LeftyBassist.com

had a feeling the ATK305L would arrive today, and sure enough, about 10am I heard the landlord's dogs barking, and ran outside to intercept the mailman so he wouldn't leave an attempted delivery notice. So here are pictures and a running commentary from package to completed assembly...

The package had been roughed up a bit.....



but Jeroen's packing skills easily took the intercontinental mailing abuses....




First look; it goes from dark black to rich chocolate...

Next up; The Neck!....

Neck pocket....



Neck pics....






In Kit-form, and ready to assemble!

During assembly, I took the covers off to look into the control cavity, and discovered that the battery clip was deteriorated, and the wires easily broke off, so I exposed some fresh wire and re-soldered it. Eventually I'll get a new one, as this one has seen better days....



Control cavity otherwise looks good...



And, to make a long process short, after screwing the neck on, adjusting the truss-rod, intonation, string height, and the volume potentiometer in the cavity, it's complete and ready for action! Sounds and feels great - all I was hoping for!

glad to see everything worked out fine for you. Its a great looking bass

Just for the heck of it, I decided to take some group shots of all of my ATK's ...

From left-to-right, '95-4, '98-5, '06-5 right hand....

Okay after all this now i wanna ATK

Don't blame you, but good luck finding one!

Meant to post this pic up of the strings that came with the bass. Jeroen, or anyone else recognize the strings/brand by the ferrule colors?
They seem like a light-weight string, and more nickel-plated than steel. They feel good, and have a nice "zing" to them.

Starting with the B-string they go in this order...

B-yellow, E-brass, A-red, D-chrome, G-teal...

I like the look of it much better with the 'chocolate' woodgrain colour than the black it appeared to be in the pre-arrival photos. Lovely bass, and a fantastic story of international cooperation.

Glad it arrived safe and sound! I must admit it was a bit scary to ship it to Hawaii without tracking. Enjoy it!

How does it compare to the '06 Indonesian 305?

I agree, much better in real life, although in a dark club it will most likely appear black. And you are also right about the "international cooperation" part - without Jeroen stepping forward to act as my bidding agent, and trusting me to send him the money, this acquisition would never have happened! The more I play it, the more I like it; it's just fun to play!

Congratulations to you both. First to you for having a very cool dream come true. That's one beautiful bass that probably plays and sounds as good as it looks. Secondly, to Jeroen for putting out some major good karma in the world.

This is a truly great story and it's been interesting to follow it. I look forward to hearing other such examples of how this community bands together to help each other. Maybe it could be a whole new category on this forum.

If I hadn't seen it by the middle of next week, I would have been getting quite nervous! I just had to keep saying my new mantra to myself over the past week... "it will be here, it will be here, it will be here..."

Compared to the newer '06 Indonesian 305, there are definitely differences between the two. A brief comparison...

Finish - '98 305L - transparent urethane on body, as well as the fingerboard, both very glossy
'06 305R - Black sparkle on body and headstock, fingerboard has satin finish

Neck - They are both close in width, although the '98 feels just a tad bit rounder for some reason....

Weight - only have a cheap luggage scale, but the;
'98 - is heavier; around 10lbs
'06 - is close, about 9.5lbs

Electronics - not sure why at the moment but the "98 is crisper. the '06 has a nice warmth to it, although I haven't played it much, nor had a right handed player play it much so I get a better feel for the sound. Each is distinct in its own way.

Man I would have loved to obtain this baby, the shipping issue must have been hell esp to hawaii (Im from maui myself so i know...), glad i backed off and got the pgb1L instead ,
you deserved it buddy.
congrats.

Glad to hear you picked up the PGB1... was tempted to get that just because it's unusual, and a signature model, But I really prefer 5-string basses, so I would not have played it much, if at all. I'm sure you'll be playing it out proudly so the world (or at least Maui peeps) can dig on it!

The challenge wasn't so much in the shipping, as the costs were moderate ($35 or so from Germany to The Netherlands, and $60-ish to Oahu from there) it was all about Jeroen becoming my "agent" in Europe. Without him there would have been literally no way I could have bought this bass. The original seller wanted a cashiers check, and local shipping only.... not something I could have handled from here at all.

Been playing it steadily now since I got it, and it's a great bass to play, sounds solid, and punchy when I need it. Gets lots of compliments from my music buddies... It was well worth the effort!