Basvarken

Fast forward to the neck. Got no pics of routing the truss rod channel. And no pics of cutting the headstock angle. Nor trimming the neck to the right width. Glued the fretboard onto the rough shaped neck Left enough wood beyond the heel to allow for decent clamping onto the workbench. Shaped the neck profile. Using a spoke shave and a coarse file. I should try a shinto rasp some day. At my day job I have access to a laser cutter. I made vector files and cut out the templates for the body. Prepared the slab for the body. Drilled a few holes with a forstner bit, to make it easier for the handheld router. Routed the control cavity and the slot for the pickup wires Glued the beautiful quilted maple top -that I scored at Holz Faszination- onto the body. You can never have too many clamps, right? Routed the body shape along the laser cut template Body outline ready Routed the profile for the controls cover on the back On the front side I routed the channel for the binding

I started with two nice slabs of Mahogany or actually it's called Khaya. It has a nice and even grain and it is very light weight. I asked the timber supplier to make the neck blank a three piece for me. It saves me a lot of time. For the 12th position inlay I use a tube of aluminium and cut off a ring. Bought a pre-slotted ebony fretboard at Holz Faszination in Germany. Drilled holes. And glued then inlays in The inside ring of the 12th inlay is exactly the size of a regular black inlay. So I just glued that dot in. I mixed the superglue with ebony sawdust, just in case there would be a gap Then sanded the inlays level with a radius block. Sorry no pics. (forgot) Taped off the fretboard to get ready for hammering the frets in. I fill each fret slot with a few drops of super glue./ The tape makes sure it doesn't splatter onto the fretboard Cut off the excess on both sides

This week I completed the build of a guitar (yes, six string). It is a hybrid of a Les Paul Junior Double Cut and a Tele (or actually Esquire). The Brooks LP-TC Amalgamation - Mahogany body - Bookmatched Quilted Maple top - Mahogany 3-piece set neck. Glued in - Wine Red stain - Ebony fretboard with abalone inlays - Jumbo frets - Checkerboard binding - 24 3/4" scale - Buffalo horn nut - Telecaster style bridge. With compensated saddles. Black - Double action spoke wheel truss rod - DiMarzio The Chopper T (DP-384) humbucker - Gotoh SG-381 locking tuners. Black - Push-pull Volume knob for parallel-series switching - 250k Tone knob - Black knurled barrel knobs - Mallory Mustard Tone capacitor - Weight 3.25 kg Serial number: 2022006 With a special Amalgamation logo on the headstock and Starman logo on the custom pick guard. How does it sound? Like this! I'll post pics of the build process in separate posts below.

More like £2750 - 3250. Depends on the specs really. If you don't want a fancy flamed or quilted top and no weird finish you could stay on the lower side.

Bad idea. Most five string necks have only one truss rod. You really need two truss rods to withstand the gigantic string pull of the twelve strings. I even add a carbon strip in between the two truss rods.

A little late to the party. Sorry guys. I really should check in more often. As far as I'm concerned there are two major bottle necks in building a twelve string bass. First one is the bridge. Very hard to find. The ones that I use are custom built by ETS Hardware in Germany, But they are completely overbooked. Some customers have been waiting on their hardware for more than a year... I don't know of any other manufacturer that sells them commercially. I scored one off Dean a few years ago. But that was a demo model. They don't have them for sale. Second problem is the machine heads. Twelve is an enormous amount of metal on your headstock. You want to have them as light as possible to avoid neck dive. I've been using Gotoh Res-o-lite bass tuners. Those are still available. But the Gotoh Stealth ST-31 that I've been using for the octave strings have been taken out of production. These are/were really light. All the other "lightweight" tuners are twice the weight of the ST-31... The twelve string basses that I've built are all 34" scale.

