7string

Bit of a difference in cost between the two, but is there that much difference in performance ??

[quote name='Rich' post='360916' date='Dec 22 2008, 12:59 PM']Oh, cool Do you play it with a pick, or fingerstyle? Is it even [i]possible[/i] to play it fingerstyle? I'd love an 8 or a 10. How about doing a full Review for the, errm, Reviews section? [/quote] I play it with a pick, although it is possible to play it with the fingers. I'll definately do a full review at some point.

Yummy quilt

..... and so the day of delivery has started. I really hope it turns up today for ya....

The frettings not that bad. But setting the bass up so that the fretting's easier is not !! First of all, if anyone asks you to set one of these up, [b]JUST SAY NO!![/b] as this has been a job and a half. Tuning and de-tuning one of these is bad enough (even if you have a stringwinder) but doing it several times is a real pain in the proverbial. Luckily, the Dean has double truss rods which adjusted very well, a brass nut which is cut just right and an adjustable bridge which holds non-adjustable saddles. This makes the job a little easier, but it's still extremely long-winded. So now the Dean is set-up lower than Fender USA 4 string spec Fretting the lower strings is easier than a barre chord on a guitar. If you can fret the lower strings then the octave strings are fine and it sounds absolutely huge. I'm just glad I got the set-up out of the way today so that I can enjoy playing the bass tomorrow

Looks great. There are a few people here who have Wizard pickups. No-one's had a bad thing to say about the sound or the service.

Indeed he did [quote name='BigRedX' post='359224' date='Dec 19 2008, 10:04 PM']I think that my next bass might well be an ACG...[/quote] Flights from East Midlands to Glasgow are available

Sounds like the change of preamp was a really shot in the arm for your a bass. Definately something that would be on some bassist's letters to Santa. I have to admit to really liking the ACG/John East preamp. It's not "plug and play" you have to spend some time finding the best sounds for you, but it's time well spent.

I met up with Scoop at ACG HQ yesterday and swapped cash for bass. Both of us are ACG customers, so we could meet Alan and talk all things ACG as well as do the exchange. Excuse the dodgy pictures, but the wife's out and my photographic skills are only just above those of a 5 year old. I'll ask her to do some more when I've given this big bass a polish This is a Dean Rhapsody 12 string which has mahogany body with a maple top finished in transparent black. The maple and walnut bolt-on 5 piece neck carries a 24 fret rosewood fingerboard. The dots on the 'board have not escaped the attention to detail being abalone, a nice change from the regular, plain variety. The strings are fed through a black chrome bridge and wind around quality Grover tuners which you really need on a bass with so many strings. Unlike some of the Hamer 12 strings, the Dean is a standard 34" scale It's not 12 strings tuned in fourths but four groups of three. Each set has a regular bass string in regular tuning and two strings tuned in unison an octave higher. It is possible to get strings so that you can have triple octaves and I'll look into those. The top G will be the equivalent of the G on the 3rd fret of the top E string on a guitar, so it has to be a 0.007" or 0.008". Even though I'm not really a Pearl Jam fan, the 12's most famous line is from their song "Jeremy". Doug Pinnick from Kings X also plays a 12 string. The bass itself is quite weighty at 10 lbs (4.5kg) but not stupidly heavy like my 14lb Conklin 7 string The neck isn't too wide either at 2.14" (55mm) at the brass nut. The fingerboard widens to 2.7" (70mm) at the 24th and last fret. Even though it looks really unwieldy, it's not that bad to play. Unsurprisingly, it sounds exactly like a guitar and bass playing in unison so if you're in a 3 piece band with no rhythm guitar, this could be the bass for you. There are also 8 string basses (which have just the one octave string) and 10 string basses (based on a 5 string bass and with the 1 octave string). I have a short soundclip which I recorded on a digital dictaphone. Unfortunately, I don't know how to post it. If anybody can help me, I'll gladly put it up for people to hear.

