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Rufini Vintage Custom Series build diary - It's READY! Please come say hello to Daphne. Warning: pretty pictures inside!

trtzbass

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[b] Rufini Vintage Custom Series build diary pt.1[/b]
July 23, 2014
During the past few years I gathered quite a small collection of nice instruments that serve me well when I have a studio session or a live gig.
Being active on the London scene means being able to play a sweaty indie rock gig, a posh dinner jazz set, an intense New Orleans blues jam. On the same day.
I started daydreaming about a bass that could be my go – to instrument when I need versatility for a studio session or during a function gig when I need to switch from Motown thump to Daft Punk zing to Summer of 69 grind at the drop of a hat. I feel I’m at a stage in my life and career in which I start to understand what I really need from an instrument. A bazillion hours spent on stage around Europe and the US plus all the studio time taught me a thing or two about me and my ideal instrument.
In my head the guy should:
[b]1) Have a simple and straight pick up layout and no more than the basic tone controls.[/b]
Last time I touched an onboard eq pot was three years ago and I did boost it of a 20%. For two songs.
No onboard preamp for me, but the good old Fender tone cut pot which I’ve been missing so much. Besides I always run in my head the catastrophe scenario that your battery runs dry during a set / your preamp fries out of commission. I go to gigs prepared (extra bass, extra battery, extra screwdriver)and service my basses regularly, but it’s a nagging afterthought that never goes away. I think that borders on OCD now I think about it.
[b]2) It needs to be versatile and sound outstanding.[/b]
I play swing and metal and everything in between. I need an instrument that delivers great tone and playability. One of the best days of my working life was when an engineer I recorded for took time to write me an email complimenting me for my sound. I want every single one of my studio sessions ending with a big grin on the client’s and the engineer’s face. There is no compromising on that!
[b]3) It needs to look awesome[/b]
While some of you might not agree, the looks of an instrument are a huge part of the whole deal.
You need to be able to look at it and be inspired to give the best performance you can. On top of that, the way you look onstage or in a music video is part of who you are as a pro. You need to deliver a consistent performance AND look amazing in the process. I found that sometimes showing up with an instrument that’s not coherent with the vibe of the night can be a buzz killer. Picture BB King’s rhythm guitar player showing up onstage with a Jackson King V in metallic silver and you’ll get exactly what I mean.
Now, I only needed somebody to make all this real.
Enter [b]Rufini instruments[/b].
Let me start by saying that Matteo Rufini, who runs a one man business in the heart of sunny Italy is an artist and a man with a big heart who lives for his craft.
I saw one of his instruments on his Facebook page (dude is revamping his website as we speak) and was captivated by the sheer beauty and perfection of his craftsmanship. It was not my kind of bass, but it radiated that special energy that only those instruments made with love and an obsessive attention for detail have. He was the man to make my dream bass a reality.
I got in touch with him and we teamed up.
We started throwing around ideas, discussing design and in general having loads of fun. And now he’s working on it, as we speak.
I’ll keep you updated on the build, explaining the choices we made and the reasons why.
And I’m excited like a kid!
Thanks for reading, have a great day everyone





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[b] [size=4]Rufini Vintage Custom Series build diary pt.2[/size][/b]

July 27, 2014
The baby is starting to take shape.
Matteo selected a lovely piece of Alder which will be the tonewood of choice for the body.
When we spoke about the neck/ body wood combination, he was very clear about the fact that an Alder body was the best choice to complement a maple neck / fretboard.
We want to build an instrument that can deliver a warm, vintage tone as well as some modern rock grind. If we went for a harder body wood, say ash, the instrument response would have been too bright / snappy which is great if you’re playing in a rock band or funkying it up, but probably too much of a one trick pony. Of course I am sure there’s a million great instruments out there that are made of denser / harder woods and can deliver warm round tones, but building a bass from scratch is a one bullet operation and we did not want to take chances. Once it’s built it’s built and you have to deal with its inherent voice.

In a nutshell the concept would be: maple neck and fretboard to give the sound brilliance, attack and percussiveness and alder body to mellow it out and give it sustain and roundness. Of course the woods are selected to maximize grain coherence and wood coupling once the parts are screwed together.


Maestro Rufini then proceeded to hand carve the body to a familiar shape we all know and hopefully love. I had many a conversation with my colleagues about body shape and assumptions. It’s not a mystery that when you walk into a studio or onstage with an instrument that sports a less familiar body shape you can meet suspicion or the people you are working with / for might have a bias towards lesser familiar shapes and curves. I find this particularly true in the UK where Rock and Roll is becoming part of a tradition and MDs and musos have a more positive perception of the classic vintage vibe. Owning an instrument with a quintessential shape gives me more peace of mind that I won’t have to fight producers who want me to “put that away and use my Fender, thanks”.


