Alpha-Dave

The colouring is really nice, good work.

Thanks eude, Alan's work does seem to be going from strength to strength! I'm undecided between the 'Top' one and 'Central' to be honest.

Good point DCBear. Well after a brief net survey, the logo position for headless basses seems to be divided into the following camps: Upper horn: Bass labs, Zon, Washburn, Yamaha, Bell&Head, Ibanez, Klein, Marcus, PCB, Synsonics Lower horn: Hohner, Arbour, Cort, Legg, Mach1, Marathon, Miller, Westone Under strings: Status, LeFay, Hondo Fretboard: KGB, Barton Bridge: Marleaux, Warwick (yes they made a one off headless!) Don’t use their logo even though they have one: Sei, Shuker, David King, Kramer, Schack, Bunker, Clover, Ed Roman Plus another dozen or so local-luthier/one offs that don’t have a company logo. I’m leaning towards the upper horn, but there are then 4 options: Top: Lower left: Lower Right: Central: Ah decisions!

Thank you for the replies folks. The logo should be countersunk (at least it is on my recurve): It wouldn’t fir between the bridge and ramp because there is another bit to go in! I think the 3 major contenders are: Tuner recess, ramp and upper horn. I don’t think it’ll work on the ramp, the logo is asymmetric to from the ‘a’ and ‘g’, but the ramp and strings will be perfectly symmetric, so will look wonky, plus the strings will cover it up. The upper horn is a strong contender, putting it in the same position as the p’up selector on a LP g*tar. It may balance well with the control knobs, but then it takes some more of the lovely redwood away. The tuner recess is an option, but I’m worried it might look a little too busy. Any more thoughts? D.

Alan has perfected the form/function of the bass by smoothing out the tuner recess, and the angle now flows with the lower horn and the upper body edge: Now the full bass, pretty much finished. The only debate left is where to put the ACG logo disc as there isn't a head stock. I'm wondering about putting it on the upper part of the limba in the tuner recess, or on the control cover on the rear. Any suggestions welcome.

Agreed, I much prefer this one, for me it's the angularity of it, instead of the curvy look of other SC designs. Another small update, the belly carve: also the the forearm contour and the start of the finger-route smoothing. D.

Excellent news Andy. Hmm, I wonder if I need a spare after this then ... Alan Has now routed the big cavity in the body, and the ramp has dropped straight in! I think the last major wood work now is the forearm contour and the smoothing of the tuner-recess.

Nice work Robbie, I do love that head design!

Excellent, that does sound like a very nice spec. What p'ups are you getting? [quote name='Sugden' post='32782' date='Jul 16 2007, 11:24 PM']What is it with all these 7 peice necks think Im missing something.[/quote] Don't worry, it's only relevant to 5+ strings, a 7-piece on 4s like yours wouldn't look as good as there'd be more glue than wood! [quote name='Sugden' post='32782' date='Jul 16 2007, 11:24 PM']Once you've bitten the ACG bullet you cant stop.[/quote] +1000!

[quote name='steve-soar' post='31038' date='Jul 13 2007, 01:08 AM']Fantastic! Your neck woods are like mine but in reverse. How many emails? I thought mine were excessive. I think ours are off to the spray booth next. Have you seen who's ordered one of Alans jazzes? Mine not even finished but I know what I want Alan to build next for me, can you guess children? [/quote] I think our neck woods look the same (but opposite) at this distance/resolution, but yours will have the open gains on the wenge, plus the chocolate couloration that will look ace as the wood is carved into a curve. The ebony on mine will have no open grains or colouring, which is why it's used in the flat parts of the neck mostly because I figured the bubinga would look better on the curves. I saw that Andy had ordered a jazz, it's a huge complement for Alan that now 4 people who have his instruments have ordered a second within 6 months of their first: I know of no other luthier who has that! I assume your next will be a fanned-fretless in a new flying-V shape, headless 11 string (evenly spaced), strung regular 6 string high-C to low-B, then gback to high-C again: thefore strung left handed on one side and right handed on the other, centred arond the low B so you can play it, then hand it over to a right hander too?

