Alright, custom instruments always are long-time projects for me. This one was finished last july and took 1 1/2 year.
In early 2009, I bought the corpse of a Steinberger Synapse on eBay for dirt cheap.
At first, I didn't know what I'd do with it. It was an impulse buy. I love bringing instruments back to life, headless instruments and custom projects so there was potential.
After checking the essentials (working trussrod, no bad construction flaw) I started thinking about a stealth bass. It had to be passive so no piezo like a stock Synapse. I don't like batteries and any electric activity would get me noticed by radars.
The pickup was easy. I'd been curious about Q-Tuners for a while and their BL-5 model fell right into the pickup hole. They advised against using split or parallel coil settings so I got the straight, 2 wire version.
I caught an used Villex passive booster. I thought it would come in handy for a bit of variety in tone, with it being a single pickup bass and all.
I wanted it to essentially be a Steinie so I started hunting for an original Wide 5 bridge and eventually found one.
The
luthier I chose for the project loved the idea and we started working on this thing.
So we had all the hardware except for the headpiece. Synapse headpieces revealed impossible to find 2nd hand so it was custom made by the luthier's partner in crime. Basically a L shaped piece of metal with Allen screws to keep the strings in place and an ebony shell to hide string ends.
Electronics then would be volume w/ push-pull pot acting like a closed tone knob (I have this feature on all my basses since I only ever use the tone full or closed) and the 4 position Villex knob.
The rest were details, which to me are the most important part. :smack:
2 dots added at 24th fret. It just bugged me that there was none.
Little ebony plates flushed over all unused holes.
Big strap buttons to make sure it wouldn't escape.
Real Synapse gigbag.
Black DR strings for stealth purposes.
Here's the final result :
Stealth strap
I kept the tool trap at the bottom and made sure everything including string change could be managed with 2 Allen keys that always are available.
Confort is that of a Steinberger. Very low action, fast round neck profile with tight string spacing.
Quite heavy for a headless bass due to the thick body. No head dive at all of course.
Soundwise, it's impressive how much it sounds like a Steinberger. I thought EMGs played a bigger role in this. It has that thick tone with very fast attack and dynamic response to anything you play. Tapping (which I'm not much into) is a breeze.
The low pass filter is pretty intense, maybe too intense. It cuts a lot of highs and leaves you with rumbling and a somewhat compressed tone.
The Villex really does boost gain, don't ask me how they do it. It also cuts lows and makes things a lot fatter, aggressive and midrangy. Great when you don't need as clear of a tone as the Q-Tuner delivers.
Villex at full and tone cut make for an extremelly bassy and barky dub tone, Tony Levin style. Awesome.
