TOPIC: Custom Ascend MadCow GCS|Story so far. Pt IV

To say Saber Ownership is exciting is greatly understated and grossly misrepresented.
The mix of emotion, anticipation and joy fuelled will adrenaline becomes rather overwhelming.
A recent addition to my collection, a (MadCow) crafted Saber of Genesis Custom Sabers: Custom Hooded Ascend.





Through month's of research, planning and countless email exchanges with Rob, the order was officially underway.
February 03: Invoice received and order commenced
No further exchanges. Rob had his work and I, mine.
February 25: Shipping Notification email received from Canada Post
Tracked movement of item like any enthusiast would. Expected Delivery Date was March 08. Having received deliveries via Canada Post before I knew the expected date would be early.
March 01: Today, 2.15pm. Knock on door.








The Specs.
Tri Cree RGB | FoC | Blaster Bolt deflection | Blade Lock-up | Crystal Shard v2.5 | 2W Bass Speaker | Lever Switch Activation | Tactile Auxiliary | 1 x 3.7v 18650 Battery | Micro SD Card with 6 Sound Fonts Installed: Hero, Bespin II, Korriban, Flourish, Rogue, Vader OT.

The standard Ascend has limited choice for colour and scheme. What has been applied here is a Custom Shroud with a Copper knurled Thumb-screw for Blade Retention and Shroud fixing. Dual Toned Powder coating in a Matte Gun-Metal Grey with Copper accents to the Polished Silver sections (underside of Emitter, choke point and Pommel). I had an idea with what I wanted to achieve but did not want to explore the Full 'Elite-Level' Customising that GCS does (at that time) so through compromise and suggestions aided by Rob we arrived at what you see. A result I am extremely happy with. I recalled seeing a similar finished Hilt made by GCS for another Owner which is where my interests stemmed from. Due to a duplication principle GCS has, it isn't an exact copy but I believe the Copper sections were inverted for the separation.











Measurements:
-Blade Socket Depth = 2.50"
-Hilt Length (E-P) = 11.75"
-Hilt Length (S-P) = 12.50"
-Hilt Diameter = 1.75" 1.25"
-Blade Thickness = 1.0" (ideally Thin walled Blade for easier fitting, thick walled makes it tight)
-Balance Point (36"Blade) = .50" past Shroud Fork




Observations:
Very clean and smoothly finished Hilt with absolutely no sharp edges whatsoever. Compared to the only other Sabers I own (as Reviewed in Part I) attention to detail is much more generous and successfully executed. But, this isn't a comparison Review between Vendors.
The finish, sound quality, sound loudness, handling, weight and blade brightness is simply superb. Unobtrusive for single hand wield or for two-handed wield. Quite surprisingly comfortable actually. The Covertech is located well. Purely for my own tastes I have removed it.

Conclusions:
Am extremely happy with the result and obtained within such a short time frame. I suspect this simply conveniently coincided with his build queue as during our early email exchanges it was requested that I defer the enquiry until after a specified date. No complaints. As eluded to, my collection will be collectively expansive and varied. You'll just have to wait and see. If your curiosity is tickled, then I imagine the progress will be followed as time passes. There are many distractions exercised to pass the time as I have actively tried to do here as one of them.

A generous, well-rounded Hilt with many aspects to enjoy. Variety in colour, variety in sound and with lots of different swing and motion sounds, hours of entertainment. With a slightly thinner girth it makes handling effortless. This has easily become my current go-to. (for now?)

My next anticipated delivery where my primary focus has been channelled will soon be realised. Expectant and accepting of Part II and Part III.

Thank you for looking in. (blade lit pictures will follow this initial Post)

Picture quality is poor admittedly. Don't have a fancy camera, just the Camera function (12 megapixel) on my Lumia Phone.

That.. is beautiful! If we ever hang out, I might borrow that for a day or 2. Awesome purchase bud. Love the simplicity yet complexity.

Speaking of hypothetical 'play-times' it may prove to be a great opportunity for me to handle your Black Beauties

Congrats! That is a beautiful saber, and it looks like it's nice to handle, too. Keep us posted for long-term impressions!

...and you neatly dodged the vendor-comparison bullet, but I'm willing to walk right into it. I like Ultrasabers--I have a couple--but they are what they are and they're not what they're not. There's a big difference between "we made 500 Aeons today" and "it's against my policy to make two identical hilts for different customers". It would be foolish not to expect the companies to differ in care taken on fit and finish; conversely, I doubt Genesis Custom Sabers ships hundreds of sabers a day.

That said, I'm quite amazed at the turnaround time!

OvrcAHst wrote:
We have a play date lol. I just wish I didn't have surgery in the morning that will halt my income. I want to buy more black beauties to make you drool

Those are very nice, I may regret not getting the RGBA. I be Jealous as if I bought that many, We'd find out if a saber can decapitate. Have fun bud

Hi OvrcAHst,

Congrats on a great looking Saber and a great Review of it. I really like Rob's workmanship and was tempted to get one, then financial reality set in (ya know that Credit Card nuisance, oh well). I have referenced him numerous times on this site about his tutorials etc, which is where I learnt the chassis insulation trick with the fluorescent tube sleeve (highlighted by your pics).
I will continue to watch to see how you get on with it,

Thanks for sharing,

For Tyeth

MHM wrote: Mate, best wishes and Godspeed to you with your surgery tomorrow. Hope you have a speedy recovery concluding it.
Seriously! You and I (and everyone else that frequents this Forum) know that it won't stop at one or two. What is wanted, we inevitably find ways to make it got. It's only a matter of time. I'm actually (and have been since seeing them) trying to guess or anticipate what your next line-ups going to be.

