7string

..and many have wanted to do something about Tylers headstocks Taking that point forward, ([i]and this is only my opinion etc, etc[/i] ) but Tyler (for example) have a reputation for fine instruments and so have Sadowsky, Sei, Overwater, Fodera etc. The Enfield basses would have to be something exceptional to tempt players away from the established brands and their excellent reputations and extensive clientele. While typing this I started asking myself this: At this price point, is it as much about buying into a brand as it is buying an instrument, or is it a chance to really buy something individual and different ?? Also does all that matter if the instrument ticks all of your boxes?

It's a bit mad ain't it It is a great bass to play as it's so darn light and it balances well on a strap.

Not since the last body pics, but there's a fair few basses in production at ACG HQ.

Looks like it's going to be a superb bass! As a suggestion, how about adding piezos to the bass?

Thanks for your kind words The Conklin is a very cool bass. They don't make them anymore, but they turn up pretty regularly on eBay or in Bass NW or Bass Central's websites. I bought mine for US$ 800 (inc. postage).

Personally, I think they look awful !! To be honest, I really don't know who would buy one. At £3k the bass world is definately your oyster, you're looking at any number of custom builds from Sadowsky to Sei, to Overwater, Nordstand, Bee, Skjold anything you need. To me it would be a risk buying a brand new bass from a business which is essentially a spray shop and LED specialist. I know that you shouldn't really look at resale value when buying such an instrument as (for me at least) it would be a huge commitment, but how about the resale value? Enfield is an OK place which has the only Krispy Kreme donut store for many miles around. It's not a brand of bass that I would buy though as there's lots of tastier flavours on the same shelf.

It’s been a while since I posted pics of my gear, so I thought I’d create this update. There’s been a few comings and goings, the biggest of which is my live rig a Trace Elliott SMX 350 and a Mesa-Boogie 1x15 road-ready cab. I suffer from M.E./CFS and have done for nearly 4 years now. Thing is, there’s no way I can do a gig, so I sold them and the funds went to my in-progress ACG 9 string (the link to the build thread is in my sig and all things ACG can be found at www.acguitars.co.uk). My double bass was sold to finance that as well, but I know I can play one if the occasion ever arose. Some here’s some photos and some blurb about my basses: First up is ‘Jezebel’, a Sei Offset Flamboyant 7 string made by Martin Petersen and John Chapman down at Sei HQ in London (www.seibass.com). It really is one heck of a bass to play and it nowhere near as big and cumbersome as you might imagine a 7 string to be. The bass has a walnut core, full lacewood facings back and front (including the headstock) and a veneer of bolivar, dyed claret separating the two. My wife’s favourite colour is pink and this is as close to pink as they could get. It’s a nice touch to have that on the bass. The Sei has purple LEDs on the side of the maple/wenge neck and my signature at the 12th fret is the only item which adorns the birdseye maple fingerboard. The pickup is a Kent Armstrong humbucker whose signal is shaped by a Schack 3-band eq with switchable frequencies. There’s also a little coil-tap button next to the jack and XLR outputs, the idea for which was stolen from another Sei. The tiny switch on the front is for the LEDs. The bass is tuned B E A D G C F. Photo courtesy G. Jones Next up is my Conklin GT7 which I bought via eBay from a guy in the USA. It meant getting up at 3.30am for the end of the auction, but it was worth it. Originally the bass was fretted, but when I got the Sei, I decided to have it de-fretted and have a ramp installed. This work was carried out by Jon Shuker and I’m very happy with the result. The only problem with the Conklin is that it’s really, really heavy. It weighs 1 stone. Yup, a whole stone, 14lbs. The ash body has a quilt maple top and is bolted to a wenge/purpleheart neck with a purpleheart fingerboard. It sounds better fretless that it did fretted, although I have no idea why. The electronics and pickups are as standard. It sounds good so there’s no need to change them. The next bass is a bit of a rarity as it’s a James Tyler 4 string. James Tyler is well known for his electric guitars but he hasn’t made basses for a few years now. This bass is incredibly light with a body of Mamywo (Malaysian Mystery Wood) which I’ve been told is James Tyler’s playful name for Jelutong. The maple neck and pau ferro board are unbelievably great to play. The neck shape is a shallow D with a little more meat on the bass side than the treble. Electronics are 2 Bartolini humbuckers linked to a Demeter 18v preamp. Instead of the pre being the usual 3 band, low middle high, it works on the low range, middle range and high range of the mids only. This means you can dial in a sound which will really sit well in a mix. This explains why some top sessions guys play a Tyler bass. The James Tyler bass is a rare bass indeed. They don’t come up for sale very often as the owners buy ’em and keep ‘em. This bass was bought sight unseen from The Gallery in London after I spotted it lurking on the bottom on their stock list. OK, some might not like the headstock, which also features on their guitars, but the Tyler bass is light, feels great and sounds amazing. I’ve had my Jackson ‘Kip Winger’ bass for years and years and was bought in the glory days when the Bass Centre was in a hard to find building in Wapping near the river Thames. OK, the shape might be a bit unfashionable and some people might not even know who Kip Winger is, but it’s a great bass all the same. The bass is all lacewood with a rosewood fingerboard and it’s because of this bass that ‘Jezebel’ had to be lacewood as well. The lacy, scaly grain is so different and just looks so very cool (to me at least!). This bass has the weird combination of active pickups and a passive tone control, but it sounds great so I haven’t changed the electronics at all. The only thing I’ve done to the bass is to fit lacewood knobs which came from Roger at THG (www.thgknobs.com), as I thought the bass deserved a little luxury after all these years. A little more unusual is the Kinderbasje or “Child’s Play” bass. I was following BigRedX’s unusual bass thread and had a look at the Bas Extravaganza website (http://www.bas-extravaganza.nl). That’s where I found this 1 string bass. It was made out of the spare parts that were lying around the shop and was given to his children to paint. The instrument sounds pretty darn good, balances well on a strap and is cool to play. The neck has a very sharp ‘v’ to it, the whole thing is a light as the proverbial feather and is a great thing to play. Well that’s it. Hope you liked the tour