There were 2 other basses in the spray shop. The process of lacquering and sanding back multiple times must require so much patience as it can't be rushed!! Saw the black fretless Finn prototype, a 4 string Recurve and a 5 string singlecut. All of them sound and play great, although I must admit that the Finn fretless prototype is ridiculously good. I'm really fortunate to have the instruments I have here at home, so I'm not easily impressed, but that fretless sounds very very good indeed. Alan keeps all the pieces for each build safely tucked away when they're not being worked on, so we didn't see every ACG that's in the pipeline.

Went down to ACG HQ today for 2 reasons. 1. To see how the 9 was getting on and 2. to meet up with Scoop to swap my cash for his Dean Rhapsody 12 string. The 9 is in the process of being lacquered and sanded, but even at this stage it looks the proverbial million bucks. The mahogany top has really come to life with colours ranging from really dark brown to subtle orangey shades. The mahogany headstock is looking equally great with the defined 'v' shape to the grain and again the real variation in colour. The wenge backplate mirrors the wenge in the neck and in the neck joint itself. The whole thing is just show-stoppingly great. So why no photos? Well, the bass is near completion and after seeing it, I'd rather keep it under wraps until it's properly finished and ready to be unveiled. This is definately one to keep your eye on early in 2009. In 2 words. [b]IT'S AWESOME[/b]

May I commend you on your excellent taste in basses How the heck d'you get one of those. Just superb !!!!!

Good to see all the Sei's in one place!! [b]Urb[/b] - Good to see the RR looking luverly [b]4000[/b] - So good to see the Melt being withdrawn from sale!!

Back in the day (late 80s early 90's) 4 or us used to drive into London in my 'W' reg yellow Mini (now THAT's travelling in style ). We'd go around Rose Morris, Rhodes, Roka's and Soho Soundhouse and the rest of Denmark Street. Later Bryants Music turned up in the road opposite Denmark Street (can't remember the name). Nowadays you don't get the opportunity to haggled from one shop to the other. Even an extra set of strings would swing the deal one way or another

That's got to be the best Fender ever.

This is "Jezebel" my Sei Offset Flamboyant 7 string. Close-up courtesy of London-based Graphics Artist, Gareth Jones. I had to put this pic showing Luna protecting Jezebel

Roger at THG Knobs [url="http://www.thgknobs.com"]www.thgknobs.com[/url] will make stacked knobs out of a choice of woods. I have a set on my Jackson and they're just the job.

[quote name='7string' post='353845' date='Dec 13 2008, 08:08 PM']...and ACG is only a cheapy 1 hour flight away. I've gone from London to Glasgow with Ryanair for 1p + Tax. One penny. Comes out about roughly £8 each way!! Virgin Trains are pretty cheap too.[/quote] [quote name='Spoombung' post='353870' date='Dec 13 2008, 08:48 PM']Very funny![/quote] I'm a Londoner who came to live in Glasgow about 7 years ago, so I've travelled up and down the country a number of times. I've driven, flown and trained it, but I'm NEVER going to do the journey by coach ever again In all seriousness, from the South to Glasgow and back by plane is a day trip nowadays.

[quote name='Spoombung' post='353788' date='Dec 13 2008, 06:48 PM']I'll keep and eye out for ACG basses in London/Oxford.[/quote] ...and ACG is only a cheapy 1 hour flight away. I've gone from London to Glasgow with Ryanair for 1p + Tax. One penny. Comes out about roughly £8 each way!! Virgin Trains are pretty cheap too. It probably costs less to go to Glasgow than it does to go into London

[quote name='josh3184' post='350310' date='Dec 9 2008, 11:43 PM']looks pretty flippin decent to me! Good work![/quote] +1

Great work

Death Jazz. I'll have to check that out. It's true that you learn something new each day

