Merton

That’s one good looking MM - nice!

I’m still in! I even spent time yesterday deliberately not looking at bass porn and speaker cab goodness and decided to try practice instead. It worked too.

That particular Marusczcyk has sold if you check the price bit! I played it while it was still around and liked it a lot. There is this though...: http://www.bassdirect.co.uk/bass_guitar_specialists/SH_Maruszczyk_Elwood_4p_Short_Scale.html edit - sorry just seen the comment about tort plates! Damn.

That's the sort of talk that will inspire me to ruin my attempt at this abstinance challenge. Begone, devil! Or, alternatively, PM me.... Ahem.

There's no denying it, none of you will know who Conway Instruments are. "They" are my good friend Phil, who I met ten years ago when I started a new job. A few years later Phil moved on to bigger and better things and started doing wood turning. He progressed from there and started building guitars and ukuleles, and last year we decided it was time for a bass. I've been very fortunate that I've (finally) had a little money come my way from a messy breakup in 2012 and I decided to treat myself. Treat no. 1 is the Zoot Funkmeister (see here for that build). This is treat no. 2. Treat no. 3 is ACG flavoured and will follow soon So... the Taranis. Taranis being the Celtic god of thunder, it seemed a good name (and entirely Phil's idea!). My original thinking was something along the lines of an Ibanez Artcore but we threw a few sketches and ideas back and forth and decided to go a different way. Phil had a body blank for a shape somewhere akin to the lovechild of a Shuker Uberhorn, an ACG Finn and a Jackson (you'll see, it has slightly pointed ends to the horns!). Phil's got some very cool bits of wood to use, and a great idea for making the grain on the top pop out really nicely. I won't explain what it is as I can't pretend to fully understand it, but Phil's pretty excited... Stop waffling and tell us the specs, I hear you cry at your screen. OK: 30" fretless with thru-body stringing Black limba body, ash top, black limba back, black veneers between layers 5 piece limba/maple neck but also with contrasting veneers between the main 5 components so it'll look pretty epic Sexy unlined Pau Ferro fretboard with a 16" radius Grainger bridge with 19mm spacing (wider than I'd usually go), hipshot tuners Nordstand MM5.4 pickup with vol and pickup coil select switch. Here's a pick of the bookmatched back, it's quite stunning I'm sure you'll agree

Both of these.

Lovely! I have a Little Bastard which is basically the same. Great amps

Awesome! A passive P from Alan in 32” flavour is quite the thing

It’s not a 500 in a 900 case because there are extra air vents along the bottom of the 900 and it has four fans not two They did do some “wide boy” heads which were exactly as thought, basically the combo head in a head sleeve, is suspect it’s that. Very nice, gotta love an Ashdown 👍🏻

Yup. The valve stage has also had a big tweak, it gets more grit and overdrive than the older series. I thought it was a wonderful amp when I used it last week!

I own an ABM500 EVO, and last week rehearsed with an ABM600 EVO IV. I was an astonishing difference. I love my 1999 EVO but the IV was on another level. If I hadn’t just signed up to the 2019 gear challenge @Sibob has presented us with then I’d be having serious wallet trouble around now!

Ooooh. But I’m on a gear buying ban for 2019 and will have three new basses (all already in gesteation) anyway so I don’t need this too 😂

Very cool!

Nope, Mike’s been busy with family things and Christmas! I’m in no huge hurry so it’s all good

Made Mrs Mert watch this just now after reading this thread. It was brilliant, you get the impression Matt Goss hasn’t had anyone say “no, that’s a stinky poo idea” for a while. It was like David Brent does rockstar. Amazing.

I have to say the combination of woods you’ve chosen is quite superb. It’s very subtly understated but oozes sheer class and quality. Really love it more each time I look at it. A lot of Alan’s basses do that to me but this is right at the top of the pile

Absolutely stunning. Bet it sounds glorious too

Glorious!

Love Robert De Leo’s playing. Spent a lot of my younger years trying to play like him but not really getting what he was doing. I’d like to think I’ve learnt a bit since then but ... This is awesome

They’re great aren’t they. Really love mine, it’s so easy to make it sound good. edit - obviously the only way to make it sound good is make sure someone else is playing bass instead of me 😎