Kiwi's Shuker Headless MIDI 6

[7string]

I'm surprised you're so relaxed about all this. I would have been throwing the toys out of the pram by now.

[Kiwi]

[quote name='7string' post='472360' date='Apr 25 2009, 08:06 PM']I'm surprised you're so relaxed about all this. I would have been throwing the toys out of the pram by now. [/quote]
I've thought about it but I don't think it would motivate him that much. Jon's not in the game to make money, I think. He's in it to earn a living but to enjoy what he does. If he was in it for the money, he could have become a furniture maker instead and earned loads more. I'm meeting up with Chris Celinder next week when he stops off in London and he's in pretty much that same position (although his operation was larger than Jon's at one point). Being essentially a one person operation, whatever time Jon spends talking on the phone or to people who drop in unannounced, chasing suppliers or doing the accounts, the less time there is to spend on the luthiery. Rob helps but doesn't get involved in any of the tricky custom stuff, so a long wait is inevitable for the custom work. Plus the more I harrass him about my stuff, the less time he has to spend on other people's instruments and there have been some like MacDaddy who have been waiting longer than me. At least I've managed to play my instrument!

In project management there's always a trade off between time vs cost vs quality. You can have two at the expense of one, basically. Jon's definitely about quality and value for money so its inevitable that things are going to take longer if he has to figure out new ways of doing stuff without charging by the hour for his time. I think it might be like this for most one person operations that are successful regardless of how much they charge.

[Dood]

[quote name='Crazykiwi' post='472425' date='Apr 25 2009, 10:43 PM']I've thought about it but I don't think it would motivate him that much. Jon's not in the game to make money, I think. He's in it to earn a living but to enjoy what he does. If he was in it for the money, he could have become a furniture maker instead and earned loads more. I'm meeting up with Chris Celinder next week when he stops off in London and he's in pretty much that same position (although his operation was larger than Jon's at one point). Being essentially a one person operation, whatever time Jon spends talking on the phone or to people who drop in unannounced, chasing suppliers or doing the accounts, the less time there is to spend on the luthiery. Rob helps but doesn't get involved in any of the tricky custom stuff, so a long wait is inevitable for the custom work. Plus the more I harrass him about my stuff, the less time he has to spend on other people's instruments and there have been some like MacDaddy who have been waiting longer than me. At least I've managed to play my instrument!

In project management there's always a trade off between time vs cost vs quality. You can have two at the expense of one, basically. Jon's definitely about quality and value for money so its inevitable that things are going to take longer if he has to figure out new ways of doing stuff without charging by the hour for his time. I think it might be like this for most one person operations that are successful regardless of how much they charge.[/quote]



I just like to say, excellent post. The wait for a custom instrument is totally worth it and I have utmost respect for Jon.

[Kiwi]

OK, I collected the bass from Jon's yesterday and I had a quick go on it last night. Have to say I've missed not having it around. The neck pickup does sound different and a lot mellower. In fact in the upper reaches the bass actually sounds like a jazz archtop! I also took the Stingray and Spector NS5CR up there and used Jon's fret file to do some levelling and dressing. So now both also play really nicely too. I also A/B'd the Spector (which has 'my' sound) and the Shuker and...well, not to put too fine a point on it, the Shuker ate the Spector for breakfast.

The Spector is very, very nice now its been fret dressed. The sound is warm, soft sounding, growly (which is a surprise for an all maple instrument) with nicely compressed treble. It sounds like my old Smith 5 but with more midrange which makes for a great workhorse. However, it sounds dead compared to the Shuker which is in a different league. Every note is super clean and literally jumps off the fingerboard yet the bass isn't too aggressive like a graphite through body necked instrument. The neck has also settled nicely while its been in the workshop and the bass is developing some nice midrange purr. The closest comparison I can think of is a Fodera or a very lively and bright 4 string W&T bass I tried at Bass Direct a while ago.

The ironic thing is that although it's not exactly what I asked for, my tastes have also moved beyond Smith basses anyway in the time its taken for Jon to build the instrument.
So, I guess all I can say is that its an inspiring instrument. Very individual, true to Jon and I think its capable of being judged on an equal standing with any other instrument being currently built and that includes Alembic, Fodera and Smith (although all have their own tonal personalities to a greater or lesser extent).

Jon also completed a body for some Steinberger parts that I'd been collecting over the last few years and put together this for me:

[attachment=25107:DSC01884.JPG]

Cute huh? Plays like a dream too.

[JPJ]

[quote name='Crazykiwi' post='486711' date='May 13 2009, 10:34 AM'][attachment=25107:DSC01884.JPG]

Cute huh? Plays like a dream too.[/quote]

Er I dont wish to come over as some sort of pedantic tw@t, but isnt that a guitar

Pleased to hear that the bass is back in your hands. Is all the midi stuff sorted out on the bass then?

[Kiwi]

[quote name='JPJ' post='486734' date='May 13 2009, 10:55 AM']Er I dont wish to come over as some sort of pedantic tw@t, but isnt that a guitar

Pleased to hear that the bass is back in your hands. Is all the midi stuff sorted out on the bass then?[/quote]
Yes its a guitar. I just let Jon off the leash for the body, so long as it was from mahogany I didn't mind what the shape was.

The MIDI stuff is kind of sorted but I won't know for sure until I get a set of newtone strings on it. Apparently the bloke has been inundated with orders for winding strings for other manufacturers so there's a bit of a lag on custom orders. Its unlikely I'll have a set before I go to NZ so I'll have to get Jon to send them over I guess.

[mcgraham]

That guitar looks amazing. Headless WITH whammy WITH sustainer... does it have piezo/midi? Please say it doesn't, otherwise extreme jealousy will kick in...

Mark

[Kiwi]

[quote name='mcgraham' post='486778' date='May 13 2009, 11:43 AM']That guitar looks amazing. Headless WITH whammy WITH sustainer... does it have piezo/midi? Please say it doesn't, otherwise extreme jealousy will kick in...

Mark[/quote]
Hey Mark, it doesn't at present. I don't think piezo transducers are available for Steinberger R-trems at the moment. But given I have all the other kit anyway, it would only need a body mounted pickup for me to do that, so its definitely something I'm considering. I just wouldn't be able to play the guitar as well as I can play the Shuker.

Speaking of which, I fitted a set of Thomann supplied La Bella Slapper strings with the exposed core and it made a hell of a difference to the tracking. The B string lacks a little guts played through the piezos but the notes are much more stable and there's much more control over the note attack and decay. It feels like the MIDI side of things could be reliable and sensitive enough to play live.

[OldGit]

[quote name='Crazykiwi' post='524497' date='Jun 26 2009, 07:00 AM']La Bella Slapper[/quote]

chortle