Kiwi

Now that is a vast improvement on the headed version. The design is starting to come together. The soapbars which can do J and humbucking is a very sensible idea and look much more in proportion to the body. I don't understand why Rob didn't do that in the first place. I'd have one, headless, 5 string with two of those custom wound soapbars.

Winston was the bass player for Massive Attack and I've only ever seen him with the same Smith BT5. He and Randy Hope-Taylor share the bass chair in a functions band called the All Stars who are playing a series of free concerts at The Scoop by City Hall. In fact there's one on July 17th. [url="http://www.theallstars.co.uk/"]http://www.theallstars.co.uk/[/url]

I really like the sound of mahogany. Bubinga has a bad tendency to deaden the response of instruments. I've found this in my Smiths even with relatively little amounts and spoken to a number of luthiers about it and they agree. I'd suggest you stick with the maple, mahogany combination and vary the proportions to taste. Maple for snap, brightness, tight lows and rigidity, mahogany for growl and warm boomy lows. Even after all of the instruments I've owned and played, its probably my most preferred combination of woods. In fact, for the fretless I'm commissioning to match my Shuker headless 6, I've asked Jon to put as much mahogany in the neck as it can take without it becoming seasonally sensitive. Match it up with either an alder or mahogany body, I'd suggest. Think about what kind of fingerboard you would like too, that can make a significant difference.

Was Wilson using his BT5 though that CMD121 combo of his? Last time I heard him live, he sounded really scooped, in fact there was virtually no high end at all. Was it like that this time or was the sound better? I've tried the same combination myself live and found it really difficult to hear myself because of the lack of mids.

[quote name='rabs' post='538277' date='Jul 12 2009, 08:39 AM']My biggest bass playing influences are Me'shell Ndegeocello, Zender, Pino, Tal and the other likely suspects in the groove world![/quote] Good man, we'll forgive you for being a guitarist. Welcome aboard.

[quote name='JTUK' post='538263' date='Jul 12 2009, 07:06 AM']None of this makes sense to me....... ...the twin neck sounds insane, costly to build and will be impossible to shift..[/quote] [quote name='Delberthot' post='538244' date='Jul 12 2009, 02:25 AM']It would purely be for my own self -indulgence - that and I'm a show-off.[/quote] I'm staying right out of this.

Out of pure interest, how many songs would you use the fretless on?

Metallic green?! Looks like its Sherwood Green over Fiesta Red as well, so he's pretty much had a custom finish stripped off? That's so wrong.

Or this? [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Stand-Stagg-GAS-3-2-Monitor-Amplifier-Amp-Floor-Stand_W0QQitemZ370226517618QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_MusicalInstr_Access_RL?hash=item5633385672&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=65%3A12|66%3A2|39%3A1|72%3A1688|293%3A1|294%3A50"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Stand-Stagg-GAS-3-2-...93%3A1|294%3A50[/url] Or this? [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Stand-Stagg-Monitor-Amplifier-Amp-Floor-Stand_W0QQitemZ370227873176QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_MusicalInstr_Access_RL?hash=item56334d0598&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=65%3A12|66%3A2|39%3A1|72%3A1688|293%3A1|294%3A50#ebayphotohosting"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Stand-Stagg-Monitor-...bayphotohosting[/url]

Would this be a viable alternative? [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Folding-Guitar-Amplifier-Combo-Stand-Lifts-your-Amp_W0QQitemZ260444696576QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_ConsumerElectronics_EquipmentStands_SM?hash=item3ca3b6b000&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=65%3A12|66%3A2|39%3A1|72%3A1688|293%3A1|294%3A50"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Folding-Guitar-Ampli...93%3A1|294%3A50[/url]

[quote name='Sean.Robinson' post='537679' date='Jul 11 2009, 02:05 AM']The whole shape to me seems a bit like a refined ritter and i hope its not just me who sees that otherwise i may look a bit silly.[/quote] I see Tobias...

Welcome Bill, I used to have three Smith BSRGN's a while back.

