Andy Zoldo custom bass build underway

[ZoldosCustom]

I know that I said you would have something to look at come saturday, and I like to be a man of my word, so here are a few pictures thus far. The bass itself is just sealed at this point w/o any coats of lacquer yet. The cover has quite a few coats since I started that 2 weeks ago. The tail on the bass is just how I like to hang my instruments when I coat them. It's just wire wrapped around a screw and threaded into the strap lock hole. I am hoping to get a few coats on the bass tomorrow if time allows. Let me know what you think, and here are the pics:

[Macrocosmcwh]

Just got off the phone with Andy... This is besides the birth of my kids, the most exciting thing to happen to me. Andy, I said it on the phone and I will say it again in the public forum. This bass is a f'ing masterpiece! Just stunning! I cant imagine why others would not want to pay you their hard earned dollars to make one for them too! Just perfect to me! Just perfect... A little buff on this baby and put her together and this is going to be one of the most beautiful instruments I have EVER seen! I am so stoked!

[natw42]

Dude. I'm jealous. Congrats to you both!

[Macrocosmcwh]

Hi res goodness:

[Macrocosmcwh]

[Macrocosmcwh]

New pics!!! Getting close!!!!

[Splods]

That is very, very cool. I hope you play some nice jazzy tunes on that.

[Macrocosmcwh]

I can say this... My playing won't be half as beautiful as this bass is!!!!

[ZoldosCustom]

Just wanted to post some larger pics and say that I can only hope that this bass inspires Christian to increase his skill level. I always found that when I played a newer or better bass, it seemed that I always played better. Maybe it was because I get excited and want to play more and play better. Anyway, the bass is coming along nicely. The fingerboard still needs to be oiled and more wetsanding and buffing needs to take place, but it is getting much closer to complete. Stay tuned.

[wraub]

Christian-
When you get this, you MUST do the following:

1. Post sound clips asap, and, if possible, vary the PU positions in the casing so we (meaning me ) can hear them all; and,
B. Get somewhere close to me so I can play the darned thing myself.

Seriously, really looking forward to your impressions of it whenst in your hands, it looks like Andy is definitely coming through on this.

Andy, if I may- Very nice.

wraub

[pushifier]

Real great workmanship and original! Stunning bass!

[CosmoReverb]

Beautiful bass and stellar craftsmanship.

Just outta curiosity, is the pickup housing radiused to match the fingerboard?

[ZoldosCustom]

Thank you all for the kind words, it truly is appreciated. As far as the pickup housing goes, it is not radiused. I attached a drawing depicting the reason I did not radius it. In order to achieve the radius on the cover, the center of the housing would have been much thicker than the outsides. I honestly don't know how much this would have impacted the pickups, but I didn't want to risk a variance in tone across the strings. The string radius ended up being slightly greater than 20" when I completed the jig, more like 22". On a tighter radius, a radiused housing would make greater sense, but with the radius being so large, a radiused housing may seem negligable. If the pickups were seperate, than making a ramp would have been easy, but I was more concerned with the overall sound and was worried that the increased wood thckness would have been noticable in the sound. Here are some visuals to hopefully clarify anything.

[Macrocosmcwh]

Just was checking in to see if there is anything new.... I can't wait! I hope all is well Andy!

[Geoff St. Germaine]

The radiused pickup cover would have made no difference unless it caused an increase in distance between the coils and strings (which from your image it would not have). Wood is non-magnetic and therefore does not affect the magnetic field of the pickup magnets. Since the radius is so large, as you said, then it probably makes little aesthetic difference either way.

[ZoldosCustom]

Nothing really new to post as far as pictures go. Slowly assembling when I have time to do so. Tuners are in place along with the bridge. Just kind of getting all the components in place that I can until I begin wiring, which will most likley be friday. Should be a wrap by the end of the weekend. I am feeling a bit under the weather today so I don't want to attempt much today, but there really isn't much left to do. Wiring should be a breeze since most of it is already prewired. I just need to remove the existing input jack and wire up the locking conklin style jack, then it's just a matter of wiring the pickups. Sorry for the crappy update, but just been super busy this past week. More to come.

[Macrocosmcwh]

I hope you get feeling better soon! I hope I get my bass soon after that! =) Thank you again Andy!!!!

[Macrocosmcwh]

Just got a call from Andy.... She is done!!! Pictures coming soon!!!! should ship next week!!!!! so happy!

[ZoldosCustom]

That's right, just finished wiring last night and setting her up earlier this afternoon. I wish that I had time to take pictures when I still had some natural light, but I had some running around to do. I just snapped some photos, but they are in my hallway under an incadescent bulb so you don't get the full effect of the bass. I told Christian I would post some pics tonight, but I will probably still try to get some better ones tomorrow that I can keep on file. I have to admit that I have had a lot of fun playing this bass today. It's been awhile since I played on a 6er and forgot how much I enjoy it. I think that I will take a few months off from building to focus on school, family, and unfinished home projects. I may tinker around with one at work, since I have a few ideas swarming around, but definitely need to catch up on other things. I will leave it up to Christian to post sound clips and a more extensive review of everything, since he does have the final say about the quality of this bass. It has been a lot of fun this go around. Here are the lousy pictures, sorry again for the poor lighting.

[Macrocosmcwh]

There are few things in this world that leave me speechless from happiness.





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My Son, my daughter and my Zoldos Bass.

For the rest of my life.... Thank you Andy! Thank you so much!