Very cool looking bass. What a find !!

Since I bought my James Tyler bass, my Jackson has been relegated into 2nd place.

[quote name='MoonBassAlpha' post='296045' date='Sep 30 2008, 11:37 PM']That's a really nice looking bass, but what is the rationale for the strange jack mounting bit?[/quote] [quote name='Mottlefeeder' post='296066' date='Sep 30 2008, 11:55 PM']It's a neutric locking jack socket by the looks of it - they come on a rectangular backing plate like an XLR socket.[/quote] Thanks for the compliment on my Conklin GT7. It may look nice but it weighs 1 stone. Yup, 14lbs !! Mottlefeeder's right, it's a Neutrik jack and the Conklin has been designed to use that jack. When you plug your cable in, the socket locks it tight so you can't pull the plug out accidentally. To release the jack, you have to press in the little red button first, then pull it out of the socket. It's a bit fiddly, but you get used to it and it works great. The only problem is that they're quite bulky compared to a regular input.

Sounds like it's going to be another great Sei !! If you're going to one pickup/passive route can I suggest that you have the full control cavity routed as usual. Then if you have to get a preamp in the future, no major surgery is required. I went the passive, one control route and to be honest I didn't get the sound that I was after even though I had the coil tap switch next to the input. I now have the Schack 3-band pre in it and it's great. Martin put it on 2 stacked pots and the LEDs are on the tiniest of switches, so the bass still only has 2 holes in it. With the position of the pickup, I needed it to be 1/4" or so further forward than the usual Sei placement so I didn't have to have a ramp. Martin moved it without a problem Hope this helps and that the wait isn't too bad. Here's a pic of Jezebel on the only sunny day there's been in Glasgow for the last 3 months. Photo courtesy G.Jones

Whenever basses don't have the pickups in the right places I prefer to have a ramp. This ramp was made for me by Jon Shuker and I'm really pleased with it (which reminds me I need another one!).

Cool basses, especially that Spector !! Max looks great as well. We've got a Rotty and it's amazing how quickly she's grown !! Now nearly 2 but still a big puppy at heart.

[quote name='Finbar' post='293126' date='Sep 26 2008, 10:04 PM']I'm definitely looking at 7 strings, and definitely looking at fanned frets (any ideas on what a good fan is? I was thinking 36"-33", but I'm not sure!). Thinking I want a very plug in and play kind of sound, so probably something passive - might ask about those JJ Burnel electronics actually! An aggressive pick tone is what I'm really looking for, but with some good sounds for finger playing too. I love birdseye maple. Definitely having that as the fingerboard wood. LEDs would be supercool.[/quote] 7 strings!!!! Great minds think alike and all that As usual this is just my opinion etc, etc..... I had a look at fanned frets but didn't go with them. Having since played a fanned Dingwall 6 string I'm glad I didn't. As you get higher up the neck, the fret directly below the dots on the side of neck are a semitone lower as you think. So the note below the 17th fret side dot is the E not the F (I know I'm not explaining this very well but I hope you get the idea) and I found this mighty confusing Also, the availability of strings may become a problem because of the extra long scale length of the B string, so potentially you might not be able to get your preferred brand and weight of string. Saying that many players really like the fanned frets, so it might just be me! Birdseye maple, superb choice and it looks excellent. LEDs are great as well (I have both on my Sei 7; told you, great minds and all that). If you're going passive, have a full-size control cavity routed anyway. Then if you decide you want use a preamp later, it can go straight in and all you might have to do is drill some holes for the extra controls. The bass doesn't need major surgery. Initially, I went the passive route with just a volume control and a coil-tap button. Unfortunately, I didn't get the sound that I wanted, so had a preamp installed. Now it sounds really full and aggressive with lots of low end. I have a Schack 3 band eq in my Sei 7. Inside the control cavity there is a series of dip switches which alter the centre frequencies of all 3 bands (I can dig out the details if you want). I've changed the switches and it works really well. I think that this makes the bass more versatile as you could have it set up for one kind of gig and then change it for another. The Schack is great, but if I had to change the preamp tomorrow, I would go for the ACG filter-based pre [url="http://www.acguitars.co.uk"]www.acguitars.co.uk[/url]. It's just incredibly flexible and powerful. Hope all this helps !!

