JPJ

In my day job, paint perfection is mandatory. This is why we inspect the hell out of each stage (primer, filler, high build epoxy, colour coat, clear coat, clear coat) and believe me, when the thing being painted is >100 metres long, even the smallest defects show up. I’ve just the same techniques painting guitar and bass bodies and still run into difficulties 😂

So I dug out my logarithm tables and dusted off my school boy trigonometry and the impact of splitting the baffle and angling it at 15 degrees adds an extra 23mm to the overall internal depth of the cab. Allowing for constructing from 15mm ply and 30mm in front of the baffle, this brings the finished depth of the cab to 443mm which will accept my 19" racked amps very nicely.

Thanks again @Phil Starr for your valuable input. Sorry for being the numpty here but you mention the 'edge' of the slot port causing turbulence. Would there be any discernible reduction if I rounded over or thinned the edges of the top 'shelf' of the port (the internal edges)?

This is my latest fretless squeeze and by far the liveliest most mwah containing fretless I’ve owned. Fender Tony Franklin fretless Precision 2011.

Well that's one question comprehensively answered - thanks @stevie

This is the part that most self-builders and kit builders miss and then wonder why the finish isn’t as good as they expected. You can’t rectify hills and hollows in the finish (believe me, I’ve tried) and the only way is to get the wood right first. This takes hours and lots of patience and is probably the most time consuming part of any build. Ever wondered why custom basses cost as much - here’s your answer 😎

Yes I had the 21012 where the 12 was on the slant baffle. Great cab that one, wish I still had it.

The angled baffle idea appeals to me although my version would be in a rectangular box and partly hidden by the conventional vertical speaker grill. However, I suspect that having spent many hours reading what the luminaries of loudspeaker design share freely on here, I will be introducing some unwanted sonic effect such as ‘comb filtering’ by having the two drivers in close proximity but on different planes.

Ok, so I’ve started to assemble the components needed to build the Basschat 2x12 and I will document the build here but before I do, two final questions for @Phil Starr - is there any advantage/disadvantage to: 1) adding the Basschat 1x12v3 crossover and high frequency driver to this cab? 2) splitting the baffle and angling the top half back at 10-15 degrees so that the upper speaker is not firing straight at the back of your legs (I seem to remember a Hartke speaker like this a few years back)?

I’ve got five of these to use on those rare acoustic gigs, and I also use them with the electric band for our fiddle player. Behringer DI100 https://www.andertons.co.uk/behringer-di100-ultra-di-di100?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=surfaces&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIxKG_zdLh-QIVloFQBh3-pwlpEAQYBSABEgJ_1vD_BwE Never had to use one for my electric bass and in truth my always on SansAmp would do that job anyway but I do think they are great value for money.

Just wait until Andyjr1515 fills the control cavity with helium, this thing will positively float in thin air!

First update, so I ordered and paid for my kit on the 12th of August, and today I have received an update to say my kit should be dispatched within the next 1-2 days. Expect the smell of burning flesh once the kit arrives 😂

My board is Line6 G50 into mini tuner, then TCPlethora x3, SansAmp v2, and finally micro thumpinator before the amp. I still find the Ampeg gear very ‘dark’ sounding compared to my favourite SWR Goliath 4x10.

Rehearsal rig, my preamp & amp into rehearsal studio 6x10 😎

Yep there’s definitely some magic going on here and I’m not referring to the electronics. I restrung her last week with some La Bella Deep Talkin’ Bass strings, tweaked the truss rod and fettled the bridge to get the action lower and now she’s singing. I currently own three fretless basses and this one is by far the liveliest right across the neck. Lovely and growly down low and then mwah for days as you come up the register. Suffice to say I’m totally in love 😍

P pickup for the rockier stuff, both for the slower more atmospheric stuff where I wanted a bit more mwah. Got to say it’s amazing how well balanced the pickups are, no big jumps in output as you switch between the various combinations. I am thinking about changing the three-way for a five-way with fixed resistors to give two blend options but that’s probably overkill in a live setting.

Just bought a Fender Tony Franklin fretless precision from Rupe. Excellent transaction, very friendly and helpful comms, bass securely wrapped and packaged. Great guy to deal with and a credit to the ethos of Basschat. Deal with confidence.

Being a fan of the Yamaha NE-1 parametric eq but having stupidly owned two and sold both, I’ve just ordered a clone kit from Germany https://www.musikding.de/NE_04-bass-preamp-kit and I’m going to have a go at assembling this myself. This will be my first attempt so who knows the outcome but I’ll keep you guys and girls updated on here for the comedy value if nothing else.

So I took her along to last nights rehearsal expecting to play one or two songs then put her back in her case but no, three hours later I was still slip sliding away. In comparison to my Lakland P, she’s a little heavier and slightly neck heavy but that’s probably the D’tuner which is quite a chunk of engineering. Sound wise, growl and sustain right across the neck, it’s just so alive. The rehearsal rooms we use have really good gear, but as I really struggle to get a decent clean tone out of the supplied Ampeg SVT III’s I took my own amp along (SWR Marcus Miller pre & Amplite power amp) and she obviously liked the pairing. By comparison, I own two other fretless basses (1980 Ibanez and a later Overwater Perception 5 string) neither of which are even close to being as lively as the Tony Franklin. Whatever Fender did when they made this particular bass they did it right.

I remember trying one of yours and it stuck with me. As I now have a gig that warrants it, I thought I’d treat myself 😎

New (to me) old fretless bass day here at JPJ Towers thanks to our own @rockdog Fender Tony Franklin Fretless Precision in 3 colour sunburst with tort scratch plate. Only arrived an hour ago and I’m posting this between Zoom meetings so only had a quick noodle but boy does she sing! Looking forward to getting more acquainted this evening 😎

I can imagine that the production costs are relatively high and demand low and sporadic. From my limited knowledge of the carbon graphite world prepreg material has more than quadrupled in price recently, not helped by the situation in Ukraine, and the tooling costs, autoclave etc make setup costs very high.

Great work and a really nice result. When I first saw your solution to the gouge in the body I wasn’t a fan, but seeing it finished I think the dog might have come up with something innovative. The single pickup cover makes for a lot of thumb positions to exploit the tonal differences between the two pickups. It might just be that your dog is a genius in disguise 😎