Alpha-Dave

I don't think it'll be small, It'll be about the size of average jazz bass as that's pretty much the size of my recurve, although it is smaller in some dimensions due to the sloping body shape. Basically, I have a Hiscox bass case. To fit the Recurve in, I need to add a 2" square foam tube to the fore-arm contour to wedge it in, and another at the end of the head stock. For my Warwick Streamer on the other hand, I need to add the padding around all the edges as it's small in all dimensions. Due to the Skelf design sloping the opposite way to the recurve design (they are going to look sooo good together!), then I expect that to fit it in the Hiscox case I'll need to add a 2" foam pad around the control-side of the body. To add a little more to the description of the bass, I was talking to Alan last week about how it'll sound when complete. The basic construction being a VERY stiff neck (due to the large amounts of ebony) attached to a resonant body (limba being very resonant), with a large cavity for the ramp-route. Anyway, Alan said that as he was filing and polishing the frets he kept hearing an odd noise, then he eventually figured out was coming from the ramp cavity as he was working the frets! How this works out in the final tone will be interesting for sure: it may have a dominant frequency somewhere in the sound spectrum [insert superlative here: punchy/bright/bassy], or it may simply be very resonant across the range, but either way I'm really looking forward to finding out!

I honestly have no idea how big it would look against me as it's being built 140 miles away! Alan did send me the overall measurements to me because I was looking for a case that would be as small as possible so that it would fit in the boot of my car. It's 1040mm long and 335mm wide across the bridge, and 275mm wide across the logo/fret board/lower horn. I'll take loads of pics when I finally have it!

The Soul model from Basslabs is a carbon fibre J-style bass that comes in at 5.5 lbs. I've not tried one, and they look expensive, but if you're seriously thinking about getting one, they can send you one of their stock models to look at as their distribution is limited as I understand it. [url="http://www.basslab.de/"]http://www.basslab.de/[/url]

Great thread, I'm very pleased at the grown-up level of discussion, as I was concerned about mudslinging. The biggest point for me is that people on BassChat aren't only saying 'Which Fender should I buy' but can see the good things coming out of the UK too. Can anyone verify that they have actually paid the website prices anyway? Overwater for example list their prices, but they seem to have a 20% off sale every January/Summer/Bassday to control the flow of work and distribute it throughout the year. I guess Martin may have that problem solved though by having a full year's waiting time for each bass though. I really wish I could just give £3k each to the dozen or so UK luthiers and see what they come up with for a similar yet basic specification. Still no one has mentioned my other point: will this make second hand Seis more expensive? I think it may for the fancy-wood 4/5 strings but I suspect it's remain steady for the basic jazzes, and odd-ball instruments (headless, 6+ strings, buck-eye burl etc.) will always have either a high or low value depending on desirability.

mmmm, that does look fantastic!

Obbm: [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=78"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=78[/url] I use 2 signal cables, a speaker lead and 7 patch leads plus a power-daisy chain of his thats on its way. Superb quality for the price.

[quote name='Hit&Run' post='41607' date='Aug 5 2007, 02:41 PM']Here's a variation on a theme: [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Strap-Locks-ROCLOCS_W0QQitemZ170135438993QQihZ007QQcategoryZ20831QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmViewItem"]roclocs[/url][/quote] What a bad, bad, bad idea! A screw in eye, with a carabiner attached: every time your strap rotates (which they do!) , it'll either screw in too much and strip the threads/wood or it'll unscrew and fall out. I don't think I can emphasise enough how much of a bad idea I think those are, and I'm tempted to ignore all your posts Hit&Run for giving bad advice.

Excellent, congratulations! I do love the preamp, did Alan still have the stock fretless for you to try it on? I thought you were wanting a rosewood board, what changed your mind? Did you take a camera to get photos of the woods you chose or do they need to be shipped in?

To be honest when I was at school/uni, I saw a lot of bassist who do just play the root note of whatever chord the guitarist is chugging, and they are deservedly less talented than their guitarists. Once a bass player moves into playing bass-lines, then it requires as much skill as playing lead-lines. Most importantly of all thought IMHO is the entire band playing as a single unit: that includes the rhythm section (bass guitar & drums) as one and the melody instruments (bass guitar, guitar, keys, vocals).

If you go the the Sei web site, then the options page, then 'news' at the top.

