bloke_zero

A new day a new body. I feel sorry for what this will go through. It's a 2 piece alder Guitar and Bass Builds body from ebay in a rather fetching copper leaf (no, it's NOT rose gold, no matter what my wife says!). It's very nice feeling, well finished Waiting for the pickup routing template before doing anything too drastic to the wood work, hence the bulge in the pickguard where the battery is. For a bonus round anyone care to guess which badly played eight bars is the alder and which the merenti? https://www.dropbox.com/s/l7567zasojgkwco/bassbodies.wav?dl=0 They feel pretty distinct to me, though maybe not as much difference as I'd thought. Recorded straight into a UAD Arrow interface through the HI Z input with the vol and tone on max. We'd be supposing that the hi mass bridge would abstract out most of the body effect (yes, yes, I know, tone wood schmone wood).

Interesting! That seems like a pretty obvious QA checklist - is everything the customer paid for done?! Still, I guess mistakes happen and it's always the problems that get the air time.

I just put together an EMG based P bass with a roasted maple neck and, I think, a Meranti body from Gear4Music. So far so fun! The body is very light and resonant, the EMG's clear, authoritative and very unforgiving of bad technique (uh oh!). I was really inspired by ead's limelight build: Though I'm not there yet I do have 2 EMG p pickups, so this is step one of getting somewhere close. I think I'll need an alder body with the double reverse P routed in. Or maybe a body blank as I found the drilling of the bridge and neck pocket much less difficult than I thought. Anyway, some pictures (I know it's not exactly a looker...):

Monster indeed - that last video with the low - is it B? Sounds like it would shake the floor!

Nice one - looks like we agree within a milimeter.

And if anyone wants to check my maths on the pickup placement before it goes into production I'd be grateful!

I've just ordered a custom bass body from guitar and bass build. Pretty exciting! James there was very good. He was nice enough to talk through what I wanted in excruciating detail. * Capri orange nitro finish as new * MM and P rout with MM in the sweet spot and the P reversed so that EA is in the traditional spot * Stingray body shape * 2 piece Sapele I've a roasted maple neck, pickups and Luistand Preamp from the previous incarnation. Just waiting to see how long it'll take - I expect in the new year sometime. MMP body pickup placement.pdf

These have additional sensors in the frets which solve pitch tracking issues (determining pitch from audio takes a few cycles to workout - having a sensor on the fret makes it instant). I'd assume the Godin don't have that. Which is why these basses are so sought after.

From their site.

Better than a pair of socks you don't need or want!

It certainly got quite warm when I turned it on! I still haven’t run a bass through it, sounds nice on my old tele though.

Congratulations - it doesn't look like an easy build - especially having to source all the components. 450 Volts from 9V - wow!

Plus one for both suggestions - they are both really helpful. Pedal parts is more clones and versions of clones (though they do some originals), Musikding feels like it has a wider range of original designs.

Supposed to be an 12AX7 (ECC83) and an EL84. There were 2 EL84 - the ECC83 (as I understand it!) is a preamp, the EL84 a power amp. No wonder it wouldn't work.

Oh, I zoomed in - Frog preamp. How's it sounding? I just FOUND a Huges and Kettner Blues Master left out on a neighbours wall to take - they'd put the wrong valves in it 🤷‍♂️

That looks MONSTER. What is it? I hate off board wiring too - I think people that do it a lot get really good at measuring ang guiding the wires - I always end up with a big surplus loop. I do a lot of DIY modular synth and some of the modules I've bought from other people - the wiring is so clean it makes me want to cry!

Wow! I don't know how I'd feel on stage with that in my hands. Loving the electronics - multimode envelope filter!

It's the inexplicable name of preset 15 on a Lexicon Vortex circa 1996: In this case it's actually 'Select low or high gain mode'.

I caught sight of this in the Joy Division doc on, I think Amazon Video.

Really interesting video - quite different - I agree with the comments above that the stock bridge sounds brighter and clearer. I'm not sure I agree about EQ fixing things easily. Getting that clarity and definition is much easier if the core sound is already there. EQ can introduce a bunch of artifacts, and of course, can't add something that just isn't there.

I had the Gotoh version - it felt pretty good! Quite a bit heavier and more solid than the stock one though. Anybody going to admit to having gone titanium?! https://k-t-s.com/collections/bass-saddle-bridge-set

Yes, serveral times. No, no import fees. I think because they come in letter size pacakage it hasn't been an issue. I just built the simulcast (pedalpcb hudson broadcast clone) for a friend: Has a Mullard OC71 from the early 70's - sounds really good! The drilling guide was too tight on the footswitch - didn't leave enough room (hence the plastic washer). My first attempt at waterslide decal!

When it came to me the body was clearly an experiment in the other direction (I bought it off ebay wood unknown) - northern ash, MM rout, aluminium bridge. Very scooped. Great sustain. Potentially great for slap tones. Having sat with it a couple of years and recorded it many times, I always end up fighting it with EQ and gating/compression. Leads me to think something more resonant will be better - something more middy, where there is a note bloom as the resonance of the string sort of gets sucked up by the body - hard to explain, but I can feel it my hands, hear it, and hopefully get an easier to shape sound.

Unfortunately everything in this day and age is a marketing term. hmm. Maybe my scope is too narrow. At this point I’m tempted to order a mahogany body with the pickups routed to my specs and see how it sounds over the next ten years!