Yeah. I am generally a fan of unusual basses but the whales would cause playability issues for me. I understand that’s not true for everyone but definitely would be for me. I play up the neck all the time too.
i’ve said it before, but in my eyes you could make that bass look a thousand times better by simply cutting out that single cut piece of wood attached to the neck. and make it far more playable up there too as howard said.
To me, a bass is much more than how closely it conforms to the looks of an electric guitar’s double-cutaway form factor.
Many luthiers and artists I respect prefer the construction characteristics of the single-cut bass design.
Personally, I come from playing acoustic guitars that have no cutaways. As such, I never wrap my thumb around the back of the neck when I play lines beyond the 12th fret, which I do all the time. So I find a single-cut bass totally playable up to the 24th fret. I’m not saying this is the norm for all players or that anyone should necessarily agree with my view, but it is not entirely anomalous either.