eude

I'm more than happy for Andy to do what he fancies with it, within reason I feel the curves could be more pronounced, or at least tweaked a little, the lower horn could be a little less chunky and if @Andyjr1515 fancies doing a tummy contour like on the Warwick basses, I'm sure that will come in handy as I settle into my 40's with the bass I know he's taking a good 10 - 15mm from the face of the bass as it is, so there will be very little evidence of any of the carving I did myself left, bar the back of the bass... Eude

That's awesome @Andyjr1515! No bother re a slightly different bridge position, with the pickup set out for 36" scale anyway, it would need to be moved to compensate for the short scale to be in the same position in regards to string length. Where it is, would technically mean it sits further forward, so losing a bit of distance at the bridge end would bring that back a little. Does that make sense? It made sense in my head, but not as I typed it out...

I think the switch positions are going to be moved around for the final version, as they kinda get in the way a bit apparently. The original Goya that this draws inspiration from had a gap above the neck pickup, what half the switches moved between that and the bridge pickup. I guess sometimes folks get it right first time, but the rest of the tweaks and rethinking seem to hit the mark. Eude EDIT: It's a good job I just got a new shortscale bass!

No bother, I've been following it for a while since he posted up the crazy headstock design for feedback, which, with the internet being the internet opened a portal to another dimension populated exclusively by bass trolls. Anyway, he stuck to his guns, tweaked it a little and pressed ahead, which I really admire and the finished design looks awesome! Eude

These are absolutely going into production, Carey's already got a far east manufacturer set up to get it cranked out once he's ironed out all the kinks. He's also aiming for a low price point, sub $1000 in the US, how that will translate here in the UK is another matter, but still very cool to see a new contender coming on to the market at a reasonably competitive price. Eude

Here's a lovely bit of Katalox on the back of a Fodera >> Eude

Thank you mate, I'm extremely chuffed with the bass. Having played a few Tele basses in the past, I was expecting it to struggle a little with the tiny guitar sized body and a bass neck, but there's no issues whatsoever, it feels just right. There's no issue with reach and there's absolutely no neck dive seated or with the bass on a strap, more voodoo I expect. You're right theses ACGs are SO good, but they're better for your bank balance than a lot of custom basses out there! Eude

That's brilliant @Andyjr1515, I didn't expect you to chamber it too! That will certainly help with the weight. The Katalox is indeed a very dark, heavy wood. It usually has some lovely subtle figuring too, quite a beautiful and rare type of wood. Here's the actual piece in question, which has since been bookmatched and flatted out to the prescribed 10mm and should be arriving today! Cheers, Eude

Your message has sent my mind wandering down a nautical theme, I may be gone some time...

The "gauntlet" was very much Andy's idea not mine, I've got every confidence in him taking this and making it awesome, we've all seen what he's achieved here on BassChat So you've got another on the cards then?... Eude

Perfic.

I actually live in London now, so the wood has to be shipped down at great expense! I do own a few yes, there's no denying it, 4 to be precise. This bass via Andy will take me to 5, 4 of them being 6 strings! I agree totally regarding the jiggery and pokery, sadly, there's a fairly big gap between my skills in that department and Andy's Eude

Don't forget the jiggering too!

Very kind of you to say mate

Exactly, and the fact they have addressed ALL the issues people had with the original, they're clearly listening to us bassists, which can't be said for the majority of manufacturers...

To be fair, I get a sense that they don't want to produce any class D gear, I know that certain people at Ashdown feel the same, but the market dictates what sells and what doesn't, not the manufacturers themseslves, why on earth would you not make something that people will buy...

I do quite like fancy paint jobs these days, if only you'd chimed in before I'd ordered the new top... Eude

