Basvarken

Plus I made a (short) video this afternoon

The bridge rails use saddles of a Gotoh 12-string guitar bridge. Plus custom made base plates. My sister Pauline is a certified gold-smith. And she made the bridge plates from a brass profile: I sprayed them black with a 2K spray can to match the rest of the black hardware. The crazy graphics were done by cutting the pattern in a low tac film. Then spayed the black over the Lake Placid Blue layer. After it dried I peeled off the low-tac film.

And the profile for the truss rod cover: Test fitting. All looks fine: Then glued the neck in: After the neck was glued in I filled the pores and sprayed the primer. No pics of that sorry. Here's a pic of the Lake Placid Blue layer:

Body outline shape lookiing nice and crisp: Routed the channel for the binding: Glued in the pearloid binding. Using acetone to soften it and make it stick to the wood. I always use an old hair dryer to make it easier to do sharp bends. Routed the pickup cavities: And the neck pocket:

With the neck almost in its final shape I switched to the body. I drilled some holes for weight relief. Plus some more holes for the controls cavity: Sawed the rough outline shape prior to glueing up the matching khaya top: Glued the top on: Routed the controls cavity to its proper shape: And then routed the outline of the body along the MDF template:

After lots of rasping , scraping and sanding it started to look like a proper neck: Made the side position markers: And filled the gaps under the fret tangs with a mix of ebony saw dust and wood glue: Shaped the outline of the headstock. And sanded it to the desired thickness: Drilled ten holes for the tuners:

Drilled holes for the position markers. (I used FindFret2D to calculate the fret angles). The bass has a 35" to 32" scale. And when the position dots were in place prepared the fretboard for the frets. Pressed the frets in: And when that was one I glued the fretted fretboard onto the neck. Left to dry overnight And then started shaping the neck with a shinto rasp:

As always the build started with buying some blanks for the body and neck. I managed to sore some nice khaya mahogany pieces. Routed the neck for a carbon reïnforcement strip in the middle. Then routed two slots for the truss rods. Since it was going to be a multi scale bass I chose two different lenghts: Cut out the headstock angle with the band saw: You have to think in 3D when you cut the angle!

Get out your spandex. Tease your hair. 😉 Here's the Brooks EXB-MS-10 A multi-scale ten-string bass. SPECIFICATIONS: - Mahogany Khaya body - Laminated Mahogany Khaya set neck. Glued in - Black with Lake Placid Blue graphic finish - Pearloid binding - Ebony fretboard - Pearloid position markers - Jumbo nickel silver frets - 35-32" scale - Buffalo horn nut - Custom Brooks bass bridge set. Black Bridge base plates by [URL="http://www.paulinevandenbroek.nl"]www.paulinevandenbroek.nl[/URL] - Two double action trussrods - Carbon reinforcement strip in the neck - Lace Alumitone Bass Bar pickup combination - Pure Tone output. Black - Stacked Volume / tone knobs. Black - Three way pickup selector switch. Black - Gotoh GB 350 lightweight bass tuners. Black - Schaller GrandTune octave tuners. Black - Custom set d'Addario strings I'll post pics of the build process in separate posts below.

I'm afraid not. The Ubertar was provided by the customer. I don't think I would have chosen the Ubertar myself. The sliding pole-piece pickup that 13 Ghost (Thorsten Behrens) made seems much nicer to me. https://www.notreble.com/buzz/2024/12/30/bass-of-the-week-meet-the-anachronist-13-ghosts-handmade-marvel-from-germany/

Yeah I can't fathom what use all the options could have. I much prefer a simple bass myself. And I would love to build something like this again: Four strings and no controls!

I thought I was not going to make a video demo. Because I wouldn't know where to begin. 😉 But I finally succumbed and made a (very short) video demo. Showing all options woulld take up a whole week. So this will have to do...

In August 2024 I handed over the bass to the guy who always did the electronics for my builds. He was going to build the tube pre-amp and modify the Aguilar TKC compressor to fit into the effects cavity. We had already discussed this back and forth with the customer and myself. The electronics guy had also built a Frog FX1 as a test case for this project. But all this took way too long. I started to fear this bass would never see the light of day. After more than 14 months I asked the bass back. The electronics were not completely ready yet. But my patience (and faith) had run out. I brought it to a friend of mine who has a degree in electronics. He checked the electronics and cleaned up the mess. Now it is finally ready. Everything works.

Applied the lettering to the effects panel: Sprayed a couple of layers clear lacquer: Applied the logo decals: Put it all in place: Polished it: Mounted the hardware: Customer provided the Goto ST-31 Stealth tuners. Around that time these were already pretty hard to find since Gotoh had stopped making them. Not sure if the difference in buttons was an ergonomical choice? Or maybe he couldn't find two identical sets of four?

