Kiwi

Bob you're not going emo on us are you?

[quote name='SJA' post='216280' date='Jun 10 2008, 04:07 PM']a mini-bodied bass like the Status Streamliner or Zon Vinny would interest me. trouble is, I'd like a D-tuner on the E string, and AFAIK the only detunable headless bridges, by Steinberger and Hohner, are narrow-spaced- I'd prefer 19mm spacing.[/quote] Mmmm, it sounds very exotic. Jon's good for that kind of custom work but I'm not sure about how much demand there would be in a function band. Maybe you could have a chat to him? It's probably not going to be possible for me to supply a neck for that purpose though, I'm sorry. However I'm certainly open to suggestions and ideas if there's a general appeal for them. My ideas are going to seem very pragmatic by comparison, based on the problems I've actually enountered while playing rather than a Ned Steinberger level of engineering innovation. (That might come later though, if it all works out. But I'm taking baby steps for now and beginning with first principles ie. a bass that sounds good). EDIT: Here's a pic of the neck and the East MM preamp If anyone would like to swap their black East control knobs for a set of gold ones, please feel free to PM me.

Hats off to you Andy

[quote name='SteveK' post='215855' date='Jun 10 2008, 12:11 AM']Doubtful, there must be an imposter! Seriously though, it'll be another SteveK[/quote] Yes you're right. I can tell by your bass collection.

[quote name='walbassist' post='215701' date='Jun 9 2008, 08:50 PM']Ah, so it's the CK signature series Shuker bass line![/quote] Mmm lets just call it a collaboration rather than an endorsement because I'm underwriting the financial side of things. I'm not really able to endorse gear as such, but Jon is definitely helping me out with an idea I've been mulling over. Anyone who has already seen my comments on graphite necked basses in other threads could probably put some of the pieces together. But there's some new bits being designed and prototyped as I speak which will add some extra versatility for players in covers bands like myself. Because I haven't tried any of it out, I don't know how good it will be in practice so its better I say less for the time being.

[quote name='dood' post='215654' date='Jun 9 2008, 07:49 PM']No necks going spare then?!![/quote] Not to sell by themselves I'm afraid. But I think you might like what I've got planned.

Welcome aboard Mr K! Don't I know you from some other forum?

thanks for that! Always interesting to see how it rolls in other countries

[quote name='walbassist' post='215548' date='Jun 9 2008, 04:46 PM']Why do I have the feeling that the words "double" and "neck" will soon be forever linked to CK on this forum? [/quote] Hahah, I did think of a double neck but I think I'd be too embarrassed to gig with it. I rarely use a fretless in the current band anyway. My cryptic suggestion about the wait applies more to what I'm planning for the other necks.

[quote name='steve-soar' post='214523' date='Jun 7 2008, 06:17 PM']I will use the eq of my basses to alter any tones I need. The cab has a preset eq and limiting curve, so I'll try that(just remembered that one )[/quote] Might be worth noting that you'll need to set and forget your bass onboard eq at soundcheck. If you go changing it by substantial amounts during the gig, the sound man will be playing catch up with you. Nice rig BTW. Very classy, I've played both components (albeit separately) and I'm sure you've managed to achieve a very warm, round and clean sound. But not too aggressive?

[quote name='dood' post='215100' date='Jun 8 2008, 08:56 PM']oh!!!!!! I see.. now I am very interested! Not that I need a 5 string headless... but.... ;o)[/quote] Trust me, it will definitely be worth the wait.

[quote name='Bassmonster' post='214908' date='Jun 8 2008, 02:28 PM']That sounds like its gonna be a bit of a beast![/quote] Mmm, well hopefully it will have the midrange bark of my Cutlass basses but be a bit more versatile. [quote name='dood' post='215067' date='Jun 8 2008, 07:47 PM']How many steiny necks have ya got young man?[/quote] 5x 5-string necks and 5x 4-string necks. I'm going to be keeping two of the 5 string necks and I have plans for the rest, to be revealed at some point in the hopefully not-too-distant future.

