So here I have specs to my new bass that will begin on Monday. I have planned this out and have spoken to quite a few luthiers and received a go from one. Should be ready in 4 months. I'll have progress pics as the weeks go by. The following is my new custom;

- 6 string
- 35" scale length
- 5 pc. Walnut/ Maple/ Purpleheart/ Maple/ Walnut Through body neck
- Maccassar Ebony fretboard, Pick up covers and Bridge
- 28 stainless steel frets
- Arched solid Lacewood Body with matching front
- Walnut Knobs
- Dual 2-way truss rods adjust at head
- Walnut trussrod cover
- RSI 4-way adjustable bridge
- Brass nut, bridge saddles and sustain block
- Gold Hardware
Gotoh tuners
Dunlop flush mount strap holder
- RSI passive 4 wire humbuckers with 3 way mini switch for each
( this allows you to choose between in phase or out of phase humbucker or single coil operation for each pick up)
- 3 band active E.Q. with active bypass switch and passive tone control (Duncan Preamp)
( this will give you a layout like this: master volume / pick up blend/ bass/ treble/ mid/ passive tone/ 2 pick up switches and an active-passive by pass switch)
a total of 6 knobs and 3 switches.
Doing your controls like this will give you an almost infinite number of tonal options.
- natural satin clear
- Fitted hard shell case

Special Features:

No inlay (pearl side dots)
single cutaway
fretboard (special design) more or less i am having a Cort look to it.
18 volt flip up battery box* I would recommend doing a cavity with a Lacewood cover.


Let me know what you think, I have designed the bass myself. For the head I have rounded it more to fit with the curves of the bass itself.

Attached is the picture albeit I have changed some of the original ideas what is above in this thread is the final.

um yeah

D@@@@@@@@@@MN!!!!!!!

SWEET MOTHER OF PEARL!!!!!!

thats alot of thing a jiggers and shewadali bang bangs

cant wait to see it

I use to do all that fancy wiring and found out i just had one position i played in so now i just put a volume pot.
With a cap on it.
Any thing over 2 controllers confuses me.

Personally, with that nice flowing body shape I would smooth out the corners of the headstock. Otherwise, I like the overall shape a lot.

wow....i wish i could design singlecuts like that, all sinuous and what not,anyway nice bass! mad props to the design

That bass could control the world....seriously, what couldnt you do with it? Thats amazing man, I hope to do my own custom bass sometime - good luck!
and keep us posted! haha

So the wood has come in and now settling. I have the fretboard and the lacewood shown. I will post the neck woods and more pics of the bass in the near future. The builder has just informed me that all my hardware has just come in so I will post you guys later.

I really like the figure of the lacewood and think it will go quite well with the Macassar Ebony. The headstock will match the body and have birdseye maple logo.

I've also decided to round the head, add a body cut to the top rear butt of the bass, where you arm rests (sort of) and finally adding a jazz pick up in the front to allow more room for the extra frets.

BTW thank you for the compliments.

I once designed a bass very,very similar to this one.
Unfortunatelly the luthier who was to build it decided to not communicate and the whole thing went down.
He still has all the parts...Doohh!!
This one looks very nice too.
I hope it will be as much fun as the shape suggests!
Very nice!!!

So here it is, the full scale template. The width of the butt is about 13 1/2 inches and the horn was altered a bit (thinned out). The head was rounded off and after some time I finally chose this one because it fit best.


The other picture is a prototype bridge, handmade by the builder himself, on a 4 string. Mine will be exactly like this but with 6 saddles but much nicer in quality. I am having the strings go through the body the same way so here is an example of what it will look like. I assume this way there will be better sustain and easeir access to the strings.

(BTW; this bass has a purpleheart top and ash back, for those interested)

How does he set the hight of the strings?
Looks nice!!

Well in response to you question:
I believe, from what the builder has explained to me, the two hole on the sides are bridge adjust and the saddles themselves can move. Keep in mind this is a prototype so he is making changes as we speak now.

