Basvarken

Thirty(!) years ago we recorded 10 songs in our rehearsal room with the band Bittermoon. We dragged a whole load of equipment to the moldy log cabin that was normally populated by the Boy Scouts. Our friends Bob and Rick recorded the whole thing on ADAT tapes. A kind of video tapes on which you could put multiple audio tracks. I can remember that those bitches often had trouble synchronizing. The intention was to mix the recordings in Doesburg at Rick's EP Studio. But that turned out differently. The recordings from the log cabin turned out not to be usable (because of inexplicable hum or something?). In the end, only the drums remained and the rest was replayed and sung in Rick's studio. When the whole thing could finally be mixed after months of toiling and tinkering, it was decided to do it in the Beverly Beat studio in Winterswijk. I don't really remember why. I do know that it cost a lot more money than we had thought beforehand... And as it goes when you -not hindered by any knowledge- insist on doing everything yourself, the result was actually a bit disappointing to us. In particular, one of our own favorites Back Against The Wall sounded weak and lifeless. Not in the least because in the final mix they forgot to turn on the bass drum, haha. Now, 30 years later, we can have a good laugh about it. And thanks to current technology, the forgotten bass drum has been found 😉 So here it is: a rehabilitated version of Back Against The Wall. Enjoy!

All of that is no problem

All my builds are in fact custom jobs. But they have to be Brooks basses. I don't build 1:1 copies. Nor do I have a desire to build fantasy shapes or amoebic creatures 😉 I am not an electronics wizard. So I don't offer to build custom circuits. I did work together with an effects builder for a weird bass a while ago. But I will not go that path again. But using pre-amps (like EMG or Bartolini) that are readily available is no problem.

None of the Brooks basses tend to be neck-heavy. Thanks to a combination of carefully selected materials and their arrangement: - Super light tuners. The modified Schaller GrandTune tuners for the octave strings weigh only 17 grams each. And the Gotoh GB350 tuners for the bass strings weigh only 39 grams each. - In addition, the rear strap-button is positioned well above the center of the bass, which shifts the center of gravity.

Just completed this build last weekend. More pics and the build process here:

After multiple layers of seafoam green and clear coat I was ready to apply the decals Laser cut the pickguard and engrave the flame logo.fille dit in with white acrylic paint. And mounted all the hardware

Filled the little gaps underneath the frets with a paste of ebony sawdust and titebond. [IMG size="1067x800"]https://www.brooksbassguitars.com/uploads/1/3/3/7/13376708/brooks-tb-12-sf-filling-fret-gaps_orig.jpeg[/IMG] [IMG size="1067x800"]https://www.brooksbassguitars.com/uploads/1/3/3/7/13376708/brooks-tb-12-sf-inlays-done_orig.jpeg[/IMG] And shaped the neck profile some more [IMG size="600x800"]https://www.brooksbassguitars.com/uploads/1/3/3/7/13376708/brooks-tb-12-sf-shaping-neck-profile2_orig.jpeg[/IMG] After I was done with shaping the neck and headstock I glued the body wings to the center piece. Could have left it there and call it the Bo Diddly Bird. But no. Cut out the rough outline prior to routing along the template of the body shape Then routed along the template Voila! It's a Thunderbird Rounded off the edges Routed the controls cavity And the profile for the cover Drilled the holes for the potentiometers And the output hole on the side of the body Routed the pickup cavities Squared the corners with a chisel Made a tummy cut with the shinto rasp Ready for the lacquer process Seafoam Green is a difficult color to catch on camera

Prepared the neck blank for glueing up the fretboard. Made these half round cut-outs to make some room for the band saw And after I had cut off the excess at both sides of the neck, I prepared it for the actual glue-up Using a staple to prevent the fretboard from "swimming" sideways when clamped. Fretted the ebony fretboard. No inlays this time Used the trusted method of clamping with strips of inner bicycle tubes: Let it det and dry for a couple of hours. And then started to shape the neck profile. I use several tools for that: shinto rasp, rounded coarse file, scrape steel and strips of sandpaper. Drilled the tuner holes And cut out the headstock shape Drilled the holes for the sidemarkers Glued in the luminlay (glow-in-the-dark) dots.