I recently came into a job lot of Steinberger 4 and 5 string headless bass necks which I couldn't resist pulling the trigger on. So I've asked Jon to make me a workhorse bass that essentially sounds like a 5 string cutlass and a p-bass. Hopefully this means I will only need to take one bass to gigs at last! I'm designing the body based on the standard 6 string shuker body but CNC machined to have a carved top and to take a 5 string neck. If CNC carved tops are good enough for Martin Taylors jazz guitar luthier, Mike Vanden, its good enough for me . The top will be either my own flamed redwood facings or a flamed sycamore facing on an alder body core. The body will also be chambered so I get both excellent balance with the headless option and hopefully a light weight body. Because I'm using Jon's CNC machine it means most of the work for him will be finishing, (and perhaps cleaning up my mistakes ) The preamp will be a John East MM pre + mid-sweep c/- Old Horse and the pickups will probably be two Delano MM quad coils in $$ positions with coil taps. The advantage of using the East preamp is that the built in input buffers mean the output level will stay consistent even though the pickup impendance changes with different coil options. So I avoid all of that nonsense with output levels that plagues the MM SR5 HS basses. The quad coil Delano MM pickups mean that noise free output is possible even on single coil settings. Watch this space...

The gig in Sparsholt was fine although we had problems hearing ourselves. The room sucked all the midrange from the bass and vocals. For some reason my middle finger didn't work properly during Good Times meaning I couldn't do the last triplet in the riff. I tried it each time and the finger wasn't strong or quick like the others. It felt like I might have strained it or something during the load in. Plus our drummer was playing it too slow and I couldn't lock in with him. Anyway, we played "Shake Your Body Down To The Ground" and, because I'm basically playing lead bass through the whole song whenever I'm not playing the basic riff, I got another cheer from someone in the audience and some applause. Nice. I had a chat to the cheering couple afterwards too, really warm and in their late 40's by the appearance of it. Then I had some half drunk crazy Italian guy pulling me aside and telling me he's a bass player and a legend because he spent 11 years in New York hanging out with Ramones and Johnny Thunder back in the late 70's. This guy had on a pink satin cravat and a bad hair dye job too. *brrrr* Smile and nod. Smile and nod. Smile and nod...

[quote name='LE_Gui' post='213810' date='Jun 6 2008, 12:51 PM']Hi, I'm a 28yo frog bassist (in Marseille, France), usually having french bass forums as pond (forum.onlybass.com is my main jumping area) I've been playing bass for about 13 years now, in cover bands and also in a metal band. I plan getting this metal band up again on of these days and I would also like to get a funk-rock band on my own since I got a lot of funky slapping parts that can't be used in a metal context Anyway, I'd be glad to discuss here and why not meet some english members if you come in France or if you use msn Thanks for your attention Guillaume[/quote] LOL, nice intro Welcome Guillaume (another one!)

Nice bass but what bits of it are actually from 1975?

[quote name='ped' post='213236' date='Jun 5 2008, 02:20 PM']Kiwi can you contact Alembic for a rough idea? Would be interesting to find out.[/quote] OK, I'll drop Mica an email and see if she's forgotten me yet.

[quote name='johnnylager' post='213035' date='Jun 5 2008, 10:46 AM']But the inlays , the correct bridge p/u positioning , they'll flog plenty. And plenty more if they put the S-1 in. Will it have a 3-bolt plate though? [/quote] I think the correct pickup positioning is enough excitement in itself.

[quote name='Nino Valenti' post='213171' date='Jun 5 2008, 01:10 PM']Taste_2000 told me about this place a while back and I looked around but never got a chance to sign up. Better late then never. [/quote] I know, that was the reason for my comment. As you say, better late than never.

[quote name='ped' post='213013' date='Jun 5 2008, 10:16 AM']Kiwi, surely the list price of your graphite Alembic must be astronomical?[/quote] I understand it was incredibly expensive when they were originally made - much more so than a normal Series 1 and those were expensive enough. The selling point was the use of space age materials. But what the list price was and how it translates into todays money I couldn't say. [quote name='birdy' post='213037' date='Jun 5 2008, 10:48 AM']Its up for £5.9k and wasn't ever £6.5k - unless Alex is making a few extra quid on the side :-)[/quote] Well someone I remember mentioned it was £6500, but I can't remember who. F**king gorgeous bass though, and I say that as not being a particularly enthusastic jazz bass player

Well I haven't a clue what some of my instruments are 'worth', however potentially some of them could sell for an awful lot more than I paid for them because they aren't made any more and very few were made anyway. The most I've ever paid for an instrument was my Ken Smith BSR6GN but my Alembic *might* be worth an awful lot more to a collector. Its a lot clearer with new basses like Foderas. Some of them retail for £6k easily. Birdy's '65 Jazz was up for sale at the Gallery for £6.5k.