I'm the customer for this bass (
) and Alan's asked me to post the details that we decided yesterday to finalise the electronics and control layout on the 9.
Alan has built a 4 string fretless bass which uses an ACG magnetic pickup and piezo pickups from a Hipshot bridge. These signals then run into the ACG-01 filter preamp. I have to say that this combination was mightily impressive !! This could be one of the only basses around which has a piezo pickup running through a filter preamp.
With a piezo pickup the ACG-preamp really is amazingly flexible. There is no harsh clack-clack sound from the piezo, the filter-based preamp takes care of that, so you end up with a really rich and round bottom end. Using this in combination with the magnetic pickup and using extremes, you can set a really cutting trebley sound with the magnetic and a dub/reggae sound with the piezo and blend between the two sounds which are the polar opposites of each other. This bass really did have sounds for all occasions.
On the 9, we've decided to go with 2 magnetic pickups, the bridge one is in the larger housing and a narrower neck pickup. ACG pickups have different magnets for each position: ceramic in the bridge and an alnico in the neck, giving a combination of punchiness and roundness. I'll quickly say here that these are not custom magnets for the 9, the different magnet materials are offered as standard on all of Alan's basses.
Each pickup will have series/parallel switching, but there will be a third switch to flick between the bridge and piezo pickups. This means that I can run the piezos through the ACG-pre instead of just adding a plain, unshaped piezo signal to the magnetic pickups. Not being able to shape the piezo output might even mean that it's OK at best and unusuable at worst. Being able to shape the piezo signal and then blend it in with the neck pickup is going to give the bass more flexibility. In this mode, I could even have the piezo or the neck pickup on it's own, shaped with the ACG-01 pre.
It's one of those things which is easier to see than it is to write about. In a nutshell, is effectively a 3 pickup bass (neck, bridge, piezo) with a switch between pickups 2 & 3. The two signals being used go through the ACG-01 pre and can be merged together by the blend pot.
Now that the control layout has been finalised, Alan can finish the body and drill some holes. This ACG9 is going to be a set-neck so mating the neck and body is going to be a tricky operation.
I took some pics, but unfortunately left the proper camera at home so these are from my mobile phone. Needless to say, I really couldn't be happier with the way the instrument is turning out.
On this pic, you might be able to get an idea of the colour of the finished bass.
Here's the body sandwich and again, you might be able to get an idea of the final colour.
Here's a suggestion of the finished layout.
Here's the neck and fingerboard. When I looked at it, I thought it was going to feel rough but it's really smooth and well on it's way to being it's final texture.
