Basvarken

On 11/09/2022 at 13:27, Maude said:

My, frankly unconventional, brain is starting to make stupid noises again. 

If you want to commission, and are happy to fund, a proper 'tribute' bass then I totally get that. But if keeping costs down come into play, could an existing bass be converted? 

I don't know the kind of neck dimensions a 12 string has but if bigger than your average four string could a five string become a doner? 

Plug the machine head holes with dowel, veneer the headstock and re-drill for 12 tuners. Replace the nut and bridge and Bob's your proverbial. 

You could then take it as far as you want. 

 

Bad idea.
Most five string necks have only one truss rod. You really need two truss rods to withstand the gigantic string pull of the twelve strings. I even add a carbon strip in between the two truss rods.
 

A little late to the party. Sorry guys.

I really should check in more often.

As far as I'm concerned there are two major bottle necks in building a twelve string bass.

First one is the bridge. Very hard to find.

The ones that I use are custom built by ETS Hardware in Germany, But they are completely overbooked. Some customers have been waiting on their hardware for more than a year...
I don't know of any other manufacturer that sells them commercially. I scored one off Dean a few years ago. But that was a demo model. They don't have them for sale.

Second problem is the machine heads. Twelve is an enormous amount of metal on your headstock. You want to have them as light as possible to avoid neck dive.
I've been using Gotoh Res-o-lite bass tuners. Those are still available.
But the Gotoh Stealth ST-31 that I've been using for the octave strings have been taken out of production. These are/were really light. All the other "lightweight" tuners are twice the weight of the ST-31...

The twelve string basses that I've built are all 34" scale.

On my birthday I completed the build of a new bass:

The Brooks EXB-MS-5

- Mahogany Khaya body
- Quilted Maple top and headstock face
- Three piece Mahogany Khaya set neck. Glued in
- Blue burst gloss finish on top and headstock
- Pearloid binding
- Ebony fretboard
- Luminlay Blue position markers
- Jumbo nickel silver frets
- 37-34" scale
- Buffalo horn nut
- Babicz Solo Rail bridge. Black
- Double action trussrod
- Two carbon reinforcement strips in the neck
- Lace Alumitone Bass Bar pickup combination
- Pure Tone output. Black
- Volume and tone knob. Black
- Rotary pickup selector switch. Black chickenhead
- Gotoh GB 350 lightweight bass tuners. Black
- Dunlop flush mount strapnuts. Black
- Dingwall strings
- Weight: 4.25 kg

Rotary switch options:
1. Both pickups in series
2. Neck side pickup
3. Bridge side pickup
4. both pickups in parallel
5. Both pickups. Out of phase with a capacitor to maintain the low frequencies.
Circuit and wiring by BQ Music.

Pics of the build process can be viewed here
https://www.enkoo.nl/brooks-exb-ms-5.html

And I made a quick video as well.
Being a life long 4-string player I have no idea what to do with that fifth string!
But you get an idea of how she sounds.
(I'm quite sure the guy I built it for will put it to good use!)
 

This is a five string Gibson Thunderbird Studio from 2005. Gibson hasn't offered many five string bass models over the years. This is one of the very few official releases. The traditional Thunderbird design was changed on the Studio version (both four-string and five -string): the body shape is slightly smaller and the edges are rounded off. A major change in the construction is the use of a glued in neck rather than the traditional Thunderbird neck through construction. And the use of the 3D bridge is also a deviation to the previously used bridges on Thunderbirds.

The Thunderbird Studio is featured on page 138-139 in The Gibson Bass Book by the way.

Headstock on my latest creation, the ThinLine Telebird.
Colour is Seafoam Green, same as the top of the body.

Not all my bass guitars. But a family shot of the Les Paul Bass with all its siblings and other relatives.



