Walnut & Graphite Jazz Bass by Silky999 & Kiwi, aka "A Bass by Steve... and Steve!"

[HeadlessBassist]

So this all started in the heat of last Summer when I picked up a prototype Nitro Jazz bass in Daphne Blue by @Silky999 while I was on my way to a gig in Torquay. Quite soon after, I added some Fender Pure Vintage 66 pickups and an uprated tone pot capacitor. This bass basically showed that Silky999 was definitely onto something...

 

Again, soon afterwards, I signed up for one of @Kiwi's first batch of Jazz bass graphite necks which he was soon to be putting into production in China. The initial intention was to put the graphite neck onto Silky's Nitro Jazz prototype, but it had already become a very good bass as it was. A few weeks later, I noticed that Silky had started work on his own common shape bodies, and he was in the middle of a Walnut Jazz Bass build. Swiftly adding 1 + 1 together, I came up with the concept for this bass - a sort of homage to my no.1 bass, a 2007 Walnut Status S2-Classic that I've owned for 19 years - so we'd build a sort of Vintage-Modern Jazz with Fender Pure Vintage pickups from the American Vintage II series basses, as well as '66 Lollipop Tuners and other nice Gotoh hardware, but one of the first Kiwi-produced "Aurok" graphite necks.

The neck arrived on these shores about two weeks ago, delivered directly to Silky and the build has been completed in two weeks. He's definitely put a HUGE amount of work into this bass during that time, overcoming several teething issues, not to mention learning to drill the inserts into graphite for the first time, but we've got there. It's not perfect, but gawd, does it sound fantastic?! I was originally going to get a John East J-Tone preamp plate for it, but it honestly doesn't need it. The 500k pots and more than ample copper shielding have made this a very quiet, yet shouty and clear instrument! Sound-wise, it's actually turned out better than I'd hoped, with a deep, growly tone & a lovely clear top end, with that unmistakable graphite 'shimmer' underpinning the sound.

My errors? Well, the first was in the ordering of the lovely Gotoh Lollipop Tuners from Thomann - they're sold as either "4R" or "4L" sets - which I logically deduced would be RH and LH orientation. Er, nope. They're actually labelled for the direction in which they physically turn. Duh. Anyway, I've now accidentally got another bass with "vintage reverse tuners". Yep, we ended up putting them on backwards. I blame the Japanese, personally. Secondly, I ordered a really nice black Gotoh bridge which is seemingly set up for 19mm spacing, as opposed to the usual Fender-style 20mm, so the strings slightly miss the pole pieces, but it still plays and sounds amazing. It can be easily fixed later with a different bridge with adjustable string spacing.

 

So it just remains for me to thank both @Silky999 & @Kiwi again for all their hard work. The bass sounds literally amazing - even better than the Status T-Bass I recently played at Andy Baxter's showroom. No, I'm not kidding. Sound Clips to follow... 

 

 

Edited 1 hour ago by HeadlessBassist

[Silky999]

Arrr @HeadlessBassist, thank you for your lovely comments and your unwavering faith in me.

[HeadlessBassist]

18 minutes ago, Silky999 said:

Arrr @HeadlessBassist, thank you for your lovely comments and your unwavering faith in me.

 

As I've said in previous build threads, get your MGCS Basses orders in soon. He's not only getting a bit good at this bass-making game, but every example I've played so far turns out to be much more than the sum of it's parts. There's nothing to apologize for here, just a great sounding and playing bass.

 

And don't forget, if you've been toying with the idea of one of @Kiwi's AUROK™️ Graphite Necks, go for it. They're great!

 

Edited 1 hour ago by HeadlessBassist