I'm not at all questioning the quality of these fantastic basses, and we can all accept the fact that like Overwater, and those companies that employ more than 1 person are going to be more expensive than those who don't. I'd estimate that a same-spec'd Sei/Overwater would be roughly £1000 more expensive than the respective Shuker/ACG/RIM etc. However due to their popularity, Sei are adding an extra 20% to their list prices and now have a 10-12 month build time: [url="http://www.seibass.com/seinews.html"]http://www.seibass.com/seinews.html[/url] I'm just wondering if this will loose them the 'gigging' bassist market and more them fully into the hobbiest/affluent market of those who tend to commission Ritters or if they'll still be worth it for general use? Will this mean a 20% increase in the second hand market? Discuss ...

I'm mostly happy that British Luthiers are getting the respect they deserve. Stunning bass!

That is really nice, I particularly like how the upper bout/horn has worked out. More photos please!

In all honesty I did wonder why you'd specified the additional black centre laminate/accent, but with the curves cut and stained and I can now see the other laminates, it really adds something, and I guess that it'll match the fret markers nicely too!

[quote name='douggy' post='40671' date='Aug 2 2007, 10:23 PM']DAMAGE![/quote] Does this now mean 'a good thing'? I really can't keep up with these dialect changes.

Right, enough about cases, here are some more progress pics, the first coat of gloss is on as part of the month-long finishing process: One of the things to note are the maple dowels that Alan has added for the bridge screws to anchor in to: In all honesty I would not know they were there and the Korina of the body would have been fine with the screws for many years, but Alan as a perfectionist inserted the strengthening wood so it will be secure forever, for me that's one of the many reasons why I think AGC basses are brilliant!

I bought a Lindo guitar and bass for a uni project from ebay, the guitar tuners snapped in a week as did the bass's truss rod. I'd strongly advise to go for named brand/2nd hand these 'only exist for a couple of years' companies really aren't worth it.

Warwick for all 3 in 1. Otherwise ACG bass, DHA/Torres amp, BFM cabs and DR strings. I like acronyms.

Excellent, congratulations!

[quote name='OldGit' post='39392' date='Jul 31 2007, 10:11 AM']Generally speaking I think that Soundcontrol could do a very simple thing and turn their business around. The vast majority of moans about them are not about prices, stock, getting stuff or anything like that. Their problems are almost all about staff attitude. A national staff training programme and a better hiring process and the whole thing would be changed beyond measure.[/quote] In a similar vein, it occurred to me that I don't go into SC as I did my local music shops when I was younger because they don't do lessons. Seriously, if they had 'Local Academies' or whatever that taught too then they'd have a lot more people through their doors, which eventually means more sales. Of course for those branches that are based in city centres space may be an issue, as would transport be for those on industrial estates. hmm, perhaps not then.

[quote name='RichBowman' post='39334' date='Jul 31 2007, 01:59 AM']I think the Chicken grease was James Jamerson - Thought I could be wrong....[/quote] I thought it was Bootsy! I bet in 10 years time it'll be flea

The facility to 'tune into' the frequency range I'm playing in is a huge bonus for fretless for the ACG pre, so it works well with both humbuckers in series (punchy mid-hump), and parallel (flat response) I have actually hard wired my neck p'up in parallel and the bridge in series, and then set up a good but very different tone set on each, then adjust the pan knob during different parts of the song for added texture. The possible down side is that I'm not sure if Alan is supplying the preamp to other UK luthiers as it's one of his major selling points (other than ace build quality and communication!), still he may be willing to negotiate.

Excellent, will they be able to make the ramp and p'up covers from the same piece of rosewood so it looks seemless, or is that too tricky as they'll have to be leveled differently? The ACG pre is excellent for fretless, I'd highly recommend it!

While I'm here I'll say that I've decided to go with an Explorer military-spec case for it as I'll be flying with it a few times over the coming year, and these offer the same protection as a wood/aluminium case but weigh 7.8kg instead of 13kg! The spec is guaranteed that if you drop it 4 feet onto concrete, then the sights of a rifle inside won't be misaligned. That should be good enough even for baggage handlers. [url="http://www.explorercases.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=225&osCsid=eb375d9dafdab146fbe1b0ecd199a8ef"]http://www.explorercases.co.uk/product_inf...be1b0ecd199a8ef[/url] They really are the business!

Good thought, and it would follow on well, but there are 2 switches going there for coil tapping/series/parallel and the body is its thinest there for the control cavity, so further counter-sinking the disc would possibly make it too weak.