Jump to content
Why become a member? ×

NBD - ACG - Warning visible wood content


ead

Recommended Posts

13 minutes ago, ezbass said:

That certainly is a looker, congrats. When you have some time and have stopped the obligatory continuous playing, perhaps you can furnish us with some specs and maybe a small reviewette.

Thank you kind sir.  The specs are quick to do so here goes:

  • Alder body, light colour veneer and a Cocobolo top (with matched headstock)
  • Neck is 3-pc with birdseye maple on the outer bits and plain maple in the centre
  • Rosewood board
  • Pickups are the ACG FB items that are essentailly humbucking in nature
  • Electronics are J East Uni Pre 3-band active passive with variable mids sweep and active/passive tone control

I'll do my best to do a review for you all once I've completed the requisite number of running in time hours.

Edited by ead
  • Like 1
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Great looking bass.  I like the fact that there is no chrome on it.  I'm looking at replacing the chrome tuners and bridge on my SWB-1 with matt black ones, having already swapped the volume and tone knobs.  I just prefer the understated, workmanlike look rather than bling.

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, fretmeister said:

Is that even possible?

 

Wouldn't the black element get rubbed or chipped off - possibly lowering the fret height and causing buzz?

I did briefly consider seeing whether I could persuade Mr C to consider brass frets.  I don't think he has done so before but I may well be wrong, or from the sainted Mrs ead's perspective it would be highly unlikely that i was right :(

Edited by ead
Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, fretmeister said:

Is that even possible?

 

Wouldn't the black element get rubbed or chipped off - possibly lowering the fret height and causing buzz?

 

7 hours ago, ead said:

I did briefly consider seeing whether I could persuade Mr C to consider brass frets.  I don't think he has done so before but I may well be wrong, or from the sainted Mrs ead's perspective it would be highly unlikely that i was right :(

When Andy built my Psilos bass we discussed "black metal" - i.e. dipping red hot steel fret wire into oil, turning it black. Though this works in changing the colour it also affects the integrity of the steel apparently (who am I to argue with The All Knowing One??). Still, I'm sure there would be a market for black fret wire if somebody could manufacture it...a Dragon's Den idea??

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, TheGreek said:

... i.e. dipping red hot steel fret wire into oil, turning it black.

Oil dripping is pretty good an idea. But that kind of black is not very tough.

Sorry, this is somewhat long post, but this may be of help to understand some properties of materials.

Basics: PVD (physical vapor deposition) surface is THE super thin black color layer you can see on a strap button, a tuning machine head, or a knob. All these parts are made of pretty soft materials, like steel or brass. To make a long story short, the colour needs support underneath which means that the colour PVD should be put on top of a very hard surface. Otherwise you can almost blow or at least scratch the colour away. There are powder steels and hardened ones that are truly hard but basic stainless or hi-tensile is not. But they are good materials to machine.

So if we need a fretwire that can be tinted, we need one VERY hard (and brittle) material type - that is also really hard to machine. If you know anything about hardness scales, here is something to consider:

- plastics are less than 100 HV (hardness in Vickers scale)

- aluminium and pure titanium (grade 2) are around 100 HV depending on a mixture

- stainless steel and Ti grade 5 are around 300 HV

- hardened steels start from around 600 HV

- ceramics (PVDs, too) 800 - 2 000 HV

- diamond 10 000 HV

Now these ballpark numbers start to make sense, when I tell you that this 600 HV is the minimum reasonable support for a PVD surface. So if you wanted to use such hard a material you would need much harder tools = expensive ceramics. And quite some time to finish those shiny fret ends or high frets that cannot be bent.

I hear someone shouting: where is this carbon-like-diamond, oops, sorry, it is DLC. Well, it behaves just like PVD and it needs support, too. If you put a micrometer thick layer of diamond on top of a cheese, you can cut the cheese with a knife or slicer or whatever. The ultra thin layer just is not tough enough by itself. But together with a hard support they become a very tough and durable combination.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...