eude

I'd argue the bass is very much still a Warwick. There's 3 defining features for me in their basses, the headstock, the 2-piece bridge and an interesting and considered body design. This bass has 2 of those things so it's a Warwick. I appreciate Joe has tweaked a lot of the spec to his wants/needs, but go look at the Warwick website and scroll through the custom gallery, they're pretty much making folks whatever they want these days, albeit at a price and they're all still Warwicks. And my 2p on the Spector/Warwick thing, when I came up playing in the early 90's I always held the NS-2 and the Streamer as two very distinct instruments. The were similarish but beyond the body everything else was different as were the markets and players they appealled to. Ultimately, it's not our fight anyway, and as mentioned above, nobody on here seems to mind Fender's designs being ripped off constantly... Now, back to Joe's bass, which I might add looks pretty cool. Eude

Simply awesome @Andyjr1515

Wow @Andyjr1515, that all sounds a bit nerve wracking?! Measure twice, cut once 😉 Eude

Did anyone else spot this little head on top of the new 2X8 cab on their site? It's a rendering, not a real thing (yet) but it seems to be called a BAM200, can't find anything else on the interwebs though... Eude

Looking great, thank you @Andyjr1515, I recall carving the original body in Ash was a fairly long winded process. Sorry 😉 Hope you family time is fun! Eude

That looks lovely @Andyjr1515! Great access to the dusty end and a beautiful bit of ebony too. Don't worry about the fretlines, it's fretless and I won't be playing in tune much anyway 😉 Eude

Always good to prep before squeeky bum time @Andyjr1515. Good luck! Eude

Oooooh. Very nice. Congratulations!

@Andyjr1515, that is bloody gorgeous! Thank you SO much! The veneer accent works really well too, this is going to be a stunner 😎 Eude

Hey @AndyTravis, similar(ish) boat to you in that work and family life have completely killed any opportunity for me to play with others. Prior to moving to London, getting married and having kids, I played live, rehearsed, jammed, recorded constantly, and I still miss it, even though it's been 8 years now. I had a brief spell playing with a local bunch doing originals, but they were a little older, with older kids, and a Friday night rehearsal was their night out, but for me, I had a 1 year that didn't sleep (and didn't till she was 4.5!) and I needed to be in bed by 22:00 at the latest as I knew I was going to be woken up several times before sunrise, so it just didn't fit with my new life. I've accumulated a fair amount of basses too, although my little rig is giggable, it doesn't take up much room packed away in the loft in bags under my desk. I play when I can, but it tends to be a noodle here and there when the wife is off doing yoga and the kids are in bed. I'm not doing it for anyone other than myself, but I know that when the opportunity arises, I'll get back into it. My kids are 5 and 1, I'm nearly 40, I've "identified as a bass player" since I was 12, and I expect I'll be back playing, with others, in another 5 years or so, and that seems to be enough to keep me sane. If you look around the forum, you'll see a lot of people on here who are gigging and playing a lot, who are in their mid to late 40's and older, having had kids and a similar hiatus as a result. My advice to you would be, don't do anything rash, keep the instruments and gear you love, and if there's anything you feel a bit meh about, just move it on. If you've got a lot of money invested in an amp, and it's not a collectable, just bin it off and get something small, but decent, that can easily hide away when necessary. I think if you got rid of everything, you might find yourself at a loose end plopped on the couch and think, wow, I wish there was a bass I could plug away on right now. That prospect is a pretty sad one in my opinion. All the best mate, Eude

Thank you for sharing @Andyjr1515, and brilliant work "saving the day" too! Eude

Lovely bass! Would love to see them make a 6 string version of this, keeping the slightly less extreme B string length too. Eude

Love it. I was a little worried about the chrome hardware, being a lover of black hardware for many many years, but it's going to look exquisite! Eude

And for my next trick...

This >> https://ashdownmusic.com/collections/pedals-1/products/original-valve-pre-di-pedal without the valve and the ability to run it off a 9V battery, maybe with a headphone out and aux in, at a more reasonable price point would tick every single box for me...

I agree, they've consistently missed the mark on some stuff, I quite like my Dr Green Compressor though and at least they are trying. The Zender signature pedal, yeah I know it's pricey, but it's hand wired, in the UK and it's got a valve in it. Still not great value for money, but it's a very niche product and I guess they need to make it worth their while as they're not going to sell millions. I expect they'll make them to order. I know that they're not keeping up with Darkglass in the arena that Darkglass operate in, but I think their stuff is extremely niche, and without meaning to offend anyone, from my limited exposure to the pedals, almost everyone who raves about them and uses them a lot, they all sound the same, like Nolly Getgood. He's got an awesome tone, but it only really works in their style of music. I expect if you think about it, these pedals will potentially appeal to a whole range of bass players, perhaps more old school players, but I'll bet there's more bass players out there using a compressor than a Darkglass pedal... Cheers, Eude

The Triple Shot Drive has different drive controls for the 3 frequencies, bass, middle and treble. It's a clever idea, but I feel I have seen that elsewhere first, perhaps some boutique Canadian company? I'm sure I've seen a pedal and amp with the same idea built in to the preamp, albeit in a little more complex manner. I agree the form factor for these is WAY better than the old pedals. The Dr. Green ones weren't bad, but sadly nobody seemed that interested in those. Eude

Olympus all the way 😎

Laaaavly bit of Ebony Veneer right there @Andyjr1515

That looks awesome @Andyjr1515, it's already looking like a REAL bass With regards to carbon, I don't think I've had a 6 string bass without it, bar the one I made, I know that not everyone uses them though, your call. Eude

Excellent @Andyjr1515, I noticed you'd drawn a newer, neater outline for the cavity, it'll be very cool with a plate held on by freakin' magnets! 😎 Eude

I guess you could potentially go through the body with ferrules to hold the strings from behind? I don't think that would save a massive amount of weight however, and although slimming the bass down a bit would be a "nice to have" it certainly wasn't on the original plan. I also really like the aesthetic of the Warwick 2 piece bridge, so I'll just get a wider strap and get on with it In my experience, heavier basses have a sound that appeals to me more than others YMMV Eude

Back up from the floor now, thankfully I have my own office, or that would've been weird... WOW, a shame there's no significant saving after all that work, but man alive, how heavy would this have been without it!? I'm amazed the Warwick bridge adds that much, it's the alloy one, they do a freakin' brass equivalent! I guess that's why Warwick basses are always so heavy. Sterling effort though @Andyjr1515, was it nerve wracking? That's exactly the type of tool set up that lead to that MASSIVE hole of a control cavity Eude

I remember talking to a luthier a while back who was saying that had Leo Fender been British we'd all be building guitars out of pine, oak, ash, sycamore etc, all our domestic species. The timbers Leo Fender used were local to him and relatively inexpensive, at least in the first instance... You're right though, we need to rethink. It's pretty clear that it's mainly the density and hardness of a wood that "probably " effect the tone, so why can't we use other less popular and abundant woods to do the same stuff if they line up spec wise with the sought after and nearly extinct ones? Eude