On a different note it’s also true that different instruments give the musician a different mindset, or at least that’s what happens to me.
I believe that us electric string players have an almost pagan approach to playing music through our instrument. We need symbols and ‘mojo’. I find myself in a completely different mindset depending on the kind of instrument I got in my hands. Multi – laminate five string oddly shaped active basses scream “TWO HANDED TAP SLAP FUSIONY STUFF” to my subconscious, while classic instruments put me in a more pacate, song oriented mindset. This instrument will be a tradition – inspired beast with hints of modernism; it’ll basically say “groove first, idiot, but sneak in that double thumb lick if you can”.
Again, thanks for reading and have a nice one!

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Hey MoonBassAlpha, thanks for reading!

Stay tuned, you'll see how this instruments differs from a standard P - bass. I don't want to give it away too soon, tho!
I also believe that having a loving craftsman building a one off instrument imparts a certain energy to it. I think it'll feel different from a factory made bass; almost like eating a chocolate muffin versus eating a chocolate muffin a friend baked for you, if I'm making any sense.

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eude Veteran

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[quote name='trtzbass' timestamp='1406506003' post='2512042']
I also believe that having a loving craftsman building a one off instrument imparts a certain energy to it. I think it'll feel different from a factory made bass; almost like eating a chocolate muffin versus eating a chocolate muffin a friend baked for you, if I'm making any sense.
[/quote]

Absolutely! I've, personally, never felt any new Fender to be anything special regardless of price, older very played in ones are a different story however.
For the price of a new American Fender you can get a lot more bass for your money if you speak to a good luthier, plus you get all their passion and energy driven into the wood itself, something you'll never get from a production line...

Eude

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Hello Eude

I'm with you there - new Fenders are "only" nice, expecially considering the price tag.
Old ones are amazing, but then you are buying an instrument that existed for more than you did, probably. A lot of sweat, energy, vibrations, feelings went into it and made it larger than the sum of its parts. It'd be interesting to be around in twenty years from now when, say, soundgears will be prized vintage instrtuments!

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[b] [size=4]Rufini Vintage Custom Series build diary pt.3[/size][/b]
August 2, 2014
When it came down to discuss neck measurements I had two requests: it had to have 24 frets and it had to be narrow because I have small hands / short fingers, so no P Bass style baseball bat profile.


Of course Matteo laid a lot of great ideas on the table and I couldn’t help but keep saying “yes”, “that’s great” and “you’re so talented it’s not even funny”.
I told him how I really enjoyed playing a Music Man Sterling that belongs to a good friend of mine and how its neck felt good and fast; he got that on board and delivered something better: he started from the classic ’60s Jazz Bass measurements but added, quite literally, a twist to it.
The neck will sport a variable taper construction technique: it will be a C profile at the nut and will slowly morph to a flat D under the higher frets. On top of that it’ll gradually become asymmetric, so it’ll help the thumb to get in the optimal position to help accessing the top frets.
I can’t wait to lay my hands on it!



Another feature I always wanted on my dream bass is a flame maple fretboard just because, well, it looks gorgeous and feels really good under the fingers. I asked if we could keep the finish to the bare minimum as I’m not a fan of finished necks; it kinda bums me out a bit when I’m onstage, things are a little sweaty and the back of the neck ‘catches’ my thumb. It’s a minimal thing and it really is a borderline first world problem, but what the heck, you’re having an instrument built on your own specs, better address every nuance.


Matteo explained to me that he employs a very interesting building techinque when it comes to fretboards. Instead of just gluing it to the neck and then shaping it, he sands down the neck shaft and then he glues the fretboard so that it follows the curvature he imparted to the main piece. He swears by this kind of approach and says it prevents dead spot problems.


Lastly, here’s a couple of images of the instrument pieced together. As you can see a lot still has to be done, but you can start guessing what makes it stand apart from a traditional Fender style instrument!


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trtzbass Contributor

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The instrument is almost ready now!
The body has been painted and the hardware installed and meister [url="http://www.matteorufini.com/"]Matteo Rufini[/url] is about to put a tasty P / MM [url="http://www.teslapickups.com"]Tesla pickups[/url] combo set on it.



