Basvarken

Not exactly a Fenderbird like Peter Cook made them.
It's my take on the theme of a hybrid between a classic Gibson and a classic 7ender

I call it Telebird:

Here's another one. Also named Gibson Les Paul Bass. The body shape is slightly different. It's a prototype.



And another one. Epi Jack Casady signature (which is actually a Les Paul Signature Bass reissue.
I mounted a Gibson Les Paul Bass pickup, because I wasn't impressed with the Electar.

They sound rather different.
The Gibson Les Paul Bass has the unsurpassed low impedance stacked humbuckers. Dead quiet, very even across the tonal spectrum. From crystal clear highs to super tight and deep lows. They work very well together creating a sort of a subtle and natural compression.

The Entwistle pickups are good but quite different. They sound more generic and less well defined in the higher frequencies. They do sound deep but just with less definition. When ran together the pickups do not create the subtle compression of the Gibson lo-z humbuckers.
But all in all it's a well built bass. Haven't played it much yet though...

 

I love Les Paul Bass guitars.
My all time favorite is my 1969 Gibson Les Paul Bass. Short scale with Lo-z pickups.
I love it so much that I built another one myself, but I used Lo-z Gibson Les Paul guitar pickups and controls.
The real Gibson is the lower bass in the pic. The upper bass is the one built.

The first Brooks that I built is also inspired on my favorite bass. same shape and scale length. But with different pickups and a maple top.
 

The Gibson Triumph (aka Les Paul Bass) is long gone. I had to sell it when I was in between jobs seven years ago.





The Allen Woody Signature aka Rumblekat was a lovely bass. But didn't feel as substantial as the Gibson Les Paul Bass (to me). Sold it.




The Magic is an old Dutch bass (1963), built in the town near to where I was born. Bought it for sentimental reasons. But it was practically unplayable. Sold it.

This Japanese CBS bass was built for the Australian market in the 1970's.
Found it on Ebay. As rare as hen's teeth. Kept it for about ten years. 
Sold it three years ago, because I didn't really use it much and i wanted to make room for new bass builds.



 

Gibson GFB bass. Long scale monster!
Also pretty rare.
Sold it to make room for new bass builds

Revelation RLB.
Clever clone of the Gibson Les Paul Bass. But with different wiring. Great quality for not too much money.
Couldn't resist buying it when it popped up at a second hand website. 

Wow! never seen one before.

I made a new video. I wasn't very happy with the recording quality of the first one. It has too much distortion in the low end.
I didn't have any proper recording equipment to go into the iMac.
Now at least the the sound quality has improved a bit. 😂

7 hours ago, Unknown_User said:

Beautiful bass and great thread with all the pictures!  Appreciate the effort that's gone into the thread.

Could I ask a couple of questions?  Firstly what clear coat did you use and how did you apply it?  Secondly did you do any grain filling on the top?

Thank you.
I use acrylic lacquer from spray cans that I buy at Action, which is a super cheap supermarket. Per can only € 2.
But I use a lot of them per instrument. I build up a few layers, then I sand it, spray again, sand it, ad nauseum.
The final step is sanding it with finer paper 500 > 1000 > 1500 grit.
Then polish it with polishing compound and a foam pad on my Makita accu-drill.
Last step is a very soft cloth with some carnauba wax.

With figured maple you don't need to do any grain filling. The grain is so tight, the paint won't keep sinkin' in, like it does with mahogany.

Indeed. They are not Gibson bodies. They don't even feature the raised middle section.

 

54 minutes ago, Jus Lukin said:

Excellent stuff, Basvarken. As a Gibson fan, I've love all the basses you make, and one's you've dealt in the past- do you ever do them in short scale these days?

Thank you. Haven't built a short scale in years. 
But it wouldn't be a problem of course. I personally love short scale bass guitars.
If anyone would ask me to build a short scale bass for him/her, I'd surely love to.

The first three bass guitars that I built were all short scale:

Brooks -1 
The first one I ever built. 
2009

Acoustic Fretless

Les Paul Bass
This is not a real Gibson bass.
I built it myself after my personal favorite: the 1969 Les Paul Bass
I tried to stay as close to the real thing as possible. 
Except it uses guitar pickups and controls

Haha, It's a table model. Not really that heavy.

This 1997 Leland Sklar Signature Bass was designed by Mike McGuire and the Gibson Custom Division.
Sklar only played this bass for a fleeting moment in his career (if at all). Not too sure that Lee Sklar ever took it too serious either, as in interviews he quickly forgot about mentioning it. Which is a bit unusual for a dedicated signature model...

Here's a pic of a fretless Ripper that didn't make it in the book (There are a few other Rippers featured in the Gibson Bass Book though)

1 minute ago, Bassman Sam said:

BTW, I've just bought the book.

 

Thank you Alan!

Here's a close up of a 1982 Gibson G3 in Candy Apple Red finish and bolt on maple neck with ebony fretboard. A rare combination!

I'll post some more cool ones soon

This eight string LPB-3 Standard was built by the Gibson Custom Shop for T.M. Stevens. Note the plastic saddles on the Warwick bridge and the string through body holes for the octave strings. The bass is signed by T.M. Stevens and it says "I sweat on this bass".