molan

Rob was true to his word and delivered the bass exactly on time so I could put it all together, with help from Julian Mullen, and gig it the same day! IMG_1990.mov

Together with some of my main band musicians, plus a great pro-drummer, I helped to put together a U2 tribute band as a little side-project earlier this year. There are no huge plans to gig loads but the two nights out we've had so far were lots of fun and we have a few more things lined up. My regular gigging bass is my trusty white Ritter Cora but I felt i should go dfor something a bit more Claytonesque for this gig. I've owned a couple of Claytons in the past, both in gold sparkle. The first was a lovely, lightweight Mike Lull that was built directly for Adam & the second was the official Fender full Custom Shop version - now residing chez @hiram.k.hackenbacker. I already had a nice Lake Placid Blue P bass with an aged MJT body, mint green/white guard, McIntyre neck, Hipshot Ultralights and a lovely set of custom wound Curtis Novak pickups. My first thought was to get the LPB body resprayed and I remembered that a Lakland I have was painted by Rob Fleet (via Simms Customs) https://www.rfcustom.co.uk/ I contacted Rob who could not have been more helpful. He explained that the cost of stripping my existing body & prepping for spray work would be relatively close to sourcing a nice new body which I could help to spec out in terms of desired weight and woods etc. We spent some time working our the ideal weight and he found a nice piece of premium alder to work with. I've always likes the Fender limited edition pink/purple sparkle Clayton P bass and Rob mentioned that he had an order for a deep purple flake pain job and I saw some images of the exact colour. We agreed on everything and the neck was duly dispatched so that he could make sure the neck fit was really tight and also to spray the headstock in matching purple flake. Not long afterwards I received the first body build shots and confirmation that the finished weight was bang on our agreed specs: Rob let me know that he thought it might be a good idea for him to custom build a guard whilst he had the body to ensure an exact fit and we agreed on a white pearloid finish. This kind of, relatively small, thing is a perfect example of Rob's attention to detail. He new I had a guard already but wanted to be sure of a perfect fit and finish. We also discussed the headstock logo as the body & spray work is all from Rob whilst the neck was made by Chris McIntyre, pickups from Curtis Novak etc. etc.. I didn't feel 'right' about asking Chris to use his logo and it seems to me that the core of this instrument has come from Rob. I felt I needed a logo of some kind and really didn't want to try and come up with some kind of random name so we agreed to go with an RF Custom logo. I think it's a classy logo & I have no plans to sell it on or pass it off as something it isn't - it genuinely is a 'custom' build so I'm happy with that. Today, Rob sent first pics of the finished body, with guard in place, & headstock. Typical of rob's professionalism is that he attached controls to the guard to make sure everything looked just right. He also asked about precise position of the strap buttons before drilling. So, here it is before it comes home for final fit at my local luthier, the rather wonderful Julian Mullen: Once it's home and fully finished I'll post some more pics!

Found out what the pickup is. It’s a custom wound Curtis Novak. Sounds clean and crisp with the tone wide open and punchy / growly with it wound off. Responds really well to subtle changes in how hard you play with fingers. In that closed position it can deliver a really smooth, full, sound if played with care and then turns into a bit of a rock monster if you hit the strings harder. Perfect for moving from Bad to Beautiful Day or those classic U2 slower songs that build and build to a more aggressive climax. I gigged it last night and really liked it!

There’s a matching J as well. I’ve seen pics of him with the J.

I’ve had a go at something similar, and for the same reason! Mine was based on the Lakland Clayton P style signatures. US body, McIntyre J neck, some vintage hardware I had kicking around and a US custom wound pickup - must track down my invoice for that as it was quite expensive!

I’ve had a first trawl back on my emails and can’t find any information on this. The neck marking does look familiar and I have a feeling it is a Rick’s Fine 52 build but can’t be sure. If so, everything will be very high quality with some hardware being original and everything else being ‘period correct. I have some Bassgear archive material buried away. I’ll try to dig that out and see if there’s anything there.

I’ve used a Ritter as my main gigging bass for over 10 years now. They are surprisingly resilient and the high gloss finish still looks like new

I’ve owned quite a few of Roger’s basses and I’ve always thought that it was this ability to sit so nicely in a live band mix that makes them special.