Douglas basses. A name you are probably unfamiliar with, but given that there are an increasing number of makers of hand-crafted instruments in this country, many of them at a very high standard, this is not so surprising; or strictly relevant when attempting to assess this as an individual instrument.

The intention of the makers in this case is to make as high a quality instrument as possible, but priced at the lower end of the handmade market.

Retailing at £439, two or three hundred pounds less than an active Manson, Jaydee or Overwater, it is in the same price bracket as Wilkes (and like a Wilkes has a bolt-on neck), but for a one-pickup fretless it sounds hard, as hard as its more expensive counterparts.

It has excellent sustain and is one of those fretless basses which make you feel a better player than you are. Well, it does that to me anyway.

The body is Iroko wood, nicely curved on the top for comfortable playing, with maple and rosewood inlay and a maple neck with rosewood fingerboard. And a slim, comfortable neck it is too. The hardware comprises a Schaller 'bassbucker' pickup and Schaller machines, and a brass nut and bridge, which is handmade to a functional Precisionish design, very like an old Hagstrom bridge. Nothing too exotic, but all good sound stuff.

The bridge, however, is on a thick brass plate set into the body and this is one of three things which give this bass a distinctive sound.

The second, and perhaps the most intriguing although not immediately obvious, is that the fingerboard overshoots the neck by a couple of inches giving an effective playing length of over two octaves, and is raised off the body (uncommon on an electric bass but standard for a double bass) for those two inches, giving an unusually percussive sound for slap playing, possibly better and certainly different from the effect of the Wilkes percussive plates. It also gives harmonics an extra ring and should be good for hammer-ons although the top inch or so is surprisingly dead. I don't know whether this is a design problem or not, but if so I imagine it might be overcome by shaping or supporting the fingerboard.

The electronics are unusual and take a little getting used to but are worth the effort. In terms of sound they are the biggest plus factor for this bass. There are three switches; a tone filter select (three-way), a series/parallel switch for the pick-up coils and an active/passive switch. A good precaution; the intention is that you generally play 'active' as switching into 'passive' bypasses all the electronics, going directly from the pickup to the jack socket, just in case.

The pots are less straightforward, four knobs which serve as gain and frequency for two pairs of parametrics. The order is; gain treble, gain bass, frequency treble, frequency bass — logical enough, but you tend to have to change the sound in pairs of first with third and second with fourth which is cumbersome. Two dual concentric pots might be simpler here.

The depth of tone that can be achieved combined with edge is certainly impressive, though.

Douglas supply a thorough spec sheet and several sheets of information plus allen keys, screwdrivers, straplocks and assurances of after-sale service. This indicates a genuine concern that the customer gets as much as possible out of a bass that the two-man team has put a lot into.

However, if I saw this bass in a shop it would not shout at me to get it down and play it.

It might be the squareness of the neck/body joint or the headstock which is a cartoon of a Fender.

Playing it, though, I was surprised by how good it felt and sounded, I think you would be too.

Douglas are keen to build to order so you could obviously choose your own shape and that makes them a good proposition if you can't afford an active Wal or Manson.

Douglas handmade bass: £439

This bass is in stock at Foulds Music, Market Street, Nottingham.