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Show us yer fretlesses!


Rich

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28 minutes ago, zomnius said:

@ Rumple, what bass is that. Solid cool looking bridge!  Love the immaculate westone too, wow!

Thanks, it was made for me from a body I had bought that my late Great Uncle added a thin but pretty veneer to, it sat in the loft for nearly 2 decades before I finally had it made in to a bass a few years ago. I have a love hate relationship with it.

The bridge is a Hipshot A Type.

i agree that Westone is cool, I lusted after one just like it in a local-ish music shop in Rushey Green back in the day.

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14 hours ago, ezbass said:

Gigsounds? The upright playing frog in my avatar came from there.

Yes that's the place! me and my mate used to go there a lot back in the day, just to browse mostly I don't think I ever bought anything from them due to being young and skint.

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1 hour ago, Rumple said:

Yes that's the place! me and my mate used to go there a lot back in the day, just to browse mostly I don't think I ever bought anything from them due to being young and skint.

The guy who owned that and the Streatham Vale branch, Eric Lindsey, was the guitarist with Gentle Giant way back in the day. He also once played with my covers band back when I was playing guitar, I felt somewhat redundant. That area was quite good for music shops at the time, there was a large shop in Lewisham (Eric Styles?), Gigsounds in Rushey Green and another shop just up the road in Catford where I bought a Yamaha SA2000 (never should have moved that on). Add to that Tune Inn in Lee Green and you were spoilt for choice.  A bit different now.

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4 hours ago, ezbass said:

The guy who owned that and the Streatham Vale branch, Eric Lindsey, was the guitarist with Gentle Giant way back in the day. He also once played with my covers band back when I was playing guitar, I felt somewhat redundant. That area was quite good for music shops at the time, there was a large shop in Lewisham (Eric Styles?), Gigsounds in Rushey Green and another shop just up the road in Catford where I bought a Yamaha SA2000 (never should have moved that on). Add to that Tune Inn in Lee Green and you were spoilt for choice.  A bit different now.

Very interesting stuff, I bought my 1st bass (a P Bass copy) from Len Styles, I'm sure Tune In still has one of it's shops in Lee Green! It shows up on Google Maps HERE

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On 2017-12-19 at 23:08, Basvarken said:

My acoustic short scale fretless bass.
My goal was to build an acoustic that was as loud as possible without amplification.
I failed. It isn't loud (enough).
But I do enjoy playing it once in a while.

 

9742807_orig.jpg
3183925_orig.jpg

Nice instrument!
Tell more about it... :) 

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Well, I did tell some already.
But to sum it up:

My goal was to build an acoustic bass that would be loud enough to compete with an acoustic guitar without amplifying.
So I gave it a very big body (wide and deep). I used a bass bar and a staple, just like a Cello.
The sound holes are actually built as bass ports. 

In this pic you can see the construction.
 
3187303_orig.jpg

Body sides and back: Maple
Top: Spruce 
Neck: maple-rosewood-maple
Fretboard: ebony with mahogany fretlines
Bridge: ebony
Tailpiece brass and ebony
Tuners: Gotoh lightweight
Scale: 30"

I also gave the bass an inspection hole. Initially meant to be able to (re)position the staple. But it also comes in handy as a sound port, because it reflects to the player  while being played.
1009573_orig.jpg

Here's a shot of the back
 
9837573_orig.jpg
 
 
Like I said: The experiment failed. The bass is not loud enough.
But it is pretty! ;-)
 
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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 months later...

One of my fretlesses :

15 mm from string to string at the bridge, 9 mm at the nut, one piece hard rock canadian maple neckthrough with Para rosewood (Dalbergia Spruceana) fretboard, bubinga wings, 2 Bartolini's Quad Coils wired in parallel and passive with volume, balance and tone.

It's a 31 positions unlined fretless 6 strings bass, so you can even do some Michael Manring with it. O.o :dash1: :biggrin:

So what's that for ?

The rarest LEDUC : the MP 631 SF (MP for Masterpiece).

5aad544f5b8fb_LeducMP631SF(01).thumb.jpg.91d008cf8cfa5ccb854168d045e00fec.jpg5aad545621c98_LeducMP631SF(02).thumb.jpg.2944c196ff9a544626756916aa4d5721.jpg5aad545d3bab8_LeducMP631SF(03).thumb.jpg.50e7d0f309a1234a4b43a9b440fe5590.jpg5aad5465c96f6_LeducMP631SF(04).thumb.jpg.5d2120b177b48398a970f37cf583d3f8.jpg5aad547022c9c_LeducMP631SF(05).thumb.jpg.758e8bed875b7fe70101592a49506f3c.jpg5aad5478f27c5_LeducMP631SF(06).thumb.jpg.1844c9d78113a016d30d3b179b102e5f.jpg5aad547ea8aea_LeducMP631SF(07).thumb.jpg.6da9240ddaa6408ba8f41db4fe65bd14.jpg5aad54816ef9b_LeducMP631SF(08).thumb.jpg.626f5f6ea8a05b15f1b20edfeced4267.jpg

Edited by Hellzero
Pictures corrected.
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U.S. Masters (r.i.p) EP42 in lacewood.

I had the neck made by Masters, fretless with black epoxy for the lines. It has the Armstrong Tone Choke passive circuit with mid cut and boost at 2 different frequencies and blend for the amount of effect. Other knobs are just volume and pickup blend. Sperzel tuners.

U.S Masters EP42#2.JPG

P1000930.JPG

Edited by MoonBassAlpha
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On 01/01/2018 at 18:46, Basvarken said:

Well, I did tell some already.
But to sum it up:

My goal was to build an acoustic bass that would be loud enough to compete with an acoustic guitar without amplifying.
So I gave it a very big body (wide and deep). I used a bass bar and a staple, just like a Cello.
The sound holes are actually built as bass ports. 

In this pic you can see the construction.
 
3187303_orig.jpg

Body sides and back: Maple
Top: Spruce 
Neck: maple-rosewood-maple
Fretboard: ebony with mahogany fretlines
Bridge: ebony
Tailpiece brass and ebony
Tuners: Gotoh lightweight
Scale: 30"

I also gave the bass an inspection hole. Initially meant to be able to (re)position the staple. But it also comes in handy as a sound port, because it reflects to the player  while being played.
1009573_orig.jpg

Here's a shot of the back
 
9837573_orig.jpg
 
 
Like I said: The experiment failed. The bass is not loud enough.
But it is pretty! ;-)
 

That is beautiful. I presume you do that professionally?

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My homemade 6 strings fretless with the extraordinary Q-Tuner pickups first generation coupled to the very musical and transparent Musician Sound Design 3 bands preamp. 3 pieces flamed maple neck with black Gabon ebony fretboard bolt on a 2 pieces basswood body with bookmatched spalted walnut top.

Byl was my nickname when I was young.

It's now fretted and fitted with an aluminum Hipshot 18 mm strings spacing bridge instead of the brass Hipshot 19 mm strings spacing one.

5a88228f045ad_Byl6Fretless5picture.thumb.jpg.93910daa564a622d5e6b8574c405fb3a.jpg

5a89948e7ba46_Byl6Q-Tuners07.jpg.06d5724ac2facd10305a92f1a33780b1.jpg

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