I know, I know, it’s another bloody Shuker build diary.
To be honest, after having taken a few quotes from reputable luthiers for the construction of this studio tool, I've taken the plunge and gone with Mr. Shuker because I believe he offers the best value for money and I fell for [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=518&st=100"]the headless 6 that he made for johngh[/url]. I made a trip up to see him a few months back and tried johngh's bass for size while it was waiting for the hardware. The body shape fitted me perfectly! I was stoked as I was expecting there to be an issue as most bass bodies aren't wide enough to be comfortable. Tone-wise I was after a sound with the warmth of my Smiths, the snap and fullness of my Celinder Update J and as much growl as it was possible to wring out of wood, electronics and magnets.
I rarely use a 6 string for live performances but as a studio/composing tool it really comes in handy for mucking about with chords and melodies - particularly now that I'm getting into MIDI programming these days. So I asked Jon for the bass to be MIDI capable so I can use it for MIDI programming at home with a pitch to MIDI converter like the [url="http://audioen.terratec.net/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=1"]Axon AX100[/url]. One of the singers in my band wants to do some original stuff featuring bass synth as well, so when the bass is finished, it may yet get a gig or two.
[b]Neck:[/b]
To me the neck is the most important part of the bass and I knew explicitly what I wanted to have in this instrument. The first thing was a maple neck with a couple of wenge laminates for more mid growl. Jon also offered to reinforce the neck with graphite which I already know from my other basses helps with growl and stability so we didn't need to go to a 7 piece laminated neck (which would have had slightly too much wenge for my comfort). I also wanted a headless design because it helped reduce headstock heaviness. I asked Jon about using flame maple neck laminates but he said the non-flamed ones sounded better so we went with that. There was never any question that the bass was going to be anything other than neck through, generally I prefer the look and feel of this kind of joint.
[b]Fingerboard:[/b]
Again I wanted maple but I didn't think birdseye maple was striking enough so Jon offered some flame maple instead. We agreed on 24 medium grade, stainless steel frets and also a zero fret to ensure low action, with a dual action truss rod. To be honest I keep switching between flame maple (because its striking) and birdseye maple (less impact but matches the body wood a little better.)
This is the flamed maple:
This is the birdseye maple:
Any suggestions over which is more likely to look better on my bass?
[b]Body core:[/b]
I had no specific idea about what might best compliment what I wanted in the bass by way of body wood. As far as the body core wings went, Jon originally suggested white ash but I asked him for his opinion about mahogany (similar to my fretted Smith 5) and alder too. He thought heavy mahogany might give me more warmth as well as growl, if he could chamber it to help enhance the upper mids and compensate for the extra mass. We discussed extra body thickness, given what Fodera are doing with their basses these days but he didn't see the need for it.
[b]Exotic wood facings:[/b]
Next came the choice of facings which was pretty easy. I wanted to use the slab of curly birdseye redwood that I bought wet off ebay a few years ago and had been drying out. Jon sliced it up and says its dried out nicely with almost no warping at all. I thought that given the width of the redwood slab, we could do full width bookmatched facings, hoping that the simpler appearance would look more elegant than leaving the neck laminates exposed. We agreed that black veneer would probably look better between the laminates than maple veneer.
[b]Pickups:[/b]
I wasn't sure what would be best at first. I wanted the warmth of humbuckers with the growl of single coil. Jon suggested his fat jazz pickups and I was tempted but didn't want the bridge pickup to sound too weedy or thin. I suggested [url="http://www.delano.de/english/6-string/sbc6hes-4.html"]Delano SBC[/url]s and Jon talked to another player who had a set recently installed on his Shuker. I listened to a recording and they sounded remarkably close to what I was hoping for. Definitely the warmth and midrange of my Smith bass but with a little more brightness. So they got the thumbs up from everyone and the bridge pickup will be located around about the same distance from the bridge as a 60's jazz bass so there's a little more warmth and growl rather than a bark like my Smith or a Status bass. We also discussed Q-tuner pickups but the degree of variation that tweaking the pole pieces actually offered seemed a little limited so we stayed with the Delanos. (Thanks goes out to Alemboid for supplying Q Tuner sound samples from his Status bass)
Because I also wanted this bass to have a MIDI controller capability, we discussed BrokenDoor's suggestion on the MIDI sub forum of the [url="http://www.graphtech.com/prodghost.htm"]Graphtec GHOST[/url] piezo system. However there was no detailed information on whether its available for headless tuners, (although there does seem to be a part number for them in the catalogue held by one French Graphtec/ABM dealer). Jon is an existing user of both ABM parts and graphtec piezos (unlike other builders I'd approached), and was very comfortable with the spec of the bridge/pickup arrangement I wanted. He made some calls to Aria (the distributors) and confirmed that the headless bridge units, with graphtec piezos pre-installed, wouldn't be a problem to supply.
