Hellzero

In my previous post, I explained what I'm looking for, not who is the best bass builder. That said, the sound is in your fingers, whatever bass or amp you'll play, you'll  tend to reach a sound : yours, that's all. And to get it, you have (not necessarily known by yourself) specifications which need to be there to suit you. So we all have our preferred builders, but explaining why is for some quite difficult.

@ambient : of course, not the new Fodera Anthony Jackson, but the Presentation I.

To summarise, there is no best bass builder, there is the one(s) you prefer and if it's perfect for you, then all boxes are ticked, whatever brand or price. 

I've owned an impressive list of basses (https://www.basschat.co.uk/topic/329699-bldy-gas/?page=2) and tried a lot more including Alembic, Fodera, Ken Smith, Modulus, ... and other boutique basses.

I simply focus on the ability of the bass to reproduce the fundamental of all the notes played (including the low B), the build quality, the choice of woods (and why these particularly), the builder himself and of course the ergonomic. An electric bass is before all an acoustic bass, so it must sound perfectly balanced unplugged. My pickup choice goes to the single coil models because they only sense the string at one position and I do tend to prefer passive basses. To date only three luthiers have reached all this : Ken Lawrence, Leduc and Lefay.

But I need to put my hands on a real Fodera Anthony Jackson as I'm pretty sure it will also tick all my boxes too.

Sorry, but lots of makers are cheating through the on board preamp and heavily anti-fidelity pickup(s), and especially the fact that our ear can rebuild the note through the harmonics.

And it takes time to build an instrument correctly, a lot of time because of the wood drying process between stages.

Got TNT again this morning on the phone, telling me the same crap, but the girl who is at the depot, was way clever than the one I got yesterday and asked the new driver (who started yesterday) who hasn't gone at the moment why he didn't deliver the parcel yesterday. He answered that's because the STORE was closed. Then the magic happened !

She told her, I'm no store and that I waited all day long, and sadly for him at the time he mentioned the police was here for a (long lasting) sewer problem. So he was trapped and finally admitted that he didn't even passed by, because he wanted to be home early...

It should be delivered today, so let's see what will happen.

I told you, new drivers don't give a sh*t about doing their job the right way and they do have company cell phones : really sad world we're living in.

I offer them coffee on cold days and refreshing drinks on hotter ones. Most of them are fine and we always talk a bit about the astonishing amount of parcels they deliver to me, so they know me. The problem is the new ones who are just so ... dumb and selfish. They really don't give a sh*t about their job.

And I'm really fed up by this lack of responsibility, why telling crap when it's so easy to say "Sorry, I had an awful day and just couldn't deliver your parcel. I will do it tomorrow for sure, don't worry, is it ok for you ?"

I've always built good relationship with these people having sh*tty jobs, because I know it's hard for them. But please do respect me the way I'm respecting you, that's all I ask.

You know I've sent and received thousands of parcels, but these days the deliverers are just getting stupider and lazy, simply not doing their job.

And by the way, the girl on the phone has also told me that TNT has been bought by FedEx...

TNT called me this morning to tell me they were going to deliver the second parcel that wasn't delivered Friday. In fact, I had to receive 112 kilos in two parcels (my new hi-fi speakers ordered directly at the factory as there is no dealer over here in Belgium). Friday I only got one speaker, the driver saying I will get the remaining missing part on Monday. I just kindly made him notice that the delivered part is exactly the half weight of what I was supposed to get. How could he forget to take the second half is a mystery to me. Ok, I can wait, even if I hate when parcels stay in warehouses over the weekend.

So, as it was supposed to arrive during the day according to the phone call, I waited all day long, until a bit before 6 in the evening, when I checked the tracking I saw that it had not been delivered because the store was closed !?! Hey guys, I'm no store at all...

I gave a phone call to the local TNT warehouse (30 minutes from home) and waited something like 10 minutes before someone answered. I explained that I had been waiting all day long for a ghost deliverer and the answer was as simple as "Sorry, he didn't have the time to deliver your parcel".

I asked the girl on the phone if she finds it acceptable to tell people to stay home all day long to wait for a parcel that a lazy driver decided not to deliver without even giving a phone call to tell that he was unable to do it for any reason.

No, I'm the culprit as he checked the "Store closed" box without even passing by.

I was really upset and asked for a delivery tomorrow with a narrower schedule time. Sorry, but TNT procedure is between 9 in the morning and 6 in the evening... and our drivers don't have company cell phones to call the clients. That's what I call a great service. We take your money, thanks for that you fool.

So who is the best at being dumb : UPS or TNT ?

We are living in a really strange world where nobody gives a sh*t about anything and certainly not doing their job.

Found what you're looking for, and it's made by Alps :

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ALPS-Precision-2X-DUAL-20K-Linear-Taper-100k-Potentiometer-9-5mmX11mmX17mm/122482891716?epid=844959373&hash=item1c848c9bc4:g:kpsAAOSwjL5ZDkbi

These are made by MEC, I ordered a very specific one some 15 years ago and it's still working.

Yes, for tone and active circuitry linear is the right option.

25k will be ok, as it's only a 20% tolerance which is good for this purpose.

Alpha was offering a similar product years ago, but it seems to have vanished.

Here you can have it made to measure : https://www.banzaimusic.com/Custom-Pot-Duplo.html

Here a black with red stripes one with that Cosmos 1999 bag :

And the red one :

Indeed a Dark Star pickup is mandatory. 😉

30 minutes ago, Happy Jack said:

I had the same in red, even more sci-fi looking than the black one, with the silver plastic bag. It used to be my office bass.

Was the Geiger counter delivered with ? 

Now you can play a cover of this with this Tonika :

This used to be mine. It's not powerful enough to be considered acoustic.

The logo on the headstock and the shape of the headstock says that it's a Schack bass. They've been building him a few basses and maybe this acoustic one.

17 minutes ago, Jimothey said:

@Hellzero sorry but the point I was trying to make wasn't aimed at mass production guitars it was that a Luthier making a one off bass would make the same quality guitar by using a CNC machine or doing it by hand 

In this case, I totally agree with your point of view.

But a luthier is tuning his woods and crafting his instruments according to this. With CNC or mass production instruments à la Fender, Gibson, Ibanez, Yamaha or ..., good instruments are just a lottery.

Except that Jens Ritter is German and making instruments in Germany. 😉

Christophe LEDUC is earning his living (not that much, that said) without any CNC and he's working totally alone. You still can get a totally hand made 4 strings Masterpiece bass for exactly 4400 Euros (active bass with high end woods, pickups and preamp).

3 minutes ago, Dood said:

This month I actually feel like I was born in ‘36 lol!!

It's exhausting, I know, I've been through this with @binky_bass for the Aries I sold him and which arrived in pieces. And it took 8 weeks to get a full refund. 

Wot ? Born in 1976 ! But you are just a kid. 😉

Happy ending indeed.

Beware, maybe someone will be offended. 😋

Go see a lawyer and contact the press : they hate this kind of free advertising.

Got Marco's Mayones Comodous Custom 5 and everything was fine. The bass is new, just as described, Marco is a great guy and we had a warm welcome. I also had the opportunity to give a try to his home made basses, which are very good. You can deal with Marco in total confidence. Zorba says hello to Milo. 😉