On my birthday I completed the build of a new bass: The Brooks EXB-MS-5 - Mahogany Khaya body - Quilted Maple top and headstock face - Three piece Mahogany Khaya set neck. Glued in - Blue burst gloss finish on top and headstock - Pearloid binding - Ebony fretboard - Luminlay Blue position markers - Jumbo nickel silver frets - 37-34" scale - Buffalo horn nut - Babicz Solo Rail bridge. Black - Double action trussrod - Two carbon reinforcement strips in the neck - Lace Alumitone Bass Bar pickup combination - Pure Tone output. Black - Volume and tone knob. Black - Rotary pickup selector switch. Black chickenhead - Gotoh GB 350 lightweight bass tuners. Black - Dunlop flush mount strapnuts. Black - Dingwall strings - Weight: 4.25 kg Rotary switch options: 1. Both pickups in series 2. Neck side pickup 3. Bridge side pickup 4. both pickups in parallel 5. Both pickups. Out of phase with a capacitor to maintain the low frequencies. Circuit and wiring by BQ Music. Pics of the build process can be viewed here https://www.enkoo.nl/brooks-exb-ms-5.html And I made a quick video as well. Being a life long 4-string player I have no idea what to do with that fifth string! But you get an idea of how she sounds. (I'm quite sure the guy I built it for will put it to good use!)

This is a five string Gibson Thunderbird Studio from 2005. Gibson hasn't offered many five string bass models over the years. This is one of the very few official releases. The traditional Thunderbird design was changed on the Studio version (both four-string and five -string): the body shape is slightly smaller and the edges are rounded off. A major change in the construction is the use of a glued in neck rather than the traditional Thunderbird neck through construction. And the use of the 3D bridge is also a deviation to the previously used bridges on Thunderbirds. The Thunderbird Studio is featured on page 138-139 in The Gibson Bass Book by the way.

Headstock on my latest creation, the ThinLine Telebird. Colour is Seafoam Green, same as the top of the body.

Not all my bass guitars. But a family shot of the Les Paul Bass with all its siblings and other relatives. From left to right: - Pearl Export Bass. Modified with Gibson lo-z bass humbucker in the middle position and Gibson lo-z guitar humbucker at the bridge - Revelation RLB. Les Paul Bass copy - Gibson Les Paul Bass prototype. Modified with Badass bridge and Gotoh Res-o-lite tuners - BaCH short scale semi-acoustic. Modified with Gibson lo-z bass humbuckers - Epiphone Jack Casady Signature bass. Modified with Gibson lo-z bass humbucker - Fake Gibson Les Paul Bass. Built by myself. With Gibson lo-z guitar humbuckers and original wiring - Gibson Les Paul Bass aka Triumph. limited edition - Gibson Les Paul Bass

A new bass is born! I proudly present the Brooks Thinline Telebird. - Two piece Swamp Ash body. Half hollow - Two piece Swamp Ash top. With f-hole - 7ender P-bass neck with Pau Ferro fingerboard - Sea Foam Green top. - Artec Mudbuckers - 34" scale - Wide travel Thunderbird bridge plus tailstop. Chrome - Pearloid pickguard - Tortoise binding - Hipshot Ultralite tuners. Chrome - CTS Volume pot - CTS Tone pot - 5 way super switch - Chrome flat top barrel knobs - Telecaster jack cup. Chrome - Rotosound 66 Swing bass strings 45-105 - Weight 4.1 kg Wiring by BQ Music: • Neck humbucker in series • Outer coils as humbucker in series • Both humbuckers in series • Inner coils as humbucker in series • Bridge humbucker in series Pics of the entire build process can be viewed here: https://www.enkoo.nl/brooks-thinline-telebird.html #brooksbass #thinline #TeleBird I also made a demonstration video of the Brooks Thinline Telebird. This bass really sounds amazing. Very responsive. Hard to catch the real sound with my limited recording devices...

The company that makes the bridge sets for the 12-string basses that I build, is ETS Hardware from Germany. They made a bridge set for a 24-string bass. So I guess anything is possible. 🤪 One of the most ridiculous bass guitars I have ever seen in my life, actually...

