All Activity

In August 2024 I handed over the bass to the guy who always did the electronics for my builds. He was going to build the tube pre-amp and modify the Aguilar TKC compressor to fit into the effects cavity. We had already discussed this back and forth with the customer and myself. The electronics guy had also built a Frog FX1 as a test case for this project. But all this took way too long. I started to fear this bass would never see the light of day. After more than 14 months I asked the bass back. The electronics were not completely ready yet. But my patience (and faith) had run out. I brought it to a friend of mine who has a degree in electronics. He checked the electronics and cleaned up the mess. Now it is finally ready. Everything works.

That is jaw-dropping and mind-boggling at the same time! Fabulous work!

Update: it gets bonkers. So we auditioned C (I will call Chris - incoming band member) - A (the instigator - I'll call Allen) - so Allen approves of Chrism new band member to come into the band. OK so now we have to tell B ( I will call Bob - the person to be released). The BL (guy who set the band up and I've always been suspicious of) - is the guy who found Bob and broght him into the band to replace another band member who left, which is the primary role of a BL, find members. So far so good right? BL asks, so who is going to tell Bob we don't need him? THe follows with "oh I suppose it's me then" I thought was a weak. I reply "usually he who hires fires" - resonable enough. He then replies, "that's not right I didn't hire him, I did the band a favour" I gave that a 😂 Next the BL phones me, in a rage saying "it's disrespectfull of me.." - I thought, this is nonsene the guy in a rage over nothing, there's no point in talking so I pressed the "close call" button - He then calls again, seeing it was him, I press the dismiss button again, this happened three more times. Cleary this BL was in a rage, so avoid. This BL has been giving me negative vibes for some time, so I wonder if he was wanting a "reason" to leave his own band. Sure enough 5 mins later he announces he's leaving the band. I told the other band memebrs his behaviour, some astonished. Anyway.. we had a brass player who also I could see want really up to the job. Upon hearing the BL had quit he said he will quit too. OK take stock. In my view we have now got rid of the two weakest players in the band. We have a chat and decide to continue this is the best decision.

Absolutely amazing.

Applied the lettering to the effects panel: Sprayed a couple of layers clear lacquer: Applied the logo decals: Put it all in place: Polished it: Mounted the hardware: Customer provided the Goto ST-31 Stealth tuners. Around that time these were already pretty hard to find since Gotoh had stopped making them. Not sure if the difference in buttons was an ergonomical choice? Or maybe he couldn't find two identical sets of four?

The Ubertar contraption was not height adjustable. So I had to come up with a solution. I made a pickup ring and a base plate. With a screw in each corner I could tilt the base plate to the desired height. The other pickup was my own design. So no surprises there: Then stained the top: Stained the back and sides too: And sprayed several layers of clear:

A friend of mine gave me some reduced to clear mince that was just on the sell by date the other day. I said, "thank you very much, I never look a gift house in the mouth". [Boom, tish and long tom full that doesn't come back on the beat...]

Drilled a big hole for the 5 -pin XLR: Made a thin metal plate for the effects panel: Put the Quilted Maple panel inside to check if it had the right height: Cut a little recess hole in the metal sheet, for the pickup wires: Drilled holes in the metal sheet. And glued the quilted maple cover on: Checked the bridge alignment: Drilled the holes in the Quilted Maple panel following the holes in the metal plate:

Glued the pearloid binding in the channel: Route the big cavity for the sliding pickup: And the other one for the Quad Bucker: Test fitted the Ubertar sliding pickup system. This pickup contraption was provided to me by my customer.

And shaped the volute: Next I shifted my attention to the body and its shape. Snd all the crazy wiring that it would require. Made some vector files for the laser cutter to make templates: I had already glued the body wings to the center piece and cut them in their rough outline shape: I also laser cut the effects panel in Quilted Maple top. But forgot to make pictures Glued the quilted maple top on: The steps are handy when you want to clamp to two bookmatched pieces sideways. You can't clamp a diagonal line 😉 Routed the body outline shape along one of the laser cut templates: Routed the controls cavity at the back of the body: Plus the profile for the cover (different template): Did the same for the effects cavity: And the profile for its cover: Turned over to the front side and routed the channel for the binding: Notice I couldn't routed too close to the fretboard of course. Had to chisel that last bit out by hand:

