Basvarken
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Posts posted by Basvarken
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Indeed. They are not Gibson bodies. They don't even feature the raised middle section.
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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
My goal was to build an acoustic bass that would be loud enough to compete with an acoustic guitar without amplifying.
So I gave it a very big body (wide and deep). I used a bass bar and a staple, just like a Cello.
The experiment failed. The bass is not loud enough.
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
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Haha, It's a table model. Not really that heavy.
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And I've made a quick video of the new bass. Just me noodling on the EB-N.But you get an idea of the sounds 😉
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Taped off the body to do some pore filling on the mahogany
Next I stained the top a light brown colour to make the flame pop
Sanded it back to get a bit of contrast
After much deliberation I chose blue (other options were bright red and naturel)
Stained the back the same colour.
But oddly enough the colour simply disappeared after several layers of clear coat...Looks almost black now.
Top after a few coats of clear lacquer
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Routed the neck pocket
Used the smoked oak veneer too for the headstock (completely invisible in the end result...
)
Test fitting the neck pocket
And checking the neck angle
Cut the slot for the nut
Once the angle was correct, I glued the neck onto the body
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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...
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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)
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1 minute ago, Bassman Sam said:
BTW, I've just bought the book.
Thank you Alan!
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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
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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".
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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.
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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.
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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
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Here's a few Brooks headstocks:
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20 minutes ago, Jus Lukin said:
Awesome, and with an EB-2 on the front, too!
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.
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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/
Brooks EB-N
in Build Diaries
Posted
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.