PatrickJ

According to Wikipedia, to be a true Luthier you need to have made lutes.

Hmm, I may be living this nightmare as my Luthier is getting extremely cagey about how much my custom build is going to cost. He does keep sending me pictures of nice woods though.

I've been reading lots of good things on this forum regarding the Tedeschi Trucks Band. Really enjoying this tiny desk concert

I had shoulder surgery a few years back - the worst thing about it was the nerve block... especially as mine took forever to wear off. Wishing you a speedy recovery!

I have a morning of boring admin to work through. Listening to some lighthearted funk keeping me going.

This has possibly posted before but it's jumped to the top of my To Learn list

Being presented with 50 songs to learn is really daunting, I'd be feeling very similar to you. I would definitely get them to agree to an initial set list of 10-20 you can get focussed on. Then I'd probably try and get the basic structure down for each and a feel for the main riffs, rather than learn each song as per recording .I'd then bring in what ever intricacies and variations may exist as I feel more comfortable. Be open with them on how you are feeling, I'm sure they want to work with you on getting up to speed.

😭😭😭

Looking to finalise spec for my custom build. Got most of it figured out except the bridge, any favourites / recommendations from you guys?

This is the approach I'm taking. I met Jon on Friday and he let me try out a couple of his basses, I like the design of the Horn so will go with that, perhaps a slight tweak to the cutaways to make them a little more conservative. Bodywood I'm going to play safe and go with Alder. That's the same as my Sandberg and Mayones basses so I've got an idea on weight / tonal properties. Pickup's, Aguilar single coil Soapbars. I have aguilar single coil pickups on my Mayones and think they sound great so again I feel fairly safe on that choice, no changes to placement. The thing that sold me on a Shuker build was the neck profile. I'm quite fussy on neck but I found his shape very comfortable. He had a few sizes in the work shop so I was able to find the most comfy for me.

Fingers crossed, though I'm not holding my breath

Went to see Jon on Friday. He showed me a number of neck profiles and I got to play (unplugged) on a couple of finished basses (series 2 and a horn). Necks were fantastic, gentle C profile, not too thin but overly thick - it was at that point I pretty much made my decision to go with a custom Shuker build.

Clearly I have a type! These are my three short listed body shapes, all modernised J Basses ACG Retro B GB Spitfire Shuker Custom J Bass

I don't think I'll go for Walnut, too much of an unknown for me. Looking at the website you shared a couple of options that have similar tonal / weight references to Alder would be - Swamp Ash - Lacewood - Roasted Alder (same wood, but lighter and with darker colouring - seems ideal)

That site is pretty useful. It would seem Walnut has much brighter properties as a tone wood than Alder, and likely to weigh a bit more. It could be a risk going for it, but it is much prettier

Hi Alan, I hadn't previously looked at your RetroB model, it looks slightly different to the J Type I had seen in ACG archives (is that correct?). Anyway I came across this image earlier; I really like the more elegant shaping of the cutaways compared to a standard Jazz shape!

When did you order it? I ordered mine December 30th, no sign of dispatch yet.

I really like the Spitfire body shape, I would love to play one, but, it was the lack of choice around pick-ups electronics that put me off a GB build. I'm 95% sure I'm going to go for Aguilar pickups as I love the ones in my current J Bass (which has a Alder body and flamed maple top) along with an East pre.

I should perhaps ask the mods to move this thread to build diaries. Quick question from those on the thread, and perhaps @skelf if he is willing to share his experience. What is the tonal difference between Alder and Black Walnut? All my guitars to date have had Alder bodies (except for an Ash Warwick); but from the examples above I like the Black Walnut / Flame maple contrast. As it's an unknown wood has anyone any experience of the tonal properties of each? Thanks

Of the ACG range I thought the Krell looked really interesting. A bit contemporary for my personal taste but I do appreciate it is a fine looking instrument, and I loved some top wood designs in the finished examples, particularly the wood choices on this one.

Is that a series 2? Very similar build to what I initially had in mind.

That's pretty much me.