Mr.Grey's CS Prototype Nitro Cellulose Jazz Bass

[HeadlessBassist]

I'm sure a lot of you have followed the progress of our very own @Silky999's Build Diary of the 'Nitro Cellulose Experiment' Jazz Bass. Well, while on my travels for a theatre gig in Torquay yesterday, I visited Silky999 and picked this up.

 

With so many conversations these days of basses being prohibitively expensive, this is perhaps a different route to a really nice instrument.

 

Now complete, this nitro finish bass is a lot more than the sum of it's parts. The Nitro finish really lets the bass speak and it really does have a voice of it's own. I'd personally rate it much higher playing-wise than a Mexican Fender, and sound wise, it'd give my American Original a run for it's money. Don't expect these to be around the £300 (cost of parts) mark for long!

 

 

 

Edited yesterday at 11:04 by HeadlessBassist

[Silky999]

3 minutes ago, HeadlessBassist said:

I'm sure a lot of you have followed the progress of our very own @Silky999's Build Diary of the 'Nitro Cellulose Experiment' Jazz Bass. Well, while on my travels for a theatre gig in Torquay yesterday, I visited Silky999 and picked this up.

 

With so many conversations these days of basses being prohibitively expensive, this is perhaps a different route to a really nice instrument.

 

Now complete, this nitro finish bass is a lot more than the sum of it's parts. The Nitro finish really lets the bass speak and it really does have a voice of it's own. I'd personally rate it much higher playing-wise than a Mexican Fender, and sound wise, it'd give my American Original a run for it's money. Don't expect these to be around the £300 (cost of parts) mark for long!

 

 

 

 

Arrr thanks very much for your lovely feedback. It was a pleasure to meet you yesterday and I’m looking forward to working with you on your next idea!!!

[HeadlessBassist]

Well, a few days on and the combination of the Okuoume body, roasted maple neck/fingerboard and nitro finish make for a generally highly pleasing tone.

 

It's only lacking sonically in the top end frequencies (which I put down to the Wilkinson pickups), and having looked into the standard pot specs etc of my Fender Am.Orig on the technical diagrams, I've ordered a set of the Fender Pure Vintage 66 pickups from the current Fender Vintage II 66 model.

 

I was originally going for a set of Lollars, but this is a nice prototype bass and doesn't really warrant over £200 on a set of pickups. I'm hoping the Fender PV 66 set should give a sound somewhere close to my American Original Jazz with its PV 64s. 

 

Edited 22 hours ago by HeadlessBassist

[Silky999]

3 hours ago, HeadlessBassist said:

Well, a few days on and the combination of the Okuoume body, roasted maple neck/fingerboard and nitro finish make for a generally highly pleasing tone.

 

It's only lacking sonically in the top end frequencies (which I put down to the Wilkinson pickups), and having looked into the standard pot specs etc of my Fender Am.Orig on the technical diagrams, I've ordered a set of the Fender Pure Vintage 66 pickups from the current Fender Vintage II 66 model.

 

I was originally going for a set of Lollars, but this is a nice prototype bass and doesn't really warrant over £200 on a set of pickups. I'm hoping the Fender PV 66 set should give a sound somewhere close to my American Original Jazz with its PV 64s. 

 

so you decided for the pickups over the pot capacity changes then? Lol. Let me know how it goes with the Fenders as I would

like to move away from the Wilkinsons.

If they get you closer to the sound of your American then we may have struck value for money bass gold!! An affordable jazz bass that is on par with a Fender American 

Edited 20 hours ago by Silky999

[HeadlessBassist]

Hi Steve, yes I looked into the technical diagrams of my American Original and found that they still use 250k pots. So the real difference must be in the pickups. I’ll do some recordings when they arrive before and after… The Fender set is only £109 as well, so good value.