claustra

I bought a cab from Jamie, in excellent condition as described, shipped quickly and safely packed. Good communications, good price, nice man ! Cheers

Sorry not to update the thread. Loads going on these days. I've been back to the builder with the bass and we have lowered the pickups, this has fixed the issue indeed. As the output was originally quite high, I am even more happy with the sound now. I would think that if only the biggest of the four strings was affected, that might come from the fact that it has more mass to be attracted by the magnets. Regarding the neck pickup, the single coil and humbucking positions sound definitely different. The double coils have more volume and a more modern sound. I prefer the single coil with less compression. I will try and find a possibility to make some decent sound clips when possible.

The bass has arrived, I’ll take better photos when possible. First impressions: Well built for sure. The splittable neck pickup is a great addition to the P. and sounds great on its own. I do not have any recording equipment to make decent sound files though. One issue : The two coils at the neck tend to (not sure this is the right way to put this) pull the E string and notes have a slight vibrato. I have lowered the pickup quickly and the tremolo is lighter, but still can be heard. The thinner A, D & G strings don’t seem to be affected. No time to get into more details now.

Quick update. No visit this week as the bass was being lacquered when I was available, there would have been nothing i could see, or touch. The body is 40mm thick. The regular size for Fenders is 45mm. That should be roughly 10% lighter with no serious alteration to the sound and resonance. Nut : bone Electronics : Nickel shielding Cloth wire

One step further

Thanks for the examples and tips for natural / non chemical finishes. I'll stick to the boring natural coulour and satin polyurethane finish on this one, but this gives ideas for possible spare part assembling that could be tempting some day !

@Cuzzie this looks good, blowtorching must take a lot of care. I quite like the symmetry as well ! I had never heard about teabag staining on this side of the Channel, my Fender P is trans wine red How did you eventually finish this body ?

@durhamboy, I might have to call it the Albino Zebra or something like that rather than the P-rick :)

Fretboard ready to be stuck on the neck with the help of a purpose-made 9.5 radius wedge. White binding just finished.

Second visit : Body curves ! Close-ups show the curly grain of the unfinished ash.

I didn't want to tell his name straight ahead : I'm not getting any discount for publicity and he does not know about this thread here. That's Richard Baudry, he trained with Leduc bass luthier before starting his business, now likes to work on acoustic guitars and has some really nice stock of woods you can browse and choose from. The Yamaha attitude is another inspiration for sure !

@Christine I'll have a visit at the workshop in a couple of days to see the evolutions and will check what type of satin lacquer he will be using. Yellowing over the years is not an issue to me, I like the idea in fact, naturally yellowed lacquer looks far better than most new tainted finish I've seen.

It will be natural. We did wet the wood a little last time, and the grain does get a deeper brown / orangey colour indeed. I won't take the risk of having too much contrast, like this :

A pun worth the investment I was seriously considering having that written on the headstock, but as much as I am aware that luthier built instruments don't sell well, this inscription would mean I would have to keep the bass until the end.

Cheesy, heh !

@Dem Jolie-blues actually Rick spare pickups are not that easy to find. First I wanted to fit a Nordenbocker, but they are delivered without the frame, and meant to fit in a Rick neck pick-up frame . I had a look at TV Jones and Roswell pickups but never had a chance to hear them. I also was aiming at a Lindy Fralin Precision pickup to get close to that 70s p sound I like. Then, there would have been chances that the output levels might have been quite different. Benedetti does everything on demand, and a short discussion lead me towards other tonal possibilities with the splitable double J, and keeping it in the position of a Rick neck pickup. Benedetti will exchange your pickup and make others if the sound does not fit your needs, This helped me make this decision rather than buying a 200$ pickup having heard it on youtube only !! I've had a 70s Japanese P bass with a Dimarzio pickup that was far too fat for me and made me think twice before fitting unknown pickups in this project.

@b7l4s Regarding the finish, I am hesitating between tainting the wood pores of the ash with walnut coloured filler to enhance the contrast or keeping it natural. I have a couple of days left to set up my mind before the finishing work starts.

Body : figured ash (never seen such flame on ash before)

The fretboard (cut from the same maple board as the neck)

Hi all, First custom order for me. (from a luthier in Northern france) I'll try to make a brief description of what I have tried over the years and what I am looking for. I have had only one bass bought new back in 1996 : an Ibanez ATK300, and tried a fair number of second hand instruments, from the cheap old Japanese marvels to the modern and dull American Fender (am I biased ?). From this I have gathered things that prove to work for me : - Lightweight is not necessarily a quality - Ash body and maple fingerboard really sing - Those woods when figured look good - Hipshot lightweight tuners and A style bridge are excellent (from @TheGreek's Overwater custom jazzbass with all the qualities above) - A Precision pick-up is all I need. Passive. - ...but the neck pickup on a vintage Rickenbacker sounds really superb I have turned 40 and decided to thin down the herd and spend a freaky amount of money on a bass that will try to gather those things I like. An Atelier Z , a 78 Precision (of which I want to compare the sound with the bass to come before it leaves) and maybe another Yamaha BB should soon be on the marketplace. It will look like this : Specs : Flamed maple neck with natural pearl block inlays, 21 frets, 6 bolts, 41mm at nut Flamed ash (never seen this before, and the guy has a whole French flamed ash tree drying in his workshop) : looks really good Natural satin finish Benedetti pickups : Vintage P Splittable double-jazz humbucker, Alnico II, on the 24th fret 2 volume, 1 tone and split on the neck pickup Black Hipshot hardware The guy has started already, and first pics will follow shortly.