Custom Builds?

[AttitudeCastle]

Hey All!

Not been on since late May!
I've been in New orleans on a jazz tour with my trombone
and then did four shows with a mates rock band on bass here in Scotland when i got back on the week end so its all good!

My question is who has had custom builds, is it "worth it" and what was involved?

As in how much do you need to know and information to give to a luthier,

and is it "worth it" i mean costs (how much was yours?) compared to say having a P or J like bass but it costs you £3000 whn a near enough what you wanted could be a third that

If its for completely custom shapes and things then its obviously worth it!

I ask as after reveiwing all my stuff and alot more playing now its summer i've decided The Yammie Attitude is very close yes indeedy but not quite perfect

so i will be posting several threads around here gathering information to my portfolio if you will of my potential custom job

or alternatively i could just Start from a P-bass but i'll make calls along the way as i would almost certainly get a custom neck

Thanks for listening!
Hope your having a great Summer
Adam

[hillbilly deluxe]

Both of my custom builds were by Howard (BASS DOC)of this very forum,one a five string Jazz,built about 10 years ago,the other a Precision,built this year.
I think it's worth it,both of these basses are exactly to my spec as supplied to Howard.
i.e
pickups,scratchplate material,hardware finish,neck shape,in fact,everything.As for price,you would have to contact the man himself,as every build is different.

Edited July 21, 2010 by hillbilly deluxe

[JTUK]

I have 3.

You need a clear idea of what you want....but a good luthier will also help here as they will know what combinations work well...so can stear you in the right direction.
You might have a vision of the look of it..and how it needs to sound..and then they can go from there.
I would be wary of one-offs...as you don't want to be the guinea pig...and any reknown lutihier will likely have his templates to work from.
I had mine built as I couldn't find a 5 string that I wanted.

I consider mine to be better than any production bass I have come across...which is a wildly subjective thing, but I know for sure, they are better made.

Would I want to pay that money...? well, I haven't been able to find a bass under £1000. And I know if mine came in at £2500.... that would be a very good £2500...as opposed to a bass that had to pay out for retail and distribution O/H etc ..

But..I would suggest that you don't really really know how something will work out until you get it, so a blind commission, as it were, is a leap of faith.

I consider mine came off...

Edited July 22, 2010 by JTUK

[AttitudeCastle]

Thanks for the information guys!
Maybe when i have a bit more money eh?
and i think i know what i want
i guess i'll start from a standard P-bass and do a bit to it and in the end get a brand new and improved Pro done one

[Davo-London]

I have one. A Cliff Bordwell Ball Bass:



I had been playing for 30 years before I had a custom bass made and even though there are parts of the specification that I was unsure about and so you really need to be an experienced played IMHO to make it worthwhile.

At the time the dollar/sterling exchange rate was 2:1 and so the whole enterprise cost about £1700, which is incredibly cheap considering the hand built custom nature of Cliff's basses.

It is a gamble in the sense that you cannot try out the bass first. This is diminished by the fan base and the repeat custom that he gets. Further you are getting a totally unique bass, which is uber-cool.

I love mine and really enjoy playing it. It was an extravagance, but it's better than spending money on the kids.

Davo

[Davo-London]

And once you start to look above the £1200 price range I couldn't find what I wanted. And I played so so many basses.

So I started to think about a custom.

Davo

[dougal]

I've had three. From Cheapest to most expensive:

[b]Wish Bass[/b]

Pretty much told Wish I wanted a stripy peanut with a purpleheart board, one pickup & a truss rod.

Didn't go exactly to plan. Two pups, no truss-rod. Ended up replacing the bridge, finishing it in oil. Cost: $700. Would I buy anther one: No. Result: Sold on e-bay for £250.




[b]Carvin[/b]

It's difficult to buy a Carvin without it being a custom. Filled out a form on their web-site detailing the options.

Didn't go exactly to plan; the neck ended up with a gloss rather than matt finish. No modifications. Cost: $1,400. Would I buy anther one: Possibly. Result: swapped on basschat for a fretless Warwick.



[b]GW[/b]

Probably spent the longest time speccing (and waiting) for this bass. Went exactly to plan. Grandon built me exactly what I asked for. Sadly it turns out I don't really know what I was after. Cost: $2,300 (including import duty to this country). Would I buy another: No. Result: Sits on my wall looking pretty.




Draw your own conclusions.