If I every had the money, I'd definitely want to get one similar to the Krayt Fang saber he made:

OvrcAHst that saber is fantastic. I've always admired his sabers and he seems to be the genuine article. I supose if your are serious about this hobbie a GCS should be a must have. Part II & III yet to come.!.?...

Vyk wrote: Thank you and thank you, it really is nice to handle, although since posting the review yesterday haven't had time to look at it let alone touch it. I made my decision quite clear when I posted my first intro. There's a lot of criticisms from one to each other of the many Vendors that are out there. I decided the best way to experience the feedback directly was to get some from where they were available. I have my own comparisons but essentially each to their own.

SuUpberSith wrote: Be confident with your decision. Besides who's to say an RGBA won't be your next one? Blade brightness is slightly compromised with multi-colour but it still met my expectations. That's my reasoning with indecisiveness to decide on just the one colour. When I imagined the Hilt before receipt it wasn't just one obvious colour that called to me so like Pokémon, gotta catch 'em all.

For Tyeth wrote: Thanks Mate. To say I haven't watched any of Rob's videos would be a lie. I really had to see for myself and am certainly not disappointed. I empathised with your CC comment over on the Meme Thread if you recall? A lot of what's being delivered now and soon were all decisions made before Christmas. I acknowledge that I have over-indulged.

@Jaden Korr
Coincidentally I considered that. But to create something like that was categorically placed in his Elite Custom Level and was beyond what I wanted to commit to. At risk of Forum Policy I won't mention it here, but during my searches, I came across another Vendor that made something similar but the attention to detail between the two is obvious hence the price difference.

@=Ottomatix=
I share that admiration. Honestly though, it was really a wanted. The must-haves I am more eager about are the ones ordered from SF that have to be spanned over two parts. Yet to come, Yes. I reckon it'll be around end of MAR into APR or beyond. Our last exchange over in Part II preview has since had a timeline shift.

Thank you all for your comments. As time passes and when it becomes more time permitting I shall update a Post with final observations.

Wow. Very nice saber you have there. Congratulations.

OvrcAHst wrote: Agreed. I'm doing the same thing (although somewhat more slowly than you, and I don't think I'm going to go as high-end). It's one thing to read "We make the best sabers, and [whoever] sucks!" and have agreement from an echo chamber of other owners of that brand. (Go mention US's Obsidian and it having flash-on-clash on TCSS's forum... I dare you!) It's another to actually say "look, here's Brand 1 with Brand A's electronics, here's Brand 2 with Brand B's electronics, and here's Brand 3 with Brand C's electronics" and make your own decision on what you like and where your priorities are. I give you credit for doing that, more credit for sharing your experiences and opinions in an open fashion, and more credit yet for noting that they're just your opinions!

The fact is that there's no such thing as "best for everybody" no matter what you're talking about. I may swear that Mac OS X is all anybody needs or wants, but if you're a SWTOR fan you're not going to agree. I may swear that BMW makes the perfect car for everybody, but that's not going to help you pull a 10,000lb trailer. And I can swear to the superiority of any hilt, or sound board, or LED driver, or anything else, but with different needs, different expectations, different preferences, or even just different hands you may feel differently.

So far, possibly my favorite thing about this forum is a seeming underlying assumption that the above is true. I'm not aware of another sabersmith-owned forum where you not only can post pics of any company's saber, but where there's a subforum just for that and where you get active, friendly discussion.

@Greysider
Thank you. Nice timing too as in the coming weeks any other Threads or Reviews may get missed as ASP starts rolling in. No disloyalty or discredit as I don't have any affiliation with any specific Groups, it isn't green. If it's any consolation, two of the pre-set colours are green or variations from it. I read Dav Yeager write on another Thread that if green is seen you're in, just unsure. I was and still am eager to be part of the mentioned Black Hilt Crew, but again the hilt isn't black. It's okay, I'll sit on this lonesome rock and stare.

@Vyk
I love analogies. The car reference is one I often use (but for some reason didn't here?) but left out. My (i.e. mine and not the family car or partners car) car is a Subaru (like the one before it ). I've owned and driven Jeeps, Toyota, Mazda, Ford, Mercedes but my most recent loyalties have been with Subaru. Won't go into the car debate here just wanted to illustrate acknowledgment to your reference.

Thank you for your extended comments. It is rewarding to read and know that another Member is enjoying the experience within this community much as I am thus far since joining just shy of 8 weeks ago in January. The expression is accurate, 'time flies when you're having fun'.

@OvrcAHst.
Just re-ran into that and was laughing. You were 100% correct the VV tempest I ordered is RGB. Shame the best I have is an e-reader, or I culd do reviews the way you did. With US, VV and SF. Anyway thanks for that advice, it helped