Crimson Guitars

It's all been said already but as a 'professional' (who is constantly learning and changing his opinions) with over 100 different custom guitars and basses under his bekt I have to say.. lots! All wood is a tonewood, period.. it just depends what tone you want and how much your guitar builders wants to charge you. There is so much bullshit out there and it really pisses me off! Dense and heavy is bright and defined tonally while light is warm and fuzzy.. a generalisation to be sure but true. I could build a guitar out of anything you send my way and through the other weapons in my arsenal I will still be able to get the tone into a fairly well defined slot. In the end a true guitar builder will always say that it is impossible to be specific, even with fully acoustic instruments (and my training was building baroque viola da gambas and violins!) the build process, hardware choice, strings and playing style all contribute to the end result. Here's a link to a slightly longer rant I had about this elsewhere.. [url="http://www.crimsonguitars.com/buildaguitar/got-wood"]got wood?[/url]

At Crimson Guitars I’ve not yet had the pleasure of working with carbon fibre, although plans are afoot and I hope to be offering utterly bespoke, burn-the-mould one-off carbon fibre guitars and basses some time in the next few year, watch this space! From a sound point of view I agree that instruments made entirely of cf with phenolic resin fretboards have a definition and clarity of tone but can be lacking in character, as a guitar builder though I have to say that the material an instrument is made from is only a part of the equation, the strings, pickups, setup and playing style each have an equal effect on the final tones you achieve. I feel that the best way to get great tone is to use wood, it’s done alright by us so far hasn’t it? The ideal carbon fibre bass, in my opinion, will have a core of wood, even if that core is just a carbon-fibre skinned through-neck type design with most of the body (and maybe even some of the neck) being hollow. You gain some definition and clarity of tone from the carbon fibre and create character and warmth with a tone-wood neck and, maybe, fretboard. The massive variety of woods available to even the laziest luthier would enable them to play with the tones as usual while creating much stronger more stable custom guitars or basses in the process. I’m really looking forward to trying all of this out! Now, the part of this topic that no one is really talking about... acrylic or perspex basses. Crimson Guitars were lucky enough to build several acrylic basses for [url="http://www.crimsonguitars.com/charlie-jones-perspex-bass"]Charlie Jones[/url], he uses the successful one with Goldfrapp among others and has been playing perspex bodied basses for 13 or so years (as far as I can recall from a conversation quite some time back at least.) Our original attempt was doomed to failure from the start, we thought that using two truss rods we would be able to make a bass entirely out of resin.. a clear neck looks amazing but is way to weak and in the end tuning stability suffered terribly. The end result was an acrylic body with a bolt on maple and walnut multi-laminate neck with an acrylic headstock. We had Wizard pickups make us a custom clear cast pickup and all the hardware had clear bits and pieces. I had the acrylic cast especially for the project with pearlescent glitter suspended throughout and, due to the massive weight of the standard acrylic offerings I carved, and carved.. the final result was still heavy in comparison to a standard bass but was very manageable. Now, tone, in my opinion this bass was the best I’ve heard by a long shot. Now, I must say I concentrate mainly on guitar building at Crimson Guitars and only take on the occasional bass, (mainly because I’m known for guitars, I think, and bass players tend not to pick up the phone.. ) anyway, justifications over and I still say that when used properly as a body material perpex or acrylic is the perfect choice. It is relatively soft and seems to transmit the string movement almost immediately and has everything you could ask for tone-wise.. just listen to Goldfrapps new album if you don’t believe me! I built a timber version of the [url="http://www.crimsonguitars.com/vintage-re-wound"]bass[/url] and, while this sounded perfectly fine, the acrylic monster just seemed to have more of everything; the bass, mids and treble all just sing and it was at least 30% louder. I don’t expect everyone to stump up the cash these highly bespoke basses and materials cost but there is a place for them, if made well by people who actually think about what the end result needs to be; stable, ergonomic, playable and above all sonically pleasing!

Ok, it's official.. I spend way too much time thinking about guitars and basses.. you say 'semi' and I immediately start thinking you're talking about some semi-acoustic bass or something! 12 string? Bring it on!! The workshop gets so stale sometimes building variations on just one or two themes, I love a real challenge...

If I won that much I'd buy one of everything ever made..mmmm, a dedicated guitar and bass museum! I would be my best customer!!

