Basvarken

The bridge "problem" was solved. Before I did the staining, I sanded a little curved at the end of the fretboard Then stained the whole bass black. It really made the quilted pattern pop. Drilled the potentiometer holes Built up quite a few laters of clear. And sanded in between. Then applied the decals to the headstock. When everything was perfectly flat and well sanded I spayed the back of the body, the sides and the neck a matte black. And the some layers of transparent matte. Applied the serial number And then mounted all the hardware. Put some old strings on for a little test drive. Took care of Intonation, Action, tweaked the Hipshot Bass extender. And then put the new set of d'Addario Chrome flatwounds on (per request of my customer) I'll make a demo video after the weekend

Test fitted the pickup and the Guyker two point bridge with separate tailpiece that I originally had planned to install. Only to find out I did not like how that combination looked. Plus the guy who commissioned the build came by with a Rickenbacker he had acquired recently and he told me he wasn't too fond of its narrow string spacing. Which was the same as the string spacing of the Guyker two point (18mm). So I decided to order a MusicMan style bridge as an alternative. And see how that would fit. This one has a 19mm string spacing. In my opinion it suits the bass very well. Especially in combination with the Lace MusicMan style humbucker. The only problem was I had already glued in the neck. With the angle set for the Guyker two point bridge. And the bridge post holes already drilled... I was going to have to plug the holes. And redrill them, with a different (narrower) spacing. Plus I had to gain some extra height, since the MM style bridge is a fraction lower than the two point bridge. So I made an extra bridge plate out of a plate of brass. And sprayed it matte black to match the Guyker MM style bridge.

Drilled the holes for the machine heads in the headstock Routed the neck pocket Shaped the heel Checked the alignment of the neck, before I glued it in Drilled the holes for the bridge Made a template for the pickup cavity. And routed it.

Routed the profile for the controls cover Later on I decided to widen the controls cavity a bit more, to create some more room for soldering. I have no pics of that (sorry) Then routed the channel for the binding Glued the binding in, using acetone instead of glue. Because I was going to stain the top I did not want to risk any glue on the top. Acetone just softens the binding and makes it stick to the wood by itself. I used the same rubber strips of bicycle tubes for the clamping.

Worked on the headstock shape a bit... ...And the neck profile some more. Then moved on to the body. First I drilled some holes with a forstner bit to make it a bit lighter Routed the controls cavity Glued the bookmatched set up quilted maple on top And routed the outline shape along a template. This time I tried a different method by not cutting out a rough outline first. I just routed along the template straight into the slab. This way I hoped to reduce the risk of router tear out. Which in this case did work. But the downside is that the router bit get dull sooner (I guess)

Ordered a pre-radiused ebony fretboard at Holz Faszination in Germany. And drilled the holes for the potion markers. Glued the markers in and sanded everything flush with the 16" radius beam Hammered the frets in Before I glued the fretboard on, I closed up the part where the spokewheel part lies deeper. Maybe it's nonsense, but I think it's neater to have a bit more wood in that place 😉 Glued the fretboard on. As you can see I roughly shaped the outline of the neck prior to that. The rubber strips of inner bicycle tube pull the fretboard and neck nicely together. Let it dry overnight. And then took to cleaning up the sides and shaping the neck profile. When the sides were all cleaned up nicely I drilled the holes for the side markers. And glued the side markers in

I asked my wood supplier to make a body blank of two nice slabs of Khaya (mahogany) And a neck blank of three pieces of the same Khaya. I routed the trussrod channel. And chiseled the spokewheel part Cut the headstock angle with the band saw. And planed it nice and smooth

Just finished the build of a new bass. It is a hybrid of a Gibson EB-0 (Les Paul Junior Double Cut) and a MusicMan Stingray. The shape of the body and headstock are the Gibson ingredient. The scale (34"), the pickup and the bridge are the MusicMan ingredient. Hence the name [B]Brooks EB-MM-Q [/B] (The Q is for Quilt) - Mahogany body - Bookmatched quilted maple top - Mahogany set neck. Glued in - Transparent black stain on top - High gloss finish on top and headstock face - Solid matte black on back of body and neck - Pearloid binding - Ebony fretboard with m.o.p. dots - Aluminium circle 12th position marker - Jumbo frets - 34" scale - Buffalo horn nut - Guyker MM style bridge - Spokewheel double action trussrod - Lace MM style man o war humbucker - Hipshot Ultralite tuners plus Bass-extender - CTS pot Volume Push Pull - CTS pot Tone - PureTone jack output - Dunlop StrapLocks - D'Addario Chrome Flatwound strings 50-105 - 3.75 kg I'll post pics of the build process in separate posts below.

