Kiwi

Just found out that some guitarists have replaced Marshall Guvnors with the Fabtone so I guess it does do British

The Danelectro FAB tone is one of the crunchiest OD pedals I've ever come across and it goes particularly well with bass if you ever feel like using it for that too. Not sure if its british sounding though.

Jon Shuker had a Les Paul custom shop in while I was doing my build. It was worth a couple of thousand quid and had some very poor finishing around the neck joint. Shouldn't be happening on an instrument a quarter of the Les Paul's value, let alone something that expensive.

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1402317933' post='2472003'] Which Artcores have you been looking at? The current Terrortones guitarist has been using one and although it looks at sounds the part the faux Bigsby vibrato system has been giving him a lot of tuning problems and he's discovered that there is insufficient break angle over the bridge to hold it securely in place when he plays with any kind of aggression. [/quote] I've tried fixed tail Artcores - mainly AS and AF. All my other guitars have whammys on them and I have no need for another guitar with one for funky James Brown skanking. My Yammie MSG is pretty close but I'm looking for something mellower. The Ibanez George Benson model was seriously nice but outside my price bracket. [quote name='Matt P' timestamp='1402323353' post='2472120'] if you can find a mid/late 90's tanglewood chicago [/quote] Thanks for that, I'll give them a look!

I heard Carl doesn't build his instruments - can anyone confirm that?

I've seen some good things said about peerless but its more than I want to pay for an instrument to mess around on. If the guitar has a laminated arched top and an unwarped, mahogany neck I'll be happy enough. Brand is less important. I was was looking at Tanglewoods as well but they're an unknown quantity. I've tried the artcores and they're exactly what I'm looking for...I'm happy to wait for an example in my price range because I've seen them come and go already. I'm open minded to alternatives though.

I've been monitoring prices on Ibanez Artcores - narrowly missed out on a stunning Metheny model at a bargain price a couple of months ago. But AS73/AS93 look pretty good and the maple veneer on the AS93 is pretty nice. Would prefer japanese/taiwanese/chinese made but with good finishing. Yamaha are pretty good at high standards so have been keeping an eye on Yamaha SA500s (although anything other than the SA500 seems expensive considering the construction is so similar to the Artcores) Also offerings by Hamer, Washburn and Aria (although the horns look odd on those). Target price is sub £220. Are there any other offerings worth looking at?

[quote name='Angel' timestamp='1400847984' post='2457486'] I'm more of a guitarist than a bassist if truth be told. This is my main guitar, self built. [/quote] That guitar is asking for a lot of forgiveness. (According to the chinese writing )

Dammit - missed out. All the tickets are sold. I couldn't go to the Sheps Bush gigs as I was out of the country at the time. He's at his best when he cuts loose and jams freeform with the rest of the band. The girl group is a little more rock than his shows at the Indigo club so not totally sure it would be my thing.

[quote name='tauzero' timestamp='1401542305' post='2464580'] Also in that article: 'Bono adds, "When a festival-goer wears a Fender t-shirt, they are saying a lot about themselves. They love music, they're independent-spirited...' [/quote] Or vacuous posturing...the musician equivalent of 'I'm worth it'.

Which synth does the fattest bass sounds?

[quote name='skankdelvar' timestamp='1401418711' post='2463458'] One wonders what Bono, the Edge and a techno-babbler will be bringing to the business of chopping out retro musical hardware by the barge-load. Factor in also that Fender's current CEO is an 'Interim' and doubts creep in. [/quote] The Edge's quote shows a lack of understanding about the role of board director. Bono's quote is (again) vacuous posturing. Both are screaming a lack of experience generally which suggests this is just a side show and can't be taken seriously. However the Fender branding monolith is so robust and well-established now that even if this PR stunt was met with deafening apathy, the brand is unlikely to suffer. The idea is ripe for April Fools though. Imagine worst possible mismatches between pop musicians and brands...Mark King on the board of Gibson...?

If the comparison [url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjTJoifRApU"]here[/url] is anything to go by, the Cannibis Rex sounds very smooth. The celestion in the Ibanez combos sounds very similar to the celestions in the video too.

Go with the luthier who already makes basses that are close to what you want. Also consider Martin Petersen and Sei basses - his necks are superb, as are Jon Shukers. However for 1500 quid you will probably need to stay with a painted body.

Are you looking for variations on the same sonic (i.e. single coil) theme or are you looking to cover musical situations? [quote name='skej21' timestamp='1400882417' post='2457974'] [url="http://www.fender.com/series/american-standard/60th-anniversary-commemorative-stratocaster-maple-fingerboard-2-color-sunburst/"]http://www.fender.co...color-sunburst/[/url] [/quote] Is it my eyes or does the dark sunburst look a little inconsistent as it follows the edge of the body?

'tis but a scratch!