I guess that is possible, yes. But the bridge and tailpiece would be a costly affair, since they'd have to be custom made. But who on earth has hands that big and strong to play an 18 string bass? My fingers have a hard time at 12 strings already! In my defense: I'm not an experienced 12-string player (as you probably can tell by the sloppy playing in the video) 😉

That is serious money! 😮 The TB-12 cost less than half...

I have just completed the build of a new twelve string Thunderbird bass. The entire build process is documented here: https://www.enkoo.nl/brooks-tb-12.html Brooks TB-12 - Mahogany body wings - Nine ply Mahogany/Walnut set neck. Neck through - Opaque white (blonde) high gloss finish - Abalonoid binding - Ebony fretboard - Circle position dots - Jumbo frets - 34" scale - Buffalo horn nut - Three ply black/white/black pickguard - ETS twelve string brass bridge set - Two spokewheel double action trussrods - Carbon reinforcement strip in the neck - Lace Alumitone Bass Bar in the neck position - Lace Alumitone DeathBar in the bridge position - Allparts stacked pots (volume/tone volume/tone) - Mullard capacitors - MEC on-on switch for coil split (humbucker-single coil) - Gotoh GB 350 lightweight bass tuners - Gotoh Stealth ST 31 guitar tuners - 2 x Pure Tone Multi Contact jack output - d'Addario EXL 170 - 12 strings - Weight: 4.25 kg Wiring was done by BQ Music.

Woke up this morning to see that my book is featured in Australian guitar talkshow 'On the Couch". Very nice to get this kind of appreciation from Down Under! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UwSF2uE_8w

Here are a few of my headstocks:

The first time I used the Lace Alumitones was on the first twelve string bass I built. I was looking for a humbucker that has bar magnets that are wide enough to pick up all the strings equally as good. Many bass humbuckers with bar magnets are a bit on the narrow side. But Lace offers the Bass Bars in several widths (3.5', 4", 4.5"). Which made me curious about those. I checked a few YouTube videos and decided to try them out. I was pleasantly surprised. They have a very high output level (even though they're passive). Are dead silent (no hum whatsoever, even in single coil mode). They sound very even across the tonal spectrum. And I think they look pretty cool too. I've used them on a regular four string bass too.

Latest addition to the family of black basses

Yeah, my bad. My head was in the Thunderbird shapes. But your description was spot on EB-0 Bird. Still regret selling that one...

Did I build that? 🤔 You mean the Telebird perhaps? Or the EB-TB? That must be the one you're thinking of!

Got a new bass build ready. TB-12-Q Twelve string Thunderbird Bass with Quilted Maple top. - Mahogany body - Bookmatched Quilted Maple top - Nine ply Mahogany/Walnut set neck. Glued in - Transparent black stain - High gloss transparent acrylic finish - White binding - Ebony fretboard - Mother of pearl position dots - Jumbo frets - 34" scale - Buffalo horn nut ? - ETS twelve string brass bridge set - Two spokewheel double action trussrods - Carbon reinforcement strip in the neck - Lace Alumitone Bass Bar in the neck position - Lace Alumitone DeathBar in the bridge position - Allparts stacked pots (volume/tone volume/tone) - Mullard capacitors - MEC on-on switch for coil split (humbucker-single coil) - Gotoh GB 350 lightweight bass tuners - Gotoh Stealth ST 31 guitar tuners - 2 xPure Tone Multi Contact jack output - d'Addario EXL 170 - 12 strings - Weight: 4.25 kg Electronics circuit by my good friend Bas Becu. Serialnumber: 2021003 Pics of the build process can be found here: https://www.enkoo.nl/brooks-tb-12-q.html

Here she is with another Sister Noir

I did a drastic make-over on a bass to make it part of the black bass family Used to look like this:

For those who wonder how a twelve string bass sounds: