durhamboy

Beautiful looking instruments and real quality workmanship judging by the pics. The walnut one is a stunner. Sorry I can't contribute with a Ric inspired build of my own, but I'm sure there are plenty around here who can.

Coming along very nicely. If you still want the "Crafted in Scotland" decal, you could always put it on the back of the headstock, like Fender do.

You're probably right, many makers are using alternatives to rosewood due to CITES restrictions. There's lots of Wenge and other mid to dark coloured hardwoods being used now. Synthetic Rosewood will become more common too I expect. I noticed the other day that new production Eden necks have synthetic fretboards, apart from the ones with maple boards.

I bought two 'Maida Vale' P pickups.(I assume relatively new UK pickup winder, I couldn't find much in the way of feedback or reviews, but his approach interested me, plus his P's are wired for parallel and series.) The output and number of winds sounded about right for what I was looking for. A touch more output than "stock", but not as high as most overwound types. (The pickups have arrived and look to be very nicely built.) Although I find the pickup placement of Lee's P bass interesting, I didn't want active EMG's like his. The Maida Vale passives will be paired with a Noll 2 band EQ circuit with active bypass. Will these pickups will deliver what I looking for? Time will tell I guess.... Hopefully the build will get a start soon, though I need to finish a house renovation. The end is in sight, but if I stop now to build a bass, life would certainly (and justifiably) not be worth living. 😉

Looking forward to seeing your build progress. I like the idea of double P's and have a couple of P pickups waiting for a Lee Sklar tribute bass. His double P had the pickups located fore and aft of the original P rout as opposed to one in the original position and another back nearer the bridge.

Love it!

There might be something in this plastic versus metal knob thing? Leo Fender put metal knobs on Telecasters and Precisions, but plastic ones on Strats and Jazz basses... Is that why they have different distinct tones? But wait, then there are plastic knobs with brass inserts, this is seriously complicated when you get right into it isn't it? Maybe hearing the difference in sound is a bit like hearing the sound of one hand clapping? I still have some solid brass knobs left over from the 1970's in a parts drawer, maybe they'd add sustain to my bass? A comparison between brass, steel and aluminium knobs might prove interesting... Maybe the ultimate test of all this plastic versus metal knob stuff is to get Eric Johnson to have a listen to a bass fitted with different knobs? Really, this whole knob issue puts the nitro v poly, or the can we hear different tonewoods, debates into perspective and I think my mind is going to explode wondering what will happen if I put an Eveready battery in my active bass, but a Duracell in my Compressor pedal! 😉

As Cato mentioned there are usually a few on US ebay, but they are not cheap, through no genuine Fender necks ever are. Most on ebay will be new, from parted out instruments, often from 'Stratosphere'. Sometimes an cheaper Squier Mustang neck will crop up and some of them are really very good for the money. I bought a parted out (If I remember correctly,made in Indonesia?) six string Mustang neck, for a replacement job and it was beautifully made from nice pieces of maple and rosewood and finished with an excellent fret job and nicely rolled fretboard edges, I really couldn't fault it. I don't know if 'Allparts' do a short scale replacement neck, they might be worth a try, they do a quality product and are Fender licenced. They'll be a bit cheaper than genuine Fender, but will be unfinished.

AH, the trials and tribulations of sourcing guitar and bass parts. Being in Australia I'm pretty much used to relying on ordering parts from overseas, mostly the USA. It's not that some parts aren't available here, it's just that range is limited, prices are mostly very high and delivery time can be sluggish. Even with our currently terrible exchange rate of about 70 Aussie cents to the US dollar and postage added, buying from the US is usually cheaper than buying locally. Still, things are generally easier than they used to be when it comes to sourcing parts, I'm old enough to remember having to buy guitar magazines to find advertisements for suppliers, write to them and wait to see who would sell to a small scale overseas customer. (in the days before the internet, on line shopping and before fax machines...) Still, finding that the occasional, 'couple of weeks on back order', can turn into repeated phone calls and emails and the weeks rolling on into months is never fun. Hope your bridge turns up soon.

I've got to say I like your fretboard, I've always been a fan of wild and irregularly figured wood. Certainly not conventional, but it is striking.

OK, interested to see what you've got, particularly the Warmoth neck with the "frivolously figured fretboard".

Good job, glad you're happy with the result. Some things just eat away at us and can't be ignored don't they?😉

If you really are new to these tools, get some scrap wood and practice to get the feel of what the tools will do. If you haven't any clamps, invest in a few, you'll certainly need them when using tools like routers. Take your time and as gjones mentioned watch your fingers.

I have done more or less what you describe with an appropriately sized flat tipped engineers punch on a few occasions, either to level a set of ferrules or to remove them completely. (Once to get a punch of the right size I cut the tip of a suitable sized nail and ground it flat to make a punch.) If the string holes in the body are slightly larger than the holes in the ferrules it is doable.

Good compromise on the neck. As for the ferrules, they can be tricky, especially the types that sit flush. I don't know about sanding the body around the two you say are a bit low, unless they're really obviously low and you can't stand how they look. (Would anyone else ever notice?) By sanding down to them you'll create a dip in the otherwise flat body, the result might make you less happy than the small irregularity with the ferrules depth... From your picture the G string ferrule certainly looks slightly low, I couldn't be sure which of the others is low, the A or the D? I'd have a think about it before acting, but if you do decide to sand, go slowly, feather away from the ferrules gradually and good luck.

"They’ve all essentially sounded like amplified versions of their acoustic sound, which has been different in every instance. But they’ve all been maple. I even recently had a bass made which is essentially a replica of my main bass, partly as an experiment to see how it came out. Result? Sounds nothing like it. 😉" Yes, the variation in sound/tone between different samples of the same wood can often be as great as the differences between species. (within reason of course, not comparing maple to say balsa wood.... ) Because wood is derived from a living thing, it is variable to some degree, but generalizations are made, such as mahogany sounds 'warmer', maple sounds 'bright' and alder is the 'even' all rounder, because those descriptions are close enough, without making the whole subject too complex. It is basically true, maple is fairly hard, reasonably heavy, tight grained and it's transmission of upper frequencies is more pronounced than for lower ones. Mahogany might roughly be characterized as the reverse. The generalizations are an acceptable guide, though reality might vary a bit.

Yes, the thinner body shouldn't make any appreciable difference,(especially as no one will ever hear that body at any other thickness...😉) Ricks, Gibson EB's, SG's, and many other thinner bodies guitars and basses, seem to be considered OK, not lacking in "sound and resonance".

I don't know about these new fangled super thin decals, but I always found that for the old types, more babies bath water (or lukewarm) was better than 'room temperature', whatever that is? Regardless, some decals just seem to be a real pain. Good luck with the next one.

That is a lovely looking body, I wouldn't cover any of it up with a pickguard either. The oil finish should give the grain some real depth.

"There are so many variables that work either for or against a note developing once you pluck a string that it's hard to isolate those that may have marginal effects on what you hear because they may be swamped by the things that make the biggest impact making them negligible." I think that observation gets pretty close to the essence of this , 'does wood make a noticeable difference' conundrum. Whatever difference there is, will probably be more apparent where a large amount of a wood is present, as in a 4 or 5 lb.ash body, as opposed to say a 5 oz. strip of rosewood in a laminated neck. Going back to the OP's original comments, Alembic may well be right that the addition of small amounts of different wood (based on their hardness, density and ability to transmit vibrations) could colour the 'tone', the reality may be that any small effect might well be lost in the 'mix'. "I have confidence in them as bass builders to be assured of getting a bass that will have the ability to give me the sounds I want regardless of what the wood it is made of, and it will be a easy to play and be ergonomically sound too." Which sort of indicates that Alembics approach probably was/is to develop a construction approach based around their pickups and circuitry, combined with hardware, construction techniques, quality control and the uses of particular 'core woods' to provide the base tone palette. That allows them to use the feature decorative woods that they are famous for, while still delivering versatile and consistent instruments?

"Unfortunately its a sample of one of each type of wood, so scientifically the result is meaningless. Give a sample size of 100+ of each type of body wood and get consistent results from the majority of each sample and I will concede that you can make absolute statements about the effect of a particular type of wood." BigRedX. Of course you're right, for any test to provide results that could be considered in any way valid, multiple tests would need to be undertaken under strict scientific conditions. Probably including identically sized lengths of wood with the stings mounted to each piece (like on a through neck build) via fixed points at the same scale length. Quality sound recording and sound wave, sustain and decay readings would probably be needed and the whole process would take hundreds of hours and a fair bit of expense, which is why it hasn't been done.( Added to the probability, that whatever the result, many musicians would still say that they can, or can't, hear differences, regardless of any findings... )

No, at least I didn't read what you were saying that way. I tend to agree with you, while I think the woods used in a guitar or bass will add to the overall sound to some degree, I think it would be very hard for anyone to identify small amounts of particular woods in lamination's, they'd certainly have much better hearing than I have if they could. Mostly I'm just happy if I build something from quality pieces of wood with a good tap tone, quality electrics and pickups, good hardware and it turns out to be comfortable and sounds good when played and looks nice....

