Very cool! I am, indeed, a bass player. Washburn makes great basses, I'm sure he loves it. I *had* a Warwick Corvette 6-string, an American J-bass, and (another inexpensive, fantastic Asian import) a Brice 6-string fretless, but it was all taken from me by a very, very bad person. Brice is another perfect example of the "Chinese Awesomeness Phenomenon", or CAP, as I have now deemed it. Same concept as the CCs - cost me $350, which typically buys you some J knockoff, but it had a gorgeous curly maple top with satin finish, active/passive electronics, nice ebony fretboard. Sounded like a champ, I used that thing all the time. rondomusic.com has them for even cheaper now, I believe. They also carry Agile Guitars (another CAP company), which make models very similar to top-shelf guitars. Brice and Agile both have dozens and dozens of positive reviews on Harmony Central, and the former certainly has my backing. Never played or seen Agile's stuff, but it looks really nice. And the Brice held its own against any 6-string in the $700-$1000 range (not quite as nice as the Warwick, but hey, the thing was $1800). But anywho, this is a drum forum! That's reassuring to hear that the CC Maples are identical to the Cats, because I LOVE the sound of them, also that they sound better than the Pro Ms to you. Moldy, not only does it come with a HW pack, the pack is WAY, WAY nicer than anything I've seen on the sub-$1000 "package deals" we sell at my work - that's all Sound Percussion and low-line PDP stuff. All single-chain with no under-pedal support, and thin "double-braced" stands. The CC stuff was - especially for the price - wonderful. Look at the hardware photos on the eBay page, it's really beefy, durable stuff. Bobadrumma, that's exactly the case - CAP happens all over the market. I did paint them a little strongly, and I realize now that it's simply my ear that prefers them over top-level stuff. However, my point still stands - proportionally, it's at least $1050 of name-brand gear for $500. Plus, they just look awesome with those shallow shells.
I've built a rudimentary 16" to kick converter (bent 2 old tom legs to angles and found some old RIMS mounts for $7 each at Goodwill, of all places) and have been using the 16 on the ground with the 10" and 14" for a wonderfully tiny bebop kit.
I still can't figure out this Myspace pic thing - here's the direct link to the album, check them out if you'd like. Just crappy cell pics of the kit, my apologies, I'll get vids/sounds up ASAP.
Custom Classic photos