Is it worth it? IMO - Not really. As Davo says you have to really know what you want. Which I don't. My days of one off customs are almost certainly over.

TBH, if you buy an up-scale off the shelf bass, second hand on here, you don't loose that much money if you decide to sell them on.

Having said that it [i]is[/i] enourmous fun.

Edited July 22, 2010 by dougal

[Bigwan]

Had a 6 string built by Jon Shuker a couple of years back. He built me exactly what I wanted, but my tastes have changed considerably since then - gone all 4 string! As a result I'd say buy off the peg UNLESS you are sure - entirely sure - what you're ordering is what you'll need.

I wouldn't go custom again I don't think (not in the near future anyway) - having said that the 6er is a cracking bass for what it is and great value compared to similar 'off-the-shelf' basses.

[Rayman]

Kinal MK-5, custom made, and utterly beautiful in every way.



Overwater Progress 3 Deluxe 5, custom made, and also utterly beautiful in every possible way.

Both of them would be expensive new, and both of them would be worth every single last penny.

God I wish I still had them.

A custom made bass, made by a quality luthier like Chris May is not comparable to a factory mass made bass in my opinion, it's a whole other level. Edited July 22, 2010 by Rayman

[Noisyjon]

It'd a funny old game the custom made thing.
I've had 2 now, by different luthiers, and there's always something not quite how you wanted it.

As mentioned before do be sure about every small detail as things can turn out very differently to what you expected.

Good luck!
Jon

[JTUK]

I don't feel I need to go chasing a sound as I am very happy with what I have now, but I was looking around Sep last year..and I managed to fill that gap.

If I was still looking, I would commission one tomorrow. I know exactly what I would have wood-wise. The elecs would need consideration, but I would have time to think about that.

[Paul_C]

[quote name='jonthebass' post='902162' date='Jul 22 2010, 05:58 PM']It'd a funny old game the custom made thing.
I've had 2 now, by different luthiers, and there's always something not quite how you wanted it.

As mentioned before do be sure about every small detail as things can turn out very differently to what you expected.

Good luck!
Jon[/quote]

as someone who has made custom guitars for people, I'd love to know what turned out not to be how you wanted it (I don't want to know who was responsible, it's just interesting to know these things)

I would agree that specifying every last detail makes things easier for everyone concerned, but also it might be worth considering that throwing everything including the kitchen sink in because you're spending more than you might usually could add to the confusion.

Unless you've always dreamed of something very different from what's out there (and are willing to take the chance that it might turn out to be a huge disappointment), a custom instrument might be better approached in relation to something that you have played or owned that was never quite what you wanted and which you can't buy off the shelf.

For example, the first guitar I made for someone was essentially a Telecaster with a Gibson scale length, which could probably have been made by Fender's custom shop (but not for the price I was asking ).

[Spoombung]

[quote name='Davo-London' post='901906' date='Jul 22 2010, 02:01 PM']I have one. A Cliff Bordwell Ball Bass:




Davo[/quote]



Curse you for posting a pic of that bass again, Davo!

[MacDaddy]

I have a custom Shuker. I wanted various features of different basses all on the one bass along with a few ideas of my own. I'd seen Jon's previous work and seen the results on here, so I knew he could realise my vision. He did
But there are various options running from starting from scratch with designs, to modifying one of his stock basses with different parts.
For me it was worth it, and the price was more than reasonable.

Send a few emails and make a few calls and ask a few questions.

[BigRedX]

As well as building my own guitar when I was at school, I've had 3 guitars and 2 basses built especially for me.

The build that most closely resembles what you want to know is probably my Sei Flamboyant Offset Fretless Bass.

I'd been getting into playing fretless having bought a cheap defretted Wesley bass and was looking to get something better having decided that could play in tune enough to make it worthwhile. I spent over 18 months doing research on the internet, looking at all the bass luthier/manufacturer sites linked from Bass Bunny and Bas Extravaganza, going to shops and trade shows and trying pretty much every fretless bassI came across, and even buying a couple (a Squier VMJ which despite all the great reviews I found I really couldn't get on with, and a Pedulla Buzz which was much better, but not for me as perfect a fretless bass as my Gus was a fretted one).

The decision to stop messing about a get a fretless bass specifically made for me was re-enforced by finally finding a three really nice fretless basses - another Pedulla (a PentaBuzz this time with soapbars rather than the more common PJ confiuration) a Marleaux Consat, and a Warwick Jack Bruce Cream Reunion signature bass. Each one was almost but not quite what I wanted, but the thing that really swayed it for me was the cost. Even the cheapest of these was only slightly less than cost of almost any custom build!