Is that identifying the type of wood by sound alone in a finished electrified bass, or identifying the wood used on it's own by tap testing it? (both tests might be interesting?) I'm not being a smart derrière, I just read it one way then thought maybe I understood it wrong... I remember reading an interview with Lee Sklar saying he picked the body for his famous double P pickup bass from a big selection of P bass shaped bodies at the Kramer (?) factory, by tap testing them until he found the one he thought sounded best. All were Alder.... But yes, this is one of those discussions that will never lead to a definitive conclusion. Wood is variable, even within species, the combination of pickups, hardware, wood, electronics, playing style and the human ear means none of us hear exactly what anyone else hears. (And each of us will decide at what point experienced comment passes into marketing hype....) This will live on alongside, which finish allows the wood to vibrate more, nitro, poly, oil finishes, or no finish at, all and does the dead dried wood in a guitar body really "breathe"?

I don't think anyone is saying that, (Alembic are obviously very good and experienced guitar and bass builders, but so are many other companies and small scale custom builders who may have different opinions and approaches.) only that some of the statements about the benefits or sonic differences, of relatively small additions of slightly different timbers, (at least in density, hardness,and weight) might be considered a little florid and the actual real world effect might not be as obvious to the ear as suggested. (At least in a solid body electrified instrument). Laminating necks can provide the opportunity to impart a degree of stiffness and possibly a resistance to twisting, in a neck, but the direction that the grain of the various pieces and whether the strips are flat sawn, or quarter sawn, is possibly more critical than the types of timbers, as long as all the timbers are proven to be suitable for the structure they're applied to. Certainly some combinations due to colour and or grain, might provide a more visually appealing combination and that's fair enough. Although I started out building guitars and basses in the 70's, with laminated through necks of exotic timbers, I've spent most of the past twenty years building guitars, not basses and multi layered laminated necks and bodies are generally much less popular with guitar players than they were back in 70's and 80's. In fact many electric guitarists argue that laminated bodies inhibit vibration transfer and actively avoid such instruments. (Likewise, active electronics are much less popular with six stringers than bassists, perhaps actives compensate for any possible negative effects of lamination's? Or perhaps six stringers are just more conservative than bass players when it comes to innovations? ) 😉

I agree that different woods do influence 'tone' (ah, that magical word) though because of the often striking differences exhibited in acoustic instruments, more weight is sometimes given to wood types and their effect in solid body electrics than is really apparent, especially once tone shaping electronics and massive volume are added. (The difference in sound/tone we hear while playing an instrument at home volumes, or unplugged, would almost certainly be more pronounced than any possible variations in wood species would to someone in an audience at a live venue.) Heat, cold, rainfall levels, soil quality, competition from other vegetation and other factors, all play a part in affecting how trees grow, which can effect their growth rate and therefore density and weight per cubic foot and it will affect the tone and sustain to some degree. (Lee Sklar said that when choosing the body for his famous two pickup P Bass, he tapped a whole lot of Alder bodies at the factory and picked the one he liked based on it's particular tap tone.) American northern hard ash and southern swamp ash are the same tree species grown in different climatic areas. The weight and density can vary greatly from "swamp" to "northern", but also the weight and density varies markedly depending on where in the tree a board is cut. Some sources say that higher in the tree produces heavier boards than lower down, so high cut swamp ash might weigh about the same as low cut northern ash. Isn't it all so wonderfully complicated? In the end, a good sounding instrument, is a good sounding instrument, whether it's built from 25 super exotic hardwoods, an old plank from the shed, or a block of plywood. I love wood, it looks and feels beautiful and every piece is unique. Plus it helps produce the sounds we want and expect to hear and we can feel it doing it as we play. But it comes from a natural, organic, growing thing and it will vary,. That's why it's exciting to play the first note on a newly built instrument...