7string

Lookin' great !!

Kubicki's are such great basses, it's just down to whether you like the look of them or not !! I have an Urge Mk1, which has the same control layout as the Kubicki. Loads of sounds !! Keep hold of it, as far as I know there are very few basses which do passive, active, active w/mid boost and standby

The action is something which the shop should adjust for you before you take the bass away, so dont worry about that too much.. Funny that you can't change the pickups in the Yamaha ?? I would question that.... Both Peavey and Yamaha have a good name at that pricepoint in the market. It's really which neck feels most comfortable and which sounds the best to you. Be sure to try an amp similar to yours when you try out the bass or bring your own amp in to try it out. That way you can be sure how each sounds when you take it home... Good luck !!

Congrats on the setup !! I haven't tried the new Trace stuff yet as my SMX350 is still going strong!! However, remember that this setup will only be a starting point, as G.A.S. can never be overcome !!

I recently got one of Dan Erlewine DVD's and got up the courage to replace a nut on an eBay bass I have.. With 3 nut blanks from StewMac, in case I mucked one up, I managed the job. You need a lot of patience and some good nut or needle files, but otherwise it's fairly straightforward. I set the bass up to the specs on Fender's website. A local store charges £50+ for such a job. The blanks I bought were a couple of $ each !! The bass went to a rehearsal and gig with one of my students and he thought it played and sounded great.

Great group of basses. Haven't seen one of those NE Yamaha's for quite a while !!

A Hipshot bass trem for 4 & 5 strings is available from [url="http://www.warmoth.com"]www.warmoth.com[/url] for $170. Bear in mind though, that your bass will need some routing to accomodate the springs, block and claws, so be sure that you really want it done !!

Now that's blonde !! Congrats on the new addition !! Let us know how it performs at rehearsals !!

[quote name='Bigwan' post='73941' date='Oct 13 2007, 09:29 PM']I've been speaking to Jon about a custom 6 string over the past few weeks. I'm currently thinking of the following spec: 6 string bolt-on All wenge neck (pores filled for a smooth satin finish) Birdseye maple board with matching birdseye head veneer Solid bridge (probably Schaller 2000 on Jon's recommendations - to allow adjustable spacing) with 18mm centre spacing Wenge body (35mm thick to keep weight down) Quilted maple top with tiger eye gloss finish EMG DC pickups ACG/John East filter preamp (the one thing I miss about my Wal!) Ramp (quilted maple to match body and finish) Jon does a 20% discount for multiple bass orders at once... I've thrown the idea of an additional stingray style 5 string (maple neck, ash body) at him and he's putting together a spec for that and he'll be coming back with prices in the next few days... Now Jon accepts plastic as payment there could be a big bill on the way!!! Edit: The following pic is the inspiration for my specs...[/quote] Is the neck one piece, or laminates of wenge with the grain in different directions ?? (Personally, I'd go for a maple/wenge thru neck so you still have the highs from maple) How about a quilted headstock face to match the body instead of birdseye to match the neck. Sounds like it's going to be a cool looking and very flexible instrument. The ACG pre seems to amaze all who have heard it !!

I have one of my basses down with Jon at the moment for some work. After all the talk about the Jon on this forum, I thought I would contact him when my need for this particular job arose. I'm extremely picky about choosing who to do work for me since I moved out of London. Before I moved Chris at The Bass Centre did any work that I needed, his work was always top-notch and a great guy to deal with. Since in Glasgow, I haven't been instilled with great confidence by any of the techs I've seen. Also, the prices, even for a simple set-up are astronomical, so I learnt how to do all my set-ups and basic electronics stuff at home. This job though, was too complicated for me as I needed a de-fret and a ramp. I e-mailed Jon and his replies have been timely and informative and the price for the work is extremely reasonable. I've only spoken to him once on the 'phone and he's been polite and good-natured. I'm now waiting for pics and info that the work is finished. I even said to him, that if he's really busy then I don't mind waiting a bit because I'm not in a great hurry. So far, I've no complaints at all. When a luthier, or any business for that matter, becomes more successful and gets more work then something will suffer as they concentrate on the important stuff (building) rather than the non-essential stuff (e-mails). It would be nice to have pictures and e-mails on time, but we all have to understand that we'd much rather that they were building stuff than sitting answering letters and taking pics. As OldGit has said, even if you do have to wait, bear in mind that you're going to be enjoying your bass for many, many years to come so a small wait now is a small price to pay. [b][i]Bottom line: Trust your luthier and let them get on with the job you've entrusted them to do. If something really needs your attention they'll call you.[/i] [/b]

I can only give a view on question 1, having no experience of power tools (geez, I can hardly hammer a nail into a wall). Personally, I like to have the D&G (hey, the designer pair of strings) pole pieces nearer to the neck. I think that it takes a little wooliness out of the E&A, with those being nearer the bridge. Also, when I play with my fingers I use the pickup to rest my thumb and as I move around, I just find it more comfortable going down and left rather than the other way around. Hope this helps !!

OOO, I do like these kind of threads !! For what it's worth, here's my 2 cents / personal opinion !! Walnut seems a good choice for a body wood and you can get pieces which don't weigh a ton either. Ken Smith refers to walnut as having "articulate high end with clear lows". If you're only using it for a core, you won't need an expensive figured piece (as no-one will ever see it !!) so that saves a few quid there... Ash is similarly a good choice and is desribed as producing "bright, punchy tones". Unusual choice having a maple and ebony neck. Don't exactly know why it's not used a lot though, you could always get the same light/heavy idea with wenge and maple. The stripey chocolate of wenge looks great against the lighter coloured maple. Fretboard wise, maple has the reputation of being bright, but needs to be covered by a coat of finish otherwise it gets real dirty, real quick. If you want something unfinished how about pau ferro. A realtive of rosewood, but slightly lighter in colour with a streaky grain. Another idea is maybe looking at acrylised woods... Top-wise how about massacar ebony, cocobolo, wenge or even solid a solid, figured walnut body ?? Finally, you can always take the power out of a humbucker, by coil tapping it. In theory you could even coil-tap each pickup seperately, then have a mixture of one tapped and one full humbucker, or vice versa... No doubt, others will chime in on this thread. Quite a few on here have gone through the same questions as yourself on the start of the custom route. I quite enjoyed this part of the build myself!!

Personally, I've alwasy preferred the MEC stuff to Barts on a Warwick !! As SMART said, find a good repair guy, or you can change pickups yourself if your handy with a soldering iron. Make sure the pickups are the same size, of course. There are numerous pickup manufacturers you can go to, as well as different manufacturers for the eq. If your happy with the MEC's try and track them down. Others on here will know if and where they're available. Live, I've seen a product called a Tonebone Bassbone (I think) into which you can plug 2 basses to deal with a difference in output. No doubt others on here will have their own solutions to the problem..

Nah, overkill is sometimes necessary..better safe than sorry !! I went for carbon fibre rods, stiff and very light. It sounded kinda cool as well !!

Do you have something in the neck for extra stiffness as well as the 2 rods ??

Very cool !! Nice melodic phrasing with some tasteful slapping (now there's two words you don't see together too often !!). Note to self: I really must make the effort to understand jazz more... Full orchestral scores, no problem....jazz trio, uuummm :wacko:

Cool song. Nice, even mix !! What's there not to like !!

Pretty cool song idea. Nice groove and variation with the keys coming in about halfway through. Geez, makes me think that I really need to get recording some stuff instead of putting it off continually !!

It still gets me that the basses are routed [b]after[/b] they get back from the finishers.... The waiting just gets more painful from here on in !!

I have a 7 string with 1 truss rod and had a Yamaha 6 string which had 2 I suppose it depends on the builder...

Great news that things have started... I'll look forward to the progress pics !!

Very cool looking bass !! I saw the fingerboard last time I saw Alan and it really is stunning. Congrats on the new addition, great to see another ACG !! Unusual to see the ACG logo on the body as well.

Great vid !! I've just looked into my DVD collection and found that I actually have that on "Guitar Wars, Live In Tokyo" which i got from eBay (2 DVD set). Really great sound in that excerpt. Dang, now I'm gassing for a 12 string (or similar) Worse is that I now have to stop my nightly look around the bass sites on the web and get the DVD onto my iPod for going on holiday tomorrow. Sun, sea, sand, yes!! But no bass for a week At least I have the prospect of getting one of my basses back from Mr. Shuker when I return, so that'll keep me going...