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My new custom built 'hyper' jazz


DiMarco
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I designed this thing in my mind, combining features of my other basses and then made this somewhat visual using my impaired photoshop skills.
Once I was happy about how things looked in the digital world I had it built by Vincent Guitars in the Netherlands. Now it is real and here to stay.

Two bridge pickups in one casing - the front coil is sitting at sixties bridge pu position. They can both be switched on/off and in series/parallel using the 'jaguar style' switches.
Slanted neck pickup for a more even tone across the strings. It crosses the E string at the usual jazz bass neck pu position.

Thick Bubinga lacquered fingerboard because my Rickenbackers sound so awesome with it.
Red Cedar body, Black Walnut top, Purpleheart+Maple neck. The thing is very resonant and lively, deep sounding.

The pickups were also custom made by Vincent, I requested a tone somewhere between my Ric v63 (which has high output and this really warm but tight bottom end going on) and a regular jazz. Vincent tried out the v63 and agreed that is one great sounding bass. The pickups he came up with seem to be spot on for what I requested. When switching between modes you get these types of tone:

  • Single coil (either) - Really snappy treble and tight lows. Somewhat scooped compared to the other two modes. The treble slightly differs between the two coils, I use both depending on the stack I play through.
  • Parallel - The treble becomes more gentle but is still there and the midrange comes through better. This makes the instrument punch through mixes better which is sometimes a hard task with Jazz Basses.
  • Series - Humbucker mode makes the bass sound 'bigger'. It becomes a lot more growly in this mode and can compete with my Rics for excellent rock tone no problem. I was amazed the first time I heard this!

What do you think? Me I totally love it!

01-Hyperjazz-front.jpg

02-Hyperjazz-back.jpg

03-Hyperjazz-full-angle.jpg

05-Hyperjazz-body-angle.jpg

06-Hyperjazz-body-angle2.jpg

07-Hyperjazz-body-angle3.jpg

08-Hyperjazz-headstock-front.jpg

09-Hyperjazz-headstock-back.jpg

10-Hyperjazz-headstock-angle.jpg

11-Hyperjazz-body-back.jpg

12-Hyperjazz-body-neck-back.jpg

Edited by DiMarco
typo
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The building process was a blast too, whatsapp messages and phonecalls almost daily about ideas and things coming up.
Seeing the progress from day to day of an instrument that is growing into a bass completely the way you want it is a nice experience!

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1 minute ago, DiMarco said:

The building process was a blast too, whatsapp messages and phonecalls almost daily about ideas and things coming up.
Seeing the progress from day to day of an instrument that is growing into a bass completely the way you want it is a nice experience!

How long did it take to build.

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Killer bass, one of kind, really special, aesthetically screams quality and beastly tones (shape of the headstock is somehow 'controversial' but that's what makes it stand out even more, I like it)

 

it's passive, right? some sound samples would be great!

 

how much does a custom build like this cost?

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12 minutes ago, Romeo2 said:

it's passive, right? some sound samples would be great!

how much does a custom build like this cost?

Yes, I wanted a passive bass that is as flexible tonewise as humanly possible. I also play my Zon and Warwick five stringers which are active since I feel that makes the low B work better - but I really prefer passive basses generally.

The price tag of my particular bass sits somewhere between 4900 and 5300 euro, but I am a long time friend of Vincent (we played in several bands together in the past 25 years) so I payed quite a bit less then this. I just asked him "what if you made the same instrument but without all the extras like the laminated neck and exotic top" and that would make the price drop to somewhere between 4000 and 4500 euro, depending on the prices of woodtypes used.

Edited by DiMarco
typo and another typo - must be getting tired
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3 minutes ago, Reggaebass said:

That’s really good, considering the quality and how much work has gone into the build 

Yes, the guy works really hard but I figure he enjoyed this particular project as much as I did.
In total he spent 118 hours. I'll see if I can link some video's he sent me while building.

I still have to record some sound samples to share, but haven't got round to this yet.
I have only owned the instrument for a week now.

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Sound clips won't be coming before next weekend, I have a busy week ahead @ work doing IT stuff.
I will chime in and link those soon as they exist though... Cheers for all the positive feedback!

This time I may have really found the one bass that will stay on. (gawd the numbers of instruments I have flogged after a while...)

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 year later...

The Marcus Miller is no longer just that. Its neck had developed a serious warping problem which made the B and E strings unplayable (3+mm action).
So erm... Here's what happened next.

Fless0.thumb.jpg.d3289ccd521de2ef69ee2e3f0164b18a.jpg

Fless1.thumb.jpg.1e292c7562149ce55a8a133d121337e9.jpg

When soloing the bridge pickup, and boosting the active lows a little ... bliss!

 

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