After much thought I've decided the fretless bass isn't for me. Well atleast right now. So up for consideration is my custom made copy of a gibson ripper.
Lets start with the body. The body is one piece made out of cerejeira which is brazilian oak. It has a beautiful grain, as you can see in the pictures, and in my opinion has a sound that perfectly suits a fretless instrument. It has a percussive attack to it. Has excellent clarity and definiton on the low end and good mids. It is not lacking in the treble but its definitely not a bright sounding wood like say maple. Low end definition is its forte.
Now the neck. In keeping with the aesthetics and closeness to a ripper i chose an ibanez roadstar 2 neck that was defretted and had a headstock that resembled the original gibsons very much. It has a 24 fret maple board with black dots.
The pickups and electronics. In keeping a vintage sound I fitted the bass with vintage US made electronics that came of a 60s harmony bass. The knobs are for volume and tone, and the switches are on and off for each pickup. Very versatile instrument. It is very sensitive to where you are plucking by the way.
The hardware and pickguard. In keeping with the general aesthetics of the instrument I had all the hardware be matte black. Cloverleaf tuners, 3 point bridge like the original rippers, and black pickguard.
Weight wise its about 9 pounds, my bathroom scale isn't accurate enough for a better number. It doesn't feel heavy on the shoulders for sure.
It is currently strung with labella deep talking flats which have seen little to no use. I will ship along with a gator heavy duty gigbag which new costs about 60 dollars.
This bass was completed six months ago, and has seen maybe 10 15 hours tops playing time. This instrument begs to be played, so here's your chance to get a unique instrument.
Priced now at US$450 and that includes shipping from my part which sets me back about 200 dollars to anywhere in the US. For those of you curious, I ship via EPS
http://www.eps-int.com/ which is a local courier in my country which works with all major US carriers. I've sold various instruments here on TB and feel free to contact anyone whos dealt with me before. I got a rick4003 from here to California in just 2 days, perfect condition so theres no need for you to be worried about shipping.
Trade interests at the time, basically none. But shoot me offers, worst I can say is no. I do like 5 stringers a lot though. I'm currently gasing for a G&L 2500 if that helps. Would add cash to the right deal.
So here are the pictures:
and the necessary action shot:
