my christmas "ashboury" build

richtea · #1 01-10-2011, 10:45 PM

Some photos of my christmas build. The scale is 520mm, because my hands battle with the original ashboury scale. The bridge is an old fishman bridge I had kicking around. Neck is maple. The wings are miranti. The silicone cord strings came from my local rubber supplier. Took about 10days to finish, 4 days of that was paint, had to re-sand three times, due to the fancy "anodized aluminium" effect i was after. sounds like an ashboury, unsuprisingly. Just need to learn to play it in tune now.

richtea · #2 01-10-2011, 10:46 PM

another pic

HaMMerHeD · #3 01-10-2011, 11:28 PM

Nice. Body shape reminds me of a BC Rich Virgin.

richtea · #4 01-11-2011, 03:18 AM

Thanks. I wanted the shape and the sound to be at odds with each other. But mainly i just wanted to have a bit of fun with it. The shape was inspired by a bass i remember form the mid eighties, a carbon job, one of those brands that came and went, cant remember the name, and it must be twenty odd years since i saw a photo.

richtea · #5 01-11-2011, 03:26 AM

just had a look at the BC Rich Virgin. Youre right it does look VERY similar. It wasnt an intentonal inspiration.

praisegig · #6 01-11-2011, 08:24 AM

Looks great, would be a keeper in my house. Great body shape for comfortable sit down position.

Baron Von Vik · #7 01-11-2011, 08:31 AM

What are the specs for the strings; and who did you order the strings from? I've always been interested in those old ashborys.

HaMMerHeD · #8 01-11-2011, 09:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by richtea

just had a look at the BC Rich Virgin. Youre right it does look VERY similar. It wasnt an intentonal inspiration.

Well it should certainly be taken as a compliment. The Virgin is my very favorite unconventional design.

Dirk Diggler · #9 01-11-2011, 10:34 AM

I like the design as well, very futuristic, I dig the fins.

Yeah the standard Ashbory scale is tough for big hands for sure.
In any case nice job.
Cheers,
Dirk

s_mcsleazy · #10 01-11-2011, 10:40 AM

soundclips

richtea · #11 01-11-2011, 10:43 PM

What are the specs for the strings; and who did you order the strings from? I've always been interested in those old ashborys.

I went to my local rubber products supplier and picked up a range of diferent silicon chord in .5mm increments. I wanted clear but they only stock the red in all sizes, I did find a length of clear and did a comparison and the clear has a brighter tone and a bit more resiliant.
As for the string sizes the E is 6mm but I am going to get some 7mm, the 6mm works fine but it is a little loose at standard pitch. The G is either 2.5mm or 3mm. I cant remember the sizes that I ended up with for the A and the D, I will have a look tonight when I get home. Because I made the scale longer it was all a bit trial and error. If I did it again I would make the scale around 480mm-500mm. At this scale the G is right on the edge from a breakage stand point. I would also make the head smaller, it dives like a submarine ( still a million times better than the original though).
The changes to original scale are typical of my overconfidence/lack of real knowledge, about 15 years ago I built a carbon fibre upright acoustic with a bowl back and reduced the size of the body to about the volume of a cello (for ease of transport). The result was a double bass with the frequency response of a cello, fancy that! in other words sounded great untill you play the E which is dead, there but dead. So its now an ornament in the lounge. I just dont learn.

soundclips

If only i knew how. Ive only just worked out how to post pics

Looks great, would be a keeper in my house. Great body shape for comfortable sit down position.

Thanks, my daughter and my girlfriend are both trying to get me to part with it already. Its not up for grabs though I am really enjoying it at the moment and it sounds great, didnt stop the band wetting themselves when I put it on ( I'm 6' 4" and normally play a huge alembic style bass)

Dirk Diggler I like the design as well, very futuristic, I dig the fins.
Yeah the standard Ashbory scale is tough for big hands for sure.
In any case nice job.
Cheers,
Dirk

Thanks Dirk

giacomini · #12 01-13-2011, 05:43 AM

I dig this Ashbory/Warlock-meets-Bongo look!

miguel2u · #13 01-13-2011, 07:40 PM

Nicely done!

What sort of pickup does it have?

richtea · #14 01-13-2011, 09:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by giacomini

I dig this Ashbory/Warlock-meets-Bongo look!

Thanks

richtea · #15 01-13-2011, 09:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by miguel2u

Nicely done!

What sort of pickup does it have?

thanks. The bridge is a fishman bridge pickup and pre amp that came off an old cort 5 string that I picked up second hand and didnt enjoy playing very much. So i decided to build two basses from it using the fishman on this and the barts on a another, still to come.