Basvarken

Drilled holes for the side dot markers Making the 12 position side marker And glueing in the other side dots Side dots sanded flush with the side of the fretboard

Used a coarse rasp and a file to shape the contouring Routed the pickup cavity Chiseled the corners to make it a clean fit fort the Lace Alumitone Drilled some more holes Routed the back for the control cover

Glued the fret board onto the rough shape of the neck Beginning to look like a proper neck Working on the control cavity And routed the channel for the pickup wires Next I glued a thin veneer of smoked oak as a contrasting layer in between the mahogany and the maple Made a template out of MDF for the body shape Glued the bookmatched set of flamed maple onto the body Routed the shape of the body

Found a huge blank of beautifully figured mahogany. Can take at least four bass bodies out if this one. And found a nice bookmatched set of flamed maple for the top. Plus a pre slotted ebony fretboard Drilled holes for the position markers and glued them in Cut a short piece off an aluminium tube for the 12th fret position marker Sanded it all flush to the right radius Sawed the fret slots to the right width and depth Filed a tiny angle to the slots to make the frets fit in nicely Cut the frets and hammered them in

I'll post some pics of the build process. Starting with a pic of the quarter sawn neck blank that I cut into four pieces on the saw table of a friend of mine. Next is three pieces of that neck blank with two strips of American walnut veneer in between that are going to make a five ply Glueing them together. Lots of clamps Used an old fashioned saw to cut the headstock angle Routed the truss rod channel And chiseled the shape of the spokewheel

I've completed the build of a new bass. Unlike other Brooks basses that I've built this does not feature a mix of a classic Gibson bass with another non-Gibson classic. The Brooks EB-N is an original design that I came up with in an attempt to give it a bit of a classic vibe without referring to well known designs. BROOKS EB-N - One piece mahogany body - Smoked oak constrasting veneer in between layer - Bookmatched flamed maple top - Five ply quartersawn mahogany/American walnut neck - Ebony fretboard - Mother of Pearl position marker dots. 12th circle inlay - Jumbo frets - 34" scale - Zero fret and buffalo horn nut - Babicz FCH4 bridge - Spokewheel double action trussrod - Lace Alumitone Bass Bar - Gotoh GB 707 bass tuners - Push-pull volume pot for humbucking or single coil - CTS tone pot

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)

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".

Up close and personal with a Gibson AB Super 400 from 1999. This tribute to the legendary Super 400 guitar from 1934 is a true masterpiece.

Woah! How did I miss this thread? Here's an old pic of me with my beloved 1969 Gibson Les Paul Bass. Still my No.1 bass! I've got plenty of Gibson Porn to share by the way. Some pics are from the book that I made. And I also have lot of pics that didn't make it into the book. https://www.thegibsonbassbook.com/gallery/ I can post some of the pics here If you like. Just let me know.

Here's a couple of black ones that I've built: Brooks EB-PL-Noir. Inspired by the Gibson EB-0, Fender 51 P and Rickenbacker Noir series 34 inch scale Brooks EB-RBL-Q. Transparant black on the quilted maple top. No volume, no tone pot. But ist does have a three way coil selector (single - series - parallel). 34 inch scale Brooks EB-RBL-Q-II. A sister of the bass above. Only difference is the Volume and Tone pot. (and it doesn't have a zero fret) Brooks EXB-12-Q. 34 inch scale twelve string bass. Quilted maple top. Mahogany body and neck. Built for Rob van der Loo of the band Epica

Here's a few Brooks headstocks:

Well, almost! It's actually a BaCH short scale semi acoustic bass (EB-2 copy). I was a dealer for BaCH for about 8 years or so. About ten years ago I initiated the Non Reverse Thunderbird project. And that's how I got to be a dealer for them eventually. The EB-2 project was also initiated by me. It almost didn't happen because they accidentally made the first prototype long scale. But I actually like that. Back then there weren't too many semi acoustic long scale bass guitars around. So BaCH ended up making both a long scale series and a short scale series. I've got a transparent red long scale one (actually the prototype, which I put the bridge on myself) And I got a short scale blonde. I took the mudbucker out and installed two lo-z Gibson Les Paul bass humbuckers. It's the one in the middle of my lo-z family.

No it's been down for quite a while. I think it was getting too costly for Odge to keep it running. There is a Facebook group for COL fans though: https://www.facebook.com/groups/cryofloveappreciationsociety/

Robert P Kearns is so underrated / overlooked in my opinion. His bass lines are right up there with Andy Fraser, Tim Bogert and Jack Bruce if you ask me. I don't post an awful lot here. But I do nose around quite frequently 😉

I think that has to be me. 😉 But I never ran a website about Robert Kearns. But I really am a big fan of Robert and Cry Of Love. I used to frequent the COL website run by Oliver Woodall a lot. And the Gibson Triumph that Robert used to play during his COL days was really the start of my love for Gibson bass guitars. I remember vividly seeing them live In Hengelo (NL) and thinking Robert P Kearns had the best bass sound I had ever heard in my life. Took me years to find a Gibson Les Paul Bass myself. My name is Rob by the way (Basvarken means Bass Pig)

Sharp eye. Yes, I do have a kind of a Gibson fetish 😉 Hey, I even wrote a book about it! (www.thegibsonbassbook.com) All my builds are related to Gibson in one way or another. I always look for a combination of classic basses. Such as the LP Jr DC shaped Gibson EB-0 with a 51 P. Or - in this case- the Thunderbird with a 51 P.

Here is a quick video that I made to show you how the Brooks Telebird sounds. The bass is plugged into my MarkBass SA 450 with Eden D210XLT cabs. Mic is a DAP PL01. Via my Minidisc recorder into my iMac. Video recorded with Photobooth.

Did some shielding for the pickup cavity and the control cavity. And I stringed the bass to check if everything was in place ;-) Oh yeah, this was the sketch that I drew before I started the build

Laser engraved pick guards. (Eventually I opted for the single ply black) Thin coat of sanding sealer prior to filling the pores Filled the pores with Rustins Grain Filler. Mahogany colour to enhance the contrast (in order to keep the grain visible after the upcoming paint process_ Sanded the grain filled body smooth After several coats of white blonde (nitro) Exactly the opacity I was looking for After a few thin coats of Amber the body looks yellowed with age After several coat of clears the body was ready for assembly

Stained the neck into a vintage colour After the first coat of clear finish Positioning the waterslide decal. Made in Velp! Positioning the Logo and name decal In the meanwhile I did some shopping: Jess Loureiro pickup, Gotoh tuners and a wide travel Thunderbird bridge set Drilled the bridge stud holes and tail stop holes Drilled the neck pocket holes

Routed the body shape Body shape ready Routed the neck pocket and pickup cavity Routed the control cavity Cleaned up the neck pocket