Basvarken

My 1969 Gibson Les Paul Bass and my self built copy from 2015. The copy features Gibson lo-z guitar pickups instead of bass pickups.

Seems appropriate on this day where John Entwistle would have turned 80. Two Brooks Fenderbirds next to each other.

Oh wow! The Brooks DDB (aka Double Duane Bird) is Bass Of The Week over @ NoTreble Such an honor to see my creation featured on their site! https://www.notreble.com/buzz/2024/10/07/bass-of-the-week-brooks-duane-double-bird/ Check it out (and maybe leave a comment at the bottom of the page 🤩 )

Here's my modified Epiphone Jack Casady Signature bass. I was not impressed by the Electar pickup that Jack Casady developed in cooperation with Epiphone. He claimed it was much better than the original lo-z humbucker that Gibson used in the (original) Les Paul Signature Bass. I replaced it with a genuine Gibson stacked lo-z humbucker from a Les Paul bass. Inspired by the first edition of the Gibson Les Paul Signature bass with cream oval shaped pickup. In my opinion it is a huge improvement. The Gibson pickup has a more authoritative sound and better dynamic response.

The Gibson IV is basically a Thunderbird in disguise. It has a mahogany body and neck. And TB+ humbuckers. Controls are VVT.

The 12-string bridge set was custom made by ETS Hardware in Germany. And the 4-string set comes for Philadelphia Luthiers.

It's really good quality. Just dirt cheap.

I use really cheap rattle cans from a store called Action. €3 per can.

I used a few coats of Nitrocellulose clear. And let that cure for a bit. Then switched to Acrylic. Because it's cheaper and easier to work with basically.

And made the unavoidable vide demo...;-)

When I started the build I was worried that I wouldn't be able to find a case that was large enough to fit this monster. But it turned out the Rockcase The Beast (by Warwick) is large enough. I happened to have one in my house for another build (an explorer bass). Laid it in the case and found out I only had to remove the little compartment in the left corner. So I ordered another one and modified that. Made a nice foam insert and put some velours fabric over it. I'm never going to be a real upholsterer, but it turned out quite nice The last step was done by my good friend Bas Becu (BQ Music). He is an electronics wizard. Although this was pretty straight forward electronics, he can do a much better job soldering the wiring than I can. So I asked Bas to do it for me.

Drilled the holes for the bridges and tail stops Before I started the pore filling I decided to stain the bass red. Just to see if the red color that I had i mind would suit this bass. And as an advantage the red stain would also be good back up in case spraying the Candy Apple Red would not work out properly. I used Glitsa parquet varnish as a pore filler this time. After several layers of sanding sealer and nitro primer I sprayed three layers of Shoreline gold nitro. And then the transparent red to get the Candy Apple Red effect. After plenty of layers of clear coat I applied the decals. (yes I live in Velp) And signed the bass for Duane Applied the decals on the faceplates And after a few more layers of clear coat I sanded the entire bass with 1400, 2000 and 2500 grit. Then polished it. And mounted the hardware. Cut the two top nuts from buffalo horn

Drilled a lot of holes... Two necks Shaped the heels for the neck pockets And after a lot of fitting (and cursing) they finally both fitted Then I weighed the bare ones bass to see what the sale would say... It weighed in a a disturbing 6.2 kilograms Without any hardware! So I decide to route ways some wood underneath the pickguard area. the bass lost 400 grams! Next step was the point of no return: glueing the necks in

Then fretted the fretboards for both necks Glued the fretboards on and started shaping the necks Made the side dot markers and filled the gaps under the fret tangs And then there were two paddles 😉 Shaped the headstocks Made the faceplates from a material called Richlite. Which is a composite substitute for ebony.

Then switched to making the necks Routed the trussrod slot for the 4-string And routed the slot for the carbon reinforcement strip for the 12-string neck Then routed the two slots for the two trussrods for the 12-string neck Sawed the headstock angle for both necks and planed them nice and flat Prepared the fretboards for the position dots Made the 12th position ring inlay Cut out the truss rod access slots And made the covers

Next step was to use the other template for the neckpockets And the pickup cavities And the controls cavity on the back Drilled the output hole And took out the shinto rasp to make a belly cut

The initial idea was to build a double-neck Firebird/Thunderbird. But when Duane Daniels saw the sketch he asked me to change the Firebird part into a Twelve string Thunderbird. Duane has a crazy collection of twelve string bass guitars and he commissioned the build of the DDB (DoubleDuaneBird) The first step was to order all the parts. Starting with the Korina body blank and neck blanks. And the two ebony fretboards. I asked my good friend Frank Hoffmeyer of Holz-Faszination to pre-radius them (16") and also have them slotted. While all the other parts were also ordered from all over the world, I set out to make the templates. In the past I used MDF. But laser cutting MDF is not very healthy so I switched to using Plexiglass. I made the vector files on my computer using Adobe Illustrator. Them exported them as DXF files and loaded them into the laser cutting software. Very clean looking templates! First cut out the rough outline. Then routed along the template

