Kiwi

Hey, if you're interested in ordering a 4 string Jazz bass graphite neck, a 30% deposit will be needed first (PM Kiwi about payment details). I'll add your name below once your order is confirmed and when there are 5-10 deposits then fabrication can begin. Any concerns, questions or issues, feel free to PM me. Scale Length: 34" Neck Profile Shape: C Frets: 20 Jumbo frets (.108" x .045") Material: Graphite composite (monocoque construction) Finish: Matt polyurethane Frets: Stainless steel (levelled and crowned) Fretboard Radius: Compound 9.5" Fingerboard: PEEK (high performance, durable composite matrix), fretless and 21 fret fingerboards will be FOC for the first five orders after that a £30 upcharge. Inlays: Dots, mother of pearl or luminay, MOP blocks available for a £30 upcharge, Nut: Graphtec TUSQ 38mm wide Heel Width: 63.5mm (2.5") Heel Shape: Rounded Tuning Peg Holes: 17.46mm (11/16") bushing-hole diameter (TBC) 14.28mm (9/16") post-hole diameter (TBC) Truss Rod: Double action, headstock adjustment Neck Thickness: 22.6mm (0.89") at first fret 25.1mm (0.99") at twelfth fret NB: Dimensions are consistent with Fender Licensed necks offered by Allparts but are not Fender licensed products or in anyway associated with Fender Music Corp. obviously. There may be fractions of a millimetre difference due to manufacturing tolerances. All rights to trademarks belong to their respective owners etc. Specifications subject to change without notice due to continual, ongoing improvements. Confirmed order list for Jazz necks batch 1 1) @Rich77 - 20 fret PEEK fb, standard dots on front, luminay side dots 2) @Phaedrus01 - 21 fret PEEK fb, standard dots on front, luminay side dots 3) @HeadlessBassist - 20 fret PEEK fb, standard dots on front, luminay side dots 4) @Blartfactor10 - 21 fret PEEK fb, standard dots on front, luminay side dots 5) @WalMan - 21 fret PEEK fb, standard dots on front, luminay side dots

Hey, if you're interested in ordering a 4 string P bass graphite neck, a 30% deposit will be needed first (PM Kiwi about payment details). I'll add your name below once your order is confirmed and when there are 5-10 deposits then fabrication can begin. Any concerns, questions or issues, feel free to PM me. Scale Length: 34" Neck Profile Shape: C Frets: 20 Jumbo frets Material: Graphite composite (monocoque construction) Finish: Matt polyurethane Frets: Stainless steel (levelled and crowned) - lined and unlined fretless is available FOC for the first five orders. After this it will be a £30 upcharge Fingerboard: PEEK (high performance, durable composite matrix), 9.5" radius, 21 fret extension available. Inlays: Dots, mother of pearl or luminay, MOP blocks available for a £30 upcharge Nut: Graphtec TUSQ 42mm wide Heel Width: 63.5mm (2.5") Heel Shape: Rounded Tuning Peg Holes: 17.46mm (11/16") bushing-hole diameter (TBC) 14.28mm (9/16") post-hole diameter (TBC) Truss Rod : Dual action, headstock adjustment Neck Thickness: 23 mm at first fret 25.6 mm at twelfth fret NB: Dimensions are consistent with Fender Licensed necks offered by Allparts but are not Fender licensed products or in anyway associated with Fender Music Corp. obviously. There may be fractions of a millimetre difference due to manufacturing tolerances. All rights to trademarks belong to their respective owners etc. Specifications likely to change without notice due to ongoing continual improvement. Confirmed order slots for batch 1: 1) Bluemoon 2) 3) 4) 5)