On my bass, the saddles will be able to move the string height, spacing, and intonation as well as the bridge height. This is an interesting way and new system for me so I'll be wondering the same thing.

that bridge rocks my socks, i'm always fighting with mine

that tailpiece looks like its from a warwick

...which looks like an alembic rip...
I much prefer the one pictured to anything warwick;)

that tailpiece looks like its from a warwick

Yeah Warwick just copied Alembic's bridge/tailpiece style.

Shame they did not go as far as copying the quality too :D

yes shame it is

Ok,
So now that the we have gotten that out of our system I have new pictures to post. Pictured here is the neck laminate and lacewood in the background. Keep in mind there have been no cuts made yet. I'll keep you guys informed in the future. It is hard to post sometimes since my ship's bandwidth and server are so restrictive. Oh well.:smug:

Ok so we are a little bit closer to making the cuts to the body and attaching the neck. Here is another picture of the bass prior to being attached and cut.

I have been wondering for a little while, is it more difficult to play with a S/C than a D/C? They look absolutely fantastic, and you don't really see many of them, just wondering if they were at all more difficult to play?

single cuts are less "generic" in a sense, but they play the same, of course as with any "new" bass you have to adjust yourself a little and know how the bass plays

I see, i notice with single cuts the upper part (where the opening of the horn would be) is often -perhaps always?- "excavated" to be a little deeper than the rest of the body. Is this to allow extra space for the thumb, as if the cutaway were still there? do any singlie cut basses not feature this? and if so, how do they compare?

Here is the picture of the fretboard placed to givey ou guys an idea. The bass is coming along very well and cannot wait to start playing it.

attached is another picture with the control knobs. Though it may seem a little crowded my luthier has figured out a way to work with it.

Oh and for all you to know who he is RSI. Ray Simonetti Instruments.

Next picture will be of a heel block though I am trying to decided between lacewood and walnut.

After a little mishap with the wood, it's all finally glued up. The heel block was a great idea and once the carving gets done I'll really see the bass for what it really is. Everything else is coming along I just wanted to update. The wood seems much lighter but I don't know if it's because of the light or angle of picture or what.

I hear lacewood is a light wood as far as weight. With a 6 string 35" scale length do you think that this will be too light?

there is no such thing as to light of a bass, unless your neck is extremely heavy and the body extremely light.

I love your design, keep it up!

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Alright guys, and girls if there are any out there. Attached are the most recent pictures of my bass. It's been quite some time since I last posted pictures but I asssure these are ones that you should look at. All that there is left to be done is bridge routing, pick up routing, and installation of electronics and hardware. For the most part the body has to be smooth out but overall it turned out gorgeous. more pictures will be posted.

more pics.

another picture.

Bump

the pixilated attached picts are killing me

Yeah, JPG's would be better than BMP's... BMP's are much higher file size for their resolution, too.

The bass looks good, though. Kudos!

Yeah, JPG's would be better than BMP's... BMP's are much higher file size for their resolution, too.

The bass looks good, though. Kudos!

i can't even view the BMP's for some reason:crying:

never mind, i figured it out

Yeah Warwick just copied Alembic's bridge/tailpiece style.

A common theme ;)

http://www.thorbass.com/slideshow/medium/0032.jpg

Well, as you can tell my bass is coming along and i have learned very much in the process. Of course me being in the military has been difficult since being deployed for 6 months at a time can be time consuming and very strenuous, I have decided I'd join the bass world by making my own instruments. I will be picking my bass in two weeks and sending many pictures along with sound clips. About the sound clips, anyone tell me how?

There are many of you that are extremely talented and I have been inspired.

On that note I'd like to inform you all that I am finally coming back to the states in a few days from my first ever deployment. Although this may not be the topic of conversation that first started this thread I just wanted to get that out. There is much money to be saved towards my first shop along with tools. Any advice. I have a knack for art, perfectionism and electronics. These can be helpful but I'd like to know a little more.

As the title states, she is ready. I will be getting pictures very soon, but have been told heads have turned. Cannot wait.

Absolutely, wonderfully, amazing!!!! Words don't do it just justice...


(sorry that it's in BMP format)

cutaway

More pics...

and some more...

pre-assembly...full side veiw body shot


Sound clips to come next week

that is a beautiful bass!
It looks really comfy too :D

You're killing me with these .bmp files, man. It's 2007! ;)