{"id":675,"date":"2014-05-29T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-05-29T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bassoftheweek.com\/?post_type=bass&p=675"},"modified":"2026-09-13T08:46:57","modified_gmt":"2026-09-13T08:46:57","slug":"bass-of-the-week-hjc-customs-alchemy-fretless-5","status":"publish","type":"bass","link":"https:\/\/bassoftheweek.com\/?bass=bass-of-the-week-hjc-customs-alchemy-fretless-5","title":{"rendered":"Bass of the Week: HJC Customs Alchemy Fretless 5"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Vuyani<\/p>\n

Back at the Winter NAMM show this year, we ran into our friend Vuyani Wakaba<\/strong> roaming the floor with a smile from ear to ear. He was overjoyed by his new HJC Customs Fretless Alchemy 5, which is this week\u2019s Bass of the Week. <\/p>\n

Wakaba teamed up with luthier Harold J. Cagle for the custom creation. It features an African wood motif with highly figured Khaya Mahogany for the top and back, Andaman Padauk body core, a 13-piece padauk and wenge neck with Gaboon Ebony pinstripes, and a Gaboon ebony fingerboard covered in marine epoxy.<\/p>\n

The bass\u2019s matching pickup ramp hides a pair of Bartolini soapbars the size of jazz bass pickups. Each pickup can be repositioned by the player under the ramp to get different overall tones from the bass. The ramp is also fully adjustable and radiused to match the fingerboard.<\/p>\n

Other features include a Noll preamp, a Graph Tech piezo system, and Hipshot hardware. Here\u2019s Wakaba giving a rundown of his bass:\n<\/p>\n

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HJC Customs Fretless Alchemy 5 Photos:<\/h2>\n
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HJC Customs Fretless Alchemy 5 Specs:<\/h2>\n

For more information, check out the HJC Customs website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Back at the Winter NAMM show this year, we ran into our friend Vuyani Wakaba roaming the floor with a smile from ear to ear. He was overjoyed by his new HJC Customs Fretless Alchemy\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":2045,"template":"","meta":[],"builder":[],"class_list":["post-675","bass","type-bass","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bassoftheweek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/bass\/675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bassoftheweek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/bass"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bassoftheweek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/bass"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bassoftheweek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bassoftheweek.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"builder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bassoftheweek.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fbuilder&post=675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}