Yes, a 13-15 degree tilt should possible technically people often find reassurance in things that are normal even if they are sub optimal. I wouldn't want the neck to look like it had a broken headstock. I toyed many years ago with a latching idea to secure necks to bodies but the devil is in the detail, especially high precision tolerances. Carbon composite might not work as well as milled aluminium. How would you deal with differences in string alignment? If it's relying on greater rigidity to reduce the pull of the neck on the string, it might have some similarities to Vigier's 90/10 system as well. My Pentabuzz has steel rods to achieve a similar outcome (whippy necks make the poly coating on the fingerboard crack) and maybe the neck on my Alembic is over engineering enough to achieve the same outcome. There's a delicate balance to achieve with graphite necks though, if they are too stiff, they can become brittle sounding without a fingerboard that dampens any unpleasant frequencies. I suspect prices have been pushed up by fetishisation amongst collectors. The same thing is happening to MM Cutlass basses from 1983-84 and Modulus Basstar necked basses from late seventies early eighties. I'm not sure about Gibson's circumstances but I do remember the moulds for Steinberger stuff were sold off and Ed Roman got his hands on them at one point for his LSR series of instruments. I wonder whether the tooling up costs for manufacturing vs unknown demand might have not been an attractive enough proposition for them? Fantastic sounding basses though, oozing warmth and depth - it's no surprise Reggae players favoured them. And the HAZ Labs eq was nifty as well - frequency centres and Q were absolutely spot on. Probably! 😄 An all composite bass would be very satisfying to work on but would definitely be overreaching at this point in time. Obviously I'm not going to copy other manufacturers of graphite necked instruments either, I have too respect for what they've achieved. OK as Richard Branson said, 'screw it, let's do it'. I'd like to put a feeler for P bass or J bass out there and see what genuine level of interest there is. Anyone interested in a p bass neck click here, like wise in a jazz bass go here. Dimensions will be the same as currently available on Fender(tm) licensed products, so obviously check compatibility with your own instrument but as far as I'm aware 2.5" is a standard Fender bass heel width. First neck to reach 5 orders or more will be fabricated first. If both hit five or more then I'll see if arrangements can be made to increase capacity temporarily. If either or both fail to reach the minimum order inside 30 days then I'll refund deposits.

@Wolverinebass @binky_bass @itu @HeadlessBassist @nige1968 you voted for another brand but I can't see any brand names in your follow up posts. Would you like to share what brands/models you were thinking of?

I agree that these are all great opportunities and I have others to explore as well. Branding is also in the works but generating some traction though initial sales is perhaps the most important priority to demonstrate the products are trustworthy...and if there are issues, least learn how far off we are and make some adjustments before committing fully to launching 'a brand'. Normally big US companies like PRS would use their endorsers for feedback and product development because out there in the big wide internet land every concievable opinion is available on what works and sometimes these opinions are based as much on YT videos, speculation and echo chambers as much as real life touring experience. I don't have access to that level of support, however... 1) I can listen to opinions of regular folks on here who share my interest in graphite necks. In my experience, BCers seem more likely to be grounded than the interweb at large. 2) Folks on here are probably a little more representative of the people who might buy these necks too. 3) I'm very comfortable with a more consultative approach thanks to stints working in local govt (and, IIRC a consultative approach worked for Rob Chapman too so why not explore it as an approach.) 4) It's something I'm genuinely passionate about and interested in! A well made graphite neck (like the one in my Alembic) offers effortless playability, confidence and a sense of control over notes that I don't find on offer as much with wooden necks. But there are pitfalls to avoid too, as history shows us.

I'm hoping to be guided by what people want then offer that up. So the details will ideally be whatever people are used to in the standard instrument they are upgrading. BTW in the poll a completely custom option is also technically feasible but there are no scales of economy in the production process.

PEEK is a very modern, durable, high performance composite matrix unlike phenolic resin, aka Bakerlite by those who were around in the fifties. The other thing some of us discovered over the years of bass buying is that phenolic can be fairly tricky to mix. I've had a number of basses, with necks all made by the same company, where the phenolic resin fingerboards didn't cure stiff enough. PEEK and wood avoid this issue entirely. If you vote in the poll, it'll help show me where preferences lie.

Someone I know with inside knowledge says it's sepsis.

