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Six String Bass Body - P-Bass Shape


Gareth Hughes
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Hey Folks -

After having a new body made for my six string neck, up for sale here is my original six string body. The body is Walnut on the treble side, Mahogany on the bass side and capped with one piece of Rosewood. The pickups are custom wound Kent Armstrong's. The body was made by a luthier at the Lowden Guitar factory in N.Ireland. Ask any of your guitar friends, or do a Google search, and you'll see how well regarded Lowden guitars are - so this bas is built with that quality. (Oh, Lowden built Goodfellow basses for a while too)

Anyhow - the body is a regular P-Bass shape, even tho the neck pocket gives the perception of a bigger body. The treble horn is slightly reduced to accommodate the 24 fret neck the bass had. The neck pocket is 124mm in length at its longest point, 85mm wide at the bottom of the neck joint, tapering to 78mm at the farthest end. (All measurements approx.)

The body is drilled for an ABM 6 String bridge like this one, it's the 3706 model:

[url="http://www.abm-mueller.com/index2.html?bridges.html"]http://www.abm-mueller.com/index2.html?bridges.html[/url]

The string spacing on the neck for this body are: 17-18mm at the bridge and 9.5 at the nut, so you could conceivably make a wide spacing 5 string neck for the body.

It's currently wired like a passive Jazz bass - Vol, Vol, Tone.

PM me your email if you want any pics of other basses I've had made from the same luthier.

So, all this - body and pickups for £300 plus postage.
[attachment=27551:DSCF1311.JPG][attachment=27552:DSCF1310.JPG][attachment=27554:DSCF1312.JPG]

Edited by Gareth Hughes
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so what are the advantages of two different body woods? i guess it gives a different tone to if it was all one wood? how come you had it made like this (assuming you had it made)? just to be clear, i'm not interested in buying, i just haven't ever seen a bass with two different woods like this before, so i'm just interested in why its like this.

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The two different woods are used much in the same way you'd use laminates - only having them vertically instead of horizontal. As to how much this affects the tone relative to the strings that are on each piece of wood - I guess a side to side comparison with a traditionally made instrument would be the only way to know.

This bass has a very solid, tight and controlled sound with a smooth high end. The rosewood cap is there simply because I didn't like the look of the two different woods on the front.

I didn't have this bass made for me to begin with, but did have it changed to suit me. Story is that I wanted a 6 made and my bass tutor recommended a luthier that had built him a beautiful fretless J-Bass. As it was he had a 6 already made and on sale in a local music store. I played it, loved the neck, the feel of the body, the sound - but didn't like the two tone front. So after talking with him we decided that rather than make a new instrument from scratch, and seeing that I liked the neck, it would be easier and more cost effective for me to just have the existing body changed.

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