Moonshine DC Bass build

Thank you. Come on over... We can talk basses, eat some BBQ and catch some music in Nashville.

An arched top would look nice on this body style. How about the next one being a mahogany body (w/ arched top) and multi-laminated set neck? I think that the all mahogany body would look really nice with the one pickup.

That's a huge compliment in my neck of the woods. Thanks!

Mmmmm... BBQ Sunday.

Moonshine

 

That is AWESOME! It never crossed my mind.

You know I have to start doing that now.

Moonshine

 

Update: I haven't had much time to get on here... I've actually been busy building basses... Not entirely sure how that happened, but I hope it keeps going.

After installing the darkstar, I gigged with the bass from time to time; it sounded good when I was playing by myself, but every time I used it in a band situation it seemed to get lost in the mix. I ended up going back to playing my P basses. A few months ago, I found myself gravitating towards one P bass in particular; the main difference with this bass was it had flatwounds on it. I had a set of flats on a t-bird for awhile one time, but I have always looked on them before as limited, compared to roundwounds. But now this bass with flats seemed to work with any band situation I came up against.

I've been keeping the double cutaway at my cabin in the living room; I like having it nearby, it plays so nice and it weighs nothing. Last week just as I was leaving to go to band practice, I got the idea to slap a set of flatwounds on the double cutaway and take it to practice. The difference with the bass was amazing; suddenly it was cutting through guitars & drums with no problem. And the tone... Damn. Everybody in the band commented on the way the bass sounded. I ended up using it last weekend and it was the only bass I used for the entire gig (I usually use at least two, sometimes three basses depending on what we will be playing). This bass has it all; it's light weight, balances well, plays effortlessly and sounds huge (and surprisingly, for a bass with one pickup, it has a variety of tones). I have found my bass.

The only thing that bothered me was the pickup was a little too close to the strings. I found myself occasionally hitting the polepieces with the strings. I lowered the polepieces as far as I could and it seemed to help, but future plans included finding a way to sink the pickup slightly into the body.

Last weekend's gig went great, the bass killed. At the end of the gig, I put the bass into it's gigbag and loaded up my HHR. I waited to the next day to unload, brought the bass back to the cabin and didn't take it out of the gig bag until Monday afternoon. As I took it out, I immediately noticed that the darkstar pickup had partially dropped into the cavity. I didn't have a chance to take the bass apart until the next day; when I did, I realized that the pickup assembly is epoxied to chrome metal pickup ring. In my case, the pickup had been knocked loose from the ring. Still not sure how it happened; I loaded and unloaded my wagon, There was no way that it could of fallen or anything could of fallen on it. The only thing that I can think of I was playing the hell out of the it at the end of the weekend's gig. This is nothing unusual, I sometimes tend to get carried away if I'm enjoying myself and I was having a blast at that gig... However it happened, it kind of freaked me out; I get this bass sounding perfect, now it's broke. Fortunately, the pickup itself was not damaged. At first, I was going to re-epoxy the pickup to the ring, but then I started thinking about my previous plan to lower the pickup into the body...

I really like the way the bass looked with the original T-40 pickup and the rosewood ring that I made, but when I swapped in the Darkstar I had to make another rosewood ring. I got in a hurry when I did and the ring ended up being slightly out of square; it was no big thing, but it drove me crazy. Plus, the ring just didn't look right with the Darkstar (to me). After looking at the pickup, I decide to go a different route.

First I cut a new pickup ring (plate?), this time I decided to go with ash to match the body. I found a piece of wood that matched the grain on the body (not perfect, but I think it comes close). I made the new ring the same thickness as the original one. To mount the pickup, I discovered that a standard humbucking pickup ring could be made to work with the pickup. The pickup adjustment screws are now used hold the pickup in place (the polepieces are adjustable). The screws that I used were chrome, but I need to change them out to black so they don't visually stand out so much.

I am pleased with how it turned out. I won't say this is the last time I mod this bass, but I am very happy with it (for the time being...)









Moonshine

 

[QUOTE="flameworker, post: 16524906, member: I always hated those t-40 pickups,but of course i haven't had on since 1989, thru proper amplification apparently they are great.[/QUOTE]

Thanks flameworker & c.t.; A T-40 was my first real bass, I couldn't wait to get rid of it... Years later, I have owned several, plus I have used these pickups in several builds... Who knew? (c.t. does.)

Here we are at work (and I wonder how the pickup got pushed into the body... ):


Moonshine

 

"Magic Bass Foam"... I love it!

I had to go play the bass sitting down to answer your question (I have done it several times, just never really thought about it). It plays good sitting down; it fits on my knee quite well. The only problem isn't with the bass... it's, uh... Let's just say that there's not a whole lot of room on my lap. I find myself placing the bottom of the bass on my leg & playing it that way.

I thought about your last question and I can honestly say there is nothing that I would change about this bass. I did swap out the T-40 pickup for the Darkstar, but I never tried flatwounds on the bass until recently. If I had earlier, I may have kept the T-40 pickup in it.

Moonshine