Chopthebass

Primed and ready for color. Bit cold to spray so will have to wait until after xmas

Use superglue on your fingertips. Use the activator and it goes rock hard. I only used this when I split my fingertip and had a small but very painful tip. It actually worked a treat! Brightened up the sound too!

Berg make great gear. I have the Forte HP and HDN410. Brilliant combination.

I cut the outline to a depth of 8mm, then moved to overhead pin router and used this groove as a guide. Just quicker on the overhead

Did body rounding in the usual way! No more tasks for the Shaper on this. So I’ll post progress pics. Shame I don’t play 4 string! I’m sure someone will want it.

To answer some questions.... placement: I have built a height adjustable table and you can see it in the pic with the tape on it. I have side wings to the table so it wraps around a body blank. On those I have a fixed centre line. When I place my body blank I line up the to the body centre line. You then scan the work area and it creates a workspace that you can name. You then upload your file into that workspace. Finally you set a grid and define the centre line (2 points) and blank edge (1 point) . You place your imported file either manually or you define a distance from the edge. Once all this is done you can come back a year later and select that workspace and cut another body. It retains everything in the workspace. So you can have numerous workspaces. Jazz bass, block inlays, control covers , etc. creation: the Shaper has a built in library of basic shaper like circles and rectangles etc. So you can do fingerboard dots if they are odd sizes, and you can undersize a little to get a snug fit. As long as you don’t remove your workpiece you can revisit any of the cuts. tracking: your uploaded file is displayed on the hi res screen and you follow this when making the cut. The motor has two built in motors that constantly adjust the X and Y to keep it exactly on the line.

I just bought a Shaper Origin, which is a handheld CNC router. It’s flipping amazing! very easy to program and use. so I drew the precision outline, pickup cavity, control cavity and neck pocket in CAD. Convert to SVG, and upload to the Shaper. You set the depth and away you go. You have a visual line to follow on the screen and you can deviate by half an inch and the tool corrects itself. You can even undercut or over cut in 0.1mm increments to enable a tight neck fit for example.

Thanks Al. And the magic knob works on top of the main mid control settings, which also affects the sound. Its just hard to re-visit a sound on the fly, as you have to remember where the main 3 knob eq is set, and then the magic knob.

I find the magic knob has quite a small window of useable tones. Too high and it goes super thin, and too low gets a bit honky. Just my opinion. but you’re right - it does have a beefy low end. And the preamp just needs a small tweak to make a big change. I still very much love the Spector 5LT. Equally large bottom!

looks great with a maple neck.

No worse than my Spector. Comes in at 9.8 LB

Finally received my BBNE2 after waiting nearly 4 months. Fantastic build quality and tone. The eq is super powerful, although I’m in two minds about the magic knob. I probably won’t use that. Sorry Nate! Not used in anger yet thanks to the apocalypse, but sounds great at room level through my Berg gear.

Some say wood affects the sound, some say it doesn't. All I can say is I recently built two identical Jazz style basses, both 5 string 35" scale, both with EMG X jazz pickups and same preamp. Only difference was one was ash and the other Alder. Both had a cottonwood burl top, but the ash bass was a little heavier. I really couldn't hear any difference in sound.

The Bergantino HDN410 that I currently own is the best bass cab I have used. Super light at 24.5kg and very sensitive. Handles low B with ease. Sweet sounding horn too. Although I don't need one, I'd love to get a second one just to create an awesome looking stack!

I've heard this type of thing about other amps, and a technical explanation (not by me) was the type of pots used for the gain or volume. I think it was linear vs log. I think log is the norm, so you get quite an increase early on. Whereas linear you have to turn a long way to get to the same resistance value. Something like that!

yeah you have to get a fancy top wood! I had a Progress 2 five string 36" scale (yes 36"). It was very bland sounding and the EQ was very subtle. But I have heard lots of their J basses and they sound wonderful. Great build quality.

Wow that’s cool! So it’s not a problem with the tuners digging into your nadgers?

That’s lovely Paul! I have an LT and it’s fab.

Hadn’t thought of that! Makes total sense now 😆

I know many builders like to come up with their own ideas to put their custom stamp on a bass, but just came across this. What the hell! May be ok when seated, but surely there’s potential for settings to change when the body touches you when standing up playing. Maybe if they were recessed it would be better, but still, not conveniently located!!

I’m not sure the best way to do recordings!