eude

The "gauntlet" was very much Andy's idea not mine, I've got every confidence in him taking this and making it awesome, we've all seen what he's achieved here on BassChat So you've got another on the cards then?... Eude

Perfic.

I actually live in London now, so the wood has to be shipped down at great expense! I do own a few yes, there's no denying it, 4 to be precise. This bass via Andy will take me to 5, 4 of them being 6 strings! I agree totally regarding the jiggery and pokery, sadly, there's a fairly big gap between my skills in that department and Andy's Eude

Don't forget the jiggering too!

Very kind of you to say mate

Exactly, and the fact they have addressed ALL the issues people had with the original, they're clearly listening to us bassists, which can't be said for the majority of manufacturers...

To be fair, I get a sense that they don't want to produce any class D gear, I know that certain people at Ashdown feel the same, but the market dictates what sells and what doesn't, not the manufacturers themseslves, why on earth would you not make something that people will buy...

I do quite like fancy paint jobs these days, if only you'd chimed in before I'd ordered the new top... Eude

Thanks for this Andy! I'm not sure it was a throwing of the gauntlet, more a seeking out the right man for the job. I made this bass myself back when I was 16. As a huge Primus fan, I needed a 6 string fretless, in a Carl Thomson flavour, and growing up in South West Scotland was extremely unlikely to ever see one in the flesh, never mind be able to afford one, so I took matters into my own hands. For the record, I've still never seen one, and I'm unlikely to ever be able to afford one nearly 24 years on... I built a 36" scale 6 string fretless at a workshop in a unique slightly hippy private school local(ish) to me. The wood working teacher there was a wonderful man called Richard Jones who made baroque instruments, renaissance viols etcs, on the side, something I believe he still does (in fact he absolutely still does >> http://www.rjviols.co.uk/ ) and he taught others to do the same. Well, when my father, who knew him in a professional capacity, told him I wanted to build a 6 string fretless bass but didn't know where to start, he welcomed me into his workshop with open arms. As a former bass player himself, he was intrigued as to what a beast like that might look like! He had a gorgeous 60's P Bass hidden away in the workshop by the way. I didn't ever finish the bass off to the kind of standards Mr Carl Thomson would aim for, but it was enough to get me going and it was the only bass I played for a number of years, recording and live, but when a student loan paid for a Warwick Thumb Bass, I realised that there were better playing instruments out there and retired it. Fast forward nearly 24 years, I'm still playing bass, albeit without a audience for now thanks to having young kids, but I keep my hand in and I'm extremely lucky to have a lovely collection of ACG basses, the dilemma is though, what to do with the beast sitting in a gig bag in the loft. It would seem such a waste to sell the bass off as an unfinished project, especially given how much time and effort I put into making the damned thing, so I contacted Andy to see what he could do. Not being the tallest of bass players, and having a bit more experience under my belt, I know that 36" scale basses aren't for me, in fact I really don't know who they're for really, so this bass had to be of a shorter scale, 31.5" in fact, to match my other custom basses. Andy is going to make a new 31.5" neck, with a fretless ebony board and a headstock design tipping the hat to Mr Carl Thomson. As Andy mentioned, there will likely be a bit of jiggering and lots of planning required to make the neck to fit a pre-existing and likely oversized neck pocket, but he loves the challenge, right @Andyjr1515 The MASSIVE hole in the body, was as a result of me routing out the control cavity, and a drill stop slipping tearing a massive hole through the front of the bass. Without stopping and thinking about what to do, I simply cut the whole cavity out, right through. I had no intention of having a pickguard, it was purely cosmetic to hide to bloody great hole! With hindsight, I'm sure something could've been done a little more subtly, the original hole was only about the size of a pound coin... The answer to this riddle is to thin the body down and pop a full face figure top on. This is also an opportunity to perhaps put the bass on a bit of a diet, as the body alone weighs more than the last bass Andy made in it's entirety! As noted by Andy, we're losing the weird Wilkinson bridge, and replacing it with a 2-piece Warwick effort, I posted 6 Gotoh GB7 tuners along with the body, and we're keeping the EMG DC pickup and the simple vol/tone controls, for now - don't worry though Andy, if I do change my mind about the preamp, I'll be sure it only requires two hole in the body! That's basically it really, on the surface, a fairly simple job, but underneath, probably a complete and utter mare! Thank you @Andyjr1515 and apologies for making life more complicated for you... Eude

Well yesterday I was extremely lucky to pick up for new ACG from Alan himself at the UK Guitar Show in that London. It's a TKO Modern short scale 4 string, 30.5" scale for those who are interested. Very simple and a bit rootsy compared to my usual bass guitars, but it very much fills a gap that has been empty, since I sold my first Precision Bass in the mid 90's. It's got an Ash neck with a Rosewood fingerboard. A White Limba body with a figured Maple top, all coloured in black, well most of it, the neck included 😎 The single pickup is a reverse P Bass style in the chunky housing, simple Vol/Tone and that's it. The TKO is Alan's reinvention of the Tele, which I think works really well. I love reverse headstocks too, so while I was going to try something very different, why not go nuts! The bass has a really effortless punchy finger style tone, quite classic sounding but with a bit more bite when needed. I'm tempted to try out flats on it, but I do love the Newtones that came with, Newtones being my favourite string anyway. Anyway, I'm a very chuffed eude right now. Any questions, just shout! Eude

I heard the new Terror Bass and the 2 X 1x12 set up today and it was MASSIVE! I thought it was the big all valve job from a distance! So far so good.

That gets my vote. There was mention of it rather casually in an interview on basstheworld.com's YouTube channel a couple of months back, I think it's the only gap in the lineup just now really so if it's not a new Terror Bass I'll be surprised. I guess it could be a bass version of the new acoustic preamp, maybe something with the eq of the 4-Stroke and the toys of the OB-1? I guess we'll find out at 13:00... Eude

Holy Moly! That is gorgeous. Eude

Here he is beasting said bass. Looks regular/long scale in this vid, must just be a weird angle in the picture above...

Hot damn!

I believe the next batch of RM cabs have had an upgrade, which will be present in the new combo and new kit going forward, not sure about the OriginAL heads though, but it kind of muddies the water however as they look the same, I expect any good deals coming out of the big retailers will likely be old stock. They seem to nip and tuck as they go along in batches of production, I'd always advocate buying direct and talking to the guys at Ashdown which would make sure you're getting the best kit, they're really friendly and helpful too. The combo has one edge over the separates, and that's the ability to lean the cabs back from monitoring purposes. I guess it's not going to be a deal breaker for everyone, but I would certainly found it useful, or certainly would've when I gigged loads pre kids... Eude

No bother dude, sorry if I came across spikey, certainly wasn't my intention Eude

I believe the tops are treated with acrylic resin, and in the case of the fancy coloured ones, dyes are added to the resin.

ACG have been using Acrylic Impregnated woods pretty much since Alan started may moons ago, and his fancy ART tops with the dyed wood go back a long way too, way before anyone else. Have noticed a fair few folks doing similar these days though, including Alpher. Eude EDIT: I see Skelf already responded.

Like you wouldn't imagine, I expect you'd be looking at around £4000 for a bolt on 4 string Thumb Shortie. Personally, I'd speak to one of our extremely talented more local builders to see what they could do for you. The recipe for the Thumb sound is no secret any one can buy Bubinga, Wenge and MEC electronics... Personally, I'd speak to Alan at ACG, he won't build you a short scale Thumb, but he'll build you something way better Eude

They'll make you anything you want, at a price in their custom shop... They have definitely made at least one short scale custom 4 Thumb BO that I know of, but literally, they will pretty much consider making anything these days, a lottery win would probably help. Eude

Sounds great mate! Alan had mentioned there might be a Kompakt bass model on the cards. Great specs too, can't wait to see it develop! Don't worry about the neck carve, every single one that I've played has been very comfortable. It really makes sense on a 6 string bass too, as it helps you get your technique right, especially when combined with the flat board. Eude

That sounds really good then! Eude

Good to hear that, one of the biggest issues with smaller combos is the lack of real depth, they can tend to get a bit boxy with poky mids. This combo is also on my watch out list now too... Eude