I know he's a guitarist but we build Robert Fripps guitars (some of them) and he's a lefty playing righty and he's one of the all time greats! Some of the best ever players I've met have been leftys on 'the wrong' instrument.. it's the people who can swap around that blow me away.. at Crimson Guitars we don't charge any extra for left-handers.. maybe we should offer a discount!?

[quote name='ikay' post='1306455' date='Jul 17 2011, 10:16 AM']Sounds like the problem is with the underside of the saddle not making proper contact at one end. If it's just the B string that's isn't as loud as the others then try putting a small strip of adhesive copper shielding foil on the underside of the saddle at that end.[/quote] I agree, though if copper shielding gets stuck to everything you could try building it up with strips of standard wet and dry sandpaper.. the grit is nice and solid and transfers tone well and it's easy to cut and handle..

I need to spend more time in this forum! .. we're running about a year behind ourselves right now but I've I've changed from building five or more at a time, dividing my attention and causing no end of confusion, to building just one custom instrument at a time.. it is so much better being able to think about just one project.. anyway.. prices were mentioned.. anything I say here will just get me in trouble in four or five years when prices go up again but we're talking under £2000.. I really love this bass and would jump at the chance to build more.. so anyone who mentions this post gets 10% off! Something else I've just added to our terms and conditions (and this is starting to sound too-much like self-promotion).. when you order your custom bass we'll agree a completion date and if I don't meet that date there's a sliding scale of financial penalties for me.. ie you save a bunch of money! I'm concentrating as hard as possible on getting our backlog down to a point where from order to completion is under four months.. wish me luck!

Hey, just found this thread again so I thought I'd add a few photo's of the finished beastie.. my favourite bass out of our catalogue! (but then I'm a sucker for the les paul shape and always thought the gibson les paul bass could be so much better!) I'm even seriously considering building a few of these as the first of a range of stock basses and extended range instruments!

You're right, I really shouldn't talk about that sort of stuff in an open forum,.. If you check out the diary on my site over the last few days you'll see some clear pickups that Andy has started casting with my perspex guitars in mind.. he does love a challenge!.. he's just posted off a set of humbuckers he calls 4x4's which have two seperate humbuckers with 4 core wires in a single humbucker size case.. I think we worked out that you can get around 160 distinct sounds.. only really for studio guys and you do need a manual to drive the things, but cool nonetheless! Cheers for your comment about the guitars on my site.. my problem is I get bored doing the same old thing so don't often build replica's of someone elses work.. just keeps life interesting! All my best, Ben [url="http://www.crimsonguitars.com"]crimson guitars[/url]

[quote name='Dodge' post='43870' date='Aug 10 2007, 05:23 PM']Really? That's interesting. Still, kudos to Bareknuckle - they've made quite an impact on the 'boutique' pickup buyers. Nice to be selling music hardware to the Americans for a change![/quote] No doubt Tim markets Bareknuckle stuff well, I just disagree with the prices he charges and have an issue with his morals, I know for a fact that the parts he uses come to at most £5 per pickup and I've watched him wind one in about 15 minutes!! Should we pay him the equivalent of a £400 an hour salary? I think not.. not-withstanding the fact that he screwed Wizard over on the whole deal.. I don't work with people I can't respect.. (I sound like a whinging idiot here.. sorry..)

Is it cheeky to add myself? I am without a doubt my favourite luthier.. I also build Charlie Jone's of Goldfrapp/Siouxie Sious fame.. anyhow, check me out at www.crimsonguitars.com 01963364101 .. oh, Ben Crowe's the name.. the next best bass builder in the country is definitly Bernie over at GB guitars.. but he's listed already.. still, the man is a genius!!

I really couldn't agree more with everyone, I've been using Andy for all my pickups on both guitars and basses for over a year now.. the service couldn't be better, he actually chats to you about what you want and knows what he is doing!! He even builds one offs if you want, the 7-string Extended Range Bass I built fir 05Ric has an invisible humbucker that Andy built from scratch using the most powerful magnets ever used on a pickup!! .. Oh.. and he designed Bareknuckle's entire starting range of pickups.. Tim is was just a marketing man who saw a great product and nabbed it.. and he charges twice as much as Andy! .. Anyway, I'm glad he's getting the recognition he deserves! Ben www.crimsonguitars.com