Alan has got the neck carve now sorted. It's gone from this: to this: I'm particulary loving the way that the quilting in the bubinga in the neck is now coming out. With a finish on, the ebony will be almost jet black and the bubinga will really pop! In other news, Alan has had a chat with his oil/laquer people and they say that an oiled neck on a set-neck is a none starter as the oil will eventually work its way under the adjacent laquer on the body and lift it off. Therefore we're going for an all over laquer as all oil isn't an option as redwood dents as easily as pine wood unless it's soaked in laquer.

[quote name='MacDaddy' post='28726' date='Jul 8 2007, 07:33 PM']New handbuilt UK basses for under a grand![/quote] Well yeah, ACG's new jazz range is quite a bit less than that and superb quality. For the record i have no connection to ACG other than owning 2 basses.

It's most likely because no one reads the stickies regularly.

Do you have any spare basses? Get hold of a set of the final strings you'll use and string up all 9 on a 5 and a 4, then have a blast!

That's going to be stunning with a gloss finish!

To be honest the nicest thing about the waiting time it the fact you can save up for it once the deposit is down! The build up is quite a lot of fun though so far, particularly with a luthier as 'plugged in' as Alan. In my ACG email folder I now have 159 emails from Alan regarding this bass and my previous recurve, although I think Alan really is the exception than the rule. I can't recall if it was Rich or OldGit that said that apparently there is a bit of a low a couple of weeks after you finally get your hands on your custom bass as the glow wears off (I think it's the same with buying a new car to be honest), but he said that you then build affection again. One of the most important yet difficult things with custom basses really is know what you want, preferably either visually or sonically or even both!

Right, some more progress here! Alan has set the neck into the body, and the ramp/p'up cover is now sorted so the remaining wood work is mostly the neck carve and the scoop under the tuners and ramp. Lovely! D.

I've bought from a couple of US ebay shops with good experiences both times, and half the UK price inc. postage.

[quote name='mybass' post='24952' date='Jun 29 2007, 03:37 PM']Would anyone know where I could get ETS (German) hardware from in the UK. Specifically for a headless design. I'm looking for headless bass hardware that will use normal single ball end strings. I got the idea from a previous post on a previous bassworld site but cannot find that builders post any more. Cheers all.[/quote] No idea for ETS. Status hardware can use normal strings (status-graphite.com), as can ABM (from Allparts.co.uk) though.

There's very few people who I can see that swear regularly, but when people do I find the Cockney rhyming thing more irritating and offensive than the original words. just ****ing the BBC's top 20 swear words but be far simpler and better surely? Edit: The [push in the truck] one irritates me particularly - it's used as an expletive (to emphasise something), but the filter turns it in to a graphic example - totally the wrong way to do it!

[quote name='wizbat' post='24053' date='Jun 27 2007, 04:51 PM']Here,s an idea!!! the guys in the band said "that,s crazy" so I guess this is where this idea belongs. I,ve been on a quest to get a antonio tsai inlaid 7 string bass into a playable condition and after many hours of fret stoning it now plays a treat but I still had the problem of the fact it is neck heavy due to the fact that the top horn is not long enough so... I had this made :-)[/quote] Excellent, personally I would have chopped the headstock off, but that's a good idea. I'm sure I've seen a horn extension somewhere before too, but I can't remember.

Ahh, gotcha!

You've named your bass already?! How did you know it's a he?

That is petty huge! Does Jim have a p'up winding machine yet or is he making a jig to do it by hand? I guess you're tuning F#-B-E-A-D-G-C-F-Bb so that'd be .160-.130-.100-.80-.60-.40-.20-.10 ? Overwater do the 7 strings .130-.20, and can get the extra low and high IIRC, and i think they're sourced from the UK, as you'd previously metioned you wanted it to be mostly UK sourced.

How's the 9 coming along?