Partial List Of Heiko Hoepfinger's (BassLab Basses GmbH)
Amateur Craftsmanship And Construction Errors

***Jay Terrien is pursuing legal action to expedite a full refund of over $7,650.00 USD (plus damages) from Heiko Hoepfinger and BassLab Basses GmbH (Kassel, Germany), pertaining to the fraudulent business practices, unsatisfactory amateur craftsmanship, and poor service-level agreement (German civil code sec. § 437, No. 2 BGB) regarding a custom bass that he purchased from BassLab GmbH. Here's a partial photographic list documenting some of Heiko Hoepfinger's (BassLab Basses GmbH) craftsmanship and construction errors.

This lawsuit, which has already been referred to Melchers Rechtsanwälte in Frankfurt, Germany, the United States Attorney General's Office (IL), The Federal Trade Commission (Washington, DC), Wachovia Banking Corporation, VISA International, and various Better Business Bureau satellite offices, will also seek related punitive damages and all other miscellaneous/legal costs (German civil code sec. § 437, No. 3, § 280 BGB) caused by Heiko Hoepfinger's fraudulent business BassLab GmbH, its "North American" Distributor, Greg Holmes' GH Services based in Ontario, Canada, and their unauthorized third-party credit card merchant "Kosmetik Claasen" (A Flower Shop operated by Susanna Claasen) located in Muenster, Germany.

Exhibit A. Functional Errors and Construction Gaffes:

1.) The fretless neck is not flat, and is particularly and erroneously "responsive" around the 3rd-5th fret playing area. The hump from the truss-rod causes fret buzzing and does not allow an adequate set-up to be performed on the instrument. We x-rayed the bass to confirm that the truss rod was not set in correctly.



2.) There is an inconsistent paint job all across the bass, including an "orange peeling" effect on the neck and small body dents that should have been sanded down before the final finishing coat was applied. The component manufacturer’s drying instructions which require adequate time to allow the ill-advised usage of automotive paint and lacquer enough time to harden, were ignored.  Heiko Hoepfinger of BassLab has admitted an error with this.

3.) The custom-made ABM Hardware bridge tuners are extremely difficult to turn/tune because of mechanical tension and stickiness. The bridge was not even remotely drilled in straight or flush to the body (you can even slide a dime and a credit card in the gap under the bridge!). The entire bridge system was incorrectly installed by BassLab.






4.) Proper visual inspection (Quality Assurance) of the bridges piezo saddles did not occur before shipping. The bridge system and pickup mountings are massively uneven and not level. The saddles do not fit right and since they did not receive proper set-up/sanding, there are volume imbalances across the instrument when the piezo electronics system is activated.

5.) The EMG pickups were not mounted and drilled in straight, parallel to the body.
6.) The individual fret dots and markers were painted on with "foil" instead of being "inlayed" into the neck. The painted on dots create a raised, uneven fingerboard playing surface, which affects overall intonation and tone on this fretless instrument.
7.) This bass did not meet my initial agreed upon technical and construction specifications, in terms of neck dimensions, overall weight, and installation/set-up aesthetic.
8.) The EMG Electronics Pots and entire BQC system arrived loose with a poor soldering job and their related rubber knobs were set too tight. This required Rick Hunt, Technical Support at EMG Pickups to send an entire new BQC system. Also, the actual knobs were destroyed by being tightened too much during installation so I had to purchase $50 worth of new knobs from Allparts.com.
9.) The bass arrived with several paint chips on the back of the body near the battery compartment, as well as on the upper horns and headstock of the instrument.



10.) The Neutrik output jack was shoddily soldered incorrectly, whereas the lead wires were reversed which required resoldering so that the battery would work properly without incessant flashing. Heiko Hoepfinger of BassLab has admitted an error with this.
11.) The 0 Fret Nut needed serious sanding so that the sharp edges that existed could be filed down to create the proper string clearance and height that are necessary for accurate playing.
12.) The EMG BQC Electronics Harness System was installed BACKWARDS into the wrong pot positions on top of the body cavity. Heiko Hoepfinger of BassLab has admitted an error with this.

13.) The Pickup Selector Toggle does not emit a clean signal switch between the use of the different electronics sets. When you flip the switch, instead, you hear a loud audible "pop" and "crackle" when you switch it to a different system. This is caused by an extremely messy, inaccurate, and amateur soldering job.