Custom Performer/Supersonic bass

[NKBassman]

Not to derail your build but, the pickguard on your Jazz is great. It looks so much better on a jazz than '50s P.

Oh and the build is pretty awesome as well

Hah, I didn't even notice that.

[JIO]

Originally Posted by ctmullins

Of course!

Good match-up.., athletic/tight, aggressive - a serious player... (nice pic too!) I was always fond of German punk diva Nina Hagan and saw her a few times - once wearing a pointy s&m style bra w/red LED lights at the tips! - they were the first thing you saw before the house lights went up - woo woo!

[JIO]

Originally Posted by kris

there elliptical pickups

Just checked them out (I was not aware) - they're ovular. Sounds intriguing...

[JIO]

After another sanding sealer coat, a little bondo and sanding, the alder feels nice and smooth. Marked the neck pocket and pu rout locations and the pickguard outline. Decided to stay w/J-style pu's - specifically EMG JAX. They are no exposed-pole (white) active pu's that are what they consider a happy medium between active and passive tone. Their JX pu is the more modern tone comparatively. I'll be using GHS flats on this bass for the creamy-factor. (like on my J - a very fattening tone indeed!) The pickguard blank (single ply white), a Stratocaster jack plate and a water buffalo nut blank were ordered and are on their way. Next stop... routing!

[kris pung]

Originally Posted by JIO

After another sanding sealer coat, a little bondo and sanding, the alder feels nice and smooth. Marked the neck pocket and pu rout locations and the pickguard outline. Decided to stay w/J-style pu's - specifically EMG JAX. They are no exposed-pole (white) active pu's that are what they consider a happy medium between active and passive tone. Their JX pu is the more modern tone comparatively. I'll be using GHS flats on this bass for the creamy-factor. (like on my J - a very fattening tone indeed!) The pickguard blank (single ply white), a Stratocaster jack plate and a water buffalo nut blank were ordered and are on their way. Next stop... routing!

Amazing do you mind if I borrow this body shape for a 5 string I'm planning??

[JIO]

Originally Posted by kris pung

Amazing do you mind if I borrow this body shape for a 5 string I'm planning??

Thank you very much for respecting my re-design. I do feel like I've made it my own, based on the John Page Fender Performer. I am starting a custom bass biz as we speak (more on that soon), but as of right now I have no legal claim to it. Once it's finished and if it proves worthy of staking a claim, I'll look into copyrights. For now, in the big picture hope that good design will prevail over mediocrity, I say borrow away and do your very best to create something beautiful and special. And please start a thread for your build so we can all check it out!

As a note; there actually was a Fender Performer 3 pu 5'r prototype made and you can find pics of it if you google it. It's also pictured in Klaus Blasquiz's The Fender Bass book. The headstock (in my opinion) is an atrocious 3/2 rounded-spear monstrosity. I'm counting on you to do much better w/yours!

[Stealth]

The Performer was supposed to be for the Jazz bass what the Elite was for the Precision - a top-of-the-line, maybe active variant. The production Performer, however, has a volume-volume-selector-TBX control layout. Which way will you go?

[JIO]

Originally Posted by Stealth

The Performer was supposed to be for the Jazz bass what the Elite was for the Precision - a top-of-the-line, maybe active variant. The production Performer, however, has a volume-volume-selector-TBX control layout. Which way will you go?

Yeh, I think they pulled back on what they could have done w/that bass. Leo had already done the ultimate Elite concept w/his L-2000 while Fender was struggling to re-boot his legacy lost to CBS. I keep changing my mind, but I'm leaning toward the EMG's whole system; JAX active J pu's w-V/V/T. I do like the simplicity of 3 knobs/controls, which the Jazz and Performer both share, and if anything I'd like to add an off-on switch to go passive (bypass the battery) as an option. (like the aforementioned L-2000) The other idea I like is a stacked tone pot, but I'm not that versed in electronics to know how to do that w/their integrated preamp system. Maybe worth an email to EMG. And as far as I know the Performer was active. The THX was a boost provided by the battery yes?