The Ubertar contraption was not height adjustable. So I had to come up with a solution. I made a pickup ring and a base plate. With a screw in each corner I could tilt the base plate to the desired height. The other pickup was my own design. So no surprises there: Then stained the top: Stained the back and sides too: And sprayed several layers of clear:

Drilled a big hole for the 5 -pin XLR: Made a thin metal plate for the effects panel: Put the Quilted Maple panel inside to check if it had the right height: Cut a little recess hole in the metal sheet, for the pickup wires: Drilled holes in the metal sheet. And glued the quilted maple cover on: Checked the bridge alignment: Drilled the holes in the Quilted Maple panel following the holes in the metal plate:

Glued the pearloid binding in the channel: Route the big cavity for the sliding pickup: And the other one for the Quad Bucker: Test fitted the Ubertar sliding pickup system. This pickup contraption was provided to me by my customer.

And shaped the volute: Next I shifted my attention to the body and its shape. Snd all the crazy wiring that it would require. Made some vector files for the laser cutter to make templates: I had already glued the body wings to the center piece and cut them in their rough outline shape: I also laser cut the effects panel in Quilted Maple top. But forgot to make pictures Glued the quilted maple top on: The steps are handy when you want to clamp to two bookmatched pieces sideways. You can't clamp a diagonal line 😉 Routed the body outline shape along one of the laser cut templates: Routed the controls cavity at the back of the body: Plus the profile for the cover (different template): Did the same for the effects cavity: And the profile for its cover: Turned over to the front side and routed the channel for the binding: Notice I couldn't routed too close to the fretboard of course. Had to chisel that last bit out by hand:

Prepared the frets. Cut off the fret ends with a tang nibbler: Hammered the frets in: And cut off the excess on the sides: Routed and cut the slots for the two spokewheel truss rods: Made the truss rod cover in the 21st position: Routed the part of the centerpiece where the Quilted Maple top should go later in the build process. Also made sure this part had the desired neck body angle of 1.5°. Also sawed the headstock angle. In this pic I had not planed it nice and smooth yet. Worked on the neck jont area. With some chisels and scraping steel: The neck taking shape: Made the side position markers: And worked on the neck profile:

My customer asked for a neck of the highest janka number possible. I did not want to ruin my router bits and saw blades on something too ridiculous. So I came up with a compromise: A five piece laminate of Khaya mahogany, Maple and Purple heart. Here's the neck blank: Plus Khaya Mahogany body wings Routed the slot in the middle for the carbon reinforcement strip: Drilled the holes for the position markers in the ebony fretboard: Made the ring for the 12th position marker: And glued in the mother-of-pearl dots for the rest: Sanded them flush, using the 16" radius block: Prepared the fret slots for the frets. By filing with a triangular file I get better results with seating the frets.

I've done something foolish... The Brooks EXB-12-QB - the construction of which was already completed in August 2024(!) - is finally completed and ready to ship. The installation of the electronics took about a year and a half for all kinds of reasons that I will not bore you with. I solemnly promise that I will never build a thing like this again. 😵‍💫 Anyway: Here it is! - Mahogany body. Explorer shape - Quilted Maple top. Sunburst. High gloss - Body back, sides and neck: Clear gloss - Pearloid Binding - Neck through, mahogany/maple/purple heart five piece laminate. - Two spoke-wheel type double action truss-rods. Plus one carbon stiffening rod. - Ebony Fretboard. Pearl dot inlays. 12th position circle - Sintoms Jumbo frets. Nickel-silver - 32” Scale - Buffalo horn nut/ string guide - Custom made 12 string bridge and tailpiece. Inverted triplets. Gold - 4 x Gotoh GB 350 bass tuners. Lightweight. Gold - 8 x Gotoh ST-31 Octave string tuners. Lightweight. Gold - Custom D’Addario string set - Gotoh large gold strapnuts - Pickup 1: Ubertar Sliding Pole Piece pickup - Pickup 2: 2x Nordstrand NM4 - 1 x 5-pin XLR. - 2 x Volume. - 2 x Tone - 2 x On/off switch with led light for each effect - 1 Master volume trimpot - Weight: 5,1 kg Custom made electronics: - Built-in effect 1: Frog FX1 pre-amp with sub-mini tube. - Built-in effect 2: Aguilar TLC Compressor. - External power supply I will post pics of the build process in several separate posts below.

You could use a Shure A95U impedance transformer. That is exactly the same as the transformer plug that Gibson offered with the Les Paul Bass.

The pickup is wide enough for even 6 strings. They have bar magnets that are 75 mm wide

Yes, you can order them via me. Send me a PM or email.

Just a couple of hundred ohms or less... ... compared to the thousands we are used to..