with a short-scale fretless Ampeg solidbody strung with black tapewounds--and the Ampeg sounded more like what I expected from an upright than the Kay itself did. I found that using tapewounds or flatwounds, and adjusting amp settings, made a far bigger difference in sound than switching from solid to hollowbody construction. Solidbodies are easier to maintain than hollowbodies, as well.

Buying this bass has made me somewhat wary of shopping for expensive merhcandise through the mail. Obviously, problems will always come to light sooner if you can try out a guitar in person before you buy. Were this bass stolen I would look for something in-town before I called Fatdog again. That said, I wouldn't exclude the possiblity of buying from Subway Guitars in the future--they put together extremely interesting guitars and basses with lots of character. I'd probably want to go to the shop in Berkeley and pick out a completed instrument myself, though, rather than buying over the phone or through the internet.