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Jaydee GA24 Custom


Captain Bassman
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[attachment=5211:GA24_Custom.jpg]

OK, here's the first sneak preview I received from John Diggins last week! :huh:

I wanted something special to mark my 40th birthday last year and decided against a big party. They don't last long enough, especially if you can't hold your booze like you used to! So, I did some thinking bass-wise and narrowed it down to three makes - Sei, Status and Jaydee.

Whilst I think Sei basses are fantastic, they're just not me - too "organicky" if you know what I mean? Status are fantastic too - very well built and totally practical but I already had 2 at the time (I now only have one...). So, I spoke at length with John about what I could do to his base GA24 model to make it unique for me. A few weeks, several phone calls and e-mails later and the order went in!

What I've done is base my order on the 25th Anniversary GA24 he made a few years ago (there are pictures of this on the Jaydee website). The main changes John is making for me are;

The headstock will be tapered like a Pangborn Warlord, instead of the classic forked shape that Jaydees are famous for (John had absolutely no problem with this!!)
Both the upper and lower horns have been sharpened - they're quite blunt on the GA24 compared with his Classic model
Face wood for the body and headstock is Cocobolo
Gold hardware, knobs and individual string retainers
Unbound neck and headstock (keeping things clean and minimalist!)
Active electronics only - no passive switch or master tone control (again, keeping the lines clean and simple)

She's due for completion by the end of March - not long now!! ;) I must say that John is a great bloke. Nothing has been too much trouble, even me making last minute changes to the spec, and his opinions with wood choices etc has been invaluable.

He's a very busy man so if you're thinking of ordering a Jaydee be prepared for a long wait - mine was 22nd in line when ordered and it's now 4th in line for completion, some 12 months later... :)

Anyway, I'll post some more pics when I get them.

Laters!

David

Edited by Captain Bassman
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At last! A JayDee build diary!

That body looks great...the horns are definitely and improvement of the normal GA.

John did some custom work on a Gordon Smith guitar of mine years ago and he was great to deal with and did a brilliant job. He custom wound a humbucker for the neck position and added a push pull pot so I could go all single coil. One of the best sounding pick ups you could imagine.

I will be watching this one with interest.

Paul.

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MB1. :)

Met John!
He just recently overhauled an 85 Active Roadie for me!..... Diamond Geezer! and what a refreshing change to the usual builds posted (thought this was becoming the Shuker diaries). I also will be watching this one with interest,along with George Anderson no doubt!.

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  • 1 month later...

OK, sorry not to have posted anything new for a while, for those of you interested in a non-Shuker build!

John's extremely busy, as always, so I don't like to keep bothering him for updates and pictures etc. He's currently on hols too!

Anyway, the latest news is that my bass is now 2nd in line for completion - up from 4th last time I posted. So, the hope is that she will be completed within the next 4 weeks! :)

That'll be 14 months from placing the order - good job I'm a patient chappie!!!! :huh:

I've asked for another picture but it might just be that I'll have to post them when I've picked her up (at last!)

Stand by all...

David

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OK, here's a picture that Andrew Diggins kindly just sent me of the neck in it's early stages of construction (hopefully by now it's attached to the body...).

You can clearly see the revised headstock shape. All credit to John for allowing me to change from the usual Jaydee design!

The finished headstock will be completely faced with the same Cocobolo as the body, so the neck laminates won't be visible from the front. The JD logo will be centred between the four tuning posts.

The oval fret markers will have inset blue LEDs and I have elected not have the neck or headstock bound.

I have a big gig at Stamford Bridge on the 13th April and am desperately hoping that she'll be born in time for that!!

David

Edited by Captain Bassman
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  • 1 month later...

Well, here she is, finished at last! 15 months from inception to delivery but worth the wait!

The build quality and finish is absolutely first-class and everything I had imagined, but better. It was delivered yesterday morning and got its first outing last night - straight into action!

Sound-wise, it's got a rich punchy tone off the mid-pick-up position and really honky (Jazz bass-like) off the bridge pick-up. Having played with the tone knobs a bit and adjusted the input gain on my amp I got a fantastic sound very quickly for gigging but I'm sure there's a lot more sounds to be found inside.

The neck is gorgeous - just like a slender Jazz bass neck, especially around the first 3 frets - and much less clumpy than other Jaydee's I've played before.

Balance is superb and weight is good too, considering most of the body mass is mahogany, albeit slimmed down in thickness to acommodate the cocobolo facings front and back.

All-in-all, I love this bass! Big thanks to John Diggins for pulling this off and for being such a great bloke too! :) :huh: ;)

Edited by Captain Bassman
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  • 4 weeks later...

Stunning! Just stunning!

Not sure if you guys are aware but John has a brand new website and this bass is featured within!

[url="http://www.jaydeecustomguitars.co.uk"]http://www.jaydeecustomguitars.co.uk[/url]

The old site can still be found at: [url="http://www.jaydeeguitars.com"]http://www.jaydeeguitars.com[/url]

The Pangborn head shape suits the bass perfectly; you've also combined the traditional `MK' cutaway designs nicely too!
We will have to organise another open day at John's workshop - the last one we had was back in 2001 and was a truly memorable event - some great basses there including the very first two JDs. Must give John a ring to see if he's finished respraying my Classic!

Cheers

Nick

Edited by doctor_of_the_bass
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Thanks for your interest and comments guys.

I've been out with her a few times now and she's great to play. Really comfortable body size and neck dimensions and just the right weight too. The output is quieter than my other 2 main basses, both of which have 18v circuitry too, but a bit of fiddling soon balances this out (in fact my Radial Bigshot I/O switcher has an ideal 'dim' switch that allows me to reduce the input signal of the loudest bass to balance them out).

Now, what's next? Hmmm, maybe a nice '67 P bass to commemorate the year I was born...

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