Lockdown Licks Bass #2

[Delberthot]

When I was watching Lockdown Licks with Guy Pratt back in 2020, I had this idea to put a truly outstanding bass together based on things that I love and things I really loved in a lot of Guy's basses.

 

I decided that now was the time to get myself a Status neck, and I'm glad that I did, I don;t think anyone saw the end coming so soon for the production of Status necks.

 

I've had 2 Warmoth basses in the past and they were exceptional in terms of quality and fit and finish so I decided to go with a chambered alder body Dinky jazz bass with a mahogany top with 70s pickup spacing and routed for a double battery box. After watching many Warmoth videos, I settled on Taos Turquoise but not gloss - the satin finish.

 

The rest was easy - EMGs, BTS 2 band EQ, Fender Hi mass bridge and neck plate and the humungous Gotoh EB=P3 strap buttons with Fender rubber washers.

 

Once the bass was put together I played it for a few years and loved it, except from about the middle of 2023 I had an unexpected issue - I had lost lot of weight, going from a mighty 19 stone down to 13 and a half and the bass no longer sat right. I tried other basses and they were all the same. Eventually, I got fed up one night and decided to resurrect my Harley Benton 75 thing with the heavy ash body - that was it, the extra weight made it balance properly.

 

For some reason, after 30 years of playing, I couldn't play unless the headstock pointed upwards. Level was no good to me anymore, I needed the headstock to be higher than the body so I began designing Lockdown Bass #2.

 

It had to be heavy so I decided to go with solid maple and specified somewhere between 6-7 pounds and omit the truss rod trench as the Status neck adjusts at the top and I didn't want to have a scratchplate.

 

I tried many different finishes until my wife saw one of them and said - That's the One!

 

I wanted to do something slightly different so have this time gone with EMG X series pickups and the BQC 3 band EQ but used the same bridge and neck plate.

 

Anyone with a weak back or a fear of heavy basses might want to look away now as I weighed it once completed. The body they sent was 7.4 lbs and the whole bass, considering it has Hipshot Ultralites fitted weighs 13lbs! That's nearly a stone.

 

Luckily I am in great shape and train three times a week so the combination of that and a really good neoprene strap should see me through many a wedding gig.

 

Anyway, here it is in it's original form followed by the new and improved (and heavier) version in Holoflake:

 

 

Edited October 9 by Delberthot

[Mrbigstuff]

Love the finish

[Delberthot]

It looks even better in the flesh - under lights it sparkles lots of different colours

[HeadlessBassist]

That looks fantastic, Delbert - I'm quite looking forward to my build coming together with silky999's hand carved from one piece of Walnut body and one of Kiwi's first run of graphite Jazz necks.

[Delberthot]

Im going to try to get some pics when I take it out tonight.

 

I was going to use my RightOn strap but decided to go with a neoprene one instead