I thought that this was interesting and worth posting here!! In prep for the arrival of my ACG 9 string, I've bought a CD-ROM set from Truefire.com Truefire produce guitar instructional stuff, but even though it's written for guitar I thought it would be very useful for when I get the 9. It's going to be a job learning the instrument and I thought that this would give me some direction instead of flapping around in blind panic!! The course is called "Total Modal" and I was able to buy the "Improv Kit" at the same time at a special rate. Here's the story from the Truefire website [url="http://www.truefire.com"]www.truefire.com[/url]: [size=3][i]Total Modal thoroughly examines the theory, harmony and application of 19 essential modes and scales for composition and improvisation. This intensive study program will provide a comprehensive framework for composing melodies and hooks, improvising over any set of changes, superimposing scales, creating progressions and constructing chords for any musical application. In short, Total Modal is the definitive scale and mode application resource. The 19 scales and modes covered are: Ionian, Dorian, Dorian b2, Phrygian, Lydian, Lydian #5, Lydian b7, Mixolydian, Mixolydian b6, Mixolydian b2 b6, Aeolian, Locrian, Locrian natural 2, Jazz Minor, Harmonic Minor, Altered, Diminished, Symmetrical Diminished and Whole Tone. In short, every essential scale and mode necessary for composing and improvising across rock, blues, jazz and popular music. Your Total Modal professor is Bruce Arnold. Bruce runs the guitar programs at Princeton University and New York University, hosts the Summer Jazz Workshops in NYC, and is one of the most respected and prolific educators in the business. Arnold also composes, records and performs worldwide with a long list of top artists.[/i][/size] The full description is at [url="http://truefire.com/totalmodal/totalmodal.html"]http://truefire.com/totalmodal/totalmodal.html[/url] The Improv Toolkit has: [i][size=3]120 PRACTICE RHYTHM TRACKS Blues, Rock, Funk and Jazz tracks with lead sheets in TrueFire’s interactive audio player DOZENS OF VIDEO EXAMPLES Links to a dozens of streaming video soloing and improvisation examples for specific tracks TONAL COLOR CHART Instructional guide for adding tonal colors to your solos by using different scales and modes FINGERBOARD DIAGRAMS Movable fingerboard diagrams illustrating 21 scales/modes for improvisation across 12 frets IMPROV FORMULA METHOD A formula method for constructing chords arpeggios, scales and modes for improvisation 36-MINUTE IMPROV THEORY LESSON Brad Carlton, TrueFire’s Educational Director, walks you through a concise, insightful 36-minute lesson on soloing strategies and improv theory[/size] [/i] I ordered a couple of weeks ago, the Total Modal course was $50 and the Improv Toolkit was on a special offer and could be bought at the same time for $1. Shipping took the total price to $65.25. Luckily, I didn't get clobbered for import tax or VAT. The both courses arrived in 10 days or so and came extremely well packaged within a solid cardboard box. Both courses were in their own solid plastic boxes and with good presentation. The CD-ROM's all loaded up fine and I was able to copy everything to my laptop, so no messing around trying to find the discs, just click and play. With Total Modal, each of the 19 scales has 2 videos, an introduction and an explanation of how the mode is used and what it sounds like. There is also a jam track for each scale as well as a pdf file for reference. Everything is accessible from the same screen, so it's easy to watch the videos, then go to the jam track or print the pdf. The presentation style is direct and the explanations succint, without being too boring. Only if someone watched all 38 videos in one go, would the presentation style seem stiff. In the course material it says that at 1 hour per day, the 19 scales will take 4 months to learn and a year to assimilate into a playing style !! I had a flick around the Improvisation Toolkit and there's lots of stuff to play with or to. The backing tracks are of good quality and there's lots of stuff to choose from. Overall, I'm really impressed with Truefire, both the courses are excellent value for money. I know that I'll have my work cut out working through the course and that it's going to take a while to do it properly. Also, I'll have to write out the charts again as they are for guitar, but that will probably help me take in the information as I'll be learning my way round the 9 at the same time. It's going to be a big task, but it's not going to be boring.

What a bass

I must commend you on the excellent timing of this build What an excuse to get out of the Christmas shopping