[quote name='Acebassmusic' timestamp='1401011509' post='2458990'] Stunning colour and bass.......you taking orders? [size=4][/quote][/size] A minimum of 90 hours of labour at 40 quid an hour plus another 700-800 in parts and materials... Looking at the bass before I left (with another set of clear coats still to go) I thought the bass looked more Paul Reed Smith than D'Angelico, mainly because of the outrageous quilt in the carved maple top with the binding. [size=4]The string spacing will be 16.5mm which is nicely consistent with my Alembic. It kind of ended up that way after we aimed for about 17mm. [/size][size=4]However, I can live with both those deviations from the plan. [/size] I'll still be trialling the graphite necks BTW. and will replace with wenge if I don't get quite the sound I'm after. Also, Jon will no longer be holding classes as his order book is so busy that he's run out of time and has had to take on an assistant, Tim. Tim is an extremely interesting chap...for being part of [url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZACBEW_B8s"]this[/url] band for starters. And for then going on to be an extremely prolific pop song writer during the late 80's to mid 90's thanks to his connections with Stock Aitken and Waterman. He was a source of many anecdotes...one of which was about a certain pop star still around today which I can't repeat for legal reasons...but I'll never think of them in the same way ever again.

Sterling Ball wasn't the first to use a preamp...Burns used active pickups in their basses in the 60's. Thanks for sharing though, I might learn a little more about bass related electronics through your generosity. I'm curious about attenuation, so many preamps have two sockets but companies like Avalon make DI's which only need one. How does Avalon achieve something that other manufacturers over look? Is it a cost thing?

Any pedal that can generate a triangle waveform can get close if you dial out all the bass guitar and leave just the wave form. The OC2 can get close but you'll need to play up the neck to compensate for the shifted octave and the sound isn't as hi-fi sounding as on that clip.

The final two shots I have are the first colour coat halfway through the bursting. The edge binding is again masked so you don't really get a sense of how sharp the final appearance will actually be...which does mean I get to save something for the final 'reveal'. [attachment=163492:DSC09951.JPG] [attachment=163493:DSC09952.JPG] Jon and I had extensive conversations about what blue to use. I was very specific but the colour Jon kept asking me to approve looked nothing like the colour I wanted to see. Eventually we trialled it (above) and it was exactly the colour I was looking for. The following day was a Saturday. We went into the workshop at 7am to get a couple of hours on the bass before Jon held a maintenance course. Unfortunately this wasn't enough time to get the hidden bridge mechanism sorted. There were also issues with getting the ebony bridge cover to fit the ebony string saddle Jon had made and the neck was sitting too tightly in the neck pocket because the steinberger neck is wider at the fingerboard than at the face where the bolt holes are. So I had to leave it with Jon to sort out as I had a train to catch. I haven't heard from him yet so I hope things are going OK...

[attachment=163499:DSC09940.JPG] This is the body after the stain has been sanded back. [attachment=163485:DSC09943.JPG] The next job was to mask the front and back using paper and some stretchy white plastic tape so Jon could spray the sides. The binding on front and back were each a different depth so I masked them to ensure the paint could cover the excessive depth on the back binding. Jon is trying to avoid being in the photo on this one. [attachment=163486:DSC09945.JPG] So this is the first stage in the finshing process before and after the mask has been removed. The precision shaped body in the back there is the new JJ Burnel prototype BTW. JJ has apparently made a special request for materials but my lips are sealed... [attachment=163487:DSC09946.JPG] After the mask is removed you can get a sense of where the body is going in terms of its appearance. Sort of archtop-ish. While all of this painting was going on, I decided to crack on with carving the top on the other body. [attachment=163496:DSC09955.JPG] [attachment=163497:DSC09956.JPG] I'm a bit handy with a pencil so drafted the limits of any arch and set to with a rasp to rough out the dimensions. As you'll have seen from the first body, the inclined plane will ultimately have a 5mm lip around the binding edge, the actual arch will be carved using the mini plane and the line at the high part of the arch will be rounded over. The lot will be finished with 40 grit and then 100 grit. No orbital sander this time as it chews too much wood away between inspections.

This reminds me I need to sort out some more pics... [attachment=163478:DSC09924.JPG] So this is the finished carved and reshaped heel. I was fairly pleased with the result. I also took the opportunity to drill control indents on the front of the body. The control cavity was a little smaller than I would have liked but it looked OK in the end...I was still unsure where the pickup coil split switches might go though. Ruby was barking quite a bit at the time. Rotties are known for being very protective but Jon thought she might be overreacting to campers dogs in the campsite over the other side of the estate. So he came up with a novel solution. [attachment=163473:DSC09926.JPG] Ruby was successful in managing to retain her dignity and, funnily enough, did stop barking. But anyways, back to the build. At this point we needed to go back and check on the neck heel. Jon did some calculations for how high the neck needed to sit and discovered that the steinberger neck was 3mm deeper than a standard Fender. So I went back and re-routed the neck pocket. [attachment=163475:DSC09931.JPG] [attachment=163476:DSC09938.JPG] Then it was time for the staining. Jon diluted some dark blue mixed tint he had saved from a previous job. The idea is that the tint soaks into the wood where the grain is at an angle to the finished surface and makes it darker. [attachment=163477:DSC09939.JPG] After staining, the wood was then sanded back so that the stain is removed from some areas while still staying in the dark areas. This shot is before the sanding.