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Buckeye Lightweight 5 String Build


Rumple
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[quote name='jazzybass' timestamp='1384240244' post='2274248']
Great review, I bet it was hard letting Dave take it back?

[/quote]

It was a bit hard having to hand it back.

Dave is down in London on 25th and if the bass is finished he will bring it with him :)

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  • 4 weeks later...

[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Dave delivered the R5 (as I call it) yesterday and this morning I had time to take a few shots of the beast,
see my previous review earlier in this thread for an overview of my thoughts on the bass,
to sum up I think it's a handmade thing of beauty, it plays great and has a wide variety of sounds,
I've already got to grips with the very flexible rotary switches. There are a couple of minor things I'll get
Dave to look at at some point next year but I'll speak to him first before mentioning them here, as I think
that's only fair, I'll also wait and see how it sounds with the band before having any tweaks done and
that's not until the end of Jan.


Now Dave has change the back of the neck to a satin finish I feel much more at home when playing the bass.

I've weighted it using my bathroom scales and it comes in at 8.8lbs so not ultra light but a far cry from the 9.6lb SR5 I usually use.
I've tried it out on a strap and it feels comfortable and well balanced with no neck dive.

I'll include my original Photoshop mock up that I gave to Dave at the start of the build, pretty bloody close :)

I'll report back at the end of January with an update but for now I'd just like to thank Dave for his skill, hard work, patience and amazing service.

This is my original mock-up:[/font]

[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif][attachment=150209:Buck eyedia.jpg][/font]

[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]The bass:[/font]

[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif][attachment=150212:R5 Body Detail lr.jpg][/font] [attachment=150211:R5 Full Angle.jpg] [attachment=150210:R5 Full lr.jpg]

[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif][attachment=150213:R5 Back lr.jpg] [attachment=150214:R5 Headstock lr.jpg] [attachment=150215:R5 Neck Joint lr.jpg]







[/font]

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  • 1 month later...

I can report that the R5 sounded fantastic yesterday :) so many tone variations from a passive bass, far more versatile then most basses I've owned including active ones, in general it's bright and punchy and really cuts through the mix but is less aggressive in humbucker mode then say a SR5, this thing has a character of it's own though so I shouldn't be comparing it to other basses.

I've never seen the point of a tone control on passive basses as usually it just turns the sound to mud but I was using it a lot on Sunday, it nicely rolls off the highs without messing up the tone, it works a treat for more old school tunes.

No bad back or shoulder ache today either! the weight and balance were spot on, it's a small bass and that also worked very well for me.

Next step is to get the bass back to Dave so he can do a few tweaks for me, one being the bridge has run out of adjustment before the intonation could be pulled in to tune, on a bass with a small body placement of the Hipshot bridge can't go any further back, we might have to look at alternative bridges so the saddles can move further back, I'm not at all technical so I'll be guided by Dave.

The back of the neck is satin and the fingerboard glossy at the moment I've asked Dave to make the fingerboard satin to, which he's kindly agreed to do.

I'll report back in a few months when the adjustments have been done and I can do a final summary.

R.

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  • 1 year later...

Update!

Having lived with this bass for a while I had a change of heart on the fingerboard, after a brief spell of enjoying Maple I've gone back to liking dark woods, couple that with trying out a 33" scale bass Dave had made for himself and loving it I asked him to modify my bass, so here it is in all it's glory, it's now 33" scale length with an Ebony fingerboard, through body stringing and a bigger slot for getting at the truss rod.

I think it looks a lot nicer and it plays much better, it was a good bass that's now a great bass :)


[attachment=199454:P1010591 retlr.jpg]

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Hi Ian,

I don't think it's necessary but as my bass has a small headstock as well as 33" scale the through body stinging means the strings are still cut to the same length as usual, that way you get the tapered part of the B and E strings going around the tuner post, if the stings went through the bridge it would be the fat part around the tuner, which is not ideal.

Does that make sense?

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[quote name='scojack' timestamp='1440679908' post='2852902']
Perfect sense Rumple thanks, i'm not too bothered about winding a string wee bit past the silk but like you say it's not ideal and with a fat B string to contend with as well ....i'll look into doing it as a string through :)

great help Rumple ..thanks

Ian
[/quote]

You do excellent work so I'm sure whatever you decide it will turn out great.

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[quote name='Andyjr1515' timestamp='1440832807' post='2854146']
It looks cracking with the ebony fretboard, Rumple :). Has that and the shorter scale length changed the sound as well as the feel? If so, in what way?
[/quote]

It's really hard to say, I told Dave there was no rush to do the job so I was without the bass for quite a while add to that I decided to change from half rounds to round wounds at the same time which obviously make it sound brighter.

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