I think the reasons why people tend to be disappointed with their custom builds, is not because they haven't specified their bass accurately enough, but because they've over-specified it, making decisions which IMO should be better left to their choice of luthier. For me it is absolutely essential that the luthier I was going to have build my bass understood what I wanted, felt comfortable building what I wanted, and was able to make suggestions about how to achieve the bass I wanted in the areas such as wood and pickup choice when all I really had was a look and a sound in mind.

From my earlier research on the internet I had a big list of bookmarked sites that were building basses I liked the look of. At this point I had some fairly specific ideas of how I wanted the bass to look and sound, and from all the basses I'd tried out I knew which instruments I liked the feel of, and what features helped and hindered my playing.

I believe that you get the best results when you pick a luthier who is already making something similar to what you have in mind. Sure there are luthiers out there who claim that they will build whatever you want, but I think that the results are always going to be better when they are building an instrument that follows a design that they are already producing so that they have a better idea how that design can be adapted to what you have in mind and that all the features you want will actually work to produce a great musical instrument.

So I sent off emails to all the luthiers who were building basses that looked like what I had in mind. Some never replied... some weren't really interested in doing the modifications in wanted, and a handful replied positively, and I got into further dialogue with them, explaining more about what I wanted and also where I was looking for some guidance to achieve the results I was after.

I picked Sei because I really liked their Flamboyant Offset shape Martin understood the modifications I wanted, plus the fact that they were only a 2 hour train journey away made it easy for me to go and see them to check the progress of my bass.

My basic spec for the bass went as follows:
5 string, headed in the Sei Flamboyant Offset shape, modified to allow 2½ octave neck access with no gaps between the end of the fingerboard and the pickup ramp pickup layout.
Colour scheme to match this bass:

But only have orange and grey. So full double-stained facings front and back, with an orange coloured wood between. Orange coloured fingerboard with orange side LEDs and subtle dots on the front face between the G and D strings. Neck to be orange and/or grey.
ACG filter pre-amp.
Black hardware.
Sound-wise I wanted to be able to produce that typical 80s fretless bass sound, more specifically Mick Karn's tone on "The Quiet Life" album.

Everything else I left up to Martin. I didn't care what woods he used so long as they conformed to my colour scheme and they would help give the bass the tone I wanted. Also one of the great things about having Martin build the bass was that there was a shop full of fantastic instruments just upstairs, so every time I was uncertain about a detail, I could go and try something from their stock and use that as a basis for making my decision. We decided on the pickups and the neck profile this way.

And the end result:

Fantastic! Pretty much exactly what I wanted. Plays brilliantly and now the only limitations for what I can do on it are my ability and not something that the design of the instrument is imposing on me. Sounds exactly how I wanted and then some. It turns out to have a really aggressive rock tone too when I dig in as well as getting me as close to that wonderful Mick Karn sound as my (lack of) skill allows!

The only changes I would make in retrospect would be to make the front of fingerboard markers a little bit more prominent. Also there were problems with applying the double grey stain to the light coloured stripes of the neck so if I did something like this again, I wouldn't bother with a stripy neck and have it all in the light wood and ten have it double stained and I'd have the wood of the centre section of the body meet at the base of the body so you couldn't see the neck section here. However these are cosmetic changes and are only really noticeable by me.

So after all this long rambling post my advice to anyone contemplating having a custom bass made is not to get too hung up on knowing all the specifics in advance. The important things to know is:
1. How do you want it to sound?
2. How do you want it to play? including any features you need to suit your playing style
3. How do you want it to look?
The right luthier will be able to take the answers to these questions and turn them into the right bass for you.

[antti]

My Jazz:













My CB:









I have been very happy with these, so these are worth of the money.

Edited July 27, 2010 by antti

[Davo-London]

Antii

A fellow CB man. What an exclusive club. Lovely D bass BTW. Looks like Wenge neck and Walnut tonewood. Maple veneer and ebony fingerboard? Nordstrand PU?

Davo

[thisnameistaken]

I think if there's something you're after that you can't find, then a bespoke bass is one solution. Do you find that every bass you pick up you think "No this doesn't do it for me" for some reason? Can you articulate exactly what that reason is?

If so, then get someone to build it for you.