The neck blank is a nine-ply construction of mahogany/khaya and walnut strips in between. This combination makes it very stiff and consistent already. I started with the reinforcements in the neck. Routed the slot for the carbon strip in the middle Then routed the slots for the two spokewheel truss rods Taped off the edges where the fretboard will sit. And then shaved/planed the part where the body wing will be glued in an angle to have the neck a perfect pitch. And at the other end of the neck I cut off the headstock angle. And planed that nice and smooth As you can see the truss rods taper a bit following the taper of the neck. Narrow at the top nut and wider where the neck meets the body. I glued in little pieces of mahogany where the spokewheel part lies a bit deeper

New Brooks offspring was born last weekend! It's a twelve string bass and we call it: TB-12-SF Specifications: - Khaya Mahogany body wings - Nine ply Khaya Mahogany/Walnut neck. Neck through - Seafoam Green high gloss finish - Ebony fretboard - Luminlay side dot inlays - Jumbo frets - 34" scale - Buffalo horn nut - Three ply black/white/black pickguard - Custom made twelve string bridge set - Two spokewheel double action trussrods - Carbon reinforcement strip in the neck - Lace Alumitone Bass Bars - Controls: Volume Volume Tone - Gotoh GB 350 lightweight bass tuners - Schaller GrandTune octave tuners - Pure Tone Multi Contact jack output - Schaller S-lock strap buttons - d'Addario EXL 170 - 12 strings - Weight: 4.5 kg I'll share the build process in separate posts below.

Another addition to the Blue Bass family. The Brooks SparkleBird. The pics don't do the colour justice. In real life it is much more teal/turquoise. This pic comes close. But still misses the vibrance of the colour

Yes. That's where is got them. Not exactly cheap...

Yes, for a Cheap Trick tribute in the USA, called Cheap Trip. The customer now owns 7 Brooks 12-string bass guitars...😵

And made a demo video of course.

Did some pore filling. And stained the back and sides a mix of yellow and oak. To give it an aged Korina look. After lots of spraying and sanding layers of clear, I could apply the decals. The top was quite a bit of a challenge. Customer wanted a teal blue sparkle finish. The only proper way is to make it a candy finish. First a layer of coarse metallic flake silver. Then a layer of transparent mixed with silver particles. Then the cobalt blue transparant layer to achieve the teal/turquoise look And sealing it off with several layers of transparant. The matching headstock got the name decal Laser cut the pearloid pickguard Modified the Schaller Grand Tune octave tuners to save some room

Then I came up with a crazy idea. I had the big tone chamber on the lower horn. And I had the extra large controls cavity with some spare room for a little extra feature. Why not put a led light in the lower wing? I did a little test with a discarded pickguard... Let there be light. And there was light

Shaped the heel of the neck to fit the pocket Checked the neck joint angle Routed the pickup cavity Drilled the holes for the volume pot, kill switch and jack output Glued the neck in the pocket

Filled the gaps underneath the fret tangs with a mix of rosewood saw dust and wood glue And drilled the holes for the side position markers. Glued them in Et voila! Luminlay glow in the dark dots. Switched back to the body, to route the neck pocket.

Then shaped the neck profile. And headstock shape Drilled the tuner holes

After the special inlay was done, it was time to put the frets in Made the truss rod access slot plus cover Then prepared the neck to glue the fretboard on. Tacked in a staple. And cut it off 1 mm proud of the neck to leave two sharp pins. These help to prevent the fretboard from sliding in the wet glue. Then glued the fretboard on. Using the strips of inner bicycle tubes for clamping.

Customer plays in a Cheap Trick tribute band. And as you may know those guys have something with the checkerboard pattern. He asked me to make a checkerboard inlay on the 12-position. So I made a drawing of 5 x 5 mm blocks. And laser cut a white piece of acrylic and a black piece of acrylic. Then made a lay-out of the black and white blocks combined on a piece of sticky tape to keep them from flying away 😉 But realised that was not going to work to keep them tight against each other. So I made a little template with a rectangle that would keep them tight against each other. Cut out a "swimming pool" in the fretboard. With a knife and some chisels. Then glued them in. Using super glue onthe fretboard. And a piece of high tack (aluminium) tape to keep them together. When the glue had hardened I sanded it to flush to the fretboard in the desired radius (16") Pretty happy with the result

The switched back to the body again. Routed the outline along a template (sorry no pics) And then I realised I had routed the controls cavity wrong. So I made a new template and routed the corrected shape. Didn't even look half bad 😉 Rounded off the edges on the back. Routed the profile for the binding Glued in the pearloid binding. Used acetone instead of glue, because I knew I was going to stain the sides and back. (Stain does not work on glue remains) Glueing the binding always requires extra attention on the corners. I use strips of inner bicycle tubes to clamp them till they're dry Looking good so far

Switched to the neck next Routed the channel for the carbon reinforcement strip in the middle The routed the channel for the two truss rods. I let them taper to follow the taper of the neck itself Sawed the head stock angle. And planed it smooth. And sawed the back side of the headstock in the desired angle. Still needed to plane/sand that side to the right thickness too.

Bought a nice two-piece slab of White Limba (aka Korina) And routed the tone chambers Routed the controls cavity. And later realised it had the wrong shape for the lay-out of the controls that I had in mind for this bass... Sawed the f-hole in the matching two-piece top (White Limba/Korina) And then glued it on. You can never have enough clamps 😉