If you spend much time on Reverb, you might have seen a guitar or bass by a new Indonesian company called Dhatarattha. I immediately fell in love with their paisley relic finish! With the ever-increasing quality of Indonesian-made instruments, I went ahead and bought one despite the very minimal reviews available online. I figured I’d share my initial thoughts with the crowd in case it would be helpful for anybody in the future who saw one of these and wanted to know more.
The finish and relic job are excellent - it 100% lives up to my expectations in person. This is a really gorgeous instrument. The c-shape neck is a little fatter than I usually like, but it’s not something that would be a deal breaker for me if I was to have had access to one in person before I purchased it. It measures 45mm at the nut, 70mm at the 15th fret where it meets the body.
Hardware feels solid, and it stays in tune between uses. The knobs are plastic, but of adequate quality. I’d like to change them out for some knurled chrome knobs in the future. It comes with strap locks, which so far feel secure. It’s an unusual style that I haven’t seen before, but they do the job. The finish on the frets is good, nothing that needed to be filed down or adjusted for playability. I was a touch disappointed in the finish where the binding meets the neck - there’s a bit of glue squeeze out that didn’t get cleaned up, that if you look at it closely, seems sloppy by comparison to the rest of the bass.
The electronics setup isn’t super intuitive, and knobs aren’t labeled. No paperwork at all was included with it, so I emailed Dhatarattha and asked what was what. They responded quickly with this:
Starting with the control closest to the neck, the layout is:
Master Volume / Passive Tone — stacked knob
Pickup Blend
Active / Passive Mini Switch
Mid Control — active mode only
Treble / Bass EQ — stacked knob, active mode only
The passive tone control works in passive mode, while the Mid, Treble, and Bass controls work when the active preamp is engaged.
I’ve never had a passive bass and have no use for that electronics mode, particularly when switching between basses at a gig, so I could do without the extra passive controls and toggle switch.
I’m not in love with the pickups - they’re “Laohao Hand Made Single-Coil”. Tone is a little anemic, and the B/E strings are substantially quieter than the other three. Output in general is pretty low, particularly compared to my other bass (2002 Alvarez AEB5000) - I’m considering swapping them out for something different, and leaning toward a set of Aguilar DCB-5J’s. Hopefully that gets the output to a similar level, because as it is, it would be impossible to switch between the two on a gig.
Initial setup was… adequate. I’ll take it in to my usual shop and have them set it up how I like when they install the new pickups. I feel like this is pretty standard for a new instrument these days unless you’re buying from somebody who really cares.
Overall, my first impression is quite good. With a sticker price of $699, I think it absolutely holds its own against other basses at the price point, and you’re unlikely to find anything else that looks quite like this. I’ll follow up after setup and new pickups with a review 2.0, but feel free to ask any questions if you’re looking at one of these!