[quote name='charic' post='292735' date='Sep 26 2008, 01:58 PM']Ah damn im gettin mixed up, yours can be the: Mastiff [/quote] Well we do have a Rottweiller already. My wife is really good with names though. We have a labrador called Bonnie, (as Bonnie is bonnie), a collie-cross called 'Satay' (as the favourite takeaway at the time was Malaysian satay chicken) and Rotty called 'Luna' (as we wanted a name which was passive rather than aggressive). Not all my basses have names though. My double bass which was sold to finance the 9 was called 'Delilah' and my Sei 7 is called 'Jezebel'. I'll keep you posted on the christening of the 9. [quote name='fekalizatorius' post='292943' date='Sep 26 2008, 06:05 PM']Really love the progress... This should be one hell of a bass. Wouldn`t mind getting one of those. By the way, sorry for the n00bish question, but what`s the final tuning gonna be?[/quote] [quote name='Finbar' post='293121' date='Sep 26 2008, 09:57 PM']I'm gonna take a punt at F#BEADGCFBb?[/quote] Yup, that right [b]Finbar[/b], the tuning will be F# B E A D G C F Bb. [b]Fekalizatorius[/b] - Even at this stage the bass is looking really great and I'm really chuffed with it. Have a look at [url="http://www.acguitars.co.uk"]www.acguitars.co.uk[/url] for all the lowdown on AC Guitars. I'm sure Alan will be more than happy to answer any questions you might have about the 9 or anything ACG.

[quote name='Deep Thought' post='293107' date='Sep 26 2008, 09:37 PM']You have a woman's bass my Lord! (Blackadder fans will appreciate this)[/quote] Duly appreciated !! Do like the purple bass as well though!!

The relic'd Union Flag looks very cool indeed.

The Jazz and Precision shapes are the standard for basses. so I think that luthiers offer a Jazz style bass to appeal to more potential customers. After all they are a business, so in offering a J-style bass stops potential customers from passing them by and buying someone elses J-bass! Some shapes based on the P and J do not work for me at all, but not having a clue about design I don't know why. Singlecuts have to extend well into the neck so they balance properly and again, some look great and others not so great, especially when you look at the back of them. Just proves that Leo Fender got so many things right back in 1951.

[quote name='eude' post='183602' date='Apr 23 2008, 11:05 AM']Nice one, with the single Pickup it reminded me of 7string's Sei actually, which is incredibly drool-worthy. Cheers, Eude[/quote] Just noticed this. Nice to read good things about your own bass. ....and now we return the Shuker build diary.

Sounds very Oreo cookie Like the idea of the sycamore board with ebony binding, very unusual. I look forward to the progress pics!

Shouldn't that be gr9 ?? Now we have to get these names right [quote name='steve-soar' post='283162' date='Sep 13 2008, 02:00 PM']I went for the flat fingerboard and asymetric profile. It's very comfortable to play and sounds good everywhere on the board. Mine is the ACG Red Setter and yours is the Cheeky Pup. [/quote] So Steve-Soar has "The Red Setter", yours is "The Cheeky Pup" and I'm [b][u][i]still[/i][/u][/b] waiting for my wife to come up with a name for the 9.

When I did Grade 5 theory in the 80's, the Associated Board textbook was a little red book which covered Grades 1-8. Nowadays, they've split the book into 2 parts "The AB Guide to Music Theory" parts 1 & 2. Part 1 takes Grades 1-5, costs about £5 and is widely available (price from Amazon). It's a good book and a good place to start if you want to know more about music theory.

If you can play bass you can play a 9. These ERBs are nowhere near as difficult to play as you might think.

But I do own a 1 string bass