It's alive! The Brooks DDB (DoubleDuaneBird). A double-neck Thunderbird with a traditional Thunderbird 4-string neck. And a 30 1/2" scale 12-string bass neck. I can finally share another completed build with you guys. The idea had been brewing for a while but the actual build started out early july 2024. I'll share the pics of the build proces in separate posts below this opening post. Specifications: - Korina body - Korina 12-string neck 30 1/2" scale - Korina 4-string neck 34" scale - Candy Apple Red Nitrocellulose finish - Ebony fretboards - Circle position dots - Jumbo frets - Buffalo horn nuts - Three ply (vintage) white/black/white pickguard - Custom made ETS twelve string brass bridge set. Chrome - Wide travel Thunderbrid style bridge. Chrome - Spokewheel double action trussrods - Carbon reinforcement strip in 12-string neck - Gemini Dominator pickup for 4-string - Gemini Devastator pickup for 12-string - Bourns pots (volume/tone volume/tone) - Mullard capacitors - Toggle switch to choose 12- or 4-string - Gotoh GB 350 lightweight bass tuners - Gotoh ST-31 Stealth tuners - 1 x Pure Tone Multi Contact jack output - d'Addario custom set strings (12 string) - Rotosound RB 50 (4 string) - Weight: 7.9 kg

Stonefly was a band that was active between 2007 and 2010. We used to rehearse in the attic of a big barn in Zeewolde. This barn - from singer/farmer Jan Hoving- was often filled with sugar beets. So it must have been beet music... 😉 Somewhere in 2009 we recorded our repertoire in that rehearsal room. But as it often goes with bands, nothing ever happened with those recordings. No mix, nothing. But, when I was digging through old photographs on an old hard drive, I stumbled upon the multi-tracks of the recording session. What a shame to let them rust away, I thought. So I made a mix of a few songs and put some photographs under the music. Lead vocal - Jan Hoving. Guitar - Carlo Gentenaar. Keyboards - Willem Hoving. Drums - Thomas Vermeulen. Bass - Rob van den Broek. Backing vocals - Rob van den Broek. Recorded by Ron van der Schors. Mixed by Rob van den Broek. © 2009 / 2024 Stonefly - I'm Lovin' It. (Words & Music: Carlo Gentenaar) Stonefly - I Know Better. (Words & Music: Carlo Gentenaar) Stonefly - Ain't Gonna Let You Down. (Words & Music: Carlo Gentenaar)

None of them suffer neck dive. I use extremely lightweight tuners. Here are two videos where you can see they balance perfectly:

Brooks family update. Per theme (TB, EB, EXP, EBN, (another)TB, 12):

Ah, yes the Blues!

About last night: The other day I was approached by Jimi Crutchley (ex-Quireboys, Dead Sea Skulls) regarding the Brooks Fenderbird I had built. He is on a world tour as tour manager with Glenn Hughes. And yesterday the caravan visited De Boerderij in Zoetermeer for Glenn's Deep Purple show. Which is only an hours drive from where I live. Jimi invited me to the soundcheck to put the Brooks Fenderbird through its paces, over Glenn's bass rig. Jimi turns out to be a huge John Entwistle fanatic. And for years he had been looking for a good Fenderbird like the one Peter Cook built for John Entwistle. He had previously bought one from another builder, but that one was very disappointing. And he is very happy that he has finally found a proper Fenderbird!

I recently built two Fenderbirds as a tribute to Peter Cook. About a year ago I was approached by a former fellow student of my brother. His passion is woodworking and in particular collecting tools, such as very exclusive planes, chisels, rasps, etc. Now he had bought a very nice CNC mill a while ago. And he was looking for a nice project to play around with. Anyway, we decided to make a complete bass guitar together with that CNC-machine. I would give him all the dimensions and specifications and he would make the 3D files. Together we went to my local wood supplier to select rough planks of mahogany and maple. I bought the hardware and electronic components. And two months ago - after countless samples of scrap wood- two bodies and two necks were ready to be processed into a bass guitar. I glued the fingerboard to the neck, tapped in frets, lacquered, sanded and polished it. Filled the pores of the body. Lacquered, sanded and polished that one. Then mounted everything. Today they were finally finished. The funny thing is that it is absolutely no less work than making it yourself by hand. Only if there is a series production, then all the efforts will be able to bear fruit. The Brooks Fenderbird (Jufferschans Edition) - Mahogany body - Brooks all maple P-bass neck - Fiesta Red finish - EY Guitar Thunderbird humbuckers - 34" scale - Bone nut - Wide travel Thunderbird bridge plus tailstop. Nickel - Black three ply pickguard - Gotoh Res-o-lite GB528 tuners - Gotoh extra large strapbuttons. Nickel - CTS potentiometers - Silver reflector cap knobs - Switchcraft output jack - Rotosound RS66LDN strings - Weight: 4.3 kg Twins!

Here's the inevitable video demo 😉 I injured my left hand a few weeks ago, so my playing is a bit sloppy. I just don't have enough strength in my fingers yet. But the video does give a good enough idea how the FV-12 sounds. 😉