Kiwi

Sorry mate, it got picked up by the council while I was away in NZ.

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.

Another update: Having sold my Jaydee Supernatural Mark King and the sale of my Smith BSR6GN is pending payment of balance, I've added [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=3611"]Flanker[/url]s Celinder Update P to the collection this weekend. Its going to come in handy for those motown numbers we do. So now the harem currently consists of: 02 Smith BSR5GN 05 Smith BSR5GN fretless 93 Pedulla Pentabuzz 79 Alembic Series 1 graphite 98 Celinder Update J 02 Celinder Update P 77/78 Musicman Stingray 79/84 Musicman Cutlass The Pentabuzz is the odd one out of the group in that there aren't any songs I can use it for in band at the moment. So I'm thinking about selling it despite it being a thoroughly magical instrument (I know I'm going to kick myself). Also Jon Shuker reckons he'll be starting my headless 6 (similar to johngh's) on the 25th. I should add at this point that I've been having some issues with the Acme B2 cabs and the Trace V8. I had the V8 looked at and it got a clean bill of health but when I plug both cabs into the amp, the low end starts farting. However plugging one cab in doesn't create any problems at all. Not quite sure why although it might be an impedance thing? I'm going to try it this weekend with the Mesa Boogie Strategy 400 into one cab linked to the V8 while its powering another to see if I get farting still. If not, then it looks like the cabs are too powerful/inefficient for the head! That would be a shame coz I really like the sound of them.

[quote name='NickThomas' post='86671' date='Nov 10 2007, 10:05 PM']It's a real shame but the dudepit seems to have the forum version of leporosy over the last 2 or 3 years . It's slowly falling apart :-([/quote] I've been told that certain members have been ganging up on other members in their classified section. It would be great if a manufacturer wanted to release a ltd. ed. Basschat version of a UK bass though... ...or amplifier for that matter.

The man is a complete legend. There I was held up after an accident closed the A40 and THEN another accident stalled traffic on the M1 and, despite being rostered to fly out that afternoon, Steve bent over backwards to stay and make sure I got the bass. I arrived with literally minutes to spare before his flight left and we barely had a chance to speak. So I'd like to publically say a huge thank you to Steve for hanging in there while I dealt with quite possibly the second worst journey ever up past Luton. The bass is exactly what I hoped it would be and I'm definitely planning on gigging with it!

[quote name='Johngh' post='86285' date='Nov 9 2007, 09:44 PM']Dan, Its brilliant in every way I'm very pleased with it. I've also upgraded my rig to Hartke 1x15XL and 2.5XL cabs, and thats tightened up the bottom end and gave a crispy top end as well. They have really brought out the best of the Shuker. Jon's had a big poster made that features it that will be on display at Bassday tomorrow, I can't make it, but he has promised to give me the poster next weekend when I'm up at the workshop again to pick up the Sei. [/quote] Oooh I'm envious, Jon says he's going to start mine on the 25th. I was hoping originally that I'd have something in time for Christmas but it looks like that might not be the case.

Here are a couple of mine in amberburst. I still have the Pentabuzz.

[quote name='Bill Fitzmaurice' post='83974' date='Nov 5 2007, 02:09 PM']Short of using testing gear that you probably don't have the best way to see if amp headroom is the culprit is to drive the second cab with a second power amp of at least equal power. If two amps works better you know that insufficient power is the problem.[/quote] Cheers, it just so happens that I do have a second valve power amp rated at 400w which I could try out. Looks like loading/unloading at next week's band rehearsal is going to be a major mission.

Bill, what would be your take on a situation where you have a 400w valve amp that sounds fine with one 4ohm Acme 2x10 cabinet but the lower frequencies distort when two 2x10 cabinets are plugged in? Are the cabinets testing the amp, or is the amp testing the cabinets? The amp has been serviced and checked out by a trusted amp tech who says that the amp is fine and putting out roughly 360W. The impedance switch was switched over from 4 to 2ohm when the set up was changed. The cabinets have also worked fine with solid state amps.

Hi Adam, yes I think Bassworld essentially died through neglect. Nevermind though, this forum is waaaaay better. Faster, more reliable and even friendlier! Welcome back!

I used to use them a fair bit but then had two duff sets in a row so now so I prefer to use other brands chosen to suit the sound of my basses.

Residual jetlag and a short notice band meeting is going to make it difficult for me to get up there this time and enjoy it I'm afraid.

[quote name='Bill Fitzmaurice' post='82036' date='Nov 1 2007, 01:26 AM']That depends on what your definition of a good bottom end is.[/quote] Something pert and heart shaped?

Woooo! Hi Zoe, good to see you back

I spotted these guys last week while I was looking into the prices of Ibanez 670S guitars. They seem unbeatable as far as price alone goes, let alone the price including VAT and shipping.

Gibson/Epi Thunderbirds have necks that are so skinny, the headstocks snap off if knocked carelessly. I remember playing an 80's Aria SB Elite which had a seriously skinny neck also.