Conklin Custom 5 ‘Sidewinder’ (bolt-on, USA).
Mahogany body with an exceptional, figured American Walnut top plus a central section of figured maple with purple-heart (giving the impression – from the front aspect – of a neck-through construction, as this follows the fret-board configuration).
Neck is 5-piece Maple (flamed central section) and Purple-heart neck, figured maple fret-board with purple-heart binding! With pearl side-dot markers (mounted into binding) and purple-heart octave-dots on the fingerboard face. The neck has a satin smooth playing surface (back) but with a finished (lacquered) headstock (front & back) and fret-board. Superb, 4-bolt (recessed) neck joint and neck/heel construction, with the body-heel taper that runs gradually into the neck.All black Hardware: Schaller, fully-adjustable bridge (including string-spacing), Gotoh tuners. Seymour Duncan SSB-5n & b Passive SoapBar pickups, Active (18v.) circuit (with internal trim pots).
The bass was originally fitted with Lane Poor soapbar pickups – these have been replaced with brand-new SD’s, giving the bass a similar but more powerful overall sound. Controls are: Volume, Pan, stacked Bass & Treble, Mid (all with center-détente)Three (originally 4) bolt rear cover, which is inner-shielded (as is the rear cavity). The inner, threaded sleeve from the fourth bolt is missing, but the hole has been filled to support and ‘balance’ the cover, which works fine.
There is a slight taper/angle, but it appears to have been designed this way. The instrument has a 34” scale and the following strings-spacing: 10mm (nut); 15mm (24th fret); 17mm (bridge – adjustable). Thus the string spacing at the nut is familiar for 4-string (Fender) players, but there is some taper on the fret-board and towards the bridge. It plays similar to the parallel set-up employed by Alembic. Good quality Tribal Planet gig bag.
Overall condition (as in the recent photos) is good/excellent, with just some surface scratches and lacquer chips to the pickup routings.
US$ 1600 plus Fedex (next-day) estimated at approx. $150.
The bass could also be sent 'split' (with or without gig-bag) to reduce parcel size.
Conklin links:-
http://www.conklinguitars.com/index.html http://www.conklinguitars.com/2006bassprices.html
(the new/list price for this bass is $5000+ !!)