From left to right:
- Pearl Export Bass. Modified with Gibson lo-z bass humbucker in the middle position and Gibson lo-z guitar humbucker at the bridge
- Revelation RLB. Les Paul Bass copy
- Gibson Les Paul Bass prototype. Modified with Badass bridge and Gotoh Res-o-lite tuners
- BaCH short scale semi-acoustic. Modified with Gibson lo-z bass humbuckers
- Epiphone Jack Casady Signature bass. Modified with Gibson lo-z bass humbucker
- Fake Gibson Les Paul Bass. Built by myself. With Gibson lo-z guitar humbuckers and original wiring

- Gibson Les Paul Bass aka Triumph. limited edition

- Gibson Les Paul Bass

A new bass is born! 
I proudly present the Brooks Thinline Telebird.

- Two piece Swamp Ash body. Half hollow
- Two piece Swamp Ash top. With f-hole
- 7ender P-bass neck with Pau Ferro fingerboard
- Sea Foam Green top. 
- Artec Mudbuckers
- 34" scale
- Wide travel Thunderbird bridge plus tailstop. Chrome
- Pearloid pickguard
- Tortoise binding
- Hipshot Ultralite tuners. Chrome
- CTS Volume pot
- CTS Tone pot
- 5 way super switch
- Chrome flat top barrel knobs
- Telecaster jack cup. Chrome
- Rotosound 66 Swing bass strings 45-105

- Weight 4.1 kg

Wiring by BQ Music:
• Neck humbucker in series
• Outer coils as humbucker in series
• Both humbuckers in series
• Inner coils as humbucker in series
• Bridge humbucker in series

Pics of the entire build process can be viewed here:
https://www.enkoo.nl/brooks-thinline-telebird.html

#brooksbass #thinline #TeleBird
 

I also made a demonstration video of the Brooks Thinline Telebird.

This bass really sounds amazing. Very responsive.

Hard to catch the real sound with my limited recording devices...

The company that makes the bridge sets for the 12-string basses that I build, is ETS Hardware from Germany.
They made a bridge set for a 24-string bass. So I guess anything is possible. 🤪

One of the most ridiculous bass guitars I have ever seen in my life, actually...




 

1 minute ago, binky_bass said:

Honestly, I prefer the look of the TB12 over the Ament's bass (just my opinion of course!) 

 

@Basvarken - out of interest, could you build a 6 string triple octave bass (18 string)?

I guess that is possible, yes. But the bridge and tailpiece would be a costly affair, since they'd have to be custom made.
But who on earth has hands that big and strong to play an 18 string bass?

My fingers have a hard time at 12 strings already!

In my defense: I'm not an experienced 12-string player (as you probably can tell by the sloppy playing in the video) 😉

10 minutes ago, NancyJohnson said:

 

We were certainly nudging £7.5K.

That is serious money! 😮
The TB-12 cost less than half...

I have just completed the build of a new twelve string Thunderbird bass.

The entire build process is documented here:
https://www.enkoo.nl/brooks-tb-12.html
 

Brooks TB-12
- Mahogany body wings
- Nine ply Mahogany/Walnut set neck. Neck through
- Opaque white (blonde) high gloss finish
- Abalonoid binding
- Ebony fretboard
- Circle position dots
- Jumbo frets
- 34" scale
- Buffalo horn nut 
- Three ply black/white/black pickguard
- ETS twelve string brass bridge set
- Two spokewheel double action trussrods
- Carbon reinforcement strip in the neck
- Lace Alumitone Bass Bar in the neck position
- Lace Alumitone DeathBar in the bridge position
- Allparts  stacked pots (volume/tone volume/tone)
- Mullard capacitors
- MEC on-on switch for coil split (humbucker-single coil)
- Gotoh GB 350 lightweight bass tuners
- Gotoh Stealth ST 31 guitar tuners
- 2 x Pure Tone Multi Contact jack output
- d'Addario EXL 170 - 12  strings 
- Weight: 4.25 kg

Wiring was done by BQ Music.

Woke up this morning to see that my book is featured in Australian guitar talkshow 'On the Couch".
Very nice to get this kind of appreciation from Down Under!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UwSF2uE_8w

Here are a few of my headstocks:

21 minutes ago, Cosmo Valdemar said:

 @Basvarken - I see you using the Lace pickups a lot - I'm considering them for a custom build and would love to hear your opinions if them!

The first time I used the Lace Alumitones was on the first twelve string bass I built.
I was looking for a humbucker that has bar magnets that are wide enough to pick up all the strings equally as good. Many bass humbuckers with bar magnets are a bit on the narrow side.
But Lace offers the Bass Bars in several widths (3.5', 4", 4.5"). Which made me curious about those. I checked a few YouTube videos and decided to try them out.
I was pleasantly surprised.
They have a very high output level (even though they're passive). Are dead silent (no hum whatsoever, even in single coil mode). They sound very even across the tonal spectrum.

And I think they look pretty cool too.

I've used them on a regular four string bass too.

Latest addition to the family of black basses

Yeah, my bad. My head was in the Thunderbird shapes. But your description was spot on EB-0 Bird.
Still regret selling that one...

20 minutes ago, AndyTravis said:

I think the EB-0 bird that you made is still way up there for me x

Did I build that? 🤔
You mean the Telebird perhaps?
Or the EB-TB? That must be the one you're thinking of!

Got a new bass build ready.

TB-12-Q
Twelve string Thunderbird Bass with Quilted Maple top.
 

- Mahogany body
- Bookmatched Quilted Maple top
- Nine ply Mahogany/Walnut set neck. Glued in
- Transparent black stain 
- High gloss transparent acrylic finish
- White binding
- Ebony fretboard
- Mother of pearl position dots
- Jumbo frets
- 34" scale
- Buffalo horn nut ?
- ETS twelve string brass bridge set
- Two spokewheel double action trussrods
- Carbon reinforcement strip in the neck
- Lace Alumitone Bass Bar in the neck position
- Lace Alumitone DeathBar in the bridge position
- Allparts stacked pots (volume/tone volume/tone)
- Mullard capacitors
- MEC on-on switch for coil split (humbucker-single coil)
- Gotoh GB 350 lightweight bass tuners
- Gotoh Stealth ST 31 guitar tuners
- 2 xPure Tone Multi Contact jack output
- d'Addario EXL 170 - 12  strings 
- Weight: 4.25 kg
 

Electronics circuit by my good friend Bas Becu.
 

Serialnumber: 2021003

Pics of the build process can be found here:
https://www.enkoo.nl/brooks-tb-12-q.html

Here she is with another Sister Noir

I did a drastic make-over on a bass to make it part of the black bass family

Used to look like this:

For those who wonder how a twelve string bass sounds:
 

Yeah, you tune the octave strings slightly different from one another. This gives a rich /full sound.
If you'd tune them exactly the same it wouldn't sound as lively.
Quite like a piano indeed.

11 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

Beautiful - not sure I would like the reverse on the 12 but a great looking thing. Although first time I saw it I thought that it was a screenshot of the outline selected in a graphics program with the selection showing!

Yeah, or it's stitched together 😉
The reverse triplets were done per special request.
The gentleman who I built it for is a finger style player. He wants to hit the octave strings first.

9 hours ago, warwickhunt said:

This would so suit a Cheap Trick tribute... Hmm.

 

Well... the guy who I built it for plays in Dream Police 

I built a new Brooks bass!
The EXB-12-2PR (EXplorerBass - 12 string - 2 Pickups - Reverse strings triplets)
- Mahogany body
- Laminated Mahogany set neck. Glued in
- Black gloss finish
- Checkerboard binding
- Ebony fretboard
- Brassl position markers
- Nickel silver frets
- 34" scale
- Buffalo horn nut ?
- ETS twelve string brass bridge set. Gold plated
- Two spokewheel double action trussrods
- Carbon reinforcement strip in the neck
- Lace Alumitone Bass Bar in the neck position
- Lace Alumitone Bass Bar in the bridge position
- Switchcraft output. Gold plated
- 2 x Stacked volume/tone knob. Gold plated
- Pickup selector switch. Gold plated
- Gotoh GB 350 lightweight bass tuners. Gold plated
- Gotoh Stealth ST 31 guitar tuners. Gold plated
- d'Addario EXL 170 - 12  strings 
- Weight: 4.5 kg
Electronics circuit by Bas Becu.

Pics of the build proces can be seen here:
https://www.enkoo.nl/brooks-exb-12-2pr.html