ACG Recurve Single Cut 5-fretless

[Alpha-Dave]

Hi folks,
Not a custom build as such, but a stock/prototype bass that Alan has been building that I decided to go for as the basic spec (woods, number of strings etc) was very close to what I wanted and the technical spec it is being built to is as good anything I would have specified, I was particularly impressed with the ACG/East preamp and Armstrong pick-up combination. Also the figured maple board with the pear markers is fantastic as the grain changes in contrast depending on the angle you look at the board, so from the front the lines almost blend into the figure, but from the player position they’re more obvious – a brilliant thing !
The difference from standard specs being the string spacing, a brass nut & brass bridge as I’m not too worried about weight saving (it is Christmas! ), and I’m a total brass nut convert after the difference one made to my warwick.
Now just the agonizing wait for it to be finished in January Argh !
Specs:
Body woods: Alder with a Santos Rosewood top and a 3 mm Tulipwood accent line.
Neck: Flamed Sycamore and Mahogany 5 piece with a birdseye/fleck maple acrylic impregnated finger board with semi-tone markers in Pear wood. Matching Rosewood headplate. 2 carbon fibre rods.
Black hardware: Hipshot Ultralite tuners, Hipshot Type A bridge (17mm spacing)
Pickups: ACG FatBas custom wound humbuckers Aaron Armstrong.
Electronics: ACG/John East filter-based pre-amp, details [url="http://www.acguitars.co.uk/newsarticle.php?ID=47"]here[/url].
The entire build thread is [url="http://www.acguitars.co.uk/galleryitem.php?ID=91"]here[/url].
And some pics, some are with the wood just sanded and some wetted with spirit to make the grain come up:
Starting woods (wet)

Mock up (wet)

Hardware placement, it’s not a trick of the image, the pear lines do blend in from the front

Body shaped, truss rod and carbon rods fitted

You can see the lines really well from here

Wood work complete (wet)


Neck join (Wet), I love the flame!

Nearly there (dry), just needs disassembly and finishing !


D.

[Alpha-Dave]

As for the maple board, it has been acrylicised which I think means it has been soaked in monomers (acrylic is the same stuff used for car headlights/plexiglas), then put under vacuum in a bag so they're driven into the pores of the wood and baked to polymerise them. This means that it's really hard so I can use round-wounds without chewing up the wood. As for how it sounds, I only got to play it acoustically as the electronics weren't fitted, but it certainly was resonant with lovely overtones. I'll bring it to the next bash so you're welcome to have a go if you can make it. Also with the flexability of the legendary ACG-East pre-amp, then the sounds are lushious !
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And here is the finished instrument - I get my hands on it in 3 days !
All pics here:
[url="http://www.acguitars.co.uk/Gallery/105/"]http://www.acguitars.co.uk/Gallery/105/[/url]
Front!


Back!


The vanishing markers !

But you can see them here!

She's beautiful!