My color combination of choice is a correct daphne blue with cream pickguard.
I’ve always wanted a daphne blue instrument, I find that colour very subtle, elegant and classic, but for some reason daphne blue instruments are very hard to come by. I’ve also quickly learned that it’s a shade of color that changes though the years and can fade to an almost seafoam green tint, so a bit of research went into that; Matteo and I both agreed that the best pickguard colour to go with it had to be vintage cream as it complements the whole vintage vibe quite nicely.
This is also quite interesting:
Yesterday night I was having a conversation with my pal Pat Harrington who lives in California. He’s an incredible bassist, a wildlife conservationist and a hard core Rush fan. My kinda guy. Well, he loves his cars and told me more about the much coveted Daphne Blue tint.
It first appeared as a color option on the ’58 Cadillac!

Story goes that Leo Fender would just pick the colours from the DuPont chip charts of the day so that they’d be consistent and, well, very cheap. Fender offered it as a colour option only from 1960 to 1965.
So, my baby is going to be the colour of a vintage car. And yes, it’s relic’d. Heavily.
The relicing of modern instruments is a delicate topic and never fails to heavily polarize opinions. Some think it’s a cool look and some others loathe it on the grounds of purism and age coherence.
I personally find that an instrument needs to inspire the player to pick it up and make music with it and if a fake antique look does the trick (and in my case it does indeed), well, then let it be.
Furthermore, guitar based music of any genre (rock, pop, blues, r ‘n b, etc..) is rapidly becoming a nostalgia business.
A quick look into the charts reveals how little mainstream music is being made with traditional post 50s string instruments. I know I harbour quite an unpopular point of view but I truly believe that with the advent of the latest music making technologies, the electric guitar (or the electric bass) is rapidly becoming the new violin if you know what I mean. Sorry for the digression, that’ll have to be material for a new post on my blog.
What I’m trying to say is that it’s my perception that a lot of what I play on nowadays draws so much from the tradition of pop and rock music, that my instrument needs to reflect that.
It’s either that or I’m just getting old and grumpy and crave for a more conservative design.



Take a look at how Matteo masterfully aged the hardware.
Last but not least take a good look at that sweet flame maple neck that show off the signature Rufini Guitars fret markers.


Man I can’t wait…

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[b] Rufini Vintage Custom Series – it’s READY![/b]
August 23, 2014
If you followed my build diary so far you’d have seen [url="http://www.matteorufini.com/"]Matteo Rufini[/url] has been busy putting the final touches on my new instrument which is now ready and will be shipped to me tomorrow.

I must say, from the pictures it looks stunning and I am really impatient to rip the packaging to shreds, open that case and smell that wonderful aroma of wood and fresh paint. I am loving what Matteo did with the relic work. It’s very subtle but effective; also, now I won’t have to take off my belt every time I play!

The flame maple neck looks amazing and only has a very thin coat of finish that makes that veneer pop through nicely. Something I did not talk about during the build diary is the decision to have a 24 fret neck mounted on a traditional P bass body without extended cutaway.
I have another instrument which is basically that, a P bass with 24 frets. Somehow, when I play that I can feel there is a slight imbalance of proportions as if the bass sits at an awkward angle. After a bit of searching I noticed it’s because the body shape accommodates for the extra length of the neck and it feels ever so slightly unnatural to me. I mean it’s not a massive issue by any stretch of immagination but I can feel it and it kinda puts me off sometimes.
The neck / body joint on this bass only offers easy access up to the 21st fret but I decided for the 24 fret option anyway because I use a fair amount of touch style / tapping technique. That way I can still access the high notes on the neck but at the same time retain the vintage feel of the instrument.


I’d like to spend a few word about the pick up configuration.
Well first of all I really need to thank [url="http://www.teslapickups.com"]Tesla Pickups[/url] and their fantastic products. Those pick ups are the bomb! Everybody who’s played the bass so far has said it speaks with the voice of God. I have Teslas on other instruments and they never fail to impress me with their sound. Seriously, you should check them out, they’re high quality stuff.
The pickup configuration was actually the original reason why I wanted a new instrument.
During the past few years I’ve been blessed with a thriving career both in the studio environment and live. I have my collection of instruments and I have my palette of tones I go for depending on the sound I want. Fact is I kept on wishing a given quality of a certain instrument belonged to another bass with a better feeling neck, etc; so it was only natural to compile a wish list and come up with a Swiss knife kind of instrument, the one that’ll be my first choice whenever I head out for a session or a gig.

The layout is pretty straightforward: I have a P bass pickup in the traditional neck position, so I can cover the classic rock and Motown tones and then a beefy Music Man humbucker near the bridge, when I need some funk / modern (ish) / heavy rock gnarl.
The humbucker comes with a three position switch that gives further tonal options: I can run it in parallel, series or single coil mode. Pair that with the option to blend the front and back magnets and you end up with a tone monster!

Oh, and before I forget. Her name is Daphne

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