[b]Preamp/Electronics:[/b]
I did initially think about John East's U-Retro but Jon offered his own Shuker 3 band preamp with mid sweep eq. The bass and treble are going to be tuned to the character of the bass so they're at maximum effectiveness (bit like the desk at sound checking). The mid sweep will cover 250-1200Hz. It would also be relatively straight forward for him to troubleshoot any issues that arose out of trying to integrate his preamp with the "Hexpander" preamp that came with the piezo pickups.
The piezo pickups in the bridge saddles will feed from a buffer stage into a Graphtec Hexpander preamp which preconditions the signal from the piezo by reducing harmonics that might otherwise cause false triggers.
Signals from both preamps will be fed through to a 13 pin MIDI socket which will then go to an Axon AX100 MkII (with updated firmware). A signal from the magnetic pickups can be taken from the back of the Axon and sent to an amp or mixer. Signals from the Axon and other MIDI tone generators will feed into a rack mounted mixer and the output sent to both GK combos (or studio monitors more likely).
Signal from the Shuker pre will also be sent to a jack for live bass-only playing or (if there's room) to a balanced XLR out for hum free recording. I don't know how he managed to accommodate all three within the instrument, but he says he can!
[b]Hardware:[/b]
Both Jon and I agreed on all black hardware without any hesitation! As mentioned already, the bridge units will be by ABM. Knobs and switches will also be in black. I've also asked Jon for Fodera/Yamaha style knob sizes, ie: normal/oversized controls for vol and pan, then smaller knobs for the eq.
[b]Finish:[/b]
No hesitation over selecting a poly finish - something durable and protective. My Smith BSR5's have an oil finish and even fingernails can make marks in the wood. The redwood facings I supplied are particularly soft (even more so than the maple facings on my fretted Smith 5) so we agreed they needed a little protection.
[b]Miscellaneous details:[/b]
Jon agreed to cut the control cavity cover out of the rear redwood facing. Along with the full width facings, I felt this added a nice touch of class.
Another feature I really liked about Dood's bass was the compensated string spacing. I wanted string spacing that matched my Alembic so it was pretty narrow at the higher strings, I think about 16.5mm. Then it will widen out at the thicker B string.
I also asked Jon if he would mind inlaying a small, simple, kiwi-shaped, paua shell inlay I'd made into the body, just above the fingerboard. Basically the same place where Sandberg put their four dot logo. Given it's a custom instrument I don't see this bass as something that will sell on very easily so I figured I might as well make the most of it in a modest way.
LED's were discussed as an extra feature depending on how the cost of everything else panned out. Given the bass would have a maple neck with a maple fingerboard, I figured blue, turquoise or green LED's for the side of the neck would look most striking given the paua inlay.
If this bass ends up being everything I've asked for, then a matching non-MIDI fretless with phenolic fingerboard may be in the pipeline too.
[quote name='bass_ferret' post='7186' date='May 26 2007, 03:19 PM']Unlike many custom builders Bernies stock basses use his own pick-ups and electrics (not built by John East like everyone else).[/quote] I'm surprised noone pulled you up on that outrageous inaccuracy. Maybe they couldn't be bothered? Good luck wiht the sale BTW Ian.
Good grief, is this thing STILL for sale?! It's been 4 days already!
Blimey - what a superb rig.