[Stealth]

You can't have an A/P switch with active pickups, if you cut their power they will go silent.

You might want to study either the L-2000 schematic or the Fender Elite II wiring. If you wanted to, you could have a V/T-V/T-double-preamp with a bypass, for instance, or something completely different. Contact me over PM if you want something like that so I can post the result schematic here.

Also, the TBX is completely passive.

[JIO]

Originally Posted by Stealth

You can't have an A/P switch with active pickups, if you cut their power they will go silent.

You might want to study either the L-2000 schematic or the Fender Elite II wiring. If you wanted to, you could have a V/T-V/T-double-preamp with a bypass, for instance, or something completely different. Contact me over PM if you want something like that so I can post the result schematic here.

Also, the TBX is completely passive.

I just contacted EMG and was set straight. (a very fast reply!) As you also have related, I can't do the off-on switch and the EMG JAX has its own active tone pot - so no stacked T pot. I feel I'd might as well just use their system as the package price is friendly and they developed it that way for a reason so best to give it a chance. Like I said, I like basic and just having an up-to-date active system will pass the Performer torch to it's Supersonic offspring.

[JIO]

I'm still considering Firemist gold metallic, a classic Fender colour, but I'm also thinking about another classic Fender colour, or actually 2 similar colours- which are aged Olympic white or Blond. As the lacquer aged on the off-white colour, it got into a warm, ivory hue. And the very 1st Fender colour of translucent Blond is hard to beat. I have a brown tort blank and will cut out a pg from it along w/the white. The EMG X pu's also come in cream as well as white. I've always felt that vintage white Fender basses w/tort pg's were super-classy.



To show the alders nice graining and give it some depth, I could do the body in a creamy translucent blond/ivory white with an opaque halo of the same colour around the edges like these 3 classic Fender guitars. (especially the way it looks at the tops of the bodies- maybe in this case due to lighting) This pic is the opening photo in the book "Fender the golden age 1946-1970". A really well researched Fender reference filled w/great photographs. The original Performer came in Pearl white, but other than the brighter/whiter version of my pearl '93 VFR, I've never been keen on that look and in my opinion there are few colours that look as dated.

[JIO]

Today I'm rethinking white. I just keep thinking a bass named "Supersonic" would come in Firemist Gold Metallic. I like both so I flipped a coin - 4 times in a row. First two times FMG won over white. Third time the coin rolled against the wall and leaned on its edge, w/the FMG side out. Forth time - FMG. Hmmmmm...

[NKBassman]

Hahaha, sounds like fate has decided for you.

[xmaddogx]

I love it! I have wanted to do the same thing only in a five string. I think the head stock is a great improvement, the original was an eyesore. Do you have the design on your computer or just drawn on paper?

[JIO]

Originally Posted by xmaddogx

I love it! I have wanted to do the same thing only in a five string. I think the head stock is a great improvement, the original was an eyesore. Do you have the design on your computer or just drawn on paper?

Only a drawing on tracing paper - I'm an old school guy. I'm posting them for you and anyone else who would like to use them on a build project. Honestly, I read through the tb thread related to copyrighting etc and I'm not going to waste any money 'protecting' my (original) design. I personally know serious professional industrial designers who have had their designs stolen from them regardless of how much they 'protected' it. Change it 1% and it's different and untouchable. I can understand it regarding other types of ID, but not guitar headstocks. As it was already pointed out, my design looks similar to the Buzzard bass. I feel both designs are legit and serve each overall design gestalt specifically. As in, imagine my Performer inspired Supersonic body w/the Buzzard headstock. It would look stupid and aesthetically wrong. They are similar but in fact very different. For the record, how many marginally different (aesthetically interchangeable) Fender P/J headstock clones are out there? More than a few and more being put forth every day. So borrow away and my only hope is that you will respect my design (which I think is a good one) and post your build.





