Gareth Hughes Posted September 6, 2010 Share Posted September 6, 2010 (edited) Folks - I bought a new neck for this bass but alas I just don't think I'll be the fretless whiz I dreamed of. So once again - Up for sale is my Ernie McMillen Custom 4 String Fretless. Ernie McMillen builds guitars for the Avalon Guitar Company. Recently he has been working on Zematis guitars at Avalon, which retail at $15,000 in the US. Before that he worked for 15 years for Lowden Guitars, during which time he built many of the Goodfellow Basses that were made there between 1992-96. All this to say that the construction is top notch. Enough about Ernie and now the bass: I had the bass made in 2000, and whilst I do love it so I'm mainly playing upright for most of my gigs so this bass is criminally underplayed. Body is a regular jazz shape (taken from a mid 70's Fender template) and is one piece Mahogany with a bookmatched Rosewood cap (that has some damn sexy stripes running through it). As you'd expect for a ten year old, well gigged bass, it had a few marks here and there. The neck is a WD Music unlined ebony Jazz neck, with an overhang which gives you an extra note at the top (high E instead of Eb on a regular 20 fret bass). The neck wasn't new to me but it's still in great shape. One slight bump around low F# on the E string. I've tried to show that in the photos. The other bump looking thing is actually a small bit of Birds Eye Maple. I'm guessing this neck always had flatwounds on it as there is no string wear. *One quirk - the previous owner played left handed so if you flip the neck upside down there are matching position markers - for those Hendrix moments perhaps?* To get a better fit for the new neck Ernie lined the neck pocket with stained black maple. Bridge is by ABM with adjustable 16-20mm string spacing. The pickups are by Bill Lawrence, the J45 model. These pickups have a huge frequency response and are very even from low to high. The electronics and standard Jazz passive: Vol/Vol/Tone. The bass was originally wired with a preamp with the jack socket side mounted. I didn't get the empty jack socket filled in, just discretely covered, so an active system can be installed without any modification. Asking for £700 shipped to the UK with a hard case. Here's some examples of other basses that Ernie has built: [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=53343"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=53343[/url] [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=57031"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=57031[/url] [attachment=58238:IMG_2611.jpg][attachment=58239:IMG_2613.jpg][attachment=58240:IMG_2615.jpg] [attachment=58241:IMG_2616.jpg][attachment=58243:IMG_2618.jpg] [attachment=58244:IMG_2619.jpg] Edited November 14, 2010 by Gareth Hughes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ou7shined Posted September 6, 2010 Share Posted September 6, 2010 Wow someone else with Bill Lawrence J45s. Absolutely amazing pups. Count the pole pieces folks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kurcatovium Posted September 6, 2010 Share Posted September 6, 2010 They were originally made for four and a half string bass, right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ou7shined Posted September 6, 2010 Share Posted September 6, 2010 [quote name='kurcatovium' post='947458' date='Sep 6 2010, 06:02 PM']They were originally made for four and a half string bass, right?[/quote] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gafbass02 Posted September 6, 2010 Share Posted September 6, 2010 That is just beautiful! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gareth Hughes Posted September 7, 2010 Author Share Posted September 7, 2010 Doh - apologies folks - the neck is by WD Music, not Warmoth as previously stated. Hey, they both begin with 'W', right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KingPrawn Posted September 7, 2010 Share Posted September 7, 2010 Man that bass is beautiful. I have £10. 31 in hard cash in my pocket. please pretty please Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gareth Hughes Posted September 8, 2010 Author Share Posted September 8, 2010 Hey KingPrawn - Yup, she sure is purty. Thanks for checking your pockets too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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