For high volune mass manufacturing metal moulds are durable, but fibreglass moulds ca be used as well for shorter runs. And there are other options for very limited batches.

Regular BCers will already know how enthusiastic I am about graphite necked basses, having owned examples by all the major manufacturers since the late seventies. Since Status and Moses stopped making graphite necks, noone seems to be stepping in for the after market, so for the last three months I've been working on potential ways to keep offering aftermarket graphite necks to guitar and bass playing enthusiasts. I'm at the point now where the the technical side of feasibility has been worked out as you'll see in the ad I have for five prototype headless necks here. So the next question to answer is about commercial feasibility and I was hoping BC'ers might be able to help me decide where to focus next. I did have lined up SR5 and SR4 necks, specifically for preEB and EB Classic instruments. (I'm still planning to install a prototype neck on my SR5 Classic and finally get the 5 string Cutlass bass I've always lusted after.) But what if there was demand from other owners...? Yamaha BB owners for example? Or Modulus owners? Or Sire? Or maybe something else? From a purely commercial perspective, I know there is a limit to how much people will pay for an aftermarket neck and there are bottom line overheads that can't be ignored either. And you'll already be aware that making molds can be a labour intensive task. So pricing has to somehow fit between those two constraints and generate sufficient volume to sustain operations. So if I was to look at offering another kind of after market neck - where should I focus? Have a look at the poll and hit the option that you would buy for yourself.

We've had four reports on three separate posts withn three hours on this thread, which I think has to be a record. If not, then its definitely a long time since things have kicked off this much. Polite request: We don't have to agree on everything but can everyone keep the comments to constructive criticism rather than platforms from which to jump off into other agendas? Better, yet, just say you didn't like something and leave it at that...or even focus on the stuff you did like. Thanks in advance.

You have a serial number?!

Gear4Music has bought out some stock and IP from PMT but not assets or liabilities. Any PMT customers with unfulfilled orders seem set to lose their money which seems a little rough. https://www.gear4music.com/us/en/information/PMT https://musictech.com/news/gear/pmt-closes-all-stores-sells-stock-gear4music/

Long click on the title and add the word sold. The thread will lock automatically.

It's not DTC.

Maybe but the M9 has more knobs for on the fly tweaking.

Yes but the HX doesn't provide the same accessibility to settings that the M9 does. It's a nuanced difference that maybe only appeals to hardened professionals under time pressure.

That was for the M5, I haven't seen the same comment for the M9

https://www.jhv3.com/ This is the guy who didn't reply. There may be others offering something similar.

It's been a fairly popular unit (after mods) with Nashville session guitarists because you can basically grab a know to tweak on the fly if a producer requests it. No scrolling through menus.

I have a couple of M5s on pedalboards. I did look into an M9 for my guitar pedalboard, tried it and discovered it smothered the dynamics a little too much for my liking so sent it back. There was a guy offering upgrades to the M9 but he hasn't responded to messages or emails for quite a few years. But the mods basically made the M9 a studio quality effect.

Try pressing CTRL+F5 to clear your browser cache.

I suspect this is a browser issue, not a site issue. Depending on your browser settings, check to see if you still have stored a password for BC and whether you changed the setting that lets your browser remember it.

No, not at all. Just sounds different because of the filtering by the electronics. EMGs are quite bold sounding and have their own flavour. Acoustically I can both hear and feel the amount of upper mids that are dampened by the amount of wenge and bubinga in the neck. In particular the wenge fingerboard will absolutely dampen some treble content. You could try your Thumb bass against a Status Series II at some point acoustically and see what differences you can hear. We've occasionally had discussions in this forum about the sound of backline and I've played through some bass rigs where it sounds like there's not just pillow over the speaker but a complete four poster bed. I've been at a loss to understand how the owner can actually hear themselves on stage amongst all the cymbals and guitars. And the answer is they can't but they are so used to it that playing based on hand position and the movement of their trouser legs is their normal and a yardstick for what sounds good to them. Perhaps "good" really means normal.