I've also decided to bring in a bit of chrome onto the otherwise chrome-less pickguard so as to continue a next generation Jazz bass vibe in the form of thin chrome back-plates under the chrome knurled control knobs. The 2 V's will be 1.5" and the T 1-1/4" to allude to the J's smaller T knob. All three chrome knobs will all be the same size (as shown), only the T plate will be a smaller diameter. I will be using a (chrome) Stratocaster jack plate just below the pg/controls which will continue w/the chrome-accents theme.

My goal is to create a very modern (looking, sounding and playing) 4-string bass that states its own 'look' which rests somewhere between Jetson's Moderna (which started I think w/the John Page design) and non-clique retro. The mid-80's-90's was when "retro" was big. Everyone and their brother was doing retro this and that. There was a lot of heavy-handed retro motifs being slung around, most of them pretty lame. (the usual plight of any trend) I want to fly (at mach II speed!) above the retro wreckage with something refreshing. The Geo Supersonic Bass. Only time will tell.

[JIO]

Found the skirts I was looking for. Searched on-line and found nothing, and then visited a fixtures store and came up w/these fluted/chrome-plated brass back-plates for cabinet pulls. They are 1-14" and a bit thick, but I have ideas about dealing w/that. I also need to drill the center hole larger (for a control-pot shaft) and I found the ideal medium-sized indented chrome knobs to go w/them. Routing this coming weekend!

[JIO]

Finally had time to do the needed routing



also cut the pick-guard and did a mock-up for general placement/alignment - still need to rout for the pg J-pu's, drill the neck bolt, string-thru ferrule holes and cut a recess on the pg for the knob skirts w/a nice sharp forester bit



showing initial positioning of bridge units using string



Also cut a nut from brass and water buffalo horn w/a thin platform of alder for height/fit. I super-glued them together, sanded to the general size of a shelve nut blank, honed/shaped and filed, and drilled for 2 brass screws for removable attachment. Final string cradle slots will be fine tuned/filed once it's strung up.

[jcorneli]

JIO, I have GAS for this one.

Between this, and your support on the Parker club, I guess you have a gear-fan.

I first became aware of the Performer only a couple years back - from a post on guitarz.blogspot.com. Worth referencing, for anyone interested in these.

I always liked the "moderne" curves on the back of a Strat. According to the post at Guitarz, this was a Performer inspiration:

The angular body shape was in fact inspired by the Fender Strat - flip one over and note the shape that the flat surface makes.

You have the single-bridges, EMG actives and minimal-but-stylized headstock which also GASsed me on the Parker Hornet. I'm tempted to imitate this, myself...

[JIO]

Originally Posted by jcorneli

JIO, I have GAS for this one.

Between this, and your support on the Parker club, I guess you have a gear-fan.

I first became aware of the Performer only a couple years back - from a post on guitarz.blogspot.com. Worth referencing, for anyone interested in these.

I always liked the "moderne" curves on the back of a Strat. According to the post at Guitarz, this was a Performer inspiration:


You have the single-bridges, EMG actives and minimal-but-stylized headstock which also GASsed me on the Parker Hornet. I'm tempted to imitate this, myself...

Yes jcorneli, I knew that about the Performers design cues and most definitely the Hornet inspired the touches you mentioned on mine for the Supersonic. I just ordered the white EMG JAX pu's/active electronics today! They are advertised as a sonic blend of old school and modern sounding J pu's - just the ticket! I also ordered my favorite flats (GHS Precision Flatwounds) for this bass and can't wait to hear it! (a little ways off...) So I say imitate away! (and post if you do!)

I'm wondering if "Gear Acquisition" is the correct term for being inspired to create/build a new, unique instrument. I think GAS referes to chronic collecting/aquiring of gear, at least that's the way I read it...

[JIO]

Originally Posted by jcorneli

I first became aware of the Performer only a couple years back - from a post on guitarz.blogspot.com. Worth referencing, for anyone interested in these.

...is guitarz really the first guitar blog-site? (2002?) doesn't seem like that long ago, but it's interesting how quickly we all take this sort of thing for granted! It's not surprizing you brits were the first to do so.