EMG456

@MPU any left hand ones? It's a habit I can't break- I've always played my right hand Steineys with left hand strap pivots but I don't have enough and so end up having to swap them around all the time.

I'm running Cubase 9.5 on my Surface Pro 4. It's an i7 with 16Gb ram and 512Gb ssd. Use it with a MOTU Ultralite Mk3 interface and if at my desk a big 27" touchscreen monitor. It's working well so far and it is also running the rest of my life - ie not a dedicated music machine. Robin Vincent runs a very informative Blog on using the surface range for music here - http://surfaceproaudio.com/ Laptops and in particular ultra mobile devices like the Surface line will never match the processing power of a big, dedicated desktop but may well be enough to get the job done especially if you apply some tweaks to help optimise for audio.

What a great story! I also remember the desks with the inkwells to take the little glass jars of ink! The perfect footnote to your tale would be something like “and later, Brian May built his famous guitar from the wood in that floor and that’s why it has that deep red colour.” 😀

I don’t know the technical details but it’s basically a piece of wood that’s dyed using a vacuum process to draw the dye right into the wood grain. On a figured piece of wood, the different parts of the patterns have different densities and so draw less or more dye, which gives the overall effect that varied,organic,natural look.

It is indeed something to look forward to but of course it's also a test of patience. In fairness to me, I do have form with this so I don't treat the decision to have an instrument built lightly. There has to be a requirement which isn't met by any of my existing instruments and I'm quite careful with the spec and choice of builder so that there's a good chance that it will match what I'm looking for. That has been successful so far and all four instruments I have had built are still with me. Only once did I cave in to the frustration of the wait and that's why I now own two Chapman Sticks!!

snap!!

'On song' is pretty comprehensive for lyrics, chord sheets, setlists. You can sync all band members tablets together, project lyrics to a big screen, connect your pc for editing. It does metronomes, audio playback, quick key changes etc. etc. etc. I only use a tiny part of it's fuctionality but it's good.

Haha - yes. very good! If you tilt your head to the left, the red area on the top looks like some scary character from Donnie Darko! In fairness, a lot of those extreme figurings along the centreline will be covered over by tuners, bridge, pickups and fingerboard. Still going to look pretty amazing though.

Next, the body has been assembled and preliminary shaping has taken place - this is going to be good... and the back... And that's where we are at the moment. I can't wait but I just have to. Exciting!

Also, by this time Alan had figured out the logistics of the body shape and control cavity conundrum and emailed me a rough sketch of the shape, which I liked very much... So he went off to make the template and crack on.

An email arrives from Alan - suggested fingerboards - here they are. Without seeing them against the top wood, I wasn't so sure but I reckoned 2 was a bit too figured for a fretless board, 3would be very black and plain, nice.. but probably 1 would have a bit of character without being too busy. So here it is against chosen top, brace yourselves... And a bit closer...

This year it was the big 60 for me. Since the big 40 (LOL) it has been my choice to mark these decades with a new instrument commissioned to my own, often niche, specification. The hole in my family of basses if there is one, is in extended range fretlesses - I've never had one so this will be the aim. Now I naturally would gravitate towards a Wal for this and that would indeed be nice but I have for many years been an admirer of the work of Alan Cringean at ACG. His woodworking is easily the match of any of the top makers and his development of the Wal philosophy of pickups and active EQ very much appeal to me. So a couple of initial emails later and off I go to Moffat to speak with the man. As a long term player of Steinberger basses, I'm not exactly hidebound by convention so my opening gambit is "Do you think a bass would work with the body shape of your Reiver Kompakt six string guitar?" For anyone who doesn't know, Alan also makes guitars under the Reiver name and his most popular model has been the Kompakt which is a headless guitar with a body vaguely reminiscent of the Strandberg Boden. Turns out that he had been thinking of it and so with the proviso that he would need to work out if that shape would give room for a control cavity big enough to take the preamp and still have a decent control layout, this is what we will move forward with. Here then is the spec. Krell Kompakt 6 string 32" scale headless Body Black Limba with ART Maple Burl top. Neck bolt on 5 piece maple/ wenge laminate with carbon rods Fingerboard at that time not chosen. Pickups MC6 multicoil Preamp ACG DFM I picked a nice piece of Black Limba for the body and after some deliberation, threw cation to the wind with the choice of top - it wont be to everyone's taste but I Think it will look stunning! Unfortunately, no pictures were taken that day so we need to wait till Alan offered me suggested fingerboards to see what we are talking about.

It's all very subjective too. Interesting you mentioning Warwicks- I like the look and sound of many Warwicks but have never enjoyed playing any I have ever tried. I know they're good but just don't seem to be for me. Fortunately, I'm only about an hour away from ACG HQ so I'll probably take a run down and spend some time with a couple of examples.

I've got a couple of pics of the rough body carve - I'll start a build thread for it so y'all can share the drama!

Can I ask what the odd exceptions might have been? This is the perennial problem with having instruments made - you can't try it before you buy it!

Thanks for the replies all - it seems you all like the flat board so I think I'll go with it - variety being the spice of life and all that! eude - it's going to be an Uber spec. 32" scale headless, with the multicoil pickups and the new(ish) DFM preamp. Body shape is the first of a new model, based on Alan's Reiver Guitars Kompakt model. Oh, and a completely mental ART top! ikay - Alan was saying that the neck carve he is doing now is less pronounced than he has done in the past so that will be interesting to me. Again, I don't have any with an asymmetric carve - brave new world!

Guilty as charged... thanks!

Big birthday year for me and being celebrated in the time honoured fashion of having a new bass made. So I have a build in progress with Alan Cringean at ACG. It's a six string fretless and I've gone with what is becoming a standard feature of ACG's - a completely flat fingerboard. Anyone using a bass setup like that and if so, what are your perceptions? Like/ dislike? All of my basses so far are radiused and I don't think it's too late to change my mind so any informed opinions welcome.

A “big strat” Fender bass with 24 (25 in the picture!) frets. I like that.

I remember that bass so didn’t even have to look at the video. It’s a Schecter from back in the day when they were a small US based custom shop.

Joni surely understands the importance of the bass. Bennet’s lines on Hissing of Summer Lawns are fantastic, for example In France They Kiss on Main Street and also Harry’s House/ Centerpiece. Inspirational and for me anyway, influential playing. Thanks for the music, Max.

You’ll never know till you try- just don’t trust the average dealer setup.

Yes, very pure, very little distortion and live used those Acoustic cabs with the big white HF horns in. It’s a shame that they never got their act together to reform. Three of them gone now, I think and Betty Thatcher, the poet/ lyricist. Saw Annie with “Renaissance” last year. Her voice still very impressive but the band, all very fine players, didn’t seem to have the grandeur of the classic lineup.

I’m all Ricked out now...

And here’s Jon Camp with Renaissance and the sublime voice of Annie Hallam.