I spent a few minutes with in and quickly decided to send it back. It's a nifty concept but not fully realized yet. They imply that our guitar skills will transition over, but they don't. There are some strange quirks with the polyphony where you cannot rest your fingers on the "strings" like you can on a guitar. With a guitar, everything below the highest fretted note is ignored. On the Tri Bass, those fingers aren't ignored and treated more like you are playing a monophonic synth, so peeling off your pinky to play the next finger lower down the neck can yield strange results, like playing the note touched by your index finger rather than touched by your ring finger. I'm not sure if it's first touched next played, or what, but it doesn't act like a guitar.... I think you'd have to put some time in learning to play this thing.

That's too bad James......it looks promising though. Until then, midi guitar it is for me........although it doesn't respond as well to faster playing, it's still very useful.

smallstonefan
  With a guitar, everything below the highest fretted note is ignored. On the Tri Bass, those fingers aren't ignored and treated more like you are playing a monophonic synth

I was wondering how that would work. Probably a better tool for a non-player who doesn't already have playing habits then. That aside, what did you think of the build quality etc ? Does it feel well made or likely to fall apart before long ?

It feels OK. The neck is wood, but the top of it with the buttons is plastic as is the body. It feels solid however, and no real build issues jump out at me. I wouldn't describe it as feeling like a child's toy, but then again it doesn't feel like a solid professional instrument either. If the body was made of wood that would probably do it...

smallstonefan
It feels OK. The neck is wood, but the top of it with the buttons is plastic as is the body. It feels solid however, and no real build issues jump out at me. I wouldn't describe it as feeling like a child's toy, but then again it doesn't feel like a solid professional instrument either. If the body was made of wood that would probably do it...

 
Thanks for the info.

well, i just had to click in here.
I've got my tri-bass for few days now and I want to share what I think.
 
At first, I gotta correct smallstonefan. The body is made of wood. Your comment on this irritated me, because Michael (Inventor) sais it on his page that it was wooden neck and body.
So I just unscrewed the neck of mine to see it for sure. And I can tell you: it is wood ideed.
 
Regarding the playing. Yeah, it's not like you are gonna adept in 5 minutes. But the thing you describe, I couldn't see.
It's just always doing a "pull-off", but playing all notes touched on one "string" simultaneously, that never happened to me. In my case it's always playing the highest note of a "string" while you just always have "pull-offs" if you let your fingers below rest and change the top ones.
 
But yeah, it's not like you can play it immediately. Plus, it's more for creative people, rather a new instrument to go new ways instead of just another guitar. 
It's a MIDI controller with a cool shape and great style, I would say.
 
cheers
 
 

Who ya gonna call? 

the ambulance!

Ghost,
 
I'm glad you found value in it. I didn't realize the body was wood - it doesn't feel like wood. I wasn't looking for another type of guitar, but I was looking to leverage my guitar skills and I felt this was a bigger obstacle than originally represented.
 
As with everything, your mileage may vary and I'm glad others here can see a different perspective; I'm sure this is a cool tool if you spend the time to master it; I didn't want to spend the time.

Too bad that didn't work out for you, James.
It is a very intriguing instrument. Yes, it's a controller, but I think of my controllers as instruments because because they are your point of interaction between you and your soft synths. How this interaction happens can have a significant impact on the sound you get from the synths.
Clearly, this will not play like a guitar, even though it is a guitar-like format. I like the concept, but I imagine there would be somewhat of a learning curve to get comfortable with it.
My hat goes off to Michael. I hope he is not under valuing his time too much and this proves to be a successful venture for him.
 
ps. Mosh, MIDI is just a language. It is up to us to determine the words.