Thanks for this Andy! I'm not sure it was a throwing of the gauntlet, more a seeking out the right man for the job. I made this bass myself back when I was 16. As a huge Primus fan, I needed a 6 string fretless, in a Carl Thomson flavour, and growing up in South West Scotland was extremely unlikely to ever see one in the flesh, never mind be able to afford one, so I took matters into my own hands. For the record, I've still never seen one, and I'm unlikely to ever be able to afford one nearly 24 years on... I built a 36" scale 6 string fretless at a workshop in a unique slightly hippy private school local(ish) to me. The wood working teacher there was a wonderful man called Richard Jones who made baroque instruments, renaissance viols etcs, on the side, something I believe he still does (in fact he absolutely still does >> http://www.rjviols.co.uk/ ) and he taught others to do the same. Well, when my father, who knew him in a professional capacity, told him I wanted to build a 6 string fretless bass but didn't know where to start, he welcomed me into his workshop with open arms. As a former bass player himself, he was intrigued as to what a beast like that might look like! He had a gorgeous 60's P Bass hidden away in the workshop by the way. I didn't ever finish the bass off to the kind of standards Mr Carl Thomson would aim for, but it was enough to get me going and it was the only bass I played for a number of years, recording and live, but when a student loan paid for a Warwick Thumb Bass, I realised that there were better playing instruments out there and retired it. Fast forward nearly 24 years, I'm still playing bass, albeit without a audience for now thanks to having young kids, but I keep my hand in and I'm extremely lucky to have a lovely collection of ACG basses, the dilemma is though, what to do with the beast sitting in a gig bag in the loft. It would seem such a waste to sell the bass off as an unfinished project, especially given how much time and effort I put into making the damned thing, so I contacted Andy to see what he could do. Not being the tallest of bass players, and having a bit more experience under my belt, I know that 36" scale basses aren't for me, in fact I really don't know who they're for really, so this bass had to be of a shorter scale, 31.5" in fact, to match my other custom basses. Andy is going to make a new 31.5" neck, with a fretless ebony board and a headstock design tipping the hat to Mr Carl Thomson. As Andy mentioned, there will likely be a bit of jiggering and lots of planning required to make the neck to fit a pre-existing and likely oversized neck pocket, but he loves the challenge, right @Andyjr1515 The MASSIVE hole in the body, was as a result of me routing out the control cavity, and a drill stop slipping tearing a massive hole through the front of the bass. Without stopping and thinking about what to do, I simply cut the whole cavity out, right through. I had no intention of having a pickguard, it was purely cosmetic to hide to bloody great hole! With hindsight, I'm sure something could've been done a little more subtly, the original hole was only about the size of a pound coin... The answer to this riddle is to thin the body down and pop a full face figure top on. This is also an opportunity to perhaps put the bass on a bit of a diet, as the body alone weighs more than the last bass Andy made in it's entirety! As noted by Andy, we're losing the weird Wilkinson bridge, and replacing it with a 2-piece Warwick effort, I posted 6 Gotoh GB7 tuners along with the body, and we're keeping the EMG DC pickup and the simple vol/tone controls, for now - don't worry though Andy, if I do change my mind about the preamp, I'll be sure it only requires two hole in the body! That's basically it really, on the surface, a fairly simple job, but underneath, probably a complete and utter mare! Thank you @Andyjr1515 and apologies for making life more complicated for you... Eude

Well yesterday I was extremely lucky to pick up for new ACG from Alan himself at the UK Guitar Show in that London. It's a TKO Modern short scale 4 string, 30.5" scale for those who are interested. Very simple and a bit rootsy compared to my usual bass guitars, but it very much fills a gap that has been empty, since I sold my first Precision Bass in the mid 90's. It's got an Ash neck with a Rosewood fingerboard. A White Limba body with a figured Maple top, all coloured in black, well most of it, the neck included 😎 The single pickup is a reverse P Bass style in the chunky housing, simple Vol/Tone and that's it. The TKO is Alan's reinvention of the Tele, which I think works really well. I love reverse headstocks too, so while I was going to try something very different, why not go nuts! The bass has a really effortless punchy finger style tone, quite classic sounding but with a bit more bite when needed. I'm tempted to try out flats on it, but I do love the Newtones that came with, Newtones being my favourite string anyway. Anyway, I'm a very chuffed eude right now. Any questions, just shout! Eude

I heard the new Terror Bass and the 2 X 1x12 set up today and it was MASSIVE! I thought it was the big all valve job from a distance! So far so good.

That gets my vote. There was mention of it rather casually in an interview on basstheworld.com's YouTube channel a couple of months back, I think it's the only gap in the lineup just now really so if it's not a new Terror Bass I'll be surprised. I guess it could be a bass version of the new acoustic preamp, maybe something with the eq of the 4-Stroke and the toys of the OB-1? I guess we'll find out at 13:00... Eude

Holy Moly! That is gorgeous. Eude

Here he is beasting said bass. Looks regular/long scale in this vid, must just be a weird angle in the picture above...

Hot damn!