ACG Finished Work.

[tombowlus]

That's a great body shape, and it works oh so well as a headless model.

[loopee]

I want one......WOW

[basssalad]

Hello Alan,
I'm very intrigued with your headless design!Especially the headpiece at the top of the bass!
I've been doing a lot of research on the headless hardware and I see you have used Hipshot,ABM, and ETS. I'm in the USA, so Hipshot is the easiest to get.
What is your take on the Hipshot Bridge/tuner combo compared to the ETS combo you seem to be using more often?
You designed your own headpiece, What did you not like about the ABM and Hipshot headpieces?
Thanks,
Allen

[mikezimmerman]

I had the first opportunity to play the Recurve out on Sunday, and everybody loved it! Of course it looked spectacular, but the tone is what really got the compliments. There's so much range to it!

The EQ gives almost too much flexibility. It's great to be able to shape the sound of each pickup independently, but the EQ02 with a single master filter set would probably do fine in most situations. It will become more natural to use all this flexibility as I spend more time with it in gig settings, though.

I'm absolutely crazy about the neck, which is saying a lot coming from someone who's used to playing Curbows! At my request, it's extra wide (nearly wide 2" at the nut with 20mm spacing), with a C shape and 20" fretboard radius rather than the asymmetric contour and flat fretboard that Alan typically uses. The size wouldn't suit everyone, but it gives the neck a spacious and substantial feel that I love, especially combined with the graphite-reinforced wenge/purpleheart/ash construction and the thick acrylicized ebony/purpleheart fretboard.

Thanks for your amazing work, Alan!

[eude]

Originally Posted by mikezimmerman

I had the first opportunity to play the Recurve out on Sunday, and everybody loved it! Of course it looked spectacular, but the tone is what really got the compliments. There's so much range to it!

The EQ gives almost too much flexibility. It's great to be able to shape the sound of each pickup independently, but the EQ02 with a single master filter set would probably do fine in most situations. It will become more natural to use all this flexibility as I spend more time with it in gig settings, though.

I'm absolutely crazy about the neck, which is saying a lot coming from someone who's used to playing Curbows! At my request, it's extra wide (nearly wide 2" at the nut with 20mm spacing), with a C shape and 20" fretboard radius rather than the asymmetric contour and flat fretboard that Alan typically uses. The size wouldn't suit everyone, but it gives the neck a spacious and substantial feel that I love, especially combined with the graphite-reinforced wenge/purpleheart/ash construction and the thick acrylicized ebony/purpleheart fretboard.

Thanks for your amazing work, Alan!

Nice one Mike, fantastic news, but hardly a surprise
It's one stunning bass!

Eude

[Skelf]

Always good to hear that the bass is working out well.

Alan

[Skelf]

Originally Posted by basssalad

Hello Alan,
I'm very intrigued with your headless design!Especially the headpiece at the top of the bass!
I've been doing a lot of research on the headless hardware and I see you have used Hipshot,ABM, and ETS. I'm in the USA, so Hipshot is the easiest to get.
What is your take on the Hipshot Bridge/tuner combo compared to the ETS combo you seem to be using more often?
You designed your own headpiece, What did you not like about the ABM and Hipshot headpieces?
Thanks,
Allen

Hi
There is not much to pick between the ETS and the ABM with regard to how they work but I prefer the finish on the ETS stuff. I have used two Hipshot units and I like them,the only problem I foresee is if you lose the string tool getting the B string ball end in to the tuning unit would be difficult with out it. I have not used the Hipshot headpiece yet but will be on up coming 9 and 10 string builds.
The big advantage Hipshot has as far as I am concerned is that you can get the stuff which to be honest is not my experience with ABM or ETS. I have had mono bridges ordered with ABM for 3 months now and I still have not got them.

I got my own headpiece made up for a few reasons. I don't like the look of the ETS or ABM unit. I also don't like the way they fix to the neck. My unit fits on the top surface of the neck it also has a 4 deg angle built into it to give a better break angle over the zero fret. I also thin it looks better than the other type.

Alan

[mikezimmerman]

Alan,

Do you have the option of different string spacings at the nut/zero fret with your headpiece?

Mike

[Skelf]

I don't Mike. It depends on wither you want to use double ball ends. If you use double ball ends the distance between the to points is fixed. If on the other hand you don't need that feature you could set the headpiece a bit further back and use a nut to set the string spacing rather than the headpiece. How much you could move the strings would be the issue. Failing that I am sure I could get Hipshot to make one of their's to suit the spacing they are very good that way.

[TapyTap]

Originally Posted by Skelf

Hi
There is not much to pick between the ETS and the ABM with regard to how they work but I prefer the finish on the ETS stuff. I have used two Hipshot units and I like them,the only problem I foresee is if you lose the string tool getting the B string ball end in to the tuning unit would be difficult with out it. I have not used the Hipshot headpiece yet but will be on up coming 9 and 10 string builds.
The big advantage Hipshot has as far as I am concerned is that you can get the stuff which to be honest is not my experience with ABM or ETS. I have had mono bridges ordered with ABM for 3 months now and I still have not got them.

I got my own headpiece made up for a few reasons. I don't like the look of the ETS or ABM unit. I also don't like the way they fix to the neck. My unit fits on the top surface of the neck it also has a 4 deg angle built into it to give a better break angle over the zero fret. I also thin it looks better than the other type.

Alan

Alan,

Thanks for posting your comments about the various headless systems. I am looking forward to hearing more about your experience with the Hipshot headless system.

Bryan

[basssalad]

Thanks Alan! The Hipshot headpiece seems very different than the ABM or ETS. Does it mount parallel to the neck while the other two mount horizontal?

[Skelf]

Yes the Hipshot sits on top of the neck the others fit on to the end of the neck.


Ziracote top with Ash core and Wenge back.
5 piece Wenge/Flame Maple neck with an Ebony board.
ACG SB pickups and custom East U-Retro.
Satin finish.

[BeLow]

I have just had a go on Alan's new J Type basses at the London Bass Guitar show.

The situation was not really ideal as it was in the middle of a bass show with some loud playing at times, however Alan had thoughtfully provided headphones (and very nice they were too knocking several dB off the worst excesses of the surroundings).

The 34" neck was comfortable and unlike my 6 string ACG the asymmetric carving of the profile was not that immediately apparent to the eye and felt very natural to my thumb. The 22" fretboard radius felt familiar the finish on the neck and body was well up to Alan's normal standards.

The character of the instrument has all of the ACG hallmarks, in design the body is a slightly sleeker version of a Jazz with the top horn looking more pointed and I suspect the body being a little smaller. The headstock is Alan's take on the classic shape, certainly looked very compact, may be a little too squared off for some tastes, but certainly distinctive.





The electrics consisted of two humbuckers, and although Alan explained the controls in the general din I am not sure I picked up the finer points, but trusting to that old fashioned technique "what happens with this knob when I tweak it" I was able to establish several key points.

The bridge up jazz tone is definitely there as is the neck pick up, but delivered with more 'clarity' than normal jazz tones. There also appeared to be a lot of power in the output - with what feels like plenty of headroom in the electrics.

I think in the general mix of controls there is an active bass and treble and if I remember correctly a sweepable mid with a pan pot and master volume. There were a couple of pull boost functions I think as well. To be honest I wasn't really able to test all the variations (and in fact Alan does offer two different set ups). What I can say is that every tone I extracted seemed to be part of wide range of sounds, and they all seemed very useable.

Alan had a black and maple necked 5 and white one two as well as 4 strings, he tells me that other colours may be on offer soon, and that it would be possible to do a natural ash body without scratch plate (which I would probably go for). Fingerboards were the acrylised maple I played or I think rosewood.

I have another ACG (6 string Finn shape), it is a bit of beast and to be honest it is something which I am having develop my technique on as its sustain and the number of strings mean it is easy leave strings ringing unintentionally, it also has a more complex set of filters which give great flexibility but it does require you to think a bit more about what you are doing. The J Type by contrast is a bass which I picked up and felt I could gig with pretty much straight out of the box - it feels that familiar - even with not fully understanding the finer points of the eq it gave very useable, clean powerful tones with what was evidently a broad range of adjustment.

All in all - a very nice bass.

[tombowlus]

Very cool!

[SoVeryTired]

Very nice indeed!

[sprocket123]

Thanx for the review beLow

[Skelf]

Recurve Classic 5 single cut fretless.

Cocobolo top with Black Walnut top. 5 piece Purpleheart/Wenge/Maple neck with Acrylic Impregnated Mac Ebony board with Maple fret lines.
ACG SB in the bridge and RFB in the neck.
ACG EQ01 pre-amp.
Satin finish.

[mikezimmerman]

Lovely cocobolo, Alan!

[Skelf]

Quiet an unusually piece I don't have anything else like it.

[SoVeryTired]

Those maple fretlines look really striking - before I read the description I was wondering whether it was fretless or had thin frets.