Looking for something a bit more special than my Warwick Rockbass Corvette 5 String, I did some research on Basschat and other websites. I soon realised that what I [i]really [/i]wanted was a British-made custom bass.
I discovered Robbie at RIM Custom Basses in his own forum elsewhere on Basschat. He has made some lovely looking basses, and they seem to get rave reviews from his customers. So yesterday I went to see Robbie in Luton. A very warm welcome, some good advice about choice of materials and it looks like we are going ahead!
I'm not in a hurry for the new bass - quality is more important than time. With other orders already in the queue, Robbie estimated 6 - 8 months. Which will make it a birthday present for me next year, give or take a couple of weeks.
I'm going to keep this diary of the steps in the process from the customer's point of view. I guess Robbie will keep everyone updated on progress through his forum. The draft spec to date is:
[list]
[*]maple or ash front
[*]bubinga back
[*]ebony or wenge fingerboard
[*]satin finish
[*]Q-Tuner pickups
[*]through neck
[*]34" scale
[*]16mm string spacing
[/list]
Hope Robbie is ok about me including some images from his website of basses he has already made. The look I'm after is the shape of the 5 string with the contrasting woods of the 4 string.