LukeFRC

I think Misdee's comment probably explains why an "extra 2 contractors" wouldn't be an easy thing - you would be looking at building relationships and employing top level musical instrument makers on a decent wages... If you've got a business setup that works... then why take the risk? Bass guitars are cheap compared to a lot of orchestral instruments. Or even nice UK made hand built acoustic guitars are in that ballpark ... £6000 isn't even crazy at the top end of bass guitars. If the builder sees themselves as making a product for an open market then sure, maybe the high price and limits on supply would be an issue. If the builder sees themselves as a craftsperson making the best instrument they can, with proprietary parts, then as long as they have orders coming in they probably wouldn't see an issue with pricing them in a way that allows them to be profitable and sustainable and allows them to retire well at some point in the future. I'm fairly sure if Waller and Pete were really interested in making a massproduced and low price instrument then they could have gone down that route in their time if they had so wanted.

by the time you're getting that and a screwdriver... just get something like this for £16 https://www.andertons.co.uk/steinberger-xt-2-bass-4-string-headpiece-adaptor-black-stadb04?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=surfaces&gclid=CjwKCAjwkYGVBhArEiwA4sZLuOG2VXZczWyo9QTbNlkmFsNmGYWLCbH4FqrA7Xm--ybpakDoMQCOvhoCCbIQAvD_BwE

Many many years back I went to a practice in a church and plugged, via the PA into a HK D.A.R.T wedge - I started a thread about why a clean sterile PA sound sounded so much better to my ears than all the bass rigs I had had at that point. An interesting conversation followed. I became interested in a cleaner less coloured sound. ACME B2 was pretty good. There were a few people on here building simple, and cheap-ish to make cabs using some newish driver... I think there were a few people asking the theoretical question - bolt a horn on that and a crossover and what does the high end, not going for the cheapest components, sound like. @stevie can correct me but I think that is the design aim of the cab. I'm fairly sure I could use it as a stand in of a PA speaker in an emergency. As @Bill Fitzmaurice points out, his cab (whichever one he's useing currently!) isn't FRFR because it's voiced to sound as he wants it to. I think that's great and in a lot of situations the best solution for a bass cab. However my cab is, or trying to be, FRFR so what made me buy the kit off Stevie rather than building one of Bill's Jack Lites, or buying something nice? Well a lot of my playing currently is at church, straight into the PA with no backline... some "amp and cab tone" is added to my signal using a HX stomp (other pedals are available) and for me, the sound out of my cab sounding in the same ballpark of the sound I'll hear out of the FOH is quite useful.

Tuning amazing. Saddle height ok. Am not looking forward to needing to change intonation. Or learn to use those bollard things to be honest!

I’ve not changed the strings on mine yet… but

Allen-key-less string retainers on my bass, not headless but kinda … anyway - I’m not sure how useful that is to the thread but it will suscribe me to updates so that’s good!

I mean no one asked for my opinion but maple neck and painted headstocks 🤮

Thing is though - AtelierZ, for all their brilliance…. They don’t have David Wilson

Wow - I had seen that on Facebook and wondered what and whose it was - it looks amazing - chat colour is it? Metallic or is it some kind of candy finish?

Thanks to @greenolive and this thread I started looking at Leduc basses, due to getting the names muddled up I ended up with a Lefay 🤪🤣

Shot up loads in last few years - though some of that I think is down to macro economic stuff as much as anything. If a brand new stingray is now £3k that kinda makes sense. I was thinking about buying a 60s fender two or three years back… I didn’t because… - prices were starting to mental and I quickly couldn’t afford it - I was spotting a lot of behaviour that I would file under “dishonest”… eg I almost bought a refin ‘65P from someone I could trust (and should have really, we were only £200 apart), it popped up again a few months later as ‘all original’ at triple the price… I almost bought another off an old guy on eBay with a hideous refin and really distinct damage on the headstock… a few weeks later that neck appeared on reverb on another body as “all original” - and the top end of the market will always have value and collectorability, also there will be also great sounding instruments which will have value because of they sound great… but I was reading an article the other day about people leaving expensive antique furniture to family in their wills and it ending up getting binned… because the following generations live in smaller houses and flats - the things that one generation values isn’t necessarily what the next will - and you are banking on millennials and younger not only playing bass but also valuing the 60s golden years of their grandparents generation as worth the extra over something made new. Again the top end of the market won’t be affected but I don’t think you can gaurentee values are going to rise constantly- (esp when all the generation meantioned with massive guitar collections start dying and all those guitars come onto the market…)

Didn’t vintage guitar prices dip after the 2008 crash?

Looks cool - matching headstock would be nice too - does it have binding? Dark wood would look good with a white binding line. Actually dark wood would look good full stop

If I were advising young players I would be suggesting if they have to splash out a secondhand AtelierZ, Shuker, roadworn fender or something, just play the thing, have fun making music and keep saving for your deposit on a house…

cheers for the reply

So when you’re building an instrument suggesting pickups and electronics are standard, do you kinda have an idea of ballpark tone it will have based on the spec, or is there a bit of a unknown till it all comes together? I’m not really trying to start the tonewood debate but the degree to which you control the whole thing through the build process? sorry jumping on you as “ask the expert”!

this is OT but it is quite amazing how much difference our playing can make. My main bass for years was super bright sounding - so my fingers learned to bring out more low end. Give my bass and amp setup to a mate of equal level and he's getting so much more top end and a different attack on the notes for fingerstyle played in the same position.

are you suggesting that everyone's been focused on a Wal as the magic ingredient ... and the tone is all in his fingers?

yeah but they have a sound, and if you really want that sound they are the only option. As well as this they also have a recognisable recipe setup, set number of body shapes, mahogany body with a top, with maple/mahogany/sometimes hornbeam neck and rosewood or ebony board.... you buy one Wal Mk1-3 you can expect it to sound much the same as the ones your bass heros did... Who else uses filter preamps as their thing? Alembic, Wal, ACG Which builders use multi coil pickups? Wal, ACG, Ovation(?), Atlansia So it comes down to Wal, or ACG who aren't trying to clone the Wal sound, who's preamp sounds different and who doesn't have the recognisable repeatable recipe of what they do. I tried a Uber ACG once, it had Wenge and bubinga neck and board and I think a wedge and bubinga body... it sounded glorious but probably more in common with a Warwick thumb than a Wal. So while ACG are lovely and I would like to own one... I wouldn't know what I was getting if I bought a secondhand Uber spec one... which is going to keep the price down... Then add a price bump when Wal stopped making them, a lack of supply when they started up again... and the fact that after a certain point the relative cost is irrelevant - I grew up in Essex and I know for a fact that like-for-like my house would cost double on the outskirts of Chelmsford as it would on the outskirts of Leeds... my better made, better sounding, friendlier Northern alternative just isn't what some people want. So they stump up the money and buy a Wal.

I wouldn't have a problem with the look of that bass at all. However if I sold all my basses I would still probably be short.... so it's not really going to happen.

Eude - if you have something to apply the eq curve Funkle was playing with on page 8 of this thread... how does that sound ?

Isn't strength the main reason?