That’s a great idea, PsychovKiller segue to 500 Miles

Prepared the frets. Cut off the fret ends with a tang nibbler: Hammered the frets in: And cut off the excess on the sides: Routed and cut the slots for the two spokewheel truss rods: Made the truss rod cover in the 21st position: Routed the part of the centerpiece where the Quilted Maple top should go later in the build process. Also made sure this part had the desired neck body angle of 1.5°. Also sawed the headstock angle. In this pic I had not planed it nice and smooth yet. Worked on the neck jont area. With some chisels and scraping steel: The neck taking shape: Made the side position markers: And worked on the neck profile:

My customer asked for a neck of the highest janka number possible. I did not want to ruin my router bits and saw blades on something too ridiculous. So I came up with a compromise: A five piece laminate of Khaya mahogany, Maple and Purple heart. Here's the neck blank: Plus Khaya Mahogany body wings Routed the slot in the middle for the carbon reinforcement strip: Drilled the holes for the position markers in the ebony fretboard: Made the ring for the 12th position marker: And glued in the mother-of-pearl dots for the rest: Sanded them flush, using the 16" radius block: Prepared the fret slots for the frets. By filing with a triangular file I get better results with seating the frets.

Careful, you'll have their CEO nagging Ped to rein it in, if he can find us.

I've done something foolish... The Brooks EXB-12-QB - the construction of which was already completed in August 2024(!) - is finally completed and ready to ship. The installation of the electronics took about a year and a half for all kinds of reasons that I will not bore you with. I solemnly promise that I will never build a thing like this again. 😵‍💫 Anyway: Here it is! - Mahogany body. Explorer shape - Quilted Maple top. Sunburst. High gloss - Body back, sides and neck: Clear gloss - Pearloid Binding - Neck through, mahogany/maple/purple heart five piece laminate. - Two spoke-wheel type double action truss-rods. Plus one carbon stiffening rod. - Ebony Fretboard. Pearl dot inlays. 12th position circle - Sintoms Jumbo frets. Nickel-silver - 32” Scale - Buffalo horn nut/ string guide - Custom made 12 string bridge and tailpiece. Inverted triplets. Gold - 4 x Gotoh GB 350 bass tuners. Lightweight. Gold - 8 x Gotoh ST-31 Octave string tuners. Lightweight. Gold - Custom D’Addario string set - Gotoh large gold strapnuts - Pickup 1: Ubertar Sliding Pole Piece pickup - Pickup 2: 2x Nordstrand NM4 - 1 x 5-pin XLR. - 2 x Volume. - 2 x Tone - 2 x On/off switch with led light for each effect - 1 Master volume trimpot - Weight: 5,1 kg Custom made electronics: - Built-in effect 1: Frog FX1 pre-amp with sub-mini tube. - Built-in effect 2: Aguilar TLC Compressor. - External power supply I will post pics of the build process in several separate posts below.

Just needs an upgrade, coz the one that's on is shite..

I'm sure they won't blame Tesco fur long.

I've had exactly the same experience. The Guitarist/singer took great delight in 'impromptu changes' which, he said, were the sign of a real professional musician and that we should be able to follow him if we were pros too. It was extremely annoying at the time, but I later realised that I had learnt to improvise almost instantly and as a result became more confident on stage. One night we let him improvise the opening to the act on his own and he made a right royal c*ck-up of it. We only joined him on stage after the silence had ended. In answer to the OP - In the band mentioned above, we played simplified arrangements (usually a reduced number of verses) as the 'professional' guitarist/singer rarely rehearsed, which may also have been the source of the 'professional impromptu changes'. We had a longer introduction to 'Psychokiller' which involved the solid bass and drum beat with some odd guitar over it - I quite liked it myself - and at the end of the song we would often swap between it and '500 Miles'. In my current band, many of the arrangements have been modified to accommodate the range of instruments - usually involving a simplification of the rhythm for the ukes and brass - but the songs remain fundamentally the same. Last year we did a version of Pinball Wizard that didn't change key for the last verse because the singer couldn't hit those notes. I had no problem with that and it went down just fine with the crowd. I am not averse to rearranging a cover if there is some artistic merit to it - say to fit in with a band style - but definitely not to showcase a single band member or to overcome the failings of band members to properly learn songs.