I got these. They're one louder...

Easy fix 😉 Here's what a friend of mine did:

Got many requets for a video demo of this bass. So I caved in and made on this morning 😉

Kings X shouldn't be a problem

Trust me, it is never easy.

Made a label and glued it in Cut the top nut (string guide) from a piece of buffalo horn. I used the brass template the ETS provided with the bridge Mounted the tuners. Had to modify the carbon base plates of the (light weight) Gotoh CXB-01 tuners that I used for the octave strings. Because the "ears" were overlapping each other.

After lots of checking and measuring I finally glued the neck in Then drilled the holes for the controls And stained the back a dark mahogany (with a dash of red) The quilted maple top was going to get a cherry burst First did the yellow stain. And then (while still wet) did the red outline. And feathered it out to make nice smooth gradient. Then built up lots of layers of clear After lots of sanding and polishing I mounted the pickups and hardware

Routed the body outline (along the template of course) Then routed the binding channel Glued the pearloid binding in The routed the neck pocket. And shaped the heel

Back to the neck: Made the side markers Then started shaping the neck profile Drilled the tuners holes

Sawed the headstock angle. And planed it nice and smooth Made the truss rod cover Glued the fretboard onto the (roughly shaped) neck While that dried took to the mahogany body blank. First off I routed the controls cavity Then switched to the other side to route the chambering Did some free hand routing for the wiring channel Before glueing the quilted maple top onto the chambered body I had to saw the tri-angular shaped F-holes

Started with the fretboard this time: Then shifted my attention to the neck. Routed the slots for the carbon reinforcement strips plus two spoke wheel truss rods

Ladies and gentlemen; I proudly present a new Brooks Bass! The EXB-12-SA. A semi-hollow twelve string bass. - Mahogany body. Chambered - Quilted Maple top, bookmatched - Nine ply laminated Mahogany set neck. Glued in - Cherry Burst finish. Naturel Mahogany back and sides - Pearloid binding - Ebony fretboard - Abalone position dots. Aluminium ring in 12th position - Jumbo frets - 34" scale - Buffalo horn nut - Custom made twelve string brass bridge set, gold plated - Two spokewheel double action truss rods - Carbon reinforcement strip in the neck - Lace Alumitone Bass Bar in the neck position - Lace Alumitone Bass Bar in the bridge position - Pure Tone output. Gold plated - Toggle switch (single coil/humbucker). Gold plated - Gotoh GB 350 lightweight bass tuners, Gold plated - Gotoh Stealth CXB-01 guitar tuners. Gold plated - d'Addario EXL 170 - 12 strings - Weight: 4.1 kg Serial number: 2025001 I'll post pics of the build process in separate posts below

The bass on the left was built by me 10 years ago. I used Gibson lo-z guitar pickups plus the original wiring loom. The bass on the right is my favorite bass; the 1969 Gibson Les Paul Bass. Here's a few more pics:

I completed this build last month

Yeah! 2024 ended exceptionally well with no less than two Brooks bass guitars in the Top10 of No Treble. And 2025 continues that with yet another Brooks bass featured as Bass of the Week! https://www.notreble.com/buzz/2025/01/20/bass-of-the-week-the-upgraded-brooks-1-2-short-scale-inspired-by-a-classic/

And recorded the inevitable video demo of course

Before I set to work on the pore filling I decided to make the hole for the rotary switch a bit wider. Not only for better access in the wiring process, but also because this was going to accommodate an Apple Air Tag. I made a hidden compartment in the back controls cover. Then did the pore filling prior to the staining. Stained the back, sides and neck in a dark mahogany color Stained the top red Sprayed several layers of clear After several layers of clear it was time to aplly the decals Just like the Brooks 1 that I built 14 years ago, this bass was ging to get a hidden tone knob. Why hidden? I like the clean look on the top side of a bass. And I very rarely use a Tone pot anyway. So I made a bracket from a sheet of aluminum And mounted it inside the controls cavity A little hole on the controls cover gives access to the tone pot. My good friend Sjoerd made a wiring diagram to my specs. And he took care of the soldering It's a clever switch! 1. Neck humbucker 2. Outer coils as humbucker 3. Both humbuckers 4. Neck humbucker + inner Bridge coil out of phase 5. Inner coils as humbucker 6. Bridge humbucker