Jon sent me an email the other day mentioning the Uberhorn, he said it was a bit of an experiment that might make it through to the final line up. I really like the look of it, personally. Although the bottom cutaway could use a little tweak to make the cutaway a tad less deep perhaps.

Bassjamm and Ped have both owned them.

I've just flicked through this thread and couldn't find the last update from my Porn thread. So I guess for the sake of completeness here goes: Lightweight Shuttle rig to the left, Burman Pro4000 vintage rig to the right. Trace V8 to the left with both Neo212's stacked, stereo MIDI rig to the right but the Strategy has been sold to AshEvans and been finished with the module below It's separated into two modules. The upper one is the MIDI kit (mixer, AX100 and JV1080) and in the lower rack, there is my faithful Lexicon MPXG2 which I've configured to take the MIDI from a stereo mixer input through the insert loop as well as the non MIDI signal through the guitar input. the white unit is a TL Audio 5013 2 channel, 4 band, valve parametric equaliser. This was to give me the versatility that so many bass amps I've had have failed to supply me with. Its also intended to soften the highs a little as well and it does the trick of isolating the frequencies very nicely for £110. The TL still needs a bit of work done on it, the preamp valves need biasing I suspect (there is a bias adjustment inside the unit for preamp valves). Below the TL Audio is a Technical Pro DA-B3000 class D power amp which preserves the mid range growl of the Spector extremely well. I can also hear the release of my fingers from each string which makes locking tightly in with a drummer so much easier. This whole set up with the bottom rack and the two EBS cabs is very satisfying to play through. For those moments on the dark side, there's this: 50w Burman Pro501 1x12 combo.

Thanks Ash, Geert. :-)

Jon Shuker did pretty much the same thing to my Headless 6 using a belt sander with carbonundrum paper and he didn't even need to take out any frets.

Jon told me the other day that he's nearly cleared the backlog of instruments that built up after the flooding. So hopefully the delays will be decreasing.

Could someone maybe send him a link to this thread? It would be really great for him to do a build diary here as well. He's brilliant BTW, there are [url="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7909014.stm"]some blokes out there[/url] who have built their own water cooled desktop PC's, so if the heat of the valves ever became an issue then it might be possible to build a cooling system along these lines. [url="http://www.vonslatt.com/proj-cc4.shtml"]http://www.vonslatt.com/proj-cc4.shtml[/url] [url="http://computer.howstuffworks.com/liquid-cooled-pc.htm"]http://computer.howstuffworks.com/liquid-cooled-pc.htm[/url] [url="http://www.watercoolinguk.co.uk/catalog/"]http://www.watercoolinguk.co.uk/catalog/[/url]

[quote name='BigRedX' post='534691' date='Jul 7 2009, 01:15 PM']I'm no longer convinced by on-board pre-amps of the traditional cut/boost variety because they don't do anything that the controls on your amp ought to do better. The only reason IMO to fit one would be: 1. You like to fiddle with the tone as you're playing 2. You prefer volume/balance as opposed to volume/volume on a 2 pick up bass. I've still not come across a decent passive balance control that sounds as smooth as a good active. 3. The pre-amp offers individual tone shaping for each pick up. What advantages are you hoping to get out of fitting a pre-amp to your bass?[/quote] I'm increasingly agree with this line of thinking. In my experience if the bass doesn't sound right in the first place, a preamp isn't going to make a lot of difference to be frank. Sure it will enhance whatever is there and maybe compensate for poor acoustics but there again, so will an amp. A preamp isn't really going to make a badly designed bass sound good. But I've just tried a few basses recently that were so 'right' that for the first time I thought, there was no need for an eq that couldn't just be done with the pickups and maybe a passive tone pot at most.

looks very nice, is that a brazilian rosewood fingerboard?

Thats sad, I have a friend who knew him well. She showed me some of the photos of him over the years and it sounds like he will be remembered fondly. I understand that Glasto was a bit of a highlight for him?

a bad?