Henrythe8

I went through teh same kind of existential crisi 🙂 

Therefore, My Stradi bass has a special feature. 

It has two Delano "The eXtend" pickups those are quad coils. 

 

Mine are specifically wired in order to have P/QuadCoils/Reverse P so I can choose. Each pickup also has its own preamp. 

Turns out the difference is quite subtle, but really useful when playing with the EQ. 

I'm pretty sure the most difference comes from the pickup placement 

 

I also encourage you to check out Rock Sugar. 

https://www.youtube.com/c/RockSugarBand

 

Sub'd. We love to do mashups with my band. 

we play a great mashup of Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath (like this one but better 🙂 )

 

We also have a great Day Tripper/Are you gonna go my way. 

BUt love to hear all those propositions. 

 

 

I really like the headstock and aligned tuners, space saver and great looking. 

The Bass Room. 

 

In the box

The WorkHorse Ibanez BTB675 with DarkGlass preamp, repainted numerous times. 

Goldie the Modded HArley Benton PB50 Lefty (thread in the Build diaries) 

Amber the nice Modded Harley Benton JB40 (thread in the Build diaries) 

Hazel the bitchy Harley Benton PB50 lefty (thread in the Build diaries) 

Regal Dobro bass acoustic, strung Piccolo. 
standing the NS Design Wave fretless. 
Warwick Reverso Signature 

Warwick Dolphin Pro1 5 strings
Warwick Buzzard BO, converted 8-strings by local luthier with custom neck

Warwick Buzzard BO5

Ibanez BTB 845 Terra FIrma 5 strings

FrankenFender Sally, Japanese body with Warmoth maple neck, reverse PB, Billy Sheehan inspired. 

Vintage Icon VJ75 Fretless

Isabelle, Specotr NS2 with Bartolini pickups and Kahler tremolo

Amunet, custom made Stradi Bass

Fender assembly : flea body with new MiM Roasted maple precision neck, EMG J set. 

 

AMps :

TC Eelctronic BG250-208

Warwick LWA1000 with Markbass NY Ninja 212 + Alain Caron 123 

SWR 550x on a SWR Henry the 8x8. 

 

 

Excellent thinking. I tried with some nail varnis then phosphorescent paint but it was too messy. The powder + glue in tube is a good idea. Thanks. 

 

Thanks. I appreciate the compliment :-) 

I might try to do things properly, as opposed to do them quickly :-) 

I am able of assembling and disassembling, but not able to build from scratch. Those are really great in order to experiment. A bit like Fender Alternate Reality, although pushed a bit too far. 
 

The process is rather enjoyable. 

And Finally... Goldie.  

First bad Idea on this was to remove the varnish.  

 

Stupîd as instead of a nice smooth surface, I have bare wood. I realized this and stoppped there. Yeah, I'm pretty good at Half-Assing something. 

 

Insertion of luminlays in the neck. 

 

And that hard Thomann Maple made my saw bend backwards...  

 

And then it was Routing time with a frien of mine. 

We used a handmade jig to route the pickup cavities. . 

And then routed a bit more for the cables. 

 

Thank you Rothko for the Decals. 

I used two cans of Pébéo : Gold hrome and Gold glitter. 

Of course I messed up. :-) 

And then I messed up again, and again, and then I had no more paint so it stayed messed up. 

Added a bit of transparent varnish on the headstocks. 

 

The final result of paint is "it's so ugly it almost becomes interesting" ugly. 

 

Like the others, light tuners from allparts and a vintage bridge so I can adjust the string spacing with the pickups. 

 

 

The Pickups... I hate those. Hate. 

 

Chines chepies form the bay. I followed great advice in order to wire them in two parallel duos, then wired in series. 

Didn't work. All series, neither. Only the first pickup. All aprallel was way too quiet. 

And then as I was contemplating the very smal amount of cable left attached on the pickup... I realized. 

Hot, Neutral AND GROUND ! 

So I rewired everything pseudo correctly, Grounding done two by two in parallel, then in series, and it worked out OK. 

The signla is still low, and I still have a buzz. I blmae my lack of competencies and the chinese crap. :-) 

Alas, in the process of wiring dewiring rewring, I broke a screw in the wood, hence messing my alignment. 

The original cavity for the controls is covered by Plectrum celluloid. 

 

 

 

 

So here's Goldie. 

 

Pin strap relocation and light tuner counter the reverse intrument's neckdive pretty good. 

If I had left the varnish and only painted Gold Chrome, I would have an "as new" instrument. I kinda like the "used" feel and looks this has. 

 

The sound is... pretty unique. Very vintage-y and tubular, Kinda P-bass but not really. 

Output is still low. But the concept is validated for me. 

 

 

 

Hazel is AMber's Evil Twin. 

It's a lefty HB PB50 body sunburst, equipped with a Squier Mike Dirnt Neck I found on Evil Bay. 

Some challenges here. 

The "comfort chanfers" are reversed, so when you rout the body to place new cavities... well, you have to be cautious, and find the good spots with the right depth. 

I sanded the body as I thought I was going to respray it, but opted for the raw ugly look. 

 

 

Tuners are again AllPArts light. Strap button is higher also to help counter neck dive. 

Controls are the one from a Telecaster I had laying aroundI used the plate to cover the hole of the original controls, and added some lights just to show off. I even found a switch that fille dprecisely the output jack :-) 

 

 

pickguard or no pickguard... 

 

 

Soundwise, this one is a lil'beach. Like a bad tempered wirehaired dachshund. The difference between the coils is subtle but present. Neck is a bitt deeper, bridge is Twangier, the HumBucker mode if surprisingly modern and Slap-able. 

 

 

 

 

Ok. The first one is Amber. 

Amber is a JB40fl body, with a lefty PB50 maple neck. 

I reshaped a bit the head into a PB style. 

Really nothing fancy here, just a bit of sanding and a neck swap. 

 

For the Side Dots, I had ordered Luminlays, but installed those on the other neck. For this one, I thought I could be creative. 

I shouldn't have. 

So I drilled some 3mm diameter holes, 2/3mm deep. I filled those with a dark purple nail varnish my wife allowed me to use. I did several layers, so it'll dry nice. Then I filled the remaining with some Phosphorescent paint. I saw the TruGlo product but couldn't find them here in France, so I settled for another paint on Amazon. That stinky poo never quite dried up, even after 3 days, and made horrid smudges while sanding. 

Anyway, the result if devastatingly ugly. 

So I left it as is as a reminder of never settle for less. 

 

 

The bass itself is really good looking (thanks to the photoflash veneer), and the contrast between the Sunburst and Maple is nice. 

 

 

AllPArts Light Left Handed tuners

 

 

Strung her with some plats, she sounds pretty great for a budget instrument. 

 

 

 

Iron branding. Good. 

Dat Wengé grain, tho... This promises to be sooooo sexy.

I'll try with acrylic/epoxy. 
https://www.driftwoodworks.ca/tables
Stunning. And the guys makes basses too, so I'ts still related 🙂 (Yes, not on the right side of the pond, but I'm pretty sure someone in the UK is able to do this). 

 

Despite Brexit, ParcelFOrce understaffing, French post being lazy as... well, French Post, buying the Flea Bass body from Martyn was of course a great experience. (no seriously, he was very helpful and dealt with my impatience and anguish like a pro). 

 

I can only recommend doing business with with bagsieblue :-) 

(oh) What a Night - Frankie Valli

sub'd. 🙂 

Broadneck have a standard 4-string spacing on a 5er. Thanks to the Warwick bridge, spacing is adjustable to your needs, so you can go down to 18mm. I personnaly find it easier to play, going back and forth between 4 and 5ers, as you don't have to adjust to the spacing, you just add a storey to the building 🙂 

The pickups are splitcoils, P-Shaped in a soapbar housing. Clear and full sounding. 

Lovely example of what a thumb should be 🙂 

Meaning that should you (why ?) want to reposition the P pickup in its original position, it is possible. 

I find this bass very sexy. 

Since July 1st, EVERY parcel coming from outside the EU into the EU will be charged with VAT. 

MEaning that as of July 1st, EVRYTHING you send to the EU will be held back by customs. So if you sent a bass or anything without face value, custom work won't be possible. 

It was meant to counter the AliBaBa, Wish, and so on, but it'll affect everyone. 

Wow, thank you A LOT for the tips and clear explainations. I'll try this. 

 

Definetely stunning. I'd call it Banana. That's the Headstock shape inspiring me. 🙂 

 

I'm quite frankly amazed on how you did the branding both builds. How